On the whole, we're just to broke. Engineers like myself have to compete with floods of Indians and Chinese, but we're mostly getting by ok. We can buy modest houses and jet skis at this point, or small run abouts. That what my friends have, but our incomes are about double the national average household income. So that's def not the average gen Y or millennial.

Lawyers are graduated at twice the rate that they are needed and their incomes have absolutely plummeted. Not that you're going to catch me shedding a tear for ambulance chasers. But in the boom times they made more than enough to buy nice boats.

The AMA has severely limited the number of students accepted to medical programs. Not that they'd even be making any money yet at my age, but getting close.

If your parents weren't rich or generous, lots of these folks will be servicing 100k+ in student loan debt. That's your slip fee and boat payment right there.

I'm a 1985er. If you would have told me 10 years ago in high school how much I'd be making now, yet still not own a boat, I'd have called you crazy. Inflation is a *****. And I have terribly expensive taste.

In summary, I make 1/3 or my parents peak household income during the dot com boom of the late 90s-2000. Adjusted for real inflation that's probably more like 1/5. And I'm not holding out hope for any sort of miraculous recovery in the near term.

Kurt, you have it all wrong, they were giving you a compliment (kind of).

From urban dictionary:
To enhance a word positively. As in "Playaz Circle - Stupid".
"I got a bankroll, stupid bankroll". Means so big it's outrageous.

Keith - I hope you didn't go into engineering for the money!!! If so, some guidance counselor steered you wrong!!!

I come from an entire family of engineers and they all did it because they enjoyed it - not because they ever believed it would make them rich. In my mind the great thing about engineering is you make a solid living from day one and you might have to save and buy that nice boat a little later in life than some other profession. These days - that's probably a best case scenario......

Don't get too discouraged man - you'll get what you want eventually. Timing sucks for buying boats (from a lending standpoint)................

My brother is a born in 85 engineer - every time he jumps off my boat and heads home with no cares in the world I think to myself that he's the smart one and I'm the dumb ass.

Times are hard anywhere and personally I have skimped my toys to minimum and stashed them. And Yes I feel good this way too. I'm born -67.
Seems the younger guys like it this way also, so much easier.

Regarding powerboats newer used boats will hold in value and straigthbottoms are coming sadly obsolete. Nobody want's to have the ownerships costs of a wave crusher nowadays, and those that can swing one can't maintain it. Thenagain the newer boats are for people who usually can so there goes the divider. Straightbottoms will always be at rockbottom prises in the future and step bottoms not just because of the fact that at cruise speed they zip less fuel. At WOT no boat is running on the steps but the rear pad/bottom

Yep, seeing so many indebted people get in trouble once they lost their lost their income has made some of us quite conservative. Thankfully my roommate has a boat, so the itch hasn't been to bad.

I'm a Mechanical engineer and I figured out 25 years ago that the diploma alone wasn't enough. I used my education to learn as much as I could about all that I could and became a licensed contractor in several disciplines.

My advice to you younger guys: take the test and get a State Certification in one or more related fields to your degree. I doubled my income by qualifying contractors in different trades.
Get your licence and maintain the CEU's required to keep it. Trust me...it will make a difference. Additionally...get a PE certification in your state...it makes a difference.

There is a lot of truth in this post for the majority of 80's and younger generations.

I agree with Nate and Machloosey also. I was born in '80, was into cars with my buddies, and now we are in our late 20's/early 30's. My family had a SeaRay 290 in the early 2000's and I grew up on a family friend's Bajas. About 5 years ago as my buddies and I started buying homes, getting married, and having kids, it started to get harder to hang out and do the "car thing". Slowly, we sold off our hot-rods and 4 years ago I bought a 2006 Baja 20 Outlaw for cash as a more family friendly hobby. Turns out the wives were all about boating and had no problem getting 'sitters lined up for a day boating. I traded up to a 292 Islander last year because the wives wanted more interior space and be more versatile. We take our friends on poker/fun runs also. For a lot of people my age group, the money just isn't there for a luxury like boating due to a bad job market with low paying jobs out there (even for college grads). All my friends love boating and wish it was more affordable to own one but are more than happy just going with us. As for my boat plans, I'm either keeping the Baja openbow and getting a used small cat with twin inboards for doing poker runs or selling the Baja and ordering a new 33AT the way I want it. I may be younger but I'm smart enough to know that cash is king in this new economy. If I spend it, it has to give the most "bang for the buck".

