Preparing to cast off, well kind of
Few things provide a sense of adventure approaching like emptying a walk-in closet of 20+ years of belongings. There is something very freeing, yet unnerving about having piles of cloths that are limited by the size of lockers on your boat. This morning I said to Marian, you know, between the two of us we need to share less than 40 inches of hanging closet space. I offered to only hang one formal dinner jacket and move everything else into drawers or cabinets. She smiled and said, who needs hanging locker space when your living in shorts and t-shirts! What a gal!
In all seriousness we are right in the middle of it all. The house goes on the market in a few weeks. New carpet and paint in the next few days, and a moving truck comes on Saturday to take most of what we own to friends and family for safe keeping for 3 years. The original storage estimate from United was 8,000 lbs at about $240/month. Essentially its $3.00 per 100lbs per month for stuff placed in bonded storage. Since our plan is to be gone at least two years, and build a house when we return, I evaluate an items value based on 3 years of storage. What this means is its about a dollar per pound to store something for three years. So, the dining room table, 100 pounds is 100 dollars. When you think of selling things and buying them again upon your return, it makes the storage cost very palatable. By going to friends and family and asking them if they want to use our stuff for 3 years we have reduced the 8,000 pound of stuff to about 2 or 3 thousand pounds. This sh
ould c
ost us three to four grand over 3 years, very manageable. We are going to sell the cars, as the insurance complications were too much to deal with.
Finally I devised a scheme with credit cards, electronic banking and auto bill pay so all our finances should be on cruise control. This system is based on accounts that are never exposed to vendors, only used electronically between banks. We have credit cards that will be used for ATM machines, purchases or online orders. We have automated deposits to a working account which the credit card auto bills/pays monthly. There is a limit and notification system if a certain amount is ever exceeded and we can view everything online. Our financial planner has view access to these accounts and will notify us if anything seems awry. We will designate a relative as durable power-of-attorney so anything needing our written approval can be implemented in our absence. Each of these people has our direct boat email account and sat phone numbers. We plan to turn the sat phone on daily at noon (just not sure I should leave it on all the time?).
This was all done several months prior to putting the house on the market so we could go through several billing cycles to make sure everything worked. Oh, a few good lessons learned:
Since I was selling the house, we needed a street address to maintain residency and have bills and statements sent. A sister-in-law accepted this responsibility, and we are grateful to her for doing this. That street address is critical, because a credit card company will challenge your identity by asking for your mailing address. I had to tell my wife to be sure to use her sisters address, otherwise she would be denied assistance.
All online orders will validate against this address, but you can usually enter an overriding ship to address, which was your bill to address just a few days ago, it can get confusing.
If you use Comcast or another service provider linked to your email address, you need to ask what happens when you terminate your business relationship. In the case of Comcast you loose your email address. This means you need to create a new address, and guess what, think of how many systems you access online that use your email address as a way to identify you? In my case it was dozens of systems, most banking and financial. There are email services you can buy where you own your domain or address, these are a good choice if you understand the pluses and minuses of going that route. I went with Google Mail and was lucky enough to get my same name. It took about two days to get all my various accounts and systems to authenticate me with these new addresses.
Since I was creating a new identity in many systems I implemented a new password scheme. Approaching 50 I find my memory just isnt what it was, so I have a small number of passwords that I use for various functions. By combining letters and numbers with common words you can improve the security of a password significantly. Simply substitute a 3 for an E, a 1 for an I, a ZERO for an o and so forth. Adding CAPS can also help, but for God sake dont mix some with upper and some with lower using the same password, it will make you crazy. Finally, dont put these passwords on a computer hard drive. Store them on a thumb drive and take it home with you if/when you travel. Have a backup, maybe print it out and give it to someone you trust.
Some may think this isnt a PUP discussion, but I assure you it is. Cutting loose the lines and disconnecting from the mainland is something not many people do. For me it was a first, but Ive moved a dozen times in my life, so I had a good idea about some of the issues. Perhaps there are some of you out there that can share some tips or tricks you have learned to help those of us that are preparing to leave? Thanks,
Scott Bulger, Alanui, Nordhavn 40II, Seattle WA
Scott (and everyone):
Because we are outside the US the vast majority of the time, I've had to
wrestle with the problems associated with paying bills without physically
being in the country.
I pay all of my bills with, and highly recommend: "Paytrust" -
http://www.paytrust.com
They are owned by Intuit, the Quicken people, and have made my life easy.
