Roy Clark, B6 wrote:

Yes, invest your money and wait. For instance, if you put your money
in a high quality mutual fund you will begin accumulating principal.
Take your $70,000 and put in a Morningstar 5-star fund (i.e. Fidelity
Contrafund). If you average 15% return the numbers a
Year Amount
0 $70000
1 80500
2 92575
3 106461
4 122430
5 140795
6 161914
etc.

At some point the price of the glider, converted from euros, is going
to be less than your investment. BUY THE GLIDER! This is, simply, the
power of compounded interest.

If you wait long enough, you might be able to get yourself that same ship
secondhand for even less money. Sorry, but I find these "advises" a bit too
obvious. Of course you can make some money if you invest your money in a
clever way, and you can put that profit towards a nice ship from Europe. So
what? I don't think somebody interested in buying a new ship is interested
in waiting a couple of years for their investment to grow big enough (if
indeed they did the right investments it does grow): they want their ship
for the next season! They want to go chase that wave or that cumulus
street, not to stare at it from the ground knowing that the money that they
could have put towards a nice ship now might in a few years be enough to
buy a great ship then.

Then again, the idea that you can invest your money in order to get more
money doesn't only work for buying gliders, it works in general. So, what
exactly is the relevance to soaring, other than the fact that gliders cost
(a lot of) money?

My advice? If you want to buy a ship, just look for a ship you can afford
*now*. For me, the important factor of a ship is it's fun/price ratio. You
can always find one that fits your wallet and your level of flying.

André