If you had Eight Years to Plan

Welcome to the Forum. We are Fulltimers. When you get started
I would recommend buying used. Let someone else take the
depreciation Hit. Also read the Forum and gather all the Knowledge you can. I did that for a long Time before I took the Plunge. If you have any Questions, do not fail to ask. Above all when you start Rving, have Fun.

Good luck. I retired three years ago at 56 and we are loving it. We decided to keep the house and not go full time, but we travel and campground host close to 1/2 the year. My advice is to make sure both are in full agreement and have a plan for when it is time to quit traveling.

Debt free #1 Owe nothing to anyone, including the rig itself.
Both be on board with the idea.
Decided the kind of RVing you want to do. Is your dream to travel the USA and visit NYC, Chicago, LA or are you thinking Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. Do you want to stay at beautiful resorts that provide all the luxury you could want, or does the middle of nowhere sound better. The answer will really depend on the type of RV you will want to get.
Will you tow or pull. We were just checking out new Class Bs and saw one for sale with less than 7000 miles on it. The man traded it in because he found he needed something to drive around in, so he got a Pickup and a 5th Wheel.
Welcome to our group and don't let 8 years worry you, it goes by quickly and now you can practice by going on lots of little trips

Dick_B wrote:
I start eating more healthy to help assure I will be around in 2023. Hope you don't smoke!

Very true, and I don't smoke. But my folks died in mid and lower 70's. In reality, I can retire in my profession at 55 y.o.a. But if I stay the extra four years it increases a pension and puts me a little closer to social security and then Medicare. Also, staying longer allows us to save a lot more which should allow more flexibility later.

We retired when I was 54 and my wife 52, and I’m now 70. We sold our house and started full timing we now are half timers and still really enjoy the RVing lifestyle. When the time come the only suggestion I have is to get a quality RV, they really are cheaper in the long run.

I start eating more healthy to help assure I will be around in 2023. Hope you don't smoke!

donn0128 wrote:
And most of all make an exit plan. While this one item may change in 8 years, at least you will have a plan.

EXIT PLAN, We all exit if only by death.

We retired (actually got downsized) at age 52. We knew we wanted to travel so we bought a 27' travel trailer and spent the first winter in Florida. We never heard of the word 'full-timing'. We met so many happy full-timers and on our return to Michigan we said "we spent 5 months in this little RV and never needed all that 'stuff' back in the 2500 sq. ft. home. Let's go full-time". That was in May.

By August we had sold everything, bought a 33' 5th wheel and never looked back. We never gave ourselves a deadline like "we'll try it for a year or two". We made the commitment that this will be our new lifestyle - and it is a lifestyle - not a vacation. We spent 8 years in the 5th wheel and friends got us into Jeeping so we got the motorhome to tow the Jeep and spent another 8 extremely happy years of traveling this gorgeous country and volunteering in national and state parks along the way.

I would highly recommend joining the Escapees RV Club and taking an active part in it. It was started 35 years ago by full-timers and that is it's base today. They have gone to bat for full-timers in government issues and have won every time. This is where we got our social base. We met up with friends constantly and formed great lasting relationships.

Our family and friends were behind us 100% and we easily maintained a great relationship with the grandkids - being there for their special moments like the first day of school, school plays, concerts, sports games, etc. They took trips with us and sometimes met us at special places. They have great memories, as do we.

We had invested the sale of our house and after 16 years of full-timing we found the perfect spot for us and in a place we would have never dreamed of living. We bought a small 1100 sq. ft. townhouse in a 55+ community that has any kind of activity one might want. We are so active here and our days are as full as we choose. It came completely furnished in matching Southwestrn style. Had we kept a storage unit all those years our furniture wouldn't even have fit in our new house. Appliances and electronics would be outdated. Plus, we'd be out of a lot of money storing it.

We wintered many years with a large group of fellow full-timers and now 23 of us have bought in the same community so we have a strong base of good friends for any help needed. The community has many age-related services and medical facilities.

I tell you this so you don't feel you have to have a definite 'exit plan'. None of our friends had one. As you travel you'll find the right place for you.

There are many young full-timers nowdays who continue to work while traveling due to technology. When we began we had no internet, no email. We relied on telephone booths and letters. Over the years we easily dealt with many medical issues including replacement surgeries and cancer. Full-timers can go to the best medical facilities, if needed and it's very easy to recoup in a RV. Everything is so close.

I do think a lot of folks leave full-timing because they gave themselves a 'year or two' to see if they liked it. You need that amount of time to work out all the kinks of the new lifestyle. Things happen and some aren't good, but that doesn't mean it won't get better. It did for us!

Really appreciate all the replies. We have owned a 30 foot travel trailer in the past but found life's responsibilities did not allow for much traveling so sold it. We have talked about getting a rig maybe two years before retirement. My only reservation to getting a rig too early is that we will not use it enough to justify the expense.

I know if we wait, which is the plan now, and buy just before going fulltime, we stand a chance of it not being the lifestyle we thought it would be and would come off the road earlier than later. So, our exit plan is to retain a sizable portion of the proceeds from selling our sticks and bricks to invest in another home. We never planned to retire in our existing home because it's too much work to maintain.

Both my wife and I have extensive experience camping and enjoy much of the same things. Travel and the outdoors being but a few of our shared wants. Until we retire (at 59 y.o.a) we do not have as much time to travel as we would like.

Another reason to wait is we want to go the route of having a retirement income rather than depending on earning a living on the road. Although we plan to reduce expenses by workamping or volunteering for a spot. We believe this approach would offer the greatest flexibility to modify our plans should something not work for us.

Another possible option is retirement in four years at 55. That would cut into our savings plans and lower the pension benefits. Four extra years made a lot of sense when comparing the benefit dollars. We would then have to earn more of a living on the road and perhaps that would reduce flexibility in how we lived. Hope that makes sense.

I've been joining forums to get the opinion of those most experienced and I appreciate all the input.

If you have the money, don't wait. If you don't have the money to go now, you need to downsize now and save up. We started 5 yrs before retirement by selling the big house and going small, getting rid of extra stuff. We always had RV's, so we had that experience. If you do great, if not, get something and start camping - there are a lot of things you will benefit from first hand knowledge. You 're doing the right thing though , getting involved, asking questions, reading.. Enjoy.