How Much Money Have You Spent On Training? (Page 2)

Doesn't mean it won't come back to bit ya...they can audit back 7 years...

don't say that too loud...my wife may hear you!!

Ok, this is going to come off as over dramatic but:

When I'm totalling this up do I include the ambulance ride?  That was about $1200 I think. 

My tri life helps me deal with the diet changes I've had to make due to my disease.  Sure, many people do it without the insane triathlon addiction but it works for me. 

Absolutely right. Unless you win some prize money, you have to eat your losses. Even if you do win prize money, you can only use your losses to get your prize money income down to zero, but you can't go below zero.

Here's a question I've been interested in - if a coach participates in tris to market his coaching services, can those costs be deducted? Maybe, but it would have to be a very significant source of coaching clients. The cost of a tri bike might be deductible if the coach takes his/her clients on group rides.

Yeah, I'm a tax law geek.

So then no big deal, in each case I only got to claim between $100 and $300 ......... probably why I never got audited for it.  ;-P

(And it was legitimate, I did make the money in the hobby, not trying to cheat the system - just taking advantage or every available credit!!).

Here is my 2 cents:  Money, like time, is a limited resource, and I strive to the best with what I have of both.  I also feel that more time or money, if used wisely, could make me faster.  For example, if I had an extra $100-200 a month to spend on a coach, I could probably improve faster than on my own.  Likewise, if I had and extra 10 hours a week, I could train harder/longer and recover better. 

Again, my goal is simply to maximize my potential given my current time and financial constraints.

-David 

You actually won some prize money? That's pretty cool. Yes, your deduction was legit.

This is a hobby that can start out very cheap and then take off from there. When I started I already had an old mountain bike which I had owned for over 10 years, so that cost didn't count. I bought some new running shoes, but I like to walk around in running shoes so I would have bought a pair anyway. In incurred some pool fees. I entered two races last year - a tri for $75 and a du for $20. The tri was 50 miles away, so if I wanted to be picky I could factor in gas costs, but I won't. Overall costs for 2006 for myself were about $150, $200 at most. My wife purchased a new bike (entry-level TREK) and did two events. So total household costs were around $1,000

This year - three bikes purchased (a road and MTB for me, an MTB for the wife), a Cycleops, two Spinervals DVDs. My wife thought it would be fun to do some travelling to some tris. I'll probably do at least two charity road rides. If I can start running again without pain, perhaps one tri in August. This year will be a little more.

If you look for deals, you don't have to travel to get to your races, and you primarily do sprints and Oly distances, I would say this hobby is no more, and probably way less, than hobbies such as golf or hunting. The rewards, however, are much greater than other hobbies. Obviously, this all changes once you get into carbon frames and Iron distances, but the rewards are still worth the costs, IMO.

In the end, it's cheaper than a quadruple bypass.

I spend a lot on my tri training and racing stuff, and nutrition. But it's less than the guys at work spend on booze, restaurant food, gambling, and travel to enjoy booze, restaurant food, and gambling... somewhere other than here. For their trouble they get big guts, high blood pressure, and fatigue. My mental illness hobby is restorative, and it keeps me in the kind of shape they say they are going to get in when they decide they're fat and out of shape and need to do something about it... about once a quarter.