What do we do NOW! - RV-Dreams Community Forum

budhi · RV-Dreams Community Member

What do we do NOW!

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good luck with whatever course you decided to take. Tough decisions to make.

Homes are selling fairly quickly here in Southern California. I see the for sale signs go up and a sold sign is posted within a few weeks. I'm sure the folks are having to take a heavy cut in price to get it sold quickly. There are still houses that have had for sale signs on them for months and years, so I'm guessing these folks aren't willing to reduce the price.

The job market is tough especially for the over 50 crowd.

If you haven't done it already, be sure to read through Howard and Linda's decision making to fulltime as well as their financial pages. Look through other websites for fulltime RV'ers to see how they are handling the current economy. Pay attention to their income/expenses when workamping. It's surprising how little of your nest egg you need to touch when you find a workamping position that pays a decent salary plus provides a space for free.

dixonge · RV-Dreams Community Member

What were your original plans for the house? Sell or keep?

How much other debt do you have not counting the house?

What were your original plans (at the end of this 7-year plan) for paying for your travels on the road?

budhi wrote:
I am really just venting here, I am not asking anyone to make a dicision for me. LOL
Well, here we are, we have had a plan and even though we haven't gone full time yet, guess our plans are to be like made in jello as the saying goes.
Our next seven years was all mapped out. House would be paid off and we would be debt free, shoot we would even had our emergency fund at a full goal balance by the end of november..........not in the cards as they say......got notice yesterday at 4pm that my husband Budhi is no longer employed as manager of his store...........OUCH!
this would be a no brainer if we were able to sell the house over night but in this market not seeing that happen.......now we aren't sure what to do.....got go back to the drawing board........
Questions we ask ourselves?
Put the house and cars up for sale NOW!
Should we get another job here NOW
Should we make the jump and go ahead and buy and RV on credit with the hopes of paying off with the sale of the house.
What jobs will we get on the road, we aren't at a stage of life we can support a retired life.
Questions.........what actions are we going to take......

Racerguy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cyndi,
Ultimately you have to make the choice that works for you. I'll just relate to you what happened to us.At one time we were on track to retire and go on the road when I was 55. All the sudden Linda became disabled( degenerative disc problem) and had to leave her nursing job with a good salary and go on disability at about 1/3rd the money. We probably could have went ahead and do it any way but it would mean a lot of workamping and less traveling.We adjusted our plans and I decided to work 5 more years( yuck). We really wanted to be debt free and not have me work after I retired. Those 5 years looking forward looked like a long time but now looking back it went by very fast and we do not regret our decision. We have now been on the road 7 months and enjoying it.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

It sounds like you guys were on a good path and while I know the tendancy is to panic, my advice is to sit tight with the events for a little bit and think through what makes sense for you guys.

I get the sense that you are not in immediate financial peril due to the job loss. So here's what I would do. Spend the next couple of weeks working together on downsizing, working on alternative budgets and talking about your plans/dreams. The worst that will happen is that you will have a much neater, more managable household to live in for the next however many years while you work on your original plan. Or you just may find that there is another way to achieve your dream sooner.

I'm a big believer in making lemonade when life gives you lemons!

Keep us posted

Gary · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good advice about sitting back and taking stock of the situation.

While some folks thrive on crisis mode decision making, sometimes the best path is to sit down and figure out the current situation. Then, start looking over options and scenarios. Only after that, figure out what you can do.

rjenkins · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sorry to hear that budhi. I see you are in the Carolina's which can make a difference as to what to do.
I guess a lot depends on where the jobs are and the housing market for your specific area. I would tend to stay in the place I have worked and lived in if you had a seven year plan but the above two conditions may make change those plans.
In South Florida houses are selling too but guess what, one out of three houses being sold is a foreclosed home. For someone that is selling, thats not a good market, you are competing with 'dirt cheap' prices. So how is it up there?
Did he get any type of severance and can you live on unemployment while he looks for other work without having to dip into your savings.
If you had a couple of years to go I would have said go for it. But seeing you have about 7, you need to really lay out your options. Again if it was me with 7 years to go, I would be looking at staying put and only move if the housing condition to sell was good and the jobs being offered were outside the area of commuting distance.

budhi · RV-Dreams Community Member

You guys are the DREAM! (no I'm not playing on words) Budhi has landed a hourly job that will start next Monday. We had already had a trip scheduled and mostly paid far with us leaving this Thursday and we are going to go ahead and take that since it is to go and visit with family and go to my class reunion. Although if it hadn't been paid for already other than the gas to drive there we would have canceled. We have decided that we are going to continue with our downsizing/decluttering we started this last week and prep the house for selling and if it sells than that is ok, and we will buy a smaller home up closer to our children to use as a base home for when we do retire. Our plan was to have the house paid off in seven years alhtough if someone offered us a good prize on it we would sell and purchase smaller as I mentioned anyway and then we could buy a RV/MH without having to dip in the little savings we currently have, and i mean little. Nine years ago this happened to us with both of us loosing our jobs because of companies downsizing and we got ourselves in a mess of a fixed that took five years to fix, not going down that road again. Budhi is so sad, feels defeat, and not because of anything he has done, they have replaced him with someone making less and asked that he move two towns over but he doesn't get off until 2am and it just wouldn't be safe for him to drive an hour away. Lots of businesses are going under around here, and several homes are on the market, but few buyers out there. We too have one foreclosure in the neighborhood, but it is a much smaller home. We know that God is in control and things will work out for us we just need to make sure we here what is being told to us and not react on emotion.

