"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...
In article . net,
Maxprop wrote:
The prevailing mortgage loans in San Francisco these days are the no-down,
interest-only loans. Some lenders even advertise "no credit checks." If
the real estate bubble bursts, there may be some lenders in a world of
hurt.
That said, I'd never want anything resembling a depreciating asset (Swan
44,
for example) on paper. I buy only what I can afford to pay cash for.

Well, that's not a terrible philosophy, but it isn't necessarily the
best one.

It is ALWAYS the best one, if you have the cash.

My next boat will probably be via some sort of loan. It's
not that I can't afford it to pay cash, but I can probably find other
uses for the cash, I won't be depleting my cash reserves, and I can
claim the boat as a vacation home and get some tax benefit from it.

I've heard these excuses for decades, and they didn't wash years ago, nor do
they now. If you add up the tax benefits you get from writing off the
interest on your boat loan, plus any interest you may earn from investments
made with the money instead of the boat purchase, you're still behind. The
only real excuse for not paying cash is, "I don't have it." Everything else
is just rationalization for allowing someone else the opportunity to make a
lot of money at your expense.

It
will still depreciate in value, but I should be able to partially make
up for that with this strategy.

Notice that I didn't even include depreciation in my statement above, Jon.
Add that in and you've got an even greater losing proposition. That said,
there is nothing wrong with financing a boat. It may be the only way one
can have a boat. It's a matter of priorities.

Max