Back in early 2005 we started dreaming of living and traveling in our RV. I stumbled on several blogs written by full timers and the seed was sewn.
One of those blogs was from a young couple similier to ourselves who were preparing for their entrance into the full time life. Thus we were introduced to Howard and Linda via RV-Dreams.
We followed along with them as they made their preperations, sold most of their belongings and moved into the 5th wheel they purchased.
We were hooked and started our own preperations for "our day".
We had family matters to attend to as well as getting a handle on our finances. We have worked hard to reduce our debt to almost nothing and even have a bit of savings.
We sold our house in 2009 and moved into our 5th wheel in order to save as much as possible. We had made a plan to retire in early 2015 so Rudee would qualify for company provided health insurance. We were content to work our plan knowing our day would come. A few months ago Rudee's company laid her and several of the other senior employees off. This really threw us for a loop. We took stock of our situation and wondered if our plan was still feasible.
We came up with a new plan and decided to give it a go ...... NOW! So as of yesterday (my last day of work) we are officially full timers "on the road" .
Finances being what they are we will not be able to travel as much as some and we will have to work camp a little more than we had hoped but we are excited, scared, elated and relieved all at the same time.
Howard and Linda, back in 2006 when we met you at the RV park near Bloomington Indiana the last thing I told you was to keep looking over your shoulder because some day we would be coming ....... it took us 6 1/2 years but todays the day! Hope we meet up again soon.
Phil and Rudee
NorCal Dan said
05:39 PM Oct 8, 2011
This economy is really taking it's toll...sorry it caught you as well. One nice thing about being mobile is you can move...to where the jobs are...not just workamping type jobs...real jobs that pay cash. Hopefully you can find something in a location you want to be...
Ckerr said
09:21 PM Oct 8, 2011
Enjoy the next phase in your journey. We've come to the conclusion that it is better to be enjoy life more with less cash than to be tied to a job that causes stress and/or poor health in order to meet some predetermined financial goal. We're finding it all works out. Not always the way we planned, but we're certainly enjoying ourselves more and Johnny's health is better than it's been.
GENECOP said
10:29 PM Oct 8, 2011
Congrats on making it......have fun.....see you on the road....
RVRon said
08:02 AM Oct 9, 2011
Congrats on "making it" Phil and Rudee and thanks for telling your story. I've always felt that if you wanted something badly enough you'd find a way to make it happen. Our plans have definitely changed since we first thought of going fulltime because the housing values have declined so. We were depending on profits from real estate sales to fund the fulltiming life and we'll still see some profits but somewhere around half of what we originally planned. Still we are plugging along, making the best of the situation, toward our goal. It's heartening to hear your story and makes that light at the end of the tunnel just a little bit brighter!
RVPAINTER said
08:52 AM Oct 9, 2011
Congrats Phil. We just sold our home - closing 2 weeks ago. We sold it for less than we paid 5 years ago - however we enjoyed our time in the home and walked away with enough cash to allow us to start our next journey in our life - that of F/T RV-ing. We start 4/1/12 and life is just too short not to enjoy the trip! Renting an apartment for 6 months for 1/2 the amount of our previous MTG payment which will allow us to save close to an addtional $10,000 towards our journey. Could we use more - SURE - but is that not one of the problems - we all always seem to want more! Our motto is "keep things simple - make things easy" - we are doing it!!! Best to you folks.
First sorry for the long post but ....
Back in early 2005 we started dreaming of living and traveling in our RV. I stumbled on several blogs written by full timers and the seed was sewn.
One of those blogs was from a young couple similier to ourselves who were preparing for their entrance into the full time life. Thus we were introduced to Howard and Linda via RV-Dreams.
We followed along with them as they made their preperations, sold most of their belongings and moved into the 5th wheel they purchased.
We were hooked and started our own preperations for "our day".
We had family matters to attend to as well as getting a handle on our finances. We have worked hard to reduce our debt to almost nothing and even have a bit of savings.
We sold our house in 2009 and moved into our 5th wheel in order to save as much as possible. We had made a plan to retire in early 2015 so Rudee would qualify for company provided health insurance. We were content to work our plan knowing our day would come. A few months ago Rudee's company laid her and several of the other senior employees off. This really threw us for a loop. We took stock of our situation and wondered if our plan was still feasible.
We came up with a new plan and decided to give it a go ...... NOW! So as of yesterday (my last day of work) we are officially full timers "on the road"
.
Finances being what they are we will not be able to travel as much as some and we will have to work camp a little more than we had hoped but we are excited, scared, elated and relieved all at the same time.
Howard and Linda, back in 2006 when we met you at the RV park near Bloomington Indiana the last thing I told you was to keep looking over your shoulder because some day we would be coming ....... it took us 6 1/2 years but todays the day!
Hope we meet up again soon.
Phil and Rudee
Congrats on "making it" Phil and Rudee and thanks for telling your story. I've always felt that if you wanted something badly enough you'd find a way to make it happen. Our plans have definitely changed since we first thought of going fulltime because the housing values have declined so. We were depending on profits from real estate sales to fund the fulltiming life and we'll still see some profits but somewhere around half of what we originally planned. Still we are plugging along, making the best of the situation, toward our goal. It's heartening to hear your story and makes that light at the end of the tunnel just a little bit brighter!