Why some seafarers are not enjoying excessive vacation?

Why some seafarers are not enjoying excessive vacation?

Written by: Christopher Torralba ( Tambay )

Hi! this Christopher your fellow seafarer and still active same as you, I just want to share some of my story regarding this true to life issue of seafarers before and until now.

I am not new but I admit I'm not still a veteran or well experience seafarer in ratings position well

today I just want to discuss this question and I hope I can share some valuable things in seafarer's lives.

Why some seafarers are not not enjoying excessive vacation?

There are many reason why these situation happen whether we like or not and I don't believe that there is no seafarer had never experience it.

because all of us have different experiences in life specially if you have a sea career as they said experience is the best teacher! 

Base on my observation and my experience many of us are not enjoying excessive vacation because one of the simple reason is "money"   yeah we don't have money anymore, how can we excessive vacation if our bank account is running out of cash? and some narrow people will say,..

" money is not everything you cannot bring it to heaven " 

yeah that's correct! but  how on earth you can bring tangible stuff in spiritual realm?

well if you know king Solomon he stated in the bible,..

" Money is the answer for all things "

A feast is made for laughter, wine makes life merry, and money is the answer for everything.

Ecclesiastes 10 :19

So I think one of the main reason  is money, why money? because for the people doesn't know how seafarer's lived these is the reality but I am not telling all of seafarers.

I will make it simple so everyone will able to understand and you may have an idea how we lived if we are on vacation.

When seafarer leave his country and go on board the ship just to work and to earn money for our love one's and not including other expenses when we are on board, our hard earned money typically goes to our family which we called allotment and many of us don't expect that there will be some savings or any excess when we sent this allotment to our family so the money that remain to us is the on board salary so let's say i have a friend a seafarer and he can save his salary on board around 700 $ per month so if his contract around 10 months so it will be 7,000 dollars for the whole 7 months so 7,000 dollars x 46 expected exchange rate = 322,000 thousand pesos in Philippine money

but did you know that when you have this kind of amount for other ordinary Filipinos these is actually a huge money in their behalf but when we go back to the question,

Our problem is money, but where is these 322,000 thousand pesos go? does it flee that we never felt? or it just go into our pocket and after 3 - 4 months it all goes out of our pocket? well as I've said we work and we earn to provide for our family but my question is does it need to stop there? 

These are the following reason why these thing happen to many seafarers regardless of  position and salary on board the vessel.

Priority:

Many  Filipino seafarer's our excellent and have the capacity to earn base on their knowledge and skills but the problem is many of us doesn't know about priorities in our finances when we receive our hard earned money we don't know where it to bring though our allotment is allocated to our families already still our salary that we receive on board and the money to take home doesn't have any course or direction because there is no definite plan where to allocate every part of it.

so most likely all of these income that we accumulate on board will just stay in our pocket for just a couple of months if you don't agree look on your own finances and how long it will take and how many months you can lived even without any source of income.

so if we will compute this let's say my friend have a cost of living with his entire family around 35,000 thousand pesos per month.

322,000 pesos / 35,000 pesos =  9.2 months ( he can lived with his family within around 9 months! )

9 months only if! he will use all of his salary by their basic need's alone, but how about chocolates?, liquor, shopping, travel, renewal of documents and seafarers training's and other expenses that we did not mention anymore. so i don't think he can enjoy a 9 months vacation maybe it will be lesser and i hope you understand it's basic explanation. 

Spending habit:

Spending is one of the most important activities of the people nowadays, but not all spending habit is very important like buying some stuff that you don't need at all, or buying some stuff immediately that depreciate its value overtime even it is 50 % off in the shopping store, well I cannot judge everyone but we know to ourselves which is important, which can be delayed or which is an urgent stuff to pay for.

When you see some seafarers coming home it's like a one week celebration when they got home and likewise when we need to come back to the ship we don't have money anymore but still some seafarers still spending their money in despedida ( farewell party )

When we arrive in the airport at manila we will buy a bunch of chocolates and liquors  that normally seafarers spending habits but in my own opinion these stuff is not an urgent stuff to buy though I bought some chocolates but I have my own and effective way to save money from these,

 What? but how about  Filipino tradition?  yeah tradition makes  seafarer's very "WEALTHY " did you felt it too? and one thing to mention! even you gave your whole  family with pasalubong  like chocolates and other stuff  you can count on your finger how many of them think about your safety when you are working on the ship and yet they earned their entitlement that every time we go home we should have something from them or else they will dislike your generosity.

Income multiplier:

Some seafarers have some businesses or some investment's that they are diligently working for it while their sea career still hot, but many of us doesn't have any means of income multiplier the reason is many seafarers doesn't want to learn other stuff like business or any investment so what will happen is the money they take home how huge it is still it will be lesser and lesser as the day goes by because every day we need to spend for our basic needs and yet there is no other source of income when we are on vacation specially if our wive's doesn't have any job because their job is to take care of our children and to take care of our home so typically most of seafarer when they got home they just wait until the next voyage for them to produce again, but sometimes sea career becomes salty and bitter in some unexpected bad weather so if these will take its place what are we going to do?

It just simply multiply your income in a different businesses or investments so in this way you have some inner pride that you can stay more vacation unlike other seafarers do. but there is some exemption and hard situation some seafarers have a big and extended family and i know you get what i mean and some of them have a family which is sick that they need to work ahead of their vacation time frame.

as my mentor said: save that money how small it is because that is still a money! 

I don't know how you manage your finances but the important matter here is you should know how to multiply your income when you got home or even while your still on board  because when we got home we are not employed anymore and there is no free at all, unlike when we are on the ship almost everything is free.

So what can I suggest to my fellow seafarers is to learn about business and investments don't look too far in making money it will just bound here  in having your own business and investments.  

so this is some of my suggestions and I hope it make sense to you.

Multiply your money by following: 

( Note! Continues learning in managing these suggestions is a must. )

* buy and sell

* affiliate marketing  (simply advertising other peoples product and have commission on it )

* Life Insurance ( Investment + life protection )

* Mutual fund

* Stock market

* Business Services

* Use your own talent and skills and make money on it

* Online business ( it depends what business you want to make through online )

These suggestions is based on what I have experienced already but these is not limited to you because you are different from me and  there is a bunch of ideas everywhere it's either on your own community street's or you can surf in the social media or start searching for books and attending financial seminars.

These written article is based on my observation alone every time I am on board and likewise on my vacation these thing really happens, to avoid complicated matters on your idea if you are interested about it I suggest you attend our,.. 

" FREE SEMINAR IN FINANCIAL PLANNING "

That you might have an interest to learn how you can multiply your finances while you're still a seafarer and preparation before we retire to a job well done. 

If you have some inquiries you may contact me at:

0918 3134989 / 0949 5879340

Email address:  cj_torralba21@yahoo.com

Facebook: Christopher Joseph Torralba

Facebook group :  C.E.C BUSINESS VENTURES

I hope by means of this short topic you learned something important and never will you neglect and take it for granted.

God bless all seafarers!