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Michael T

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l-skynyrd

When was the last time you saw boat test do a Rinker? All they do is sea rays and meridens.

Babyboomer

Meridens just a high price Bayliner

Michael T

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JoeStang

http://www.boattest.com/boats/Rinker/Any Size/Any Type/search_result.aspx

Seems they have tested and reviewed quite a few. I like boattest and watch videos quite often. Keeps the winter blues away just a tiny bit and fuel mpg for different engines and size boats is interesting to me.

Ed3303

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago.  We were onboard a friend's Formula and checking things out.  While I admit the build quality was second to none, I liked our layout MUCH more.  Afterwords, my better half whispered in my ear, "I like ours much more"...  I whispered back, "It's a good thing"...

Michael T

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MarkB

My boat is a 2011 Rinker 260EC. With all the features (radar arch, AC, etc) it would have retailed close to $100k at the time.  If I had to trade it in for a new Rinker today, they would offer me around $50k.  3 seasons of use, received it May 2012.  I could maybe get a little more if sold privately, but lets say 50% in 3 years, with the first year taking the biggest knock on value (at least 30%).  So I would say 25 - 30% in first year, then 10% per year thereafter is my guess.

Michael T

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Michael T

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Black_Diamond

Buy a car, same thing and you buy how many cars in your life?  Heck I bet I lost 50% value on my home in the last 6 years. Makes the boat look like a deal. lol. 

Lobodemar

The recession is not over in your area

JoeStang

I bought a house in 2006, a brand new boat 2 years ago, and am getting a divorce currently. I think MT has it going ok comparatively.

But, I have a house I like (and never came close to walking away from or missing a payment), a nice reliable boat that is tons of fun for my dogs/friends/family, and a great job that I love going to every day.

RY I think its all about perspective and what you place value on. Some people like a number in the bank A LOT, and do everything they can to improve that "number". Other people dont care at all about money and live like there's no tomorrow. Like most things in life it's all about balance. Make some money, save some of it & enjoy the rest. You're not going to live or be healthy forever, so you better make the most of it.

No one ever sat on their death bed and said "I wish I wouldnt have bought a brand new boat, I lost 50% in the first 3 years!!". But I'll bet a lot of people talk fondly about the time they spent with friends and family on the water. Cant put a price tag on that.

JoeStang

And boats arent really any different than most other mechanical items that wear out. Go buy a $100k car today, take care of it, and I'll bet its worth half the original value after three years.

MarkB

OK can I say one thing? 

Are we really trying to justify boating by looking at the costs involved. There's no financial justification that makes sense. You either have the money to spend and don't think about it, or you just ruin the whole experience and may as well not have a boat. 

Black_Diamond

Actually, Michigan's economy is doing well.  West Michigan is booming.  Not kidding.  Some areas coming back better than others but housing took a big hit in my area (rural/farm area)...mind you I did not sell my home, just appraised value dropped (cheaper property taxes!) and I like my house so no biggie.

Virtually anything you buy depreciates...especially non-property.  Put it in a savings account and you are about -2%/year based on inflation alone.  If your goal is 100% wealth accumulation you'd have to live like a hermit (with rare exception).  Being worth a million dollars and being dead does not do you any good either.  

Michael T

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Black_Diamond

Michael: awesome story in so many ways. Got to live life while you can. 

raybo3

Good for you MT great story and sorry for your first wife. Now its my turn to state my story. I went through a divorce and my advice to you JoeStang is make sure you owe more $$$$ than the boat is worth or you could lose it. I lived on my Rinker for almost a year and it was not so bad. I am not rich but I make a good weeks pay however I pay $400 a week in child support. I have about 4 more years of payments. I have a mortgage on a townhouse I just bought (long story there for another time) a boat payment and a car payment. Point is I find a way to keep my boat and boating a part of my life. I have always said " I dont want to lay on my death bed and say I should have bought a boat. I would rather say I bought a boat but could not afford it and had to sell it but at least I tried". Sorry for the rant but in most cases where there is a will there is a way. Good luck JoeStang with your divorce. If you need advice send me a PM. MT God bless you, you are the man and you never come across as an a$$hole at all. I totally love my Rinker!!!! 

JoeStang

RY sounds like I'm following in your footsteps. Who knows, maybe I'll eventually own an oil-burner and make fun of people that should own stock in Exxon Mobil.

Anyways great story MT (minus the first wife obviously, she sounded like a phenominal woman), and thanks raybo. Its been a stressful month or so, but I know it could be much much worse. We dont have any kids, so once this is over I wont have any ties to her craziness.

We have two dogs that I am hoping to keep, but I'm sure she feels the same way. Time will tell.

And no worries on having any equity in the boat. Its 2 years old and we didnt put much of any money down on it, so yeah I'll be keeping it for sure......LOL

I guess I'll have to find that one in a million girl that wants a fun guy with a boat, good job, loves spending money, and isnt Quasimoto. Yeah, that'll be slim pickings.

