Hello All, Like the subject says DW and I are closing in on retirement and are strongly considering the full time RV lifestyle in either a 5'er or a Class A. One of the reasons for considering the fulltime lifestyle is because we don't know where we want to retire. We had a tent camper for years and really enjoyed being away but always had to come back to work so it was a vacation and not a lifestyle. The nagging question that we keeping coming back to is will we need a home base, you know, some place to come back to rest and recharge. Maybe the answer is because it is a lifestyle we will not need to rest and recharge but I read about people that have to move every 2 weeks to 30 days and I just don't know how that is going to work. We also like the idea of workkamping/hosting but coordinating that and finding the right fit (not cleaning restrooms in our retirement) sounds like it can be a crap shoot.
I've read enough posts to know that no one can answer these concerns but ourselves; so I'm not looking for an answer just hearing from people that worked through similar thought processes and what did you do to help develop and resolve the pros and cons.
Our plan is to attend one of the boot camps to learn more and meet a few people thinking this will help us gather more information.
Thanks in advance for any inputs and suggestions.
arcaguy said
12:00 PM Jun 21, 2018
Well Bob, my wife and I are going through the same process right now. Our time horizon is a little shorter but not much. (If I can find a remote job it may be next month ) Fortunately, we have some non-social security income so we can probably afford to stay at an RV park if we want to. It looks to me like it won't be hard to find some place to stay for less than $1,000 a month which is less than our current house payment, to say nothing of property taxes, utilities etc. I think that you can get by on $3,000 a month or less if you are frugal and don't spend a lot of money eating out etc. Having said all of that this is from someone who is just talking the talk and has not walked the walk. I'm sure some other who have walked the walk will chime in. Also, Howard, who runs this site has a several year running account of how much money he spends. There is also a young couple out there who budgets $2,000 a month and lives on it. I guess my point is that it is doable with even modest means from what I've read.
RonC said
01:48 PM Jun 21, 2018
Bob ... there is no “right” way to do this. Whatever works for you is just fine. We currently travel for 8 months, usually staying a week in each location. For the other 4 months, we return to an RV Park that we consider our home base. We are from San Antonio and the park is close ... this is where we “winter”, arriving on 01 November and hitting the road again on 01 March. If travel becomes less interesting or a burden, we have a plan to spend six months in the SA area and then go north for six months (likely Colorado). As has been pointed out, you can live very frugally if you work at it. What we like is that all the money we spend is OUR DECISION and not “extracted” from us in the form of taxes. It just makes me smile ... to have slain the tax dragon. ☺️
Barbaraok said
03:48 PM Jun 21, 2018
Bob, the first few years you will learn to move at your speed, it won’t feel forced, it will be part of the fun to see what is ahead of you. There is nothing that says you have to haul all patio stuff out every time you stop. We now don’t pull things out except maybe a couple of chairs and the grill if staying only a week or so, and sometimes not even that. Takes us 30 minutes to settle in, 30 minutes to pack up. Of course we learned some tricks along the way - like dumping the night before we leave, not bother with hooking up water for overnight stays, etc. it wax 9 years before we decided to get a fixed winter place simply because we are getting old and wanted a little more space during the winter.
Barb
-- Edited by Barbaraok on Thursday 21st of June 2018 03:49:19 PM
Bob M said
08:25 AM Jun 22, 2018
Thanks for the replies. It's not a budget thing, thanks for the replies. More to think about.
Bob
Gpndavid said
09:11 AM Jun 22, 2018
We also do not know where we want to settle down. We knew it wasn’t Maryland when we hit the road 3 years ago. As we explore the country, we evaluate different areas as a possible retirement location. It has been very easy to eliminate areas, but none have just said “This is the place.”
We sort of split the country into six sections exploring the north sections in the summer and southern in the winter. We do not maintain a home base. Thought about it, but that would create an obligation, a responsibility that detracts from the freedom we sought as a full time RVer.
This summer we are exploring the northwest states that will complete our RV travel to all states except Alaska and Hawaii. After that, we plan to go back and visit our favorites for at least another year. We thought we would do this about three years. There is so much to see and it is so fun, three years is not enough. We are living and exploring. It breaks the vacation and exploring paradigm.
Hello All, Like the subject says DW and I are closing in on retirement and are strongly considering the full time RV lifestyle in either a 5'er or a Class A. One of the reasons for considering the fulltime lifestyle is because we don't know where we want to retire. We had a tent camper for years and really enjoyed being away but always had to come back to work so it was a vacation and not a lifestyle. The nagging question that we keeping coming back to is will we need a home base, you know, some place to come back to rest and recharge. Maybe the answer is because it is a lifestyle we will not need to rest and recharge but I read about people that have to move every 2 weeks to 30 days and I just don't know how that is going to work. We also like the idea of workkamping/hosting but coordinating that and finding the right fit (not cleaning restrooms in our retirement) sounds like it can be a crap shoot.
I've read enough posts to know that no one can answer these concerns but ourselves; so I'm not looking for an answer just hearing from people that worked through similar thought processes and what did you do to help develop and resolve the pros and cons.
Our plan is to attend one of the boot camps to learn more and meet a few people thinking this will help us gather more information.
Thanks in advance for any inputs and suggestions.
Bob, the first few years you will learn to move at your speed, it won’t feel forced, it will be part of the fun to see what is ahead of you. There is nothing that says you have to haul all patio stuff out every time you stop. We now don’t pull things out except maybe a couple of chairs and the grill if staying only a week or so, and sometimes not even that. Takes us 30 minutes to settle in, 30 minutes to pack up. Of course we learned some tricks along the way - like dumping the night before we leave, not bother with hooking up water for overnight stays, etc. it wax 9 years before we decided to get a fixed winter place simply because we are getting old and wanted a little more space during the winter.
Barb
-- Edited by Barbaraok on Thursday 21st of June 2018 03:49:19 PM
We sort of split the country into six sections exploring the north sections in the summer and southern in the winter. We do not maintain a home base. Thought about it, but that would create an obligation, a responsibility that detracts from the freedom we sought as a full time RVer.
This summer we are exploring the northwest states that will complete our RV travel to all states except Alaska and Hawaii. After that, we plan to go back and visit our favorites for at least another year. We thought we would do this about three years. There is so much to see and it is so fun, three years is not enough. We are living and exploring. It breaks the vacation and exploring paradigm.