I know we are not the only ones in precarious financial situations, but it seems like most of what I see on these types of forums are retired people with ss, full military or civilian pensions, and financial security, who are rving as a fun way to retire vs doing it because you can't afford other ways to live when you get old.
I don't think this is necessarily true. There are 1.3 million Americans living in RV's full time. Most by choice. Most are doing it on $3500 or less a month not counting the cost of the RV depreciation or payments. Of course, some spend all their money each month making the RV lifestyle as expensive as it was living in the stick and brick. Most spend time looking for ways to save money like paying the monthly rate at an RV park that can be as little as $500 instead of the daily rate. Most don't eat out all the time. Some boondock. But, many more than in the past are young, work web based businesses to make ends meet, and thoroughly enjoy following the seasons. The web has made it much easier to work and make some money and travel and do it from anywhere. There are lots of web pages devoted to ways to make money fulltiming and all the rest of the attributes of that lifestyle. For many years the ideal to acheive was to retire and full time in the RV. Now many younger folks are doing that long before retirement. Check out these websites that are loaded with tons of good info on full timing and making money as well:
Escapees
Technomadia
NuRvers
Gone with the Wynns
As far as your house and your credit if you decide to off it as a short sale, I would get the RV first to be sure you can get the RV before letting the house go and having credit issues. Get a big RV to live in, get one with electrical capacity like solar and a generator especially if you plan to be off the cord for long periods of time, get an RV that is not made only for occasional recreational usage but full time living and get connected with other folks that are full timing and working, go to their rallys and network, etc. Lots of great ideas come from other folks and you never know what will wash up over your transom once you cast off the dock lines. It seems to me you need to make a decision on the house relatively soon for two important reasons: time is going by for your child growing up and time is going by for you and your wife and a fresh start could be a breath of fresh air for you. We never know how long we have to live and be healthy. Bad decisions that you might have made in your past are in the past, move on.
Sometimes when faced with a decision the only wrong decision is not making any decision. However, I think you will find everybody in the webpages I shared above
want to live in their RV and make it happen. If your choice of an RV is only to get out from under an expensive home with no light at the end of the tunnel, then the RV might
not be for you. You have a nice job apparently, so maybe a good choice would be to try the RV fulltime life close enough to go to work every day at least until you build up enough finances to be truly mobile.
Hope this helps! If not, line the bird cage with it.
