Closed & Plan B

Two messages today.

First is we finally closed on our investment property. Unfortunately the seller left it in the same messy state it has been left for the last year or so. The seller came up to clean but had a death in the family so it didn’t get done. So this afternoon and evening has been focussed on getting the place so we can at least sleep and wash while we work further. Builders are lined up to do the bigger repair work so we’re all go on the house front.

Now for Plan B. When we made the decision to leave earlier this year we knew there was risks to our savings. We structured things so we could go for a couple of years without having to touch the riskier stuff – ie our equities. Our worst case scenario was that if things went badly south we would wait until our primary funds ran out, we would start to figure out ways to earn money while living aboard. We had no detail behind Plan B, merely the faith that together we could figure something out if we had to.

Well, given the crapshoot going on right now we’ve decided to invoke plan B. In the short term it changes little. However, beyond the end of the first sailing season we need to have something going. Our favourite idea is to leverage the boat directly and do some skippered charter work providing full service vacations to folks. Alternatives would be to leverage our past skills and look for ways to make a living remotely or even come back to the mainland doing contract work.

We would do this for as long as it takes for the markets to return to somewhere nearer normal. In some ways this is quite exciting as this will be a big change for us which is precisely what we both feel we need. Once things pick up then we’re back to plan A. For now we must focus on getting our investment property sorted out and rented. Hopefully we’ll be heading to the boat before the end of the month and begin the projects aboard Dignity. Eventually we’ll have time to think more deeply about our new challenges.