I was wondering if those of you that are retired from the military and are fulltimers, did you retire from another career too.  Or are you just doing it on your retirement pension? 

Hope that is not too personal of a question.


How often do you stay in fam camps on military installations?

Hi Julie, I'm not yet retired from the military, but I am just waiting for the right time for us to "pull the plug" and go. 26 years AD so far, so I have to go in 4 years (mandatory 30 year retirement). We have researched the FT lifestyle and intend to live with my pension as our sole income. Will use the Tricare medical system for our health needs. Our investments will remain untouched for a very distant future home when we decide to settle down again. We already have stayed at many military campgrounds and will contiune to do so when we are FT. We have been very pleased with the CG's we've used, finding them to be a very high quality and at a very resonable price. Often times, the locations are to die for, like right in Key West (out the back gate and right in downtown Key West), or West Point, NY, or right on the beach in Virginia Beach, VA. Plus the instant friends you find as soon as you pull in is great.

After I retired from the Air Force I worked a few years for Lockheed Martin. But yes, we survive on my AF retirement supplemented with workamping jobs to lower our expenses. I have my investments that I never touch, and we have a condo in California that we rent out, but it doesn't generate much income after taxes and maintenance fees. When we started full-timing we knew funds would be limited, so we made sure we had no debt. We get by as long as we don't do a lot of traveling. We are currently in Kansas doing a short 4 month stint at amazon.com to make a few bucks to stick in the piggy bank. Never hurts to have some $$ stashed away, and I have been buying some essentials, a surge protector for the coach that I have been putting off, and a ladder. So far we have only stayed at one famcamp. It's not that we don't like famcamps, more that they never seem to be where we are headed. We fly by the seat of our pants most of the time and we don't put enough research time into finding them. I do look for famcamps near relatives when we go to visit, but so far haven't found anything close enough that we could use it, other than staying at the one near our grandkids.

Hi Paul,
     Thanks for the reply.  Good luck in the next few years.  Dh retired a year ago November 1.  He is working another job, we thought that was what he was supposed to do.  Now we know we can do it on his retirement.  If we ever get in gear and sell our house.  It has to go onto the market first...lol
     We already have our RV, we lived in it in VA Bch last year while he worked  until retirement.  We stayed at all Fam Camps except for 1 in CT while we were on the road for a couple of months after retirement.
     We also use Tricae for medical.
     Our long term thought would be to purchase some property that had a nice sized shed on it and hook ups for the rv, then we could come and go as we pleased.  
 

Hi Dan,
   I have seen your post on Rvnet under workampers.  I think the amazon thing would be something dh and I would like.  Maybe the one in KY.    Although we may have to work different shifts as we have 2 dogs and they would need to be let out.
    

That's what we are doing also...dw works nightshift and I work dayshift. The dog is alone for about an hour when dw leaves for work and I get home from work. Once we start working overtime that may stretch to 2 hours but we won't know until they tell us what hours we're going to be working. We also work in different departments, dw works inbound and I work outbound. We didn't plan it that way, but amazon changed the nightshift schedule and it messed up our carpool, so they moved dw to the inbound department so she could work with the person she is carpooling. Like I say, we don't need the money as we can make it on my retirement, but we wanted to get some $$ for some items we have been doing without but would like to have...and have some extra in the bank in case we need it for something unexpected...I just don't want to touch my investments, they need some time to recover from this economy...

I retired from the Air Force in 1995. I was also able to retire from EDS with a small pension. I able to work 5-10 hours a month online to pick up some extra dollars. We figure that we have a $1000 shortfall each month in our budget. I shared our finances on our blog: www.warnerrvnews.blogspot.com . Search budget or finances and you can see how it lines up for us. The great thing about a budget is you can adjust. For example I have $1000 allotted for diesel each month and have only spent that once. (We have been full timing since May.) We have not stayed in many FamCamps but have stayed in some: Fort Monroe, VA; Ellsworth AFB, SD; Kirtland AFB, NM; McConnell AFB, KS; and Fort Sam Houston, TX. All but McConnell AFB in KS were great. We have also stayed at county campgrounds, Army Corps of Engineers Parks, and some commercial RV parks that have 50% discounts with Passport America. Good luck. If you have more questions, feel free to ask. Would be glad to help if we can.

I am living on my Army retirement (26 years) and early SS, my darling wife is a retired RN. We were full timing and decided to quit due to DW's Moms medical issues. However we are some timers, sometime we just hook-up and go. We are in Gulf Shores for the winter and will return to home base at the end of Mar 2010. And in May will start our Western trip and will return to home base in Aug. We have used the family Camp system and it works very well. A very safe place to be. We do no boondocking and seldom use State parks. We prefer full hook-ups with 50 amps. I quit camping when I retired from the Army. GBY.......