Finances and Tec Diving

[ccrprospect]

Just curious: How do you balance your finances with as costly a hobby as tec diving? Do you set up a yearly “diving budget” and try to stick to it? Or do you go with the flow and sign up for trips, courses, etc. so long as your credit card limit would allow it? Obviously the first option requires more discipline, and the ability to say “no” when that super cool trip comes up, or you are invited to be part of that course you always wanted to take. The second option means more diving, but also more giving up of things outside of diving. So in other words, how much of a priority does diving constitute in your life?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I was able to find a good price for my spare kidney. Otherwise forget it

 

[Centrals]

So in other words, how much of a priority does diving constitute in your life?

Diving is a recreational sport so it stays that way for me. It is entirely up to me to decide if I want to pursuit the sport.
Of course money is important. Spend what you can afford and do not go overboard.
Tec dive is far more expensive so check your bank balance and steady income.
Good luck.

 

[Marie13]

I’m single with a good paying job and I can do what I like as long as my bills are paid. No spouse or partner to object what I’m spending my $$ on or to “approve.” I’m on the verge of ordering my first CCR. Edit: put deposit down today.

I have a separate savings account I actually call the Scuba Fund.

Sell gear you don’t use to fund new purchases. That helps. Buy once, cry once. Buy good quality, used if you can find it.

Diving has priority over everything but work.

 

[Vicko]

How to put it politely.
I was completely broke working in a dive center and not doing any dives I wanted to do, so I quit and got a better job in underwater construction.. Job went so well that I was finally not broke. So I bought a boat and I was broke again. That was easily fixed by working some more, until I bought a compressor and was broke again. The cycle continued a number of times until I realised that having a stable job and money meant that a) I would always need more stuff and b) that I would never get to use that stuff.
So to stop going broke I stopped working and went diving... Shame I stopped before getting a scooter though.

 

[Manatee Diver]

Cave diving isn't that expensive if you are "local." My yearly site access cost is about $500. My weekly dive cost is $30 to 40. My gas to get to cave country is the biggest expense now at $50 to 60 a week. But it used to be a lot less.

Maybe a class or equipment every couple of years. Add in the odd trip to Mexico, a trimix dive, or overnight trips.

 

[Tracy]

It is my primary expense. I live in a cheap paid for house. My boats cost 4 times what my house cost. Before I got into diving, I had a different expensive hobby. I finally sold the last of my motorcycles two years ago. I can afford one stupid hobby, not two.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Diving is an expensive hobby period, regardless of whether it is rec or tec. How you handle it financially seems to line up with how you handle your broader finances. My wife and I are savers and budgeters and I would not be diving if we couldn't afford it. We budget extensively and set aside funds for various goals, both long and short term. Diving is partway down that list after saving for retirement, healthcare, condo expenses, unforeseen emergency fund, charity, family vacations (I'm the only diver in the family), then comes my diving budget (the cost of the diving itself, equipment maintenance, and new equipment). I always know how much I have to spend on diving and I stick within that budget. Period.

 

[PfcAJ]

Debt.

 

[rhwestfall]

When you loose 75 percent of your income with a job loss (1.5 years out of work), have a kid in college, and have to replace the front foundation wall of your house, diving becomes secondary....