I married well 
How do you afford this sport?
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psychocabbage
Contributor
After thinking about this a bit I am going to compare it to my other sport...
BMX Racing
Both need:
Equipment
Travel
Membership
Entry fees
My bike cost over $3K
My safety gear was cheap at $500
Membership is cheap at $35 a year
Travel is required to get to multipoint races.. Some by car others by plane. All over the US. Hotel costs are incurred.
Now I bring this up because I did all the above when I was 18 and paid for it all myself working minimum wage jobs.. Granted I didnt have to pay for rent.. but I did have gas and entertainment to consider (being a teen and having friends and all that entails...)
I did so until I was 23 and then had to start scaling down to find a real career as I had not met goals I had established for myself.
I now am an IT Consultant for my own company and do alright. My wife does very well. We have a new house as well as a rental home. We have 3 kids, 2 dogs and 7 fish and a horse.
If we went through life without any of the nice things to come home to, I would not understand the point to being here day to day.
I for one need to have something nice to see and be around daily. Sure my family gives me great joy but I also enjoy gobs of horsepower so
my car needs to move very fast. I enjoy having the best computers around. I dont like TV and dont spend any $ there but will put $ towards faster internet for gaming and downloads and larger monitors for my desk.
Everyone has priorities and has to work out how they will meet theirs. We go to Cozumel (1hr 45min flight) yearly so far since we started diving. I dont see that changing much at all.
I think you have to decide what is truly expensive in your mind. To me, I have never seen a $150K car as expensive. Just out of current reach. It will be reached eventually but its not expensive.
Expensive is a $20Mil house. I dont want that. I would rather have 20 1 million dollar homes all over the place to go and visit. Thus allowing me to dive or race cars or bikes...
The best way I can convey the difference in thought.. When I first returned to this country from living in europe I had nothing. I found friends that had an apt complex and worked out a deal to get a room in trade for labor until I got $.
From there I was biking daily 48miles each way on a single speed bmx bike to work at a bicycle shop. I didnt see my commute as difficult. I saw it as training.
I went home to the horrid apt one day and overheard two hispanics talking when an old BMW drove by. It was a 3 series and was easily 10 yrs old. Worth a max sum of $5k back then and more realistic $3K I hear one say in spanish "Man I cant ever afford a car like that!" I stopped and adjusted his frame of mind. Explained the age and value of the car and that is not much money at all. Some people see certain things as unobtainable. I just think they need to set goal, re evaluate their perspective and adjust their lives to get what they want.
You want to go to Bali? It costs money. If you don’t make enough, get a better job. It may mean you have to take risks, but most of the people I know that are successful; all did so at one point or another. Not only that, we have had setbacks along the way. A test if you will to see if we earned our place among the successful.
BMX Racing
Both need:
Equipment
Travel
Membership
Entry fees
My bike cost over $3K
My safety gear was cheap at $500
Membership is cheap at $35 a year
Travel is required to get to multipoint races.. Some by car others by plane. All over the US. Hotel costs are incurred.
Now I bring this up because I did all the above when I was 18 and paid for it all myself working minimum wage jobs.. Granted I didnt have to pay for rent.. but I did have gas and entertainment to consider (being a teen and having friends and all that entails...)
I did so until I was 23 and then had to start scaling down to find a real career as I had not met goals I had established for myself.
I now am an IT Consultant for my own company and do alright. My wife does very well. We have a new house as well as a rental home. We have 3 kids, 2 dogs and 7 fish and a horse.
If we went through life without any of the nice things to come home to, I would not understand the point to being here day to day.
I for one need to have something nice to see and be around daily. Sure my family gives me great joy but I also enjoy gobs of horsepower so
my car needs to move very fast. I enjoy having the best computers around. I dont like TV and dont spend any $ there but will put $ towards faster internet for gaming and downloads and larger monitors for my desk.
Everyone has priorities and has to work out how they will meet theirs. We go to Cozumel (1hr 45min flight) yearly so far since we started diving. I dont see that changing much at all.
I think you have to decide what is truly expensive in your mind. To me, I have never seen a $150K car as expensive. Just out of current reach. It will be reached eventually but its not expensive.
Expensive is a $20Mil house. I dont want that. I would rather have 20 1 million dollar homes all over the place to go and visit. Thus allowing me to dive or race cars or bikes...
The best way I can convey the difference in thought.. When I first returned to this country from living in europe I had nothing. I found friends that had an apt complex and worked out a deal to get a room in trade for labor until I got $.
From there I was biking daily 48miles each way on a single speed bmx bike to work at a bicycle shop. I didnt see my commute as difficult. I saw it as training.
I went home to the horrid apt one day and overheard two hispanics talking when an old BMW drove by. It was a 3 series and was easily 10 yrs old. Worth a max sum of $5k back then and more realistic $3K I hear one say in spanish "Man I cant ever afford a car like that!" I stopped and adjusted his frame of mind. Explained the age and value of the car and that is not much money at all. Some people see certain things as unobtainable. I just think they need to set goal, re evaluate their perspective and adjust their lives to get what they want.
