Full time as a both a necessity and a lifestyle choice
Hi All,
My wife and I are 50ish, and without going into many details, are not in the greatest financial shape. My house keeps dropping in value, and despite putting my life savings down 6 years ago, and paying 6 years of house payments, we are still upside down by 40k +. Divorce obligations are pretty steep as well, so for another 3 years, minimum, we will have zero money to save. To top it all off, we have no retirement of any kind.
We love being outdoors, and found backpacking and car camping as a way to get away from our stress fairly inexpensively. We have started discussing a plan where anywhere from 10 years from now to retirement at 67, we can somehow get out of our S&B house, buy an RV (class A or C), and go on the road as FTers, not driving constantly, but putting down for a month or two at a time. I am an accountant, so I could do bookkeeping, income taxes, and the like from the RV as long as I have an internet connection. The hard part will be finding clients!
I see RV living as fairly inexpensive compared to my S&B existence, with its mortgage payment of $1700 (PITI), 250 electric bill, 100 water bill, 50 sewer bill, and all the repairs and maintenance on top of that ( all through the age of 75 before it's paid off) . I almost see no other option for us as we grow older, or very few other options. I cannot see the logic of continuing to pay on a house which will never come back to what I owe. Much less having to work until 75 just to pay the mortgage off.
I see short-selling or renting out my house at a 200-300 negative cash flow per month, then RV or renting a small condo as one slightly viable option as we approach "retirement" as we expect our SS at 67 to be about 2800-3000 per month, which would hardly cover our current housing costs plus food.
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 would be interested to hear from those who are doing it on ss or small pensions, and is it doable, or a big struggle?
My wife and I are 50ish, and without going into many details, are not in the greatest financial shape. My house keeps dropping in value, and despite putting my life savings down 6 years ago, and paying 6 years of house payments, we are still upside down by 40k +. Divorce obligations are pretty steep as well, so for another 3 years, minimum, we will have zero money to save. To top it all off, we have no retirement of any kind.
We love being outdoors, and found backpacking and car camping as a way to get away from our stress fairly inexpensively. We have started discussing a plan where anywhere from 10 years from now to retirement at 67, we can somehow get out of our S&B house, buy an RV (class A or C), and go on the road as FTers, not driving constantly, but putting down for a month or two at a time. I am an accountant, so I could do bookkeeping, income taxes, and the like from the RV as long as I have an internet connection. The hard part will be finding clients!
I see RV living as fairly inexpensive compared to my S&B existence, with its mortgage payment of $1700 (PITI), 250 electric bill, 100 water bill, 50 sewer bill, and all the repairs and maintenance on top of that ( all through the age of 75 before it's paid off) . I almost see no other option for us as we grow older, or very few other options. I cannot see the logic of continuing to pay on a house which will never come back to what I owe. Much less having to work until 75 just to pay the mortgage off.
I see short-selling or renting out my house at a 200-300 negative cash flow per month, then RV or renting a small condo as one slightly viable option as we approach "retirement" as we expect our SS at 67 to be about 2800-3000 per month, which would hardly cover our current housing costs plus food.
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 would be interested to hear from those who are doing it on ss or small pensions, and is it doable, or a big struggle?
