whatever happened to affordable fast boats?

[NoLimits]

if the kids of today had that kind of drive we would be in another world

That's a ****ed up statement man.

1. Student debt is insane, with higher interest rates than homes or cars, and impossible to get rid of even w bankruptcy. Throw in the fact that banks will WILLINGLY loan out huge amounts to 18 year olds for education, but will NOT willingly lend out that amount of money to 18 year olds with no credit to purchase a house. WHY? They wanted indentured servitude.

2. House prices, bud. They're insane now. My house has almost doubled since 2015, and there's no amount of saving/miserly/smart decisions that I could do today, that would allow me to purchase the house I have now. If you don't already have a house at this point in history, it's unlikely you'll ever be able to afford one.

[Speed Jr.]

That's a ****ed up statement man.

12 pages and that's what you got out of this? Seems pretty obvious to me.....The main point Joe was making is forcing yourself to be an earner. You got to be an earner in order to be an owner. It's self evident.

Jr.

[JPEROG]

That's a ****ed up statement man.

1. Student debt is insane, with higher interest rates than homes or cars, and impossible to get rid of even w bankruptcy. Throw in the fact that banks will WILLINGLY loan out huge amounts to 18 year olds for education, but will NOT willingly lend out that amount of money to 18 year olds with no credit to purchase a house. WHY? They wanted indentured servitude.

2. House prices, bud. They're insane now. My house has almost doubled since 2015, and there's no amount of saving/miserly/smart decisions that I could do today, that would allow me to purchase the house I have now. If you don't already have a house at this point in history, it's unlikely you'll ever be able to afford one.

Your first paragraph response lets me know that you don't get it. --Student debt is only insane if you borrow it to the point of being insane. (Insane is the guy that takes it on without a plan to pay it off or thinking that you should put your liability on the citizens of this country via bankruptcy).

Your second statement confirms that you don't get it. --House prices are not going to drop unless we have a serious interruption in our economy. (Very basics are as follows: 1. everyone needs shelter, 2. when rents are the same or more as mortgage payments then it concretes the theory that prices will not drop until there is a major interruption. The flip side to this is that if in fact there is a major interruption, then the lenders will typically pull there guidelines in even more so, and it stops a lot of people from being able to obtain a mortgage thus not being able to take advantage of the lower prices.

Smart moves example; Buy a home and put a tenant in it while living at home for a couple of years. Pay an extra four or five hundred a month for two years along with the increasing market values and see just how much equity magically appears. This system only works in areas that have a growing population which creates consistent stabilization. Take that equity and borrow against it for your first owner occupied home and repeat this system until you have properties paid for and giving you additional income to reduce principle and or pay maintenance expenses as needed. Having big debt is fine as long you don't have to cover the nut personally. Everything needs to be offset with additional income created by your investment.

Don't tell me it can't be done--I am proof that it can work (every choice creates a result)... People who attempt to save their way to a fortune rarely succeed, people who work smart and hustle are often rewarded for their efforts.

Joe

[XstreamVking]

Some people buy the 45,000 engines not because they are worth it, but because they can, and don't care about the cost. I paid 45k for my 1st house! This has changed performance boating forever. And the good ole days are never coming back. Joe, you remember what we got in 2005-2009?

[JPEROG]

Believe me, I remember it like it was yesterday.

For those that know my business history, I was in the middle of the mortgage crisis up to my ears. We had mortgage banking retail and wholesale operations in several states with hundreds of employees working within our system. The move of Fannie and Freddie devaluing the securitized national mortgage portfolio made several greedy people into billionaires. That paper as a whole was performing at over 95%, and if the write down had not happened, we would still have Washington Mutual and Leman Bros. in operation. I am not saying that prices should have continued to increase "partially caused by creative loan options" but CA., and many other (good) coastal areas have always been high and just continue to climb. Real-estate is still one of the most stable tangibles in existence and always comes back stronger then it was before.

