My wife and I have hatched a plan. I'm 59 and she's 68. We do not have much in the way of retirement. Small pension and Social Security. We've been RVing off and on for the last 20 years. Popup then a TT. And have talked about going FT RVing upon retirement. We known that we will not be able to stay in our current house when I retire. Therefore....Our house is under contract and we are closing in August. We decided to sell now and take our equity out now instead of 5 years from now. We will have enough equity do either Plan A or B. We plan on purchasing a FW (already have the 3/4 ton truck). Then testing the waters of going full time in FW for 6 - 12 months. We'll then decide on Plan A - buy into a RV Resort as a base of operations and stay FT in FW, or Plan B - buy a small condo as a base. Either way, when we're not home, the lot or the condo be rented. Plan C is to divorce on paper, get the wife and I separate addresses and get her on welfare and food stamps. Lol

There have been a number of threads that talk about the range of expenses you can expect when full timing. I would look at those and decide if you will have enough income to do what you want to do. If you buy into the RV resort, do you have a plan for where to go when you cannot or do not want to live in the RV anymore?

Given the options, id hybridize....buy the small condo get it rented at some sort of positive cash flow. Go live in the rv until your can't. Possibly find a permanent year round spot for the rv if your not feeling spendy and don't want the fuel and camping expenses.

If you retire now you will not be eligible for SS benefits for several years. I think you need to take a careful, realistic look at the cost of fulltiming. I hate to throw cold water on your plans , but if you can't afford to stay in the house you now own you are on pretty shaky financial ground. I speak from experience. I had to retire from long haul trucking at age 62 because of Glaucoma. I too had a small 401k and SS. but at age 70 I am still working and saving as much as possible to live on when I can no longer work.You need to remember you may live another 20 to 25 years or more and your pension or SS payments will be worth very little in 20 years. Just compare prices today with those of 20 years ago.I hope after taking stock of your finances you are able to follow either your plan A,B,or C. But be open to plan D,E or F.I know at age 58 I never thought I would still be working part time at age 70.

If thinking about buying into a RV resort and renting it when you're not there, you need to think about the location so it will be rentable. If it's in a cooler climate then renting it out in the winter when you're in a warmer climate won't work. If it's in a warm climate then renting it out in the summer won't work.Personally, if you do full-time, I wouldn't buy anything right now. Give yourself time to think on it. Get your RV in the meantime..one thing at a time.You can also supplement your income by either workamping or volunteering in parks where you'll get a free campsite.Many full-timers can do it on very little money and still enjoy traveling. If you live frugally now then you can continue to do so. Don't rush into anything. Carefully do your numbers to see if it's doable for you and the long-term costs. Good luck!

Will an RV Resort let you rent out the lot? Some condo associations have rules about renting also. The biggest problem I see with buying a condo now and going FT in the RV is that your nice pretty new condo that you pick out will have been lived in by renters for X number of years. When you're at the point where you want/need to give up RVing, who knows what kind of shape that condo will be in - or what the neighborhood will be.I'd say put the equity away, using sound qualified financial assistance, for the time being. Let it build in interest while you're out fulltiming. When you reach the point where you want to stop fulltiming, then look into buying a place. If you buy now, you don't want to put your belongings into the condo with renters living there so you'd have to add storage on to the expenses. So, buying now means association dues AND storage fees. Buy later and you're only putting out storage fees for the foreseeable future. Put away the money you would have put out on association dues and gain a bit more security for the future when you can't work for extra money.

Need a sanity check or whadda think about this plan?

Cloud_9
Explorer
Jun 28, 2016
Well, I can only tell you about our experiences . We knew we had to downsize , sold the s&b, too big, too expensive to maintain in our retirement, and located in an isolated rural area, beautiful, but not where a senior with health issues should be living. Sold house, took much longer than we expected by the way, and went full time, lasted 2 years, found living to be cheaper, enjoyed the lifestyle(it is a lifestyle, not rving or camping, or vacation. Be sure you both are fully on board with this, as you will be together 24/7 in 300 square feet . We didnt have a problem with this, It was old age and health issues that forced us off the road. Still are part timers. My response when asked about full timing, is doi it while you are young enough to travel and are in good health, we waited too long, in our 70's.
rookie_rv
Explorer
Jun 28, 2016
Rookie Rver :C here! As simple as this may sound.....make your decision and "just believe". No where is it written that others will live their dreams and you wont. The first step is you gotta believe.......
Dr_Bobs_Patient
Explorer
Jun 29, 2016
Thanks for all the replies. Lots of ideas to mull over. I do lean towards going full time and saving the cash and not having a base of operations. Depending on my wife's health, my income and health insurance, retiring between age 63 to 65 is not likely. But I feel if we don't try FTing now, we'll never do it. No risk, no reward. Stay tuned for further developments.

PS: We're near Hilton Head Island so renting the RV lot or condo on the Island is not difficult.

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Need a sanity check or whadda think about this plan?

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