What are you up to today

ric · **Posted:** Tue Sep 09, 2014 11:17 pm

Yeah, I'm spending way too much money.. I'm living the dream though. Nice house, boat, car, jet ski, beautiful GF, travel staying in ridiculous hotels. Isn't that the meaning of life? Happiness? I don't think there's a single elder in here could honestly say to let it all go in the prime of my life just so my bank account is a little bigger 30 years from now. I don't think I could live with myself 30 years from now knowing I passed up living life just to be a tad more secure.

LouC · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:57 am

Ric we all make our choices, the same way is not right for all people, but before you know it, you either have kids or after that you're saving for retirement and their college. First I paid off a lot of student loans, then the house (15 year mortgage), but I can retire in 3 years and still work part time in my field which will be a good scenario for me.
One thing I can say, is don't wait too long to start a family if you want to have children. You don't want to be chasing after little ones in your 40s if you can help it LOL.....

ric · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:26 am

Children is one thing I won't be having in life

firecadet613 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:37 am

You don't know what you'll be missing out on. Money can't buy that kind of happiness! I've got little ones, and I can still see it in the people on our dock who have kids almost my age.

FWIW - I'll have the mortgage and the boat paid off before I'm 40, and we are saving a fair amount. You have to find that happy medium to live like you were dying, and also save for tomorrow. To each their own though.

Jdpber · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 8:35 am

RichA wrote:

Jdpber wrote:

... the entire point is to get something larger than my iPhone Navionics screen. The elite 5 is just a smudge smaller than the 7 but has a significant smaller screen. Uuuh.

iPhone 6 Plus?

Sorry, but it had to be said...

More seriously, how about an iPad? I use an iPad 2 with Navionics and while I've managed with it, I haven't been super happy with it's functions. For the river channels I run on, the charting is good, but using it to plan a route is a joke and a half, as least as far as I've figured out. So I wonder if there are better packages or if a dedicated plotter is much better.

-- Rich

well the PLUS is silly big. I refuse to have to resort to purchasing a fanny pack to tote around a cell phone.
I will be pre ordering the 4.7 on friday though..
My iPad mini would be a great size if it had 4G sad times it does not.

but as you state charting a route is kind of a bitch and a half to do. my thing is i would like to have one hand on a beer or the throttle or the stereo instead of holding the phone an inch from my face to see where the under water obstruction is that i know is somewhere in the area.. A decent size back lit screen is what i desire.. now i will in a week test out my navionics on the new phone and see how it is.. i was considering getting the suction cup mount for the 5 with the life proof case that i have but why drop $25 on a mount at the beginning of the summer knowing that i will be buying the 6. So i held off on the mount and have been holding it.. it seems that i am always having to tell the phone what to do..

I want to simply have a back lit chart plotter that does what it is supposed to do that does not suck my phone battery and i do not have to pass word or leave on "never off" the phone is great for fishing in the little boat and such but at speed navigating the islands and million coves a big display will be best.

i made a cutout of the size of the 7 to see how it would be.. tonight i am going to put it to the right and see if it could work to the right on a RAM Mount like the pic below.

Jdpber · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 8:46 am

ric wrote:

Yeah, I'm spending way too much money.. I'm living the dream though. Nice house, boat, car, jet ski, beautiful GF, travel staying in ridiculous hotels. Isn't that the meaning of life? Happiness? I don't think there's a single elder in here could honestly say to let it all go in the prime of my life just so my bank account is a little bigger 30 years from now. I don't think I could live with myself 30 years from now knowing I passed up living life just to be a tad more secure.

we have a modest size nice house. 3B 2Ba 2car 1,900ft on an acre and it has done us fine for the past 5 years. Baby on the way in November and i could not be more excited for my little boy side kick that is soon to be here.

To be 28 with a house for 5 years and over 50% is paid. 2 cars, camper, 2 boats, that are all paid for. The ability to travel the world as we have int he past 6 years, countless states 8 countries stamped int he passport. I know all about living the life.. But we also live off of one income and base our budget off of one income "just in case" and toss the other income int he bank. yes i could go out and buy a new diesel truck and a new Crist Crat this weekend but those are depreciating assets and i would rather invest that money or sit on it knowing that the truck and boat that i have can do exactly the same thing as the new ones at a fraction of the cost and no overhead of a payment.

now i am not saying do not have fun while you are healthy and young by any means.. We stay on the go and traveling and having fun.. but as above stated.. you have to balance it out so that when you retire you can continue to have fun..

What the hell is the point of busting our asses every week at the office if we cannot have fun in live.

