I have the longest story. I'll try and keep it short. My girl and I have a boat we live on. We still owe $65K on the thing and are looking at the prospect of having to work like dogs to pay for it this winter. We have about $20K in equity in it. We are looking at a couple of life options and we are having a DAMN hard time figuring out which way to go. Here are our options: 1) My girl is a stripper. We have 2 bedrooms on the boat. We were thinking about finding a 2nd girl to dance with her and rent the 2nd bedroom to the 2nd girl so they can strip as a 2 girl show and make good $$. We're out there on MySpace and in different places looking for suitable girls who are attractive enough to strip, and who are at the same time also cool enough to live a minimalist lifestyle on a sailboat. Still haven't found anyone. Continuing to look for a 2nd girl is our first option. *Advantages: Nice, peaceful home on the water, no jerks on land regulating our every move, no neighbors, self sufficiency. *Disadvantages: Costs a lot of money, which means we are kept slaves to the capitalist system to pay for it. Not free to think and pursue life. 2) We are looking at maybe selling the boat and tricking out a van to live in . This option is scary, but more convenient than a boat in a lot of ways. Right now to go to the store or laundry, we have to take our smaller boat over to land. We also have to keep our little crapper car somewhere when we live on a boat and want to work, so it's a headache constantly to figure out where we can park. We also have to stay in places with a safe harbor, parking, etc... etc... to be sure we can work. With the van, we could work this winter and have a van all tricked out, and still have some $$ left to live on. Only thing is... the van is scary because it's deep DEEP inside what we like to call "the Matrix" - AKA the capitalist society we don't want to be a part of. Advantages: Easy to run the household going to store, laundry, etc.., also can be brought to Europe and taken up into the mountains and stuff. The boat can only access the coast or course. Disadvantages: Living close to mean people inside the Matrix, law enforcement, the ever vanishing civil liberties, neighbors, reliance on diesel to more of an extent than now - we use it to generate power to do things such as use this forum. So what would you do?? I am stuck here. I don't want to give up a lot of money to live on the boat, and I can't work very well from the boat. But... I don't want to be deep in the Matrix in a van either. Which is better? Anyone see anything I'm not seeing in this situation? Our goals are to experience life, travel, and work as little as possible to free our minds for understanding culture, politics, physics (I already have a BS in it - want to do graduate work), etc... Which would you choose???!
people got these money hogging winnebagoes all over for cheap - because they cost too much to run- however buy a little peice of land - about 45 minutes away fro a city (price goes down) and with your little jalopy travel to work. You'll end up living much cheaper can do most of what you do on the boat and gardening is a plus - .... try to make it a bit isolated so that you do not have neighbors near and you can pretty much do as you please....even buy a boat and sell the land when you are ready to chuck the whole scene and live off the sea.
Good input. Thanks oldwolf, but does your estimate on cheap living include taxes paid on the land every single year? I'm sure I'd fork over more than $65K to the local town over the years, right? The boat costs nothing but upkeep, diesel to generate electricity (for refrigerator, computer), and that's about it. It's just a hassle with parking your car if you want to work. I mean.. what kind of $$$ are we talking for a small bit of land in say... upstate NY? What are the taxes? How much is the land to begin with? Thanks!
LAnd where I am costs about 500/a. and taxes are high but at the same time low - I have 175 A. and my taxes come out to $1000/yr - I go for temporary movable dwellings (tipi, yurts, travel trailers & campers, and motor homes because they are not taxed and not zoned. I would again emphasize out of sight and sound and off the beaten path for your own freedom and to not have neighbors unhappy with a living style they may not be comfortable with... my own place - nearest neighbor is 1 m. as the bird flies and 2 as the car drives...I live in the middle of the forest on top of a big hill, in the middle of abundant wildlife and nature - we love it. Even the village house (not my place) has anual taxes of about 1k/yr and would sell for about 35>40 K- at the end of a dead end st. It is doable - you do have to look -lots of people buy for backtaxes - better to buy from the people - land contracts (owner financed) are easily arranged Best of fortune Blessings Namaste
Wow. That's very interesting. I'm floating around the NY area right now because we will be wintering over soon to earn some $$. I can't believe the land is so cheap there. We went through the Erie Canal before and saw plenty of great looking spots in upstate NY. We just assumed the land was far more expensive. So there are no restrictions as to what you live in on your own land? I had talked to some people about this type of thing before, and they were not allowed to live in their RV on their own land wihtout a "normal" house there. So they sold their land.
the why of isolation and distance from cities The more popular an area - the more restrictions and higher costs involved
go check out www.realtor.com and search for land for sale and you will see that there is a shitload of land for sale all over the country for very little. The further you are from a major city, the cheaper it is. Just for example, check out eastern kentucky or northern arkansas, you can get land dirt cheap if you look around
