early retirement?

2gypsies wrote:

MNGeeks61 wrote:


My wife and I are almost 50........ I've debated acquiring a used TT (less than 10 years old)....... We're looking for a park that does HOA, similar to what we've got up here. That way, my parents could also use the park if they wanted to.

A few things I note with your post... many parks in the Arizona snowbird areas such as the greater Phoenix/Apache Junction area are for 55+ and you state you're not quite 50. Although some parks allow younger occupants be sure to check on that.

Yes, by the time these plans are in place, my wife would be 55(I'm the younger man) so I'm ok with that :)

Also, unfortunately, parks are beginning to have that 10-year RV rule which is ridiculous but you'll need to check on that, too.

Finally, I'm not sure what you mean by a park with HOA so that your parents could use the park, too. Explain what that means to you.

A homeowners' association where you own the lot itself as compared to renting.

Your best option is to take the longest vacation you can swing - even by flying and renting a car - just to look around at the different areas and parks to find something that would work for you. Do this in winter when the parks are full to really get a feel of park 'activities' since your wife is interested in that. Many activities stop in April when the winter visitors begin leaving and start up again around November.

We were ousted out of our jobs at 52 yr of age and that's when we began full-timing. We had not problems dealing with 'old folks' and many of them are very active. However, we didn't sit in one place. We constantly moved around because our goal was to see this beautiful country of ours. We volunteered a lot for national and state parks for a couple months at a time. We've gone to Alaska, rafted the Grand Canyon, climbed mountains, 4-wheeling with our Jeep and we still continue to be very active with outdoor activities.

I would highly recommend that you join the Escapees RV Club and get involved with the Boomers. They are an awesome young and young at heart group. It also offers an excellent mail forwarding service and a great bi-monthly magazine written by RVers.

Good luck with you plans and we don't blame you for wanting to exit Minnesota!

I've been RV'ing for 8 years and my father is ex-military, so my wife and I have seen quite a bit. I do anticipate that she'll want to travel occasionally and will be budgeting for that.

The Escapees sounds interesting, I will check into it. Thanks!

edit:
additional info

We've gone to Alaska, rafted the Grand Canyon, climbed mountains, 4-wheeling with our Jeep and we still continue to be very active with outdoor activities.

I lived in Alaska, have been to the Grand Canyon at least 6 times (it's still beautiful, although the river is down), and have lived in 8 other states...so I don't mind settling down away from the snow. I just hope she can be happy if she stays in one place!

Very good comments, thanks to all and keep 'em coming!

2nd edit: Is there a "preview post" feature?