All of my bills are on auto-pilot. When I first set up a vendor, Paytrust
automatically sends them a letter asking that future invoices go directly to
Paytrust. Whenever a bill arrives, Paytrust scans it and puts it on a
webpage for me. On a vendor by vendor basis, I can pre-program Paytrust as
to how bills should be handled. Most of my bills get paid automatically,
although I can tell Paytrust to notify me and give me a chance to decide
what to do. I haven't manually written a check in many years. Everything
flows through Paytrust.
I have no affiliation with them whatsoever, beyond being a very happy
customer.
As Scott said, although this topic may not seem to have anything to do with
boating, figuring out how to get bills paid while "homeless" is certainly a
"Passagemaking-relevant" topic.
-Ken Williams
Nordhavn68.com
Great post! Having gone through this before, I can say it's pretty accurate.
A couple of things I would add:
I would not use your primary e-mail address for bills and statements. I have
a separate "throw away" e-mail address for those. I use Yahoo mail with my
own domain name for all my regular stuff, but have a free Yahoo account for
the important stuff. That way, if I have to go to an Internet cafe or other
remote access, I log in and have maybe 3 e-mails with billing stuff, as
opposed to the hundred or so at the regular e-mail address. Very convenient,
and free.
A warning to the custodian of your mailing/street/billing address. Here
comes the junk mail! Every time you order something using a credit card,
they want your billing address of course, You then instantly go into their
marketing database, and your name/address will be sold multiple times to
other marketers. About the only way to avoid this is to never buy anything
over the Internet with a credit card... not much of an option these days.
I've changed my address several times over the years to avoid junk mail, but
it's damm near impossible.
You've done a good job of reviewing what it costs to store stuff vs. getting
rid of it and buying new stuff later. One thing to think about is that if
you get rid of it all (keeping heirlooms, etc. of course) when you come
back, you can buy used stuff to replace it at maybe 1/5 the cost of new
stuff. I went the route of having friends keep stuff for me, but it's a
hassle for them. I had my antique roll top desk, chair and a couple of other
things at a friend's house when she decided to move. I had to rent another
storage space and move it again. I would err on the side of getting rid of
most everything. All the "stuff" I own now that's not on the boat fits into
a 10' x 10' storage space. If/when I move back to land, I have a bed, desk
and sewing machine (don't ask... heirloom) and other misc. stuff. The rest
is going to come from garage / estate sales. This storage space costs me
about $100 a month.
When you get to the last of the "stuff" to get rid of, donate the leftovers
that you couldn't get rid of to some charity. They'll come pick it up and
you get a tax deduction. Quite frankly, I came out ahead by deducting the
value of some of these things vs. selling them for next to nothing. It's
hard to see that last of it go, but you won't miss it on the boat.
Keith
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
----- Original Message -----
From: scottebulger@comcast.net
Few things provide a sense of adventure approaching like emptying a
walk-in closet of 20+ years of belongings. There is something very
freeing, yet unnerving about having piles of cloths that are limited by
the size of lockers on your boat. This morning I said to Marian, you
know, between the two of us we need to share less than 40 inches of
hanging closet space. I offered to only hang one formal dinner jacket and
move everything else into drawers or cabinets. She smiled and said, who
needs hanging locker space when your living in shorts and t-shirts! What
a gal!
Thanks Scott,Absolutely for my wife and I this is a [Pup] topic. We live
abroad now so we will have to tweek your suggestions to fit our location.
Patrick Hightower - Sao Paulo, Brasil
-----Original Message-----
From: passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:passagemaking-under-power-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
scottebulger@comcast.net
Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:59 PM
To: PUP
Subject: [PUP] Preparing to cast off, well kind of
Few things provide a sense of adventure approaching like emptying a walk-in
closet of 20+ years of belongings. There is something very freeing, yet
unnerving about having piles of cloths that are limited by the size of
lockers on your boat. This morning I said to Marian, you know, between the
two of us we need to share less than 40 inches of hanging closet space. I
offered to only hang one formal dinner jacket and move everything else into
drawers or cabinets. She smiled and said, who needs hanging locker space
when your living in shorts and t-shirts! What a gal!
