I am sure there can be a huge difference in cost, depending on a wide variety of preferences and boats. As a previous contributor wrote, 80K for a 40 foot boat would discourage many. I previously stated that we spent 72 K per year. That was not for just living on a boat and not traveling much. If you just want to take it easy, live on a boat and enjoy the life style of being on anchor most of the time and moving a few miles and staying again it's great. We have done that and love it, and it can be done very inexpensively, probably for that 30K per year mentioned. The 72K per year I was discussing was having no boat payment, moving 50 miles per day, usually 3 to 5 days per week, staying in marinas most of the time, and covering travel to visit grand kids etc. It also included all living expenses: Health, boat, and other insurance, storage for the few things we did not sell, food, laundry, everything! That was 5 years ago. Diesel prices have been much higher, but now they are coming down again. Skipper Bob had one of his books detailing how to do it on 36K per year as I remember. If you were to count all expenses, including paying for a boat, 2K per foot might not be so far off, again significantly depending on how much you anchor out. Jake