Full Time Living Recap (Almost 1 Year)
I am making this post in part for my own benefit and in part for others. I have posted and read here for at least 5 years in preparation to try living in an RV full time. My goal was to see other parts of the country in retirement. I did this for 11 months from March 2020 - February 2021. That's basically the height of the pandemic. Terrible timing, which is the story of my life, in a lot of ways. But I don't regret the experience, which is the theme of this message.
I had planned to buy a truck and travel trailer, but after considering my budget and the different options I decided to get a motor home and pull a Jeep Wrangler. I went new with both because I wanted to avoid repairs as much as possible. I wanted the smallest RV that would be comfortable for me and my wife. I picked the Winnebago Intent 30R, which is about 31 feet long and has 2 slideouts.
The reasons I got out were as follows:
We wanted to see other places where we could live and my wife could work (she's not retired). She found a place she liked so we decided to rent a place and stay here for at least a year.
I was tired of living in the small area of an RV. Our new rental house is like a mansion in comparison and I feel much more relaxed.
The stress of planning a cross country trip and then driving this big vehicle and now paying much more for gas and probably some minor repairs/maintenance were taking the fun out of this.
After you've seen one state or COE park, you've basically seen them all, in my opinion, with a few variations.
In summary, for me, an RV is not good choice for year round living in the same place because of the season changes. Here in South Texas the A/C would be droning on the roof almost 24/7 during the summer. So it was either sell it or store it. Prices appear to be good right now due in part to the pandemic so I wanted to "get while the getting's good". I calculate that I didn't spend much more in total during our time in the RV, including depreciation, compared to living in Dallas in an apartment for the last year. So it didn't damage my retirement finances. In fact, if we miss the RV lifestyle we could do it again some day when my wife doesn't want to work any more.
I had planned to buy a truck and travel trailer, but after considering my budget and the different options I decided to get a motor home and pull a Jeep Wrangler. I went new with both because I wanted to avoid repairs as much as possible. I wanted the smallest RV that would be comfortable for me and my wife. I picked the Winnebago Intent 30R, which is about 31 feet long and has 2 slideouts.
The reasons I got out were as follows:
We wanted to see other places where we could live and my wife could work (she's not retired). She found a place she liked so we decided to rent a place and stay here for at least a year.
I was tired of living in the small area of an RV. Our new rental house is like a mansion in comparison and I feel much more relaxed.
The stress of planning a cross country trip and then driving this big vehicle and now paying much more for gas and probably some minor repairs/maintenance were taking the fun out of this.
After you've seen one state or COE park, you've basically seen them all, in my opinion, with a few variations.
In summary, for me, an RV is not good choice for year round living in the same place because of the season changes. Here in South Texas the A/C would be droning on the roof almost 24/7 during the summer. So it was either sell it or store it. Prices appear to be good right now due in part to the pandemic so I wanted to "get while the getting's good". I calculate that I didn't spend much more in total during our time in the RV, including depreciation, compared to living in Dallas in an apartment for the last year. So it didn't damage my retirement finances. In fact, if we miss the RV lifestyle we could do it again some day when my wife doesn't want to work any more.