In all seriousness we are right in the middle of it all. The house goes on
the market in a few weeks. New carpet and paint in the next few days, and a
moving truck comes on Saturday to take most of what we own to friends and
family for safe keeping for 3 years. The original storage estimate from
United was 8,000 lbs at about $240/month. Essentially its $3.00 per 100lbs
per month for stuff placed in bonded storage. Since our plan is to be gone
at least two years, and build a house when we return, I evaluate an items
value based on 3 years of storage. What this means is its about a dollar
per pound to store something for three years. So, the dining room table,
100 pounds is 100 dollars. When you think of selling things and buying them
again upon your return, it makes the storage cost very palatable. By going
to friends and family and asking them if they want to use our stuff for 3
years we have reduced the 8,000 pound of stuff to about 2 or 3 thousand
pounds. This sh
ould c
ost us three to four grand over 3 years, very manageable. We are going to
sell the cars, as the insurance complications were too much to deal with.
Finally I devised a scheme with credit cards, electronic banking and auto
bill pay so all our finances should be on cruise control. This system is
based on accounts that are never exposed to vendors, only used
electronically between banks. We have credit cards that will be used for
ATM machines, purchases or online orders. We have automated deposits to a
working account which the credit card auto bills/pays monthly. There is a
limit and notification system if a certain amount is ever exceeded and we
can view everything online. Our financial planner has view access to these
accounts and will notify us if anything seems awry. We will designate a
relative as durable power-of-attorney so anything needing our written
approval can be implemented in our absence. Each of these people has our
direct boat email account and sat phone numbers. We plan to turn the sat
phone on daily at noon (just not sure I should leave it on all the time?).
This was all done several months prior to putting the house on the market so
we could go through several billing cycles to make sure everything worked.
Oh, a few good lessons learned:
Since I was selling the house, we needed a street address to maintain
residency and have bills and statements sent. A sister-in-law accepted
this responsibility, and we are grateful to her for doing this. That street
address is critical, because a credit card company will challenge your
identity by asking for your mailing address. I had to tell my wife to be
sure to use her sisters address, otherwise she would be denied assistance.
All online orders will validate against this address, but you can usually
enter an overriding ship to address, which was your bill to address just a
few days ago, it can get confusing.
If you use Comcast or another service provider linked to your email address,
you need to ask what happens when you terminate your business relationship.
In the case of Comcast you loose your email address. This means you need to
create a new address, and guess what, think of how many systems you access
online that use your email address as a way to identify you? In my case it
was dozens of systems, most banking and financial. There are email services
you can buy where you own your domain or address, these are a good choice if
you understand the pluses and minuses of going that route. I went with
Google Mail and was lucky enough to get my same name. It took about two
days to get all my various accounts and systems to authenticate me with
these new addresses.
Since I was creating a new identity in many systems I implemented a new
password scheme. Approaching 50 I find my memory just isnt what it was, so
I have a small number of passwords that I use for various functions. By
combining letters and numbers with common words you can improve the security
of a password significantly. Simply substitute a 3 for an E, a 1 for an I,
a ZERO for an o and so forth. Adding CAPS can also help, but for God sake
dont mix some with upper and some with lower using the same password, it
will make you crazy. Finally, dont put these passwords on a computer hard
drive. Store them on a thumb drive and take it home with you if/when you
travel. Have a backup, maybe print it out and give it to someone you trust.
Some may think this isnt a PUP discussion, but I assure you it is. Cutting
loose the lines and disconnecting from the mainland is something not many
people do. For me it was a first, but Ive moved a dozen times in my life,
so I had a good idea about some of the issues. Perhaps there are some of
you out there that can share some tips or tricks you have learned to help
those of us that are preparing to leave? Thanks,
Scott Bulger, Alanui, Nordhavn 40II, Seattle WA
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World Productions,
formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the
subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below:
mailto:passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com
Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List
Scott and Marian,
First of all I would like to wish you all the best and the joy that such
adventure can bring.
When you find peace and contentment in freedom you will discover that on
this 'simple' way of living, WHAT you have is WHO you are.
Through our travels in the Med last season, we met an American couple called
Peter and Jeanette Philips. They own an John Alden Schooner built in 1929
called Voyager which they acquired over 40 years ago and she looks as
beautiful today as when he got her, I guess.
They have cruised over 200.000 miles around the world with NO mod cons
on their boat whatsoever , not even an autopilot. They have been leaving on
board for 16 years no stop. Jeanette washes her long hair with cold water on
the deck which Peter gently pours over her head on a desire to help.
Their boat is immaculate and extremely uncluttered, almost minimalist. Wood
'smelling 'wood and a sense of peace and tranquility takes over you when you
go down bellow.
They look and felt to me, the most peaceful and remarkable people I ever met
and their unassuming and simple ways inspired me enormously and I just hope
that one day I can achieve such a level of freedom and peace.
