Yacht captain: My budget and planning for the future

My name is Chris McGinley, I'm a yacht captain, and I make $72,000 per year. There's never been a time in which I was living paycheck to paycheck. My concerns with money are in the future and being able to make enough to support more than just myself. So one big concern about leaving the industry and getting into something else at the entry level is making a lot less than I do now with a lot more expenses. One of the huge bonuses of this career is not having any living expenses. So the expenses of living on the boat are very little because the owner picks up the tab for most of the expenses. He pays for the boat to be docked somewhere, he pays for a lot of the groceries, any time I have to travel, any gas I use, it's all on him. So I make an annual salary of $72,000 per year. My monthly pre-tax income per month is $6,000. I pay $1,100 in taxes per month and also $250 in healthcare. So at the end of each month I take home $4,650. My rent is zero because the owner pays for the boat. My utilities and electric, also zero. The owner pays for the, as well. For internet and TV, I'm on my parents Netflix plan and that's all I need. I don't have internet most the time anyways so it doesn't get used. I pay $75 per month for my phone. My car, commuting, any of that, is all taken care of by the owner. If I need taxis anywhere to rent a car, I don't have to pay for any of that. I'm fortunate enough not to have any student loans. So I spend around $350 for food at grocery stores that I bring back to the boat and cook. Often times there's tons of food on the boat from a previous trip that the owner had and I'll eat the leftovers from there and that number will be decreased. I do travel around a lot so I spend around $1,000 in entertainment. Going out to different restaurants, going out for drinks, exploring new places. And then for other expenses, I spend around $500 per month on flying around the country to go see my family and friends. That's the one the downside is that I'm often not around them so I have to pay to go see them. At the end of each month, I have $2,725 left over. I put $2,500 into savings per month and then that leaves me $225 as kind of a flex amount that could go towards any of the other categories. So ever since I started, as I made money I would give it to my father, who would invest it into the stock market. As I've gotten older I have that side of investments, and I'm also looking into investing into real estate, and I also started a kitchenware company that we sell online, and so that's another investment that I've began. One thing that I've learned about money since getting into this industry is how important it is to save it. It really opens up options for the future. Without saving enough then you can really get stuck within a certain position but if you're able to save, you have a lot more options and opportunities.