Good to know there's a term for us future full-timers that know we're going for it. Gonna-be. I like it.

Anyway, I'll start out by apologizing for not divulging names or actual location yet as we don't want someone (i.e. employees or employer) googling around and finding out what we're doing. We'll be more open when the time comes. We decided the full-time life would be fun a few years ago, but were definitely not in a position to make it happen. Since then, we've gone on a big debt free push. The house is now paid for and we're down to basically a car loan (to help our son through college) and a small loan on our tow vehicle. Both will be paid off this year.

We'll also be receiving some stock awards and options soon that will be enough to buy a new fiver and finish some preventive reliability work on our tow vehicle (we purposefully bought an older model, pre-emissions vehicle with lower miles that had been well cared for and do a lot of preventive maintenance on it before we hit the road). There will be enough left over that when coupled with my 401k and proceeds from our house sale will provide a very comfortable nest egg later on.

We plan on financing our full-timing primarily through working on the road instead of tapping the retirement reserves right now. What job(s) we'll do is an unknown at this point, though we have a couple leads and ideas (I'm a computer programmer by trade and a pretty decent photographer. The wife is pretty crafty and is thinking of doing something in that area).

We are currently keen on purchasing a new Big Country 3690SL fiver. We love the rear kitchen design. I'm big on having some separation between living areas and this floor plan gives us that in spades. We will be purchasing the fiver about 3 months before we are currently planning to full-time, so we'll have time to shake out the bugs.

Looking forward to our journey and hope to run across a few of you over time!

Thanks, Terry. I'll check on that later on my laptop. I've been trolling around a bit and have already picked up a few tidbits here and there. Looks like the place I've been looking for.

(Fixed first post and deleted 2nd apology post - laptop got 'er done).

MandV,

Please allow me to welcome you to the RV Dreams forums.  If you've not been here long, you will find that the participants here are very knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful.  Heh, who knows....

.....we might even think up an "alias" for you.

Feel free to ask any questions that come to me as we all tend to learn from each other.  We welcome them because many times a new person may insert a new perspective to an old question.

As for the original post, it is likely that the use of the smartphone for the entry would be the cause.  However, just as a tip, one can always get back on later from a regular computer and use the "Edit" function of each posting to go in and make corrections.  I have no idea how many times I've done that on my own posts.

Glad to have you as part of the family.

Enjoy the life.

Terry

Well, a long overdue bump.

Hi, I'm Malcolm Talley and my wife is Val. We are now, well, full-time (explanation below). We are home-based out of Wetumpka, Alabama.

A little history:

September, 2012 - we found a Big Country 3690SL on a dealer lot in Florida (Dixie RV) and went to look at it. We were going to wait two more months for the stock awards to pay for it outright, but it was becoming difficult to find new units nearby, the factory had a 2-3 month waiting period for ordered units, and the folks at Dixie were a pleasure to work with. We ended up financing it and bringing it home the next weekend.

We made three payments - the first monthly payment, a payoff payment, and an $11 payment to cover the difference on interest due between the payoff quote date and the actual funds clearing date. By Thanksgiving day, we were totally debt free, paying off the truck, our son's car and any other niggling debts that were still hanging around.

The plan became to turn in my notice the Monday after Thanksgiving, with a last day at work of Dec. 21. We were flying out the following week to spend a couple of weeks with our grandchildren, then return to start our vagabonding. I had not lined up any replacement work at that time (other than some side work I've been doing off and on, but which would not pay the bills).

We had put together a budget and figured we could live on 1/2 of what I was currently making in my cushy desk job. Our stock options paid a little better than I had anticipated (cashed out a day before the presidential election, when the whole market dropped like a rock), so we had about 6 months of living expenses set aside to tide us through a job search on the road. I also anticipated my employer would probably at least look into retaining me on some sort of consulting basis, considering I was the first IT employee and probably the largest system knowledgebase they have.

My company proved me wrong to some extent. When the former owner of the company found I was leaving, he countered with an offer we accepted - work at one of their two offices (Alabama or Texas) 26 weeks out of the year and travel the other 26. They would pay me on an hourly basis with my former salary amount converted to an equivalent hourly amount and an additional $1,000 a month to cover health and dental insurance.

So, we became semi-full-timers, in a way. Though, really, I consider us full-time. We've lived in our fifth wheel since we bought it, even though it is parked at a campground within 15 minutes from the house. Our college-age son is living in the house and keeping it up while we travel. We will sell it eventually (no big hurry at the moment).

Our inaugural 3-week trip ended this past Sunday. Our next RV trip starts the end of February, and we can't wait to hit the road again.

We have a blog - Travelingtalleys.com

It lists all the mods we've done to our trailer, all the things we've done to our older tow vehicle to bring it up to date and make sure it is up to the task of pulling a heavy fifth wheel. And, of course, all our travels.

P.S. - We did check out the Heartland forum and are now Heartland Owners Club members 2267.

 
-- Edited by MandV on Tuesday 5th of February 2013 09:27:39 PM

Edit by moderator: Activated blog link.  Terry