MargieAnne · RV-Dreams Community Member

Life often throws odd balls.

We thought we had it all planned but 1990 our plans began to go up in smoke. 1992 saw us make a fresh start and payed off all debt in 3 years while we lived in a low rent, company house.

Things looked really good in 2005 when we made a profit on a a property sale and put most of the proceeds into an "investment House.' Which we now live in and are stuck paying for a mortgage we never planned to be landed with.

Family circumstance keep us locked into a situation not of our choosing. We are having to learn to live with revised plans.

Life is an adventure whether FT or dreaming of it.*smiles*

All the best as you re work your future.

Linda · Hostess

Cyndi,

Just another idea to consider... if your house sells soon, you could purchase your RV and live in it instead of buying another home. You may be able to find an RV park in your home town that would allow you to stay for an extended time. You guys could continue to work your jobs and stay on your plan but the house debt would be gone.

Ckerr · RV-Dreams Family Member

To expand on Linda's idea a bit...

Whenever the house sells you could buy your RV and live in it WHILE you continue to work. That would also free you up to take the job 2 cities away without having to deal with the 2am commute or to take advantage of other employment opportunities until you have the finances in order to hit the road fulltime.

If the desire to buy a smaller S&B home stems from uncertainty about whether you will enjoy RV living you could always put the money you would spend on the smaller S&B in a conservative investment fund so it would be there should you decide you really need that S&B again.

Dreamers · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are living in our RV and working jobs. Love it! We are waiting on our house to sell. Don't feel like we can quit work until then. But, we wanted to be able to hit the road when that happens so we started selling off and cleaning out and soon we had no furniture so moved to the RV.

budhi · RV-Dreams Community Member

You guys have all been so informative in sharing your thoughts and life's happenings with us, Such warm encouragements, that are so wecoming.

God tells us that he will meet the disires of our hearts, and Budhi and I both have decided today that is a promise we are going to put claim on, so now it is timing.

Hours at my work had really been cut back, I am only working six to twelve hours
a week normally due to the economy and that is weekend hours usually because of
Budhi's pass schedule. Well now that too will all change. Since Budhi was notified
that they wanted to transfer him to another store which is over an hour away,
and as mentioned his work tends to keep him out until 2am so that is not a good
thing. They did notify him that he has the option to step down then and become an hourly
assistant again and wanted him to take the week to think about it, so that is what
he is doing. We have been doing a lot of soul searching over the last two days
to how and whatt we want to obtain in our lives, what are our hearts desires.

Another thought came to mind and to both of us, although mine was immediate Budhi's wasn't until he slept on it. But God may be telling him that this job is taking to much time away from me (God) and your family which are to be your two top priorities in life, so I am taking the job from you. We both agreed this morning that he would step down and continue to look for other employment. Employment that would allow us the time together and the time to share in the worshiping of our Lord. The panic of loosing a job that brought in a decent income originally set in and now the Lord has given us piece of mine to move forward.

We have really had a real monkey wrench thrown into our well sort out plans of being totally debt free in the next seven years. Our plan was that within seven years we would owe no one anything, and only have the necessity of insurance, gas, utilities and food so we would concentrate on moving on with retirement plans, and working part time and enjoying the life of being fulltime RVers and travel the states and marvel in God's creation. Although still a goal, but we are going to have to figure out another way of reaching it. We have some
investments we are looking at cashing in and paying out all but the mortgage ($85,000) so
we will be living on a tight budget but at least we can do it with the hourly
job that Budhi takes, (he has pretty much decided to step down)

Nne years ago we both lost jobs and really robbed Peter to pay Paul and we won't allow ourselves to ever get in those circumstances again. It took us five long years to pull ourselves out of that.

We were already decluttering and seting up boxes for yard sales so we are digging a little deeper now and will be continueing on a mission of emptying this house of it's clutter and do some repairs and think about even putting it up for sale and buying a smaller place, and maybe even closer to our kids. (that part, the selling of the home, is still just a thought at this time) We will be setting up a lot of things to sell though, we just own to much stuff, and it is stuff that really has not real meaning to us just collections. Although if you know anyone that wants a table, I am going to let my big (13ft) table go, none of the kids want it if something happens to us so we are going to try to sell it. The furniture builders say it is worth $10,000.00 but we will let it go for $3,000.00 just to get rid of it. LOL I am also going to post this on my blog so everyone knows what is happening wiht us.

We are no longer in PANIC mode, God is Good!