I recently retired, husband still working. I want to part-time and husband wants to remodel the s&b. So probably going to be dreaming for a while yet. But really enjoyed reading the journal and have learned a lot about what the possibilities are. My dream is to get a small trailer (an Oliver) and spend a few months a year exploring. We'll see how persuasive I can get....
TRAILERKING said
06:47 PM Jun 3, 2015
Welcome aboard..............Start small. Go out on small trips and see how it goes.
Baby Steps.
Cactuskate said
06:56 PM Jun 3, 2015
thank you dreams/nightmares.
pkhalin said
07:06 PM Jun 3, 2015
Welcome.
"You gotta have a dream, if you don't have a dream, How you gonna have a dream come true?"
Credit to the musical South Pacific. Hey, what can I say. It's true.
Happy future trails.
BiggarView said
09:50 AM Jun 4, 2015
Dreaming is good. Actualizing can be a bit trickier, but don't lose faith. I'd soft pedal your dream to the hubby. You both have to be onboard or there could be problems outside the "dream". Welcome aboard!
Brian
Cactuskate said
10:01 AM Jun 4, 2015
I know that if we are not both "on board" it would never work. I don't really think either of us is cut out for full-timing, but I have always essentially felt the pull of the gypsy ancestors in me. I'm thinking we will get a small-ish trailer (was really enamored of the camp-inn tear drop but realize husband won't want to be outside that much) and start traveling here and there. He wants to keep working anyhow for at least a couple more years. I am working part-time. We have zero debt, daughter just graduated college and son is independent now (I have one grandson and since they are living overseas right now I also want to travel there - a place where caravan is by camel). I have a smallish pension with medical insurance covered (yay being an ex-fed!) - so in many ways we are in an ideal situation. It's just that our dreams overlap but are not identical. So we are going to remodel the house first, and keep it and travel part-time. Mostly we just need to get out of the area (Chicago) during the winter.
But the full-timers really have the best insight, advice and are overall really great people to internet-lurk over. Thank you for the encouragement....
BiggarView said
10:24 AM Jun 4, 2015
Yep those Chi-town winters are brutal, been here for 20+ so far... about 3 to go then we are OUTAHERE!
Cactuskate said
11:11 AM Jun 4, 2015
Well the last two have been beyond brutal. But I think you are planning on half of you heading south first, to test the waters, right? That sounds like a good plan to me. Hard to be the one working here in the winter though....
BiggarView said
11:54 AM Jun 4, 2015
We are considering that option. I'll be the one staying here for one winter or possibly two if that plan is the one we go with. No, I don't want a rerun of the 2011 dumping. That one took me 16 hours to shovel out the driveway, even then we were stranded for another 24 hours due to the street blocked with stuck vehicles. Me, being from the Great White North, the winters are tolerable... barely.
shystywolf said
08:32 PM Jun 4, 2015
welcome and I know dreams come true. I hope yours does.
Camper Chronicles said
05:45 AM Jun 5, 2015
One thing I have noticed is in every case one partner brings this lifestyle to the other initially. Some of us were hard sells (myself included), but you have the advantage of knowing your husband better than anyone. Think about what gets him excited, think about his dreams, and then see if you can tie this in. That's what Lee did for me and it worked!!
Cactuskate said
06:09 AM Jun 5, 2015
Thank you for all the encouragement! I know I won't get him ever to full-time, but I am pretty certain he will come around to part-time...especially during the times of year when it is sub-zero here and in south Texas you can bird-watch in your shorts and a t-shirt. And what I have learned from Howard and Linda and many of the forum members is that there is not huge amounts of travel on a daily basis. My plan of attack is to identify particular locations that he would love, and show how we can do this for a month or two at a time and really have all we need and want right with us. He has been willing to look at the options (mh, travel trailers) so it's not like we have reached an impasse or anything. There is hope. I don't want to give us a firm date but I am hoping for Class of 2016, if we are allowed to have a Class of for part-timers! Not sure if there is a firm rule on that one.
Its fun to sit and dream, but better to live the dream.
marianne57 said
08:45 AM Jun 5, 2015
Cactuskate wrote:...... There is hope. I don't want to give us a firm date but I am hoping for Class of 2016, if we are allowed to have a Class of for part-timers! Not sure if there is a firm rule on that one. Its fun to sit and dream, but better to live the dream.
I don't believe there's a firm rule Cactuskate, and hope 2016 works for you!!! It's a good year! :) I'm pretty sure that you'll convince him it's a great idea! Good luck and take care!
Someday said
01:27 PM Jun 5, 2015
Cactuskate. I'm not sure if this will help you but my hubby is just one of those "let's go for it" with anything and everything in life and I'm the cautious "what if" on everything. We are like chalk and cheese but ironically have been together since I was 18. We discussed about someday going full time for well over a decade. I personally couldn't get my head around for several years not having a SnB "home" to go back to and knowing if we wanted to come off the road we were in a generally long term always rising market place we'd return to where our children are based. We'd never be able to afford to get back on the property ladder here, and we are just not the renting type.
Well in a nutshell what I'm trying to say is people do change when exposed to different things. The biggest change to my mindset to finally go FT in 2017 was that we've gone more and more extended longer trip times as the kids have gotten older and we've managed to shed some of our crazily heavy workloads in earlier years. Health issues started to raise their heads with mobility and so on and the final straws for me were the crazy rises in house insurances, property taxes, how we are treated as non-homesteaders in our dream location canal to gulf home we built in Fla and today being told our flood insurance for not being resident down there now is adding an additional $250 premium to recoup some of the affects of Katrina and the likes they paid out on. Primary residents are only being charged $25 extra premium. We pay over $8300 property tax as non homesteaders but our neighbours only in the $3000's. I am slowly starting to feel very bitter about their "them and us" policy and if we knew this back in 2008 was going to occur we'd never ever have become foreign owners = you live you learn and can't predict everything. Our insurance rates here in Alberta went up 70% in one year due to fires/floods/wind damage from 2013 claims. So believe it or not, changes and exposure to what seems a less stressful and rewarding life can make any of us have a change of heart over time. Also aging does a tremendous 360 Deg turn when one day we realize that we really can't replace old man time, and we either gotta hurry up living or hurry up dying and we finally have chosen the former and are on track selling up everything slowly but surely.
