2022 Sailing Finances – Calabash Bay, Long Island, Bahamas, December 30, 2022

We motored up to spend a few days in Calabash Bay which was one of the most beautiful places for clear water we saw last year.  We managed to go snorkeling when we got there and walk the beach the next morning, but sadly, the surge was so bad, we decided to head back south to try and get some protection from the wind and surge.

Since we have another travel day, I am a finance nerd, and I have been doing sort of a 2022 wrap up it got me thinking about where our money went this year. We were fortunate to have Sailing Hubby’s consulting, our investments/savings, and a few other small miscellaneous sources for income. So, in the end – where did it all go? I thought it would be easy to show it chart style.

What exactly do these categories all mean?  Here goes:

• Boat Maintenance 17% – self explanatory but this is all the upgrades, spare parts, our new sail drives, all the canvas materials we bought, anything we spent to get the boat ready to sail or fix stuff that broke.
• Restaurants 14% – Sad this is category #2 but we ate out a lot in the off season since we didn’t always have a kitchen.
• Travel 12% – this was mainly all the hotels, ubers, etc. from our motorcycle trip but also included hotels we rented when we stayed in Columbus to visit family.
• Rent 12% – Airbnb’s we rented for all the time we spent in St. Augustine working on the boat. I do believe some of this generated ROI for Ron doing all the boat projects and we saved a lot by not having the boat yard so them for us.
• Groceries 10% – this one surprised me a bit being so low on the chart but it only includes the provisioning from this season since last season was on 2021’s budget.
• Everything Else 9% – this was my catch all category for everything that was less than 4% which includes our healthcare, any marina dockage, our cell phone, the new ipads we bought before we left, upgrades we made to the motorcycle for our trip (new brakes, etc.), our mail service, blah blah blah….
• Boat Storage 8% – a necessary evil but we had to store it somewhere during the hurricane season.
• Automotive 7% – another surprise but I was really hoping this would be less than 10% and it is.  What a relief that this is the way to go since I can’t imagine Ron trying to maintain a car too.
• Gas & Diesel 5% – Fantastic news with gas prices being as high as they were and as much driving as we did either via car to Columbus or out west on the motorcycle.  This category is not only for our land travels but includes gas for the dinghy and diesel for motoring the boat.
• Insurance 4% – not in this category is healthcare but this is car insurance for daughter #4, us, and our coverage for the boat. We already know this is going up this year since we need additional insurance to go farther than the Bahamas.

As we look at the plans and changes we have coming for next year, this will certainly be a part of it. There were some things that surprised me and some that didn’t. Either way, personal capital is the tool we have relied on to help us track all of our retirement stuff and it has been awesome. Definitely plan to keep using it!