Jdpber · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 12:38 pm

jjker wrote:

Now that I just learned how to post pictures, thanks to M3Eater, here is something that some of you might be interested in:

I installed a 5" color GPS mapping/Chartplotter in the helm of my 200SS. I put it where the cubby hole is, and relocated the cubby around the side, and left the ipod jack and 12VDC socket in there as well. The unit I used is a Lowrance 5200 with extenally mounted antenna. The antenna is in front of the helm, outside the glass, where the Sirius antenna is on the other side. It looks fine. I used the Lowrance for 2 reasons. 1. It fit. I had a hell of a time finding a unit with the exact dimensions I had room for, and 2. I like the Navionics software. Garmin didn't seem to offer one that was the right size, and I couldn't find a dealer who would take the time to show me software options. I use it much less for navigation than I do to tell me when I'm getting into shallow water. It's really handy on lakes I'm not familiar with. I can set waypoints, like shoals, with icons (skull & cross bones for shoals) for future reference. It's pretty cool. Lastly, it is plenty bright for use in any light.

Anyway, here are a few pics of it.

Let me know what you think.

i did find this old post and it could work but still a smaller screen than i want

fi.na.tine · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 2:06 pm

ric wrote:

I'm making 75 now at 32yo and I can only put away 1k a month into savings after all bills/gas (boat/ski/car)/work week lunch/etc are paid and giving myself a $150 week budget for whatever. 1k in savings a month is just not good enough for me. Need at least 1500-2000 a month for my long term goals.

I need to make more money somehow.

Sorry - I have no pity for you. Next time your car tells you it loves you unconditionally, give it a hug back. :roll:

As far as the Ipod - I had an iphone 6 plus. It came out a few years ago, but they called it the Galaxy S3.

RichA · **Joined:** Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:37 pm **Posts:** 98

Balancing spending on fun today versus investing for tomorrow is one of life's big challenges, for sure. One thing, though, is that with the FedRes printing money faster than toilet paper, if you stick your $ in a bank and let it sit there, you can be pretty darn sure that in 20 years it won't buy but a small fraction of what it buys today. Invest for growth!

Getting back to the thread topic, I'm recovering from flu, and waiting for my repaired prop to get back home so I can put it on the boat!

Graham R · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:42 pm

Hey,

I came into this late and I'm too old to read everything.

Everybody has different things that make them happy. Money is nothing I have aggressively pursued but it's nice to have it ; but as a result I seem to have enough.

Children, well we had twin girls but one died when she was four and a half years old; finding her dead in her bed one morning was the worst thing I have ever experienced. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, so I can understand why someone would not wish to have childen

Jdpber · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 5:44 pm

Talked to a few people and sharing this. The new Lowrance units dominate the market for depth sounding sonar and down & side imaging but lack in the maps department. Where as the garmin units dominate the maps market. So I spent a while reading and talking to a few of my friends that work in the industry.

I am liking this one.

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/on-the-water/chartplotters/gpsmap-527/prod119846.html

ric · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 6:40 pm

Well, I didn't expect this to be a 2 day project but I'm finally almost done. Did some work on the jet ski trailer. The jack was rusty and horrid, the coupler was rusty and horrid, and one of the rear tires was patched horrid.

Luckily when I bought the ski it came with: New jack, new tire/rim. So yesterday I started the process of taking the old tire off. Holy crap. Two different sized nuts and they were RUSTED on BAD. Broke a few tools (craftsman luckily) and finally got it changed out with new lug nuts of the right size. Changing out the coupler and jack were simple. Also pretty much no lights worked, but the rear housing were new and I just swapped out the bulbs. The side markers were toast and I installed two new units. $5 each, big deal.

It might sound like the trailer is junk, but it's actually in almost showroom condition, it was just used in salt so whatever wasn't galvanized was toast.

What's left? The springs are rusty so I'll swap those out. Northern Tool doesn't carry 20in on center springs in stock, so I'll order some off the internet.

Once the springs are done, it's a brand new trailer.

Jdpber · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:30 pm

2days or 2evenings to change a tire and jack

ric · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:45 pm

Jdpber wrote:

2days or 2evenings to change a tire and jack

Evenings pouring sweat down like it's raining.

I was so afraid the studs were going to snap but they didn't. Eventually required a 6ft cheater bar on two 4 way tire irons I bought from Northern Tool after work today(some were metric, some were SAE). Was the cheapest tool solution that could take the torque. $8 each. Eventually I'm going to replace the lug nuts on the other side but not this week.

It's really awesome to have a Northern Tool and Harbor Freight within 3 miles of your house! NT's trailer parts selection is 3 isles. EVERYTHING you could ever want at dirt cheap prices.

This winter I'm going to grab my chaparral's boat trailer with my car, and do the same treatment to it. It needs new bearings, springs, wiring, lights, and the brakes fixed. It's aluminum I-beam dual axle totally worth the effort. I'll just tell the marina to wet slip the boat for a week.

rpengr · **Posted:** Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:45 pm

ric wrote:

...and one of the rear tires was patched horrid.

One of the rear tires? Do you have a tandem axle jet-ski trailer?

www.iFourWinns.com

What are you up to today

Who is online