Striking a balance/compromise that initially satisfies both your desires and needs is the key, then give it time, you might be shocked - maybe your hubby will do a 360 deg on his thought patterns OR ........ maybe you might think "thank heavens we didn't sell up everything and go FT". We all react differently and I know tons of folks where one partner would stay on the road permanently they say, but the other one couldn't bear to be without a SnB base = bottom line they make it work with compromise and discussing each others needs, wants and desires.
I recall my hubby saying to many folks over the years "I'd do it in a heart beat but she'd never ever go FT", now how uncanny I'm pushing like crazy to get done and outta here.
Cactuskate said
03:11 PM Jun 5, 2015
I think I started writing in because I needed to take a step to make it a little real for myself too. We are just trying to feel things out now that I am not working full time and have some energy. He is still working and wants to continue for a bit longer. If he was not working, we would be taking some action. But even for those who are full-timing, things are ever in flux. That's kind of the point....
I recently retired, husband still working. I want to part-time and husband wants to remodel the s&b. So probably going to be dreaming for a while yet. But really enjoyed reading the journal and have learned a lot about what the possibilities are. My dream is to get a small trailer (an Oliver) and spend a few months a year exploring. We'll see how persuasive I can get....
Baby Steps.
thank you dreams/nightmares.
Welcome.
"You gotta have a dream, if you don't have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?"
Credit to the musical South Pacific. Hey, what can I say. It's true.
Happy future trails.
Dreaming is good. Actualizing can be a bit trickier, but don't lose faith. I'd soft pedal your dream to the hubby. You both have to be onboard or there could be problems outside the "dream". Welcome aboard!
Brian
I know that if we are not both "on board" it would never work. I don't really think either of us is cut out for full-timing, but I have always essentially felt the pull of the gypsy ancestors in me. I'm thinking we will get a small-ish trailer (was really enamored of the camp-inn tear drop but realize husband won't want to be outside that much) and start traveling here and there. He wants to keep working anyhow for at least a couple more years. I am working part-time. We have zero debt, daughter just graduated college and son is independent now (I have one grandson and since they are living overseas right now I also want to travel there - a place where caravan is by camel). I have a smallish pension with medical insurance covered (yay being an ex-fed!) - so in many ways we are in an ideal situation. It's just that our dreams overlap but are not identical. So we are going to remodel the house first, and keep it and travel part-time. Mostly we just need to get out of the area (Chicago) during the winter.
But the full-timers really have the best insight, advice and are overall really great people to internet-lurk over. Thank you for the encouragement....
Yep those Chi-town winters are brutal, been here for 20+ so far... about 3 to go then we are OUTAHERE!
Well the last two have been beyond brutal. But I think you are planning on half of you heading south first, to test the waters, right? That sounds like a good plan to me. Hard to be the one working here in the winter though....
We are considering that option. I'll be the one staying here for one winter or possibly two if that plan is the one we go with. No, I don't want a rerun of the 2011 dumping. That one took me 16 hours to shovel out the driveway, even then we were stranded for another 24 hours due to the street blocked with stuck vehicles. Me, being from the Great White North, the winters are tolerable... barely.
Its fun to sit and dream, but better to live the dream.
I don't believe there's a firm rule Cactuskate, and hope 2016 works for you!!! It's a good year! :) I'm pretty sure that you'll convince him it's a great idea! Good luck and take care!
Well in a nutshell what I'm trying to say is people do change when exposed to different things. The biggest change to my mindset to finally go FT in 2017 was that we've gone more and more extended longer trip times as the kids have gotten older and we've managed to shed some of our crazily heavy workloads in earlier years. Health issues started to raise their heads with mobility and so on and the final straws for me were the crazy rises in house insurances, property taxes, how we are treated as non-homesteaders in our dream location canal to gulf home we built in Fla and today being told our flood insurance for not being resident down there now is adding an additional $250 premium to recoup some of the affects of Katrina and the likes they paid out on. Primary residents are only being charged $25 extra premium. We pay over $8300 property tax as non homesteaders but our neighbours only in the $3000's. I am slowly starting to feel very bitter about their "them and us" policy and if we knew this back in 2008 was going to occur we'd never ever have become foreign owners = you live you learn and can't predict everything. Our insurance rates here in Alberta went up 70% in one year due to fires/floods/wind damage from 2013 claims. So believe it or not, changes and exposure to what seems a less stressful and rewarding life can make any of us have a change of heart over time. Also aging does a tremendous 360 Deg turn when one day we realize that we really can't replace old man time, and we either gotta hurry up living or hurry up dying and we finally have chosen the former and are on track selling up everything slowly but surely.
Striking a balance/compromise that initially satisfies both your desires and needs is the key, then give it time, you might be shocked - maybe your hubby will do a 360 deg on his thought patterns OR ........ maybe you might think "thank heavens we didn't sell up everything and go FT". We all react differently and I know tons of folks where one partner would stay on the road permanently they say, but the other one couldn't bear to be without a SnB base = bottom line they make it work with compromise and discussing each others needs, wants and desires.
I recall my hubby saying to many folks over the years "I'd do it in a heart beat but she'd never ever go FT", now how uncanny I'm pushing like crazy to get done and outta here.