We declined on rejoining the boat club we belonged to for the last five years and now that the weather has jumped up into the 80s, I’m wondering how much we will miss it?
Financially, it certainly was a terrific deal. We paid $3K a summer and had unlimited uses of a terrific fleet of speedboats, cruisers, pontoons, and water ski boats. I wrote in this post about how much we liked it and how much money we were saving.
Perhaps the best financial aspect of belonging to a boat club happens when you decide to quit. That is, you don’t have a much-depreciated boat to sell. You can walk away without a care (or cost), other than what you’ve paid over the the time you belonged.
For us, that adds up to about $15K expense over five years to use $90K-$110K boats. I doubt we would have gotten away with less cost by owning a boat over that period of time. Especially with the cost of a slip to store it. And, now we have an extra $200-$250 a week in our budget for other summertime diversions this year!
Image Credit: Pixabay
Whatever floats your boat! My wife and I aren’t really into the boat scene, but who knows if that’ll change down the line. Maybe if my kid gets into fishing or water skiing or the like we’ll explore some of those options.
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I think we’ll see more of these “club” business models in the future. A sports car shared-lease program just started in our area. For a set fee, you have access to a few dozen different exotic, muscle, and vintage cars.
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Is there a first rule of boat club? Wait that’s fight club. Sorry. Sounds like a good way to enjoy the water with the big deprecating cost.
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You know, I never seen the movie Fight Club yet. I recently saw it on IMDb’s list of the 100 greatest movies.
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