You want to go to Bali? It costs money. If you don’t make enough, get a better job. It may mean you have to take risks, but most of the people I know that are successful; all did so at one point or another. Not only that, we have had setbacks along the way. A test if you will to see if we earned our place among the successful.
Compared to my other hobby, woodworking/funiture building, scuba is not too bad.
ShakaZulu
Contributor
This is nothing, try flying....
seaducer
Contributor
I purchased my intitial gear setup with a tax return. After that replacing gear and adding the little things is just a matter of a little here, a little there. I try to be frugal about trips I take and dive mostly from shore where I live, which cost only the air that I breathe and gas in my car.
I am about to get married and buy a house so I suppose I will be broke for a while, spending the money I make on the house, but after I stabalize I plan on traveling again. In the meantime I have this years Bonaire trip paid for, and after that I will be staying local for a year or two.
I am about to get married and buy a house so I suppose I will be broke for a while, spending the money I make on the house, but after I stabalize I plan on traveling again. In the meantime I have this years Bonaire trip paid for, and after that I will be staying local for a year or two.
MagicChicken
Contributor
Grad student here. My bi-monthly stipends won't allow a high roller lifestyle. Still, I've been travelling around the world for the past 5 years.
Like you guys mentionned, it's all a matter of priorities.
A third of all my income goes to the "Fred Fund". I budget everything else accordingly : no car, no cell phone, no computer (yup!), no cable TV, I cook all my meals, we don't go out in expensive nightclubs anymore...
It's a bit more complicated to get air fills and actually get to the dive sites. You have to be creative
Like you guys mentionned, it's all a matter of priorities.
A third of all my income goes to the "Fred Fund". I budget everything else accordingly : no car, no cell phone, no computer (yup!), no cable TV, I cook all my meals, we don't go out in expensive nightclubs anymore...
It's a bit more complicated to get air fills and actually get to the dive sites. You have to be creative
Beefer
Guest
My wife and I are brand new to the sport, and as with everything we do, she worries about the money we spend. We can't afford this sport, but decided we would like to give it a go. We own things most 'can't afford', do things most would find cost prohibitive, but we can and do because we try and be smart about it.
I work as a salesman for pest & termite control. I hate it, and I probably make less than 90% of the employed folks here, and most likely less then the retired folks as well. My wife is a fulltime student, and we have an 8 year old daughter, and I pay child support for my son to my ex-wife. We are not living in the lap of luxury by any means.
We have zero debt. We rent a decent apartment, both drive older used cars that we paid $2k for each, we go out maybe once a month for dinners and a movie. We also have a boat that we paid $1k for.
How are we going to afford this sport is simple. I buy everything off Craigslist, eBay, or internet shops. I don't need the latest-greatest to be happy. We live in Florida, which I believe will afford us somewhat limitless diving opportunities without spending insanes amount of money.
I used to ski almost daily when I lived in Oregon, and like diving, it can be expensive to the point of bankruptcy if you get carried away. I don't let that happen.
As said before; it comes down to priorities. If you want a nice shiny new car, a fancy TV, and the prettiest of anything, it will cost you. I'm dumbfounded when I go to the marina and see $100k boats that haven't been used because the owners can't afford the fuel, and people who can't make their mortgage payment because they have too many toys they shouldn't have bought.
Don't use your credit cards (what are they?) to buy stuff you can't really afford. If you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. Keep sight of what you really want to do, and stay on target for it. It works. As I said, based on our household income, we can't afford the things we own and do, but because we budget and prioritize, we do it, and we have savings to boot.
Everything is expensive, if you let it be.
I work as a salesman for pest & termite control. I hate it, and I probably make less than 90% of the employed folks here, and most likely less then the retired folks as well. My wife is a fulltime student, and we have an 8 year old daughter, and I pay child support for my son to my ex-wife. We are not living in the lap of luxury by any means.
We have zero debt. We rent a decent apartment, both drive older used cars that we paid $2k for each, we go out maybe once a month for dinners and a movie. We also have a boat that we paid $1k for.
How are we going to afford this sport is simple. I buy everything off Craigslist, eBay, or internet shops. I don't need the latest-greatest to be happy. We live in Florida, which I believe will afford us somewhat limitless diving opportunities without spending insanes amount of money.
I used to ski almost daily when I lived in Oregon, and like diving, it can be expensive to the point of bankruptcy if you get carried away. I don't let that happen.
As said before; it comes down to priorities. If you want a nice shiny new car, a fancy TV, and the prettiest of anything, it will cost you. I'm dumbfounded when I go to the marina and see $100k boats that haven't been used because the owners can't afford the fuel, and people who can't make their mortgage payment because they have too many toys they shouldn't have bought.
Don't use your credit cards (what are they?) to buy stuff you can't really afford. If you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. Keep sight of what you really want to do, and stay on target for it. It works. As I said, based on our household income, we can't afford the things we own and do, but because we budget and prioritize, we do it, and we have savings to boot.
Everything is expensive, if you let it be.
DeputyDan
Contributor
I agree with this post. No debt but mortgage - plan for trips - no eating out - used cars - no movies etc.
Rack up thousands of dollars in debt, and then wait for the government to come bail me out.
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