By this time next week, we'll have joined the ranks of retired people.  And one week after that, we'll be houseless and living the dream!  Yeah!

Congratulations on both milestones, Penny and Paul.  Now, for those that will be traveling, what kind of RV should we be watching for so we know that it "might" be you?

Terry

Thanks everyone. Very exciting, very scary, and still a lot to do to get the rest of our 'stuff' out of the house into someone elses.

Allen and Donna - Congrats to you too!

NWescapee - And congrats to you as well!

Terry - You'll see us coming down the road in a blue & cream '99 Fleetwood Pace Arrow Vision.

We too "retire" this week. Friday is also our 45th wedding anniversary! We sold the house two years ago, so have been fulltiming (static 8 mos, mobile for 4) for the two years it took to finally work out of our contracts our business had with the school district. We had that business sold two years ago, but the economy caused the buyer to back-out, so we had to "work it out".

We sold all of our equipment" as is where is", to a competitor and donated all excess inventory and warehouse equipment to a church group who feeds the homeless folks here. We continue to operate a consult business, from a former profession, which we have done for twenty years now, but we do that from the road, so we are "free at last".

We were free to travel each summer, but always had to be back for the start of school. Not anymore. At last! We have towed our home back and forth across the US three times. On one of those trips one of us said to the other "imagine, everything we own in this world is being towed in back of us! Very liberating. As the school business involved physical labor to a high degree (drink & snack vending), and we are both 66, and did all the work ourselves, we are tired and need to rest. We are going to a place we like about 60 miles from here, where there is a lake and the nights are much cooler, to "chill out" for two months. Then slowly down to Tampa, to spend holidays with family, then back here (we are very much committed southwestern folks). In Feb we will meet up here with RV'ing friends from Calgary, and may go up there next July/August. We'll see. Hard to believe this day has finally come.

This forum and the kind people on it were instrumental in bringing us to this day. When the housing market collapsed, we thought we'd never do this, but we sold our house quickly, only to have the business sale fall through. Reading the posts on this forum convinced me that we'd get through it, based on the experiences of others, and so we did.

Richard

If you are anything like me you will soon be wondering how you ever found time to work. Another surprise is that you do not need as much money as you probably thought you did. I have a fixed benefit pension and I was surprised when my first check was almost as big as my regular salary. By the time they did not take off pension, medical, union dues, unemployment insurance and my tax rate went down, i cleared almost as much. I soon realized how much I was spending just going to work, with fuel ,clothing, lunches etc.

One piece of advice is if you are in healthy housing market like the Bay area or Vancouver, BC, maybe consider buying a small condo & renting it out, so you don't find yourself priced out of the market if you eventually give up full timing. In my case its a bit different as I have a high-functioning Austistic son who needs some support. However i worked out  a deal with my ex where she is available 6 months (the winter) & myself the other 6. During those 6 winter months I RV around Mexico. That has sort of turned into a job. I give seminars on the subject at RV shows and I am also working for an RV caravan company down there.

5 years after retirement and I had co-founded an RV club which expanded to a manufacturers organization and I helped organize 2 RV shows in the mid west.

As I said, its hard to figure out how I ever found time to work.