Ok…so here it is! A long-time requested subject that, for some reason, you think I am an expert at.
But, believe me, I AM FAR FROM THAT.
I don’t have any financial or business training. All you will read below comes from:
- My own experience
- Multiple mistakes made along the years
- Personal opinions
PLEASE do not take this too seriously.
My only objective with this post is passing on some things that have always worked for me, and might (just might) work for you too.
Also, we all like to spend our money in different ways.
- I love my designer handbags. My little collection is worth a few thousand euros…
- Lots of my friends love make up. tripTheirs to Sephora are a pretty expensive custom of theirs…
- You might enjoy Prosecco, and spend most of your salary on Aperol Spritz…
I am not here to judge you, or your spending habits!
You might think that I am absolutely nuts for spending over a grand on a handbag.
And I might think your 3.000 euros bicycle is an absolute waste of money.
Let’s get into it!
MY TOP TIPS FOR NOT WASTING ALL OF YOUR MONEY:
- SMALL STEPS:
Locking yourself onboard 24/7 because you decided to purchase a property, does not work.
At least, it does not work for me.
This will only make you hate your cabin, and the crew mess (especially the snacks cupboard) after a couple of weeks of it!
Instead of being so strict with yourself, set a fix amount of money you want to save every week.
Small short-term objectives seem more achievable than big long-term ones.
I am an extremely visual person. I need to write things down.
On paper, old school style.
I write all types of goals down, as they come to my head.
Sometimes I get up at 2:00am to find my planner and write something down.
When I am on a saving spree, I also try to track ALL of my expenses.
Again, on paper.
Believe me, when you see how much money you throw down the drain on silly little things on a daily basis, you’ll be astonished!
Those daily Starbucks coffee runs become a pretty expensive habit!
I own all types of planners.
If you are as old school as me, these are my favorite 😉
- KEEP ASIDE A FIX AMOUNT EVERY MONTH:
Like it never existed.
Let’s say you earn 2.500 euros.
Convince yourself that you earn 2.000, and budget around that amount.
Transfer those 500 euros “extra” to a savings account, and forget about them.
Literally.
- REDUCE YOUR OUTINGS:
If you use to go out with the crew every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, try to “only” go out twice a week.
We all know how it is…
A crew day out won’t mean less that a couple of hundred euros.
If you go out three times a week, that’s 600 euros GONE, just like that!
- RE-THINK THOSE IMPULSE PURCHASES:
I know how tempting going on a shopping spree is after a month of slaving away.
BUT, when you see 10 beautiful bikinis at that lovely little shop in Porto Cervo:
- Leave the shop
- Go for a coffee
- Think about it
- And then decide if you need all 10 of them, or you could survive just fine buying “only” 5 of them…
DIVERSIFY YOUR INCOME:
I know the feeling: working on a superyacht provides you with a generous income. All expenses paid for.
You feel secure, and confident.
No need to think about any other ways of generating extra income, because you don’t need to.
BUT, let me tell you something:
- One day you are the happiest crew member on the face on the earth
- You work aboard the most amazing vessel
- “Your owners” are the loveliest and most generous billionaires in the whole entire world…
And next day, the yacht sells.
All of that is gone.
And now you are the most miserable crew member no one has ever seen.
You even want to leave yachting.
For good.
Just like that.
In the blink of an eye, everything has changed…
If you do not have any extra income, and want to leave yachting because you can’t take it anymore:
Do you want to be one of those yachties that have left the industry 5 times..? Really?
Nowadays, there are so many ways of making extra money, you only have to find your niche, and go for it!
Something you enjoy. Anything.
I always hear business and financial experts saying things like:
“Find your passion. If you do not have passion, your business won’t work”
To be completely honest with you, I do not agree with this statement, AT ALL.
In my humble opinion, you do not have to be an expert/have passion/ and all of those things…
You just need to want to make money, and find something that does just that.
If selling toilet paper online makes me money, I could not care less that I don’t know anything about toilet paper.
I will sell toilet paper.
Do you know what I mean?
Obviously, if YOU DO have a passion, it will be so much easier and rewarding.
But if you do not, or don’t know yet, just find something that can make you money.
As small as that income is, it is money, at the end of the day.
500 euros in the “yachtie vocabulary” is peanuts.
BUT, 500 euros “in the real world”, will pay a pretty good mortgage for a month.
We all have extra skills, ALL OF US.
- Are you fluent in a few languages?
You wouldn’t believe the huge amount of people out there that need things translated!
- Can you saw?
- Paint?
- Are you a photographer?
Anything really!
I have met a few yachties that, working full time on yachts, run pretty amazing small businesses.
I know this Stew that has a talent for finding “stuff” for cheap, and sells it though Ebay with a small margen.
She uses her mum’s garage as storage, and her holidays to go to all outlets she can, buy ANYTHING she thinks will sell, and sells it!
How amazing is that?!
I was fascinated listening to how she (with the help of her mum) does it.
She makes a few thousand euros every year from it.
I used to have a Second Stew that knits like a professional.
She uses her time off onboard to create these amazing beanies, scarfs, capes… takes them home on her holiday and uses the help of her grannie to sell them.
What an amazing way of not wasting your watches wasting away in front of the TV!?
It’s just about having a bit of initiative.
Something that starts super small, just a bit of pocket money, can potentially become a stable source of income in the near future.
Writing this post made me want to look through my business accounts when I first started, back in 2016.
Still in my safe place, my comfortable single cabin on the boat I worked on.
A beautiful 60 meter that treated me like a real princess, like for like rotation included.
Do you know how much money I made from it the first month?
216,14 euros.
In the whole month.
Did that make me stop?
No! The absolute opposite!
I was SO proud of myself!
I made that small amount of money from something I had created by myself, in my cabin, during my (very little) time off.
I couldn’t wait to see where that could take me!
Do you think that I needed to earn any extra money back then?
NO, I did not.
I was on an “above industry standards” Chief Stew salary.
Not even counting the tips I got from both the owner, and charter guests.
Back in 2016, 216,14 euros was peanuts to me.
At this very moment, 216,14 euros will allow me to pay two months of the electricity bill of one of the properties we own.
It’s just a matter of perspective.
And just that, perspective, is something that yachties tend to lose after a few years working on yachts, unfortunately…
START INVESTING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE:
I used to believe that investing was just for people that have a lot of extra money, and are finance experts.
When, actually, we all can!
Even if you can only afford to invest 100 euros a month, that’s better than nothing.
If you do not feel comfortable doing it yourself (like me) hire someone that does it for you.
We have being investing with Quilter International for years, and so far, so good.
We pay them a fix amount every month and they invest it in whatever they see fit for us.
We only have a look at the reports every few months, check that we haven’t lost any money, how much money we have made in that period, and forget about it.
We also use Capital for stocks.
A few yachties have mentioned to me that they’ve had really bad experiences with YFSOL.
I had never even heard of them before lots of you mentioned them, but I thought it could be helpful to give you a heads up…
Remember that your money in the bank does absolutely nothing for you, in fact, absolutely the opposite, due to deflation, and so on…
RELATED CONTENT (FOR DUMMIES LIKE ME) THAT I FIND REALLY HELPFUL:
YOUTUBE:
PODCASTS:
BOOKS:
- Principles, by Ray Dalio
- You Are a Badass, by Jen Sincero
- The 4-Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss
- Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, by Susan Jeffers
- The Chimp Paradox, by Prof Steve Peters
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R. Covey
- Gut, by Giulia Enders
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It may help someone out there.
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Please feel free to comment with any topics you would like me to post about! All suggestions are welcome 🙂
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