Dream_Inn

Wow, great stories hear guys!  Very heart warming, and like many, I've seen the early death in my family as well.  When I was a teenager, my mother was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor.  At age 40, she was given 3-6 months to live.  She was always a saver and I learned from her on that.  At that point she did some radiation and then went on an unapproved experimental drug (from someone in MI - CanCell for some of you that may know). Well, 5 years later she was completely free from it.  Months after that, she had another new one in a completely new spot.  She was 46 and said it was her time to go.  During those 6 years, we had lots of fun as a family. Lots of trips and things I will never forget.  She met my now current wife, and one of the last things she told me is she waited for that moment and knew I was now in good hands.  That was 23 years ago. 

I still have a very hard time spending.  I'm a cheap ****!  Sorry, but I am.  We save way more than 50% of what we make.  Very fortunate my wife and I have good jobs, at the same place for more than 20yrs for both of us.  Her mother passed a few years ago at a pretty young age as well mostly because of health and not being in shape. So, we have always been conscious about our health as well.  We both exercise 5 days a week, but we sure have our fun on the weekends. 

It was a huge decision for us when we moved up to this big boat we now have.  I still wake up in at times wondering geez, what the he!! did we do?  I too have to completely ignore the fuel burn (cause, you know, I'm a cheap ****, but it's also why I don't know what the word payment is). (heck, my wife and I have tracphones that cost a whole $80 for the year, yes, the year and that includes phone and service).  We used rabbit ears on our TV for the first dozen years or so we were married.

Well, I'm now rattling on, but everyone opened up so much, I thought I would a little as well!  Everyone on here that I've met is great and I will go out of my way to meet all of you here! (PS, I've met RY and from that know he is fully enjoying conversation with MT and would be the first to buy him a drink)

Michael T

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212rowboat

Great to see the human element emerge through all these electronic bytes.  

Michael T

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raybo3

Great stories and yes this is the great forum with great people....

gslpro

I think you all have it right.  I am 46, and I am an oncology nurse.  I love my patients.  They have taught me more about life and death than even being in the Army did.  I have seen 19 yr. old's pass away, and 80 yr. old's make it through brutal chemo.  I have also seen everything in between.  One thing that my patients have taught me is that you never know when.  It just happens.  This has caused me to live life, like I have never done before.  Oh, I lived crazily, and did whatever I wanted to for years, but never appreciated every day.  My wife is older than me, and 6 yrs. ago, I had her fully retire early, so that she could enjoy what used to be called the Golden Years.  We chose not buy a new boat, for it gave us more money in reserve for things that came up, and we don't have to worry about money constantly, like some others do.  We love our 290FV.  We'd love bigger, but I feel it would probably squeeze us just a bit too uncomfortably, so we stay with what we have.  We also love our slip, and can't fit any bigger in it, so that is a huge help in deciding to stay in the 290.  One of my Leukemic's said to me, "This cancer thing is great!  I have worked six days a week, 10-12 hrs. a day, for the last twenty years to provide for my family.  I've never felt this rested in all my life."  Talk about a lesson.  I work long hrs., but do no overtime for the money (only if they have a grave need).  I feel that my day off is worth more than time and a half.  I live for My Life.  that includes my wife, my home, my family, and of course, my boat.  Ninety days last yr., and somewhere around eighty days on her this year.  That is how I choose to live.  Boating has so many acronyms and sayings about the financial loss associated with it, that anyone who chooses it because of the great investment possibilities, should probably have his head checked.  I love boating.  And (sorry RY)  I Love My Rinker!!  

MarkB

MT. I agree. Don't want to be on the street broke, but we need to enjoy life while we can. 

212rowboat

Before my family and my rinker came about, I owned two sea doo skiis... I got two because it was something I could afford, and, because the only thing more fun than being on a net skii at the beach is being on a jet ski with your friends beside you (not just behind you)... I found that if, in the rare instance nobody wanted to go, I didn't either and the skiis sat idle in the side yard under a cover... 

I think they ran me $20k plus the trailer... I sold them for $14.5k with the trailer two years later.  

Let's say the trailer was $2k... That means I lost  $7.5k in two years... And, I burned no less than $300 of fuel a month every summer month, which is four months times the two years I owned them... $2400... 

I watched my older friends (60 and 60+yo) smile and act like kids... I watched friends and their children smile like the pastor was pardening the devils work... and I know that I played a role in that... and it was worth the $10k over two years in spades... 

If I didn't blow $10k on that, I would have blown it in Vegas, or the Caribbean.. or in legal fees if I didn't use those devices... 

We get one spin on this rock... In the end its the people, and family. 

212rowboat

But... Since we are talking money, I've found that width turns better profit than depth... you get width by talking and networking... We have a network, here... It may or may not be something owners of this place condone, but I'm all for sharing strategies and tactics, and even specific opportunities... Up to y'all. 

TonyWalker

Oh man!  The Salt Shaker was my first boat and when I purchased her I knew she would be my only boat.  Not enough time left on the mainspring to experiment.  So I went for what I thought I would enjoy.  We made a perfect choice.  Going for  the loop one more time.  And Key West.  If I can fit this in between doctors appointments.  You know I will!  We love boaters.

rasbury

wow, does add a personal note to all the "faceless" people that have helped me so much and I hope to give as I learn as well. I know my life is blessed but like all of you, that clock is ticking and we don't know when it stops. I often look at this boat that is bigger than the first apartment I lived in on my own and think, what the heck was I thinking, I'm way over my head with this- and then we are going down the river on a nice sunny day with smiles on my wife and grand kids and then I remember why..