How much does it cost to live on a boat?

Look around any harbour, and you will see young couples on tiny Wharram catamarans, old men on gaffers held together with string – and, of course, those gleaming 60footers weighed down with dishwashers, air conditioning and all the latest electronics.

But whether you consider yourself well-off or just getting by, you must have some money coming in.

Some people chronicle their lives on YouTube – but for every one who is given a free boat, there are thousands who never cover the cost of the GoPro.

Others stop periodically and get a job: Three months of hard work will fund a year of economy-class cruising.

If you have read my story, you will know that my first attempt at the cruising life was back in the 1990s, funded by journalism – a column for the London Daily Telegraph, another for Yachting World – bits and pieces here and there…

I wrote a column; I got paid – I wrote another column, I got paid again. It went on for years. I thought I was a success. I was living the dream!

Now, I realise I was just lucky that it kept going as long as it did. I was working for what is called a linear income: You work once, and you get paid once. If you stop work, you don’t get paid.

Worse than that, I was beholden to my boss. If the boss decided he preferred someone else’s column, I would be out of a job. Even if he liked mine, but the magazine started losing money, he would be sorry but would have to let me go…

And that is how most people earn a living – going from month to month and trusting that it will just keep going. Hardly anybody thinks about what life would be like if the money came in every month without them having to work for it – what is called a Residual lncome. This is what you get from a pension, investments or property. Pop stars and best-selling authors have residual incomes from the work they did in the past. 

It was not until 2005 that I discovered there was another way of getting a residual income – even without having a lot of money or a remarkable talent.

By this time, Tamsin and I had realised that life on a small boat with two small boys was just too much like hard work. We got off and moved into a house. Within a few years, with nothing unusual to write about anymore, the journalism dried up. My savings were gone. I was obliged to start looking for a job – any job.

At 55, they don’t give you another job.

But that was when I got properly lucky. Someone gave me a leaflet about building up a residual income in a small amount of spare time. It sounded like a scam – one of those dodgy schemes they warn you about. But remember, I was desperate. I would look at anything.

As it turned out, this was not a scam. It was all respectable and above board. Better still, I wouldn’t have to sell anything. I grasped it with both hands – and it has been paying me every month ever since. 

Better still, if I never do another stroke, never write another word – if I fall off the boat and drown, the money from the work I did in the past will still come in every month for Tamsin – and it will be enough for her to live in comfort for the rest of her life. In due course, it will form part of her estate and go to the children…

So, tell me, which do you think is better: Residual income or linear income?

If you think the answer is residual, drop me an email. Maybe you can have one too (and by the way, it’s got nothing to do with the food supplement I recommend on the “Good Health” page.)

But whatever you decide, remember that when Eric and Susan Hiscock set off on their first circumnavigation in 1952, on the bulkhead of Wanderer III were carved the wise words of Arthur Ransome: Grab a chance and you won’t be sorry for a might-have-been.

john@oldmansailing.com