I read all the time about travelers preparing to enter the full time lifestyle. I appreciate their enthusiasm. Some start preparing 1 year before “takeoff date,” some up to 10 years prior. I know that we were unusual. We planned a year of preparation, but only got 32 days because of a very fast sale on the house. It was on the market four days, sold full price, in 8, and the buyer stipulated a move in date 20 days later. In a way I am glad, as we did not have the time to get emotional over “stuff.” In another way, I wish we had more time to gain maximum dollars. 1. What do you think is the “average” preparation time is?2. How far in advance is reasonable?I am referring to entering the full time lifecycle, not retirement day. I am not writing a book or taking a survey. Just curious.

A year or less. Anything more and you run the risk of over thinking it.

We put our house up for sale about a year before we retired in case it took a while to sell it - - 3 days later it was sold! So we had to scramble and find a townhouse to rent for a year - which turned out to be a blessing for us - we down sized from 3500+ sq feet to 1400 sq ft to 389 sq ft. And because we weren't rushed, we took our time to find our motorhome, then had it out on some shake down cruises and we able to get rid of all of the stuff we needed to without much hassle. We gave our daughter all of the furniture, etc., as part of her inheritance. Shipped most of our art work to my sister & mother for safe keeping, gave a lot of books and other things to the college and then we moved into the coach over 2 weeks before my last day. Our only hiccup was Dave needing 3 stents implanted during those 2 weeks, but we managed to get through it all.Barb

We made the decision and left in 3 months! Sold the house and everything in it. Full-timed for 16 years without a regret.

We were a little bit different. We planned for 15 years, bought our full time rig ~ 1 1/2 years before, and got rid of as much as possible from the house in the final month.Put it on the market Feb 15th, and it sold for full price the next day. We have been technically full timing in Nevada since Feb 17th while the house is in escrow. All we have left is waiting for a big check, doctor appointments, a bed, and 2 lazy boys.Life is good. Our only regret so far, is not doing it sooner.

Once you start applying a plan to go a year tops. This is different than having a vague idea that it might be fun years out.The reason being with years to seriously plan and prepare, people over plan and want everything perfect and since that never happens, they are never ready.

Time to prepare? | Good Sam Community

Flanz
Explorer
Mar 20, 2015
Nice to see others getting ready to attempt to fulltime.

We started late last year, maybe October? Our plan is to start around September 2016.

Started selling everything and only have a few items plus furniture left. We're completely debt free and still working. Our goal is to buy a new DP and sell the house and then we're off.

I think we may have started planning and dreaming early. I say this because we are starting to NOT like working and a year and a half could take it's toll on us. But, when it happens we'll be ready and since we're debt free and working, we should be able to save more money to spend while full-timing.

Another thing, since we're 1.5yrs away, we are creating a spread sheet and tracking all of our expenses by the week, month and will roll it up to the year. We hope that this will help with budgeting while out on the road....

Good Luck to all...

-paul
AUwing2
Explorer
Mar 25, 2015
We started making plans about 2 years ago when Corporate suddenly bid me farewell. We knew what we wanted to do but because of uncertainties, was too afraid to pull the trigger. I took a job offer and we decided to question everything we do and only do it if it fits "the plan". We still vacation, see the kids and go out with friends but we kinda know where everything is if you know what I mean.

Plan away, imagine what it would be like.
Mrs_Gryphon
Explorer
Mar 27, 2015
Initially, we planned for October of this year, but events and economics changed in our favor, we are now looking at about four months. DH is retiring in two months, I've a couple to do beyond that, but the new truck is purchased, the fiver is on order, and the house will be on the market right after Himself retires. We don't have much in the way of 'heirlooms', and the kids will be coming to collect the stuff they want soon. We are sorting and getting rid of stuff on a daily basis, and it is oddly freeing. Winnowing out my crafting and sewing supplies is a bit hard, but my crafting friends are all very happy to take the excess off my hands. Of course, we have been discussing and pre-planning for about three years, so we are able to execute in a shorter time frame without too much turmoil.

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