Joe

[XstreamVking]

Until the econ crashes and it cycles around again. More people will lose it all...Banks will profit. We have seen it many times.

[David - WI]

Yeah, I imagine there are hundreds of families with "untouchable" wealth, thousands of families that can survive another "great depression“, and tens of thousands who think they are far enough above "upper middle class" to survive... but aren't. I suppose those are the guys who were leaping off roofs of buildings when they realized they weren't. Poor people hardly noticed... they were used to being cold & hungry.

[pcrussell50]

Some people buy the 45,000 engines not because they are worth it, but because they can, and don't care about the cost. I paid 45k for my 1st house! This has changed performance boating forever. And the good ole days are never coming back. Joe, you remember what we got in 2005-2009?

Some people chase new hulls to go with the ever heavier and more expensive motors they lust after. Others, like me (and possibly you), chase motors that we can use with the hulls we already like. For us, the bigger boats it takes to float the bigger motors is moving moving backwards. We like small light boats that bring us closer to the water. If our nine year old can’t reach over the side and touch the water, it’s too big. The further you are from the water, the more you lose, in our world. But it has to be fast. We don’t want to replace our 150/200 with an equivalent weight 75/90 just to avoid a puff of smoke at cold start, and some worse fuel economy. Not worth the trade for us.

We have another metric for too big/heavy besides whether out nine year old can reach the water: And that means is if I can straddle the trailer tongue and lift it onto the hitch. If it’s too heavy for that, then he boat is probably too big. It’s for sure more hassle if you’re iffy about going out on short notice.

-Peter

[Lake X Kid]

... We like small light boats that bring us closer to the water. If our nine year old can’t reach over the side and touch the water, it’s too big. The further you are from the water, the more you lose, in our world. But it has to be fast. We don’t want to replace our 150/200 with an equivalent weight 75/90 just to avoid a puff of smoke at cold start, and some worse fuel economy. Not worth the trade for us.

-Peter

Closer to the water reminds me of being in a slow, slow boat. There was a time, decades ago when I lived in north Florida, that I would take a canoe and paddle quietly up to a large gator basking in the sun on land. And, also at the headwaters of that stream was a cypress forest. Paddling in there where the sunlight found it hard to touch the water, because of the dense tree canopy. A feeling where you thought how many (if any) other humans have been in this section of swampy water.

The canoe is close to the water, wherein, you feel attached to nature. Gliding on the water, away from modernity's traffic, and being among the wild like our ancestors' generations ago did.

A slow memory, on a Fast Boat site.

[hellbents-10]

I could touch the water in the Tuff 16, hmmmmmm need another one!

[CUDA]

In 1988 I bought a new 18 ft Hydrostream, 200 Mercury trailer, don't remember the price, but I do remember I was making about $11.00 per hour.

That $1.00 is worth $5.01 today

The value of money today ...

Not many regular jobs paying $50.00 per hour, and I'm sure those motors are way higher percentage -wise then 1978.

I bet motors cost twice what they did vs inflation

[JR IN JAX]

One of the things with my smaller/very light boat is that even pulling it with my Honda Pilot, it is such a "breeze" that I can pull it on the trailer at very high speeds [ sometimes forgetting it is back there behind me] and getting/almost getting a ticket. I would not like a bigger boat that always required me to take my F150 4X4 to pull. Heavy Boats with heavy tow vehicles would not make me use it as much as I do now.

[mikesufka]

This probably won't be considered a fast boat in todays day an age, but last weekend, my girlfriend bought her first boat - 2007 Boston Whaler ( 13 ft ) with a 40 Merc Four Stroke. With three of us in it, we were cruising along at 30 MPH $11,000. We never took the cover off my Skater 28.

MDS

[wcarlyle]

Ditto Jr. The Grand Sport is a breeze to handle and tow. I don't miss my bigger boats one bit.

[Chaz]

You guys are forgetting ... if you have a small **** , you gotta have a big boat ..