As far as boat values, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay and like I said earlier the job market sucks since there is a huge supply and little demand. Falling wages are happening for the jobs available also.

Plowtownmissile is a smart dude for being 32 years old. He's gonna do just fine.

See, there is hope for the younger generation :D

Plowtownmissile, I assume you're in peoria?

I PM'd you.

Thanks :drink:

Nope, our IL homes are south of there

its been a long time since i read a 10 page thread! i am a 80s baby also, i rebuilt my boat top to bottom literally. i bought the boat with no engine, no interior and no windscreen and then found out it had rotted stringers and transom. i did all the work myself and the only part of my boat that has even come close to a shop is the lower unit. i have been building cars and engines since before i was old enough to drive. i also do all of my own work on my house and anything else that needs repairs. with that said i can honestly say that allot of people my age dont know how to do crap. if they had to maintain their homes and cars they would be lost!

on the point made about people that are into boating grew up boating, i grew up boating. it may not have been as much of a obsession that it has become for me but we spent a allot of time boating. in my late teens/early 20s my parents got a slip at the local marina and it became the thing to do every weekend. it was a great bonding experiance floating down the river drinking some beers with my parents, i miss those days!

what i have noticed with boats is that once they bottom out in value, they tend to hold their value. i had a 20' mariah that i actually bought from my parents, they owned it for 4 years, sold it to me and i had it about 5 years and i sold it for what they had paid for it nearly 10 years before that. and i honesly think i could have gotten more out of it. i have a 89 baja sport 250, i search the net for them all the time and i have noticed that they have actually increased in value and if they have the right stuff done to them they can get up there in price. i can say that superchargers scare people away, thats a really big thing that the average guy wants nothing to do with. i have noticed that size could be a big issue with resale, my buddy who is on the forum also has a 29' mach one single engine boat and it is a nice boat with lots of room and has a 502 in it. he has tried a few times to sell his and has not had much luck, our theory is the boat is too big for most people wanting a single engine boat because a half ton truck will strugle with it, the guys that want the bigger boat want twins. i have been looking at going bigger but that means i have double the cost on performance upgrades and maintaning it. not to mention you need a bigger truck and a place to keep it. so if i had to guess the large twin engine boats are going to be the harder ones to sell and maintain value. i think part of the reason my boat model seems to increase/remain stable is that the average joe with a half ton truck can pull it, they can afford to maintain a single engine and it can fit in the driveway still.

another thing that killed boat values in my area is the river flooded several years in a row and it caused us to lose 2 of our marinas. most of the people i boat with had boats with cabins so that they could go back to the marina, have a bon fire and crash out in the boat so that they did not have to drive home after drinking all evening. now we have to trailer down and sleep on sandbars which is fine with me but allot of people kept their boats at the marina all season and then they went to storage for the winter. allot of those people didnt even have a truck to haul them, i didnt the first few seasons i was down there mainly because i didnt need it at the time. the boats were moved twice a year, to the marina and to storage.

the cost of gas may play a role but i dont think it is killing boating. it cuts down on road trips for us but if i spend 100 bucks on gas, beer, ice and some muchies for the evening i would rather do that than spend 100 bucks at the bar. most of our boating friends that come out allot ship in on gas if we are doing a road trip or event like a poker run. then again back to my point on boat size, filling up and hauling my single engine 27' with my half ton is not too bad

After 27 years of ownership I sold my 16' Donzi back to the original owner for the exact same price I paid them for it. True, it was a better boat now.