Sell it all. Move onto a sailboat. Live for free. Sounds simple, right? When we sold everything and moved aboard, we knew it would be cheaper than renting an apartment in one of Canada’s most expensive cities. And when we set sail for full-time cruising, we figured the costs would drop even further.

Would we run out of money? Would we die at sea? Would we feel lonely? Would the boat constantly break? Would we regret the decision altogether? Now, after years of sailing full-time, here’s the reality behind those fears.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: we didn’t win the lottery and we aren’t trust-fund babies. We don’t have an endless pot of money funding our cruising lifestyle. We didn’t wait until we were retired with a solid nest egg either. Instead, we work, we tackle projects on our boat ourselves, and we’re always looking for ways to save money. Cruising can be expensive, but if you’re cruising on a budget, it’s absolutely doable. You just need to get creative.

Electric winches? Yes please! Glossy wood interiors? Oh Yeah! Fancy electronics? Must have! And just like that, we were looking at boats that were bigger, fancier, and way out of our budget.

Now, three years later, sitting in a river in El Salvador waiting out hurricane season, we’re reflecting back on the things we probably would have done differently. Not regrets. We’re full-steam-ahead kind of people. More of a list of five lessons we’d approach differently if we had the chance to do it again.

When we first started preparing for full-time cruising, we had no idea what we actually needed. YouTube made it look easy—just buy a boat, slap a solar panel on it, and go. Meanwhile, every sailing forum, association, and outfitting list told us we’d need ten pages of gear and a marina-sized budget. Somewhere between “a dream and a dollar” and “you need three backup autopilots and will die without a windvane” lies the sweet spot.

When we tell people we live full-time on a sailboat in the tropics, most assume we’re either retired or sitting on a hefty trust fund. Truth? We’re neither. We’re just two regular people who decided that time was more valuable than stuff—and figured out how to make money sailing so we could keep doing what we love.

When we first talked about buying a sailboat and traveling full-time, people often assumed it would be a cheap way to live. And, honestly, so did we. But the real answer to “Is it cheaper to live on a boat?” is: it depends.