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Honest question for RDP...

707dog

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I am always blow away at the quality and build of these one off custom boats with more in the engine drive package than I paid for my house so the honest question for us dreamers... what kind of occupation does one have to be in to afford these 175-250k+ plus water toys that seem to be all over the place?? not like there is 2-3 running around but a shit load of them on any giving day.
 

outboard_256

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I am kinda curious also. My guess is a lot of them are bought on credit but I really have no clue.
 

HitIt

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GME or:

moonshot.jpg
 

sirbob

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Rain gutter cleaner

Ins sales

Road grader

House framer

Auto parts store owner

Steel business

Just to name a few occupations of the owners of some of the nice boats we’ve seen lately coming to the water.

And they are cash buyers. And the boats I’m thinking of range from 400 - 1,000,000.

So on second thought - I don’t know what the 175-250 crowd does -lol !
 

JDKRXW

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Seems to me that most of guys you are referring to have something to do with property;
Flipping it
Building and renovating on it
Getting a commission from brokering /financing it
 
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Ace in the Hole

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Rain gutter cleaner

Ins sales

Road grader

House framer

Auto parts store owner

Steel business

Just to name a few occupations of the owners of some of the nice boats we’ve seen lately coming to the water.

And they are cash buyers. And the boats I’m thinking of range from 400 - 1,000,000.

So on second thought - I don’t know what the 175-250 crowd does -lol !

Most everyone I run around with at the lake owns some kind of small or medium business, myself included.

I am kinda curious also. My guess is a lot of them are bought on credit but I really have no clue.
I remember when we were looking different builders and was told it was around 50/50
 

Done-it-again

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The 175-250k boats are doable for a lot of people and don’t need a crazy amount of $$$$ to pull it off.

I more wonder about the DCB, Skater, MTI crowd, so I can work towards that goal.
 

monkeyswrench

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From my personal interactions with people, LE or firemen...single or married no kids. I don't know if cash or credit. The past year, met two contractors as well. One does only new construction, curious to see ho he fairs. The other is rolling 50+ trucks and a small army, but he's got a lot of G-work lined up for years.
 

Warlock1

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People that are generally smart with their money. Modest house, modest cars. Most likely save and pay cash for assets. Keeping debt to a minimum. You'd be surprised how quickly you can save when your bills are just food and utilities. Drop a nice sum as a down payment and the monthly payment is manageable.
I of course have never followed this rule which is why I am as broke as a mofo...lol
 

ONE-A-DAY

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Majority of new dcb builds are cash, same with eliminator. And yes self employed / business owner most of the time. The tax savings alone from being self employed compared to w2 income is staggering. That and every trip in the boat is a write off since I only boat with clients :)
 

H20 Toie

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I hang out with a pretty diverse group from all over the country that all have a common interest which is boating, Most of which are offshore performance boats ranging from under $100k to over $600k, Seems like the ones on the high end of the scale own their own business, but a lot of them it has to do with priorities and its worth it to have a big loan to have the nice boat, instead of going out every weekend you pick and choose, many don't have a brand new car every few years or have an older truck, actually i know a couple of peeps that are really good with investments even thou they don't make tons of money working, Heck i have become friends with more police thru boating than anywhere else and my step brother was a sheriff and i majored in police science.
i know most of the peeps on here mainly go to the river but when i got my first Cigarette boat and started doing offshore it opened up a whole new world, it also opened up a whole new group of people to meet, plus changed my priorities, ended up selling the quads, long travel sand rail, motorhome and trailer and just did more boating events because now its not about having summer and winter toys, florida became a go to place during the winter, also the offshore boating here in california is awesome during the winter, With my lake boat i never thought of going to castaic or the river from nov to march.
 

86403

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The 175-250k boats are doable for a lot of people and don’t need a crazy amount of $$$$ to pull it off.

I more wonder about the DCB, Skater, MTI crowd, so I can work towards that goal.

I guess it depends on how much of their net worth someone wants to invest in a historically depreciating asset. What’s a reasonable percentage (<5%, <10%, <20%)? To be a 1%er in CA requires about $7.5M in assets, in AZ it’s $3.5M. The numbers just don’t seem to add up for me, but I’m old and have seen many vicious boom/bust cycles in LH.
 

HCP3

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Some people work for money, some people are born into money.
 

RiverDave

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lol i wasn't gonna throw ol RD in there but he did go from a 70k family boat to 200k grocery getter pretty quick 😂 😂

lol I coulda done that in my 20’s if I wanted.. I have always been ultra conservative with $$ when it comes to toys. I buy used cars and trucks, boats that I can pay cash for and not finance etc..

Being older and crippped I decided I don’t want to go cheap or settle on something. Stacy and I have worked extremely hard over the last few years so if we want to get something nice then we are gonna get something nice.. I can use any payments or paid off boats as a write off anyways because of the nature of the business.
 

CLdrinker

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When I was younger I kept thinking dam if I can ever make 100k a year I will have a bad ass boat for the summer and a Toyhauler for the winter.

well we are well north of that now.
With only a Toyhauler. Can’t fit the boat into the budget. And there is no talking the wife and kids into getting rid of the toy hauler so I can get my dam boat.
I did get a raise yesterday so I’m a tiny bit closer lol
 

boatnam2

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W2 worker here, I make the same now as I did 10 years ago, maybe few bucks more. I couldn't afford a 450k house or a 75k boat and 200k Havasu house back then so surely I can't afford the same home and boat which is million plus and 200k for boat and 500k for a havasu house after putting 26k in 401k and 50k in taxes. If your in your 20-30's and married with another income sure you can finance it and make it work. If you lived by the RDP mantra pay cash or you can't afford it there wouldn't be a RDP, Cool to see a few ballers on here paying cash and the stuff they got but its a few with most of that cash crowd are enjoying life not posting on RDP. My guess and its just a guess but I say most RDP crowd are just living life trying to live as big as possible and going big on boats and homes and trucks and 5th wheels and cars and rzr's have loans.
 

welldigger00

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This
Making $200k on a W2 is not even close to $200k owning your own biz with write offs.
High end boats or sand cars: Self employed is the route the majority of the owners took to get there.