All the best and joy to you new life!
Sonaia hermida
On 4/20/07, scottebulger@comcast.net scottebulger@comcast.net wrote:
Few things provide a sense of adventure approaching like emptying a
walk-in closet of 20+ years of belongings. There is something very
freeing,
yet unnerving about having piles of cloths that are limited by the size of
lockers on your boat. This morning I said to Marian, you know, between the
two of us we need to share less than 40 inches of hanging closet space. I
offered to only hang one formal dinner jacket and move everything else into
drawers or cabinets. She smiled and said, who needs hanging locker space
when your living in shorts and t-shirts! What a gal!
In all seriousness we are right in the middle of it all. The house goes
on the market in a few weeks. New carpet and paint in the next few days,
and a moving truck comes on Saturday to take most of what we own to friends
and family for safe keeping for 3 years. The original storage estimate
from
United was 8,000 lbs at about $240/month. Essentially its $3.00 per 100lbs
per month for stuff placed in bonded storage. Since our plan is to be gone
at least two years, and build a house when we return, I evaluate an items
value based on 3 years of storage. What this means is its about a dollar
per pound to store something for three years. So, the dining room table,
100 pounds is 100 dollars. When you think of selling things and buying
them
again upon your return, it makes the storage cost very palatable. By going
to friends and family and asking them if they want to use our stuff for 3
years we have reduced the 8,000 pound of stuff to about 2 or 3 thousand
pounds. This sh
ould c
ost us three to four grand over 3 years, very manageable. We are going to
sell the cars, as the insurance complications were too much to deal with.
Finally I devised a scheme with credit cards, electronic banking and auto
bill pay so all our finances should be on cruise control. This system is
based on accounts that are never exposed to vendors, only used
electronically between banks. We have credit cards that will be used for
ATM machines, purchases or online orders. We have automated deposits to a
working account which the credit card auto bills/pays monthly. There is a
limit and notification system if a certain amount is ever exceeded and we
can view everything online. Our financial planner has view access to these
accounts and will notify us if anything seems awry. We will designate a
relative as durable power-of-attorney so anything needing our written
approval can be implemented in our absence. Each of these people has our
direct boat email account and sat phone numbers. We plan to turn the sat
phone on daily at noon (just not sure I should leave it on all the time?).
This was all done several months prior to putting the house on the market
so we could go through several billing cycles to make sure everything
worked. Oh, a few good lessons learned:
Since I was selling the house, we needed a street address to maintain
residency and have bills and statements sent. A sister-in-law accepted
this responsibility, and we are grateful to her for doing this. That
street
address is critical, because a credit card company will challenge your
identity by asking for your mailing address. I had to tell my wife to be
sure to use her sisters address, otherwise she would be denied assistance.
All online orders will validate against this address, but you can usually
enter an overriding ship to address, which was your bill to address just a
few days ago, it can get confusing.
If you use Comcast or another service provider linked to your email
address, you need to ask what happens when you terminate your business
relationship. In the case of Comcast you loose your email address. This
means you need to create a new address, and guess what, think of how many
systems you access online that use your email address as a way to identify
you? In my case it was dozens of systems, most banking and
financial. There are email services you can buy where you own your domain
or address, these are a good choice if you understand the pluses and
minuses
of going that route. I went with Google Mail and was lucky enough to get
my
same name. It took about two days to get all my various accounts and
systems to authenticate me with these new addresses.
Since I was creating a new identity in many systems I implemented a new
password scheme. Approaching 50 I find my memory just isnt what it was,
so
I have a small number of passwords that I use for various functions. By
combining letters and numbers with common words you can improve the
security
of a password significantly. Simply substitute a 3 for an E, a 1 for an I,
a ZERO for an o and so forth. Adding CAPS can also help, but for God sake
dont mix some with upper and some with lower using the same password, it
will make you crazy. Finally, dont put these passwords on a computer hard
drive. Store them on a thumb drive and take it home with you if/when you
travel. Have a backup, maybe print it out and give it to someone you
trust.
Some may think this isnt a PUP discussion, but I assure you it
is. Cutting loose the lines and disconnecting from the mainland is
something not many people do. For me it was a first, but Ive moved a
dozen
times in my life, so I had a good idea about some of the issues. Perhaps
there are some of you out there that can share some tips or tricks you have
learned to help those of us that are preparing to leave? Thanks,
Scott Bulger, Alanui, Nordhavn 40II, Seattle WA
Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World
Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions.
To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the
subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below:
mailto:passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com
Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List