Owning a business is not all of the equation. I built a business from the ground up. First generation. I Made poor business partner choices, and had to buy my company two more times paying off both partners. Add in the worst recession of all time, then COVID. Oh yeah, add in California’s ridiculous emission laws. It finally broke my back. All done. As of exactly one year ago, I’m an employee of the company I sold my business to. So, being a second or third generation business owner is more commonly the case of success. Or making better business choices than I did. Side note; good luck trying to start a business in California nowadays...


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JFMFG

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lol I coulda done that in my 20’s if I wanted.. I have always been ultra conservative with $$ when it comes to toys. I buy used cars and trucks, boats that I can pay cash for and not finance etc..

Being older and crippped I decided I don’t want to go cheap or settle on something. Stacy and I have worked extremely hard over the last few years so if we want to get something nice then we are gonna get something nice.. I can use any payments or paid off boats as a write off anyways because of the nature of the business.
RD what did you end up with?
 

Mr. C

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If I didn’t have kids I could own a dcb. I’m a union carpenter. I know we aren’t supposed to say it but anyone can look up what I make. About 150k a year.

About the same on income. My kids are gone but in some ways still doing a little catch up from when we made sure THEY had what was needed to be successful. Wouldn’t change it at all. I want for nothing. But I desire a bunch. I’m also doing better than most but not near as good as many. I stopped trying to judge my accomplishments by what others had a long time ago.


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MeCasa16

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This
Making $200k on a W2 is not even close to $200k owning your own biz with write offs.
High end boats or sand cars: Self employed is the route the majority of the owners took to get there.

This disparity was magnified when W-2 employees got most of their deductions gutted in 2018. My tax rate significantly increased because of it.
 

86403

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It was true in the 70s and is still true today, a boatload of fun can be had on a cheap boat, with a cooler, boom box, good friends and family. It’s really not about the boat.
 

707dog

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lol I coulda done that in my 20’s if I wanted.. I have always been ultra conservative with $$ when it comes to toys. I buy used cars and trucks, boats that I can pay cash for and not finance etc..

Being older and crippped I decided I don’t want to go cheap or settle on something. Stacy and I have worked extremely hard over the last few years so if we want to get something nice then we are gonna get something nice.. I can use any payments or paid off boats as a write off anyways because of the nature of the business.
Understand i am the same way cash for everything pink slips in the safe, until I recently said F it and bought myself a brand new truck payment wont hurt me but I broke my standard so married to this bitch for the next 5 years. This is my very first vehicle I purchased new.
 

lakemadness

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Something that hasn’t been mentioned;

Multiple sources of income. It’s fairly rare for a wealthy individual/family to have just one source of income or one business. It’s multiple streams of cash flow and ability to achieve tax benefits.

I have two operating businesses, one of which is really two companies under one umbrella. Three separate real estate partnerships with multiple streams each. Wife is a real estate agents. Total of 10 streams of income with tax benefits. Different game compared to a W2 set up.

And remember, rich and wealthy are two different situations.

Not braggin, I don’t own a million dollar DCB or MTi... too young to have a depreciating toy on that level. Really only have two depreciating items. My daily driver and a 10 year old cabin cruiser that I’m a partner in.
 
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RiverDave

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W2 worker here, I make the same now as I did 10 years ago, maybe few bucks more. I couldn't afford a 450k house or a 75k boat and 200k Havasu house back then so surely I can't afford the same home and boat which is million plus and 200k for boat and 500k for a havasu house after putting 26k in 401k and 50k in taxes. If your in your 20-30's and married with another income sure you can finance it and make it work. If you lived by the RDP mantra pay cash or you can't afford it there wouldn't be a RDP, Cool to see a few ballers on here paying cash and the stuff they got but its a few with most of that cash crowd are enjoying life not posting on RDP. My guess and its just a guess but I say most RDP crowd are just living life trying to live as big as possible and going big on boats and homes and trucks and 5th wheels and cars and rzr's have loans.

I seem to remember some pretty damn nice Lavey with Teague power in em.. 🤨. Add up those space fees in the parks you coulda bought a havi house snd then some.. 🤪

who you foolin? :D
 

BHC Vic

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About the same on income. My kids are gone but in some ways still doing a little catch up from when we made sure THEY had what was needed to be successful. Wouldn’t change it at all. I want for nothing. But I desire a bunch. I’m also doing better than most but not near as good as many. I stopped trying to judge my accomplishments by what others had a long time ago.


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I’m learning to not compare myself to others. I’m in to different things. I own animals and that’s expensive, but it’s what we like
 

rivermobster

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I've always worked for high end car dealerships. BMW, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Lexus and have met a whole lot of clients.

These people have come from every walk of life. And like other have said, mostly owners of their own business.

But a lot are W2 employees also. You can make Damm good money with the right business degree.

I told the finance manager at a dealership one day (I was very young at the time), I wonder how these people got so smart, to have all this money?

He looks at me and says...

Now what makes you think just because someone has money, that they are smart?

I had no answer for that.

I dated a girl whose family owned a HUGE so cal business. They had a nice house on the wedge. They were some of the most fucked up people I've ever encountered.

I've also met Bentley owners that were some of the nicest people ever.

I'd like to be able to say they all had one thing in common (so I could follow that path), but they don't.

Enjoy what you have. 👍
 
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