What made you decide to go full-time RV living?

Took a buyout and early retirement. Sold home in Dallas, bought a Winnebago Sightseer. Put 50,000 miles on it the first year. Moved to Florida and stayed in extra home parents owned. Traded the Winnebago for DP. After mom passed away, sold the house as part of estate and asked ourselves what next? Buy, rent, build? We looked at the DP in the driveway and said.. let's full time!! Gave all the heirlooms and keepsakes to the family, had a huge garage sale, moved the rest into the RV and hit the road and never looked back!! We've put 100,000 miles on the DP in 8 years and still places we haven't seen. My mom who loved camping used to say you have to "put a stake in the ground" if you want to do something. Just saying "some day" doesn't cut it. Instead, say on Friday at 5pm we're leaving. We still live by that today. Tomorrow at 6am, we're leaving!

We got a full price offer for our house. As soon as it closes we will be full timers by accident. Depending on what happens to the economy in the next few months it may be longer that expected. DW wants another house asap. Me, i wont miss the expense and yard work one bit.

We decided to full time for three reasons:

1. After living in Florida for 34 years we had our first direct hit by a hurricane. 17 days without power. Roof ruined, etc. It was no fun.

2. I had a minor stroke. Not much damage but sure was a wake up call.

3. Family history among my many uncles, showed a pattern of retiring at 65, then dying just a few months or years later.

We had always thought we'd be live aboard boaters when I retired. (Full disclosure, we started a business in 2003 figuring it would be a 'retirement biz', and I was able to retire from public education at age 50 in Dec. of 2010). After doing the research for a few years, we decided that full time RV'ing would be a better option -- see more places, less expensive, not as weather driven.
In 2006, we bought a TT and pulled out every June came back every August trying to get a feel for the lifestyle. The more years we did it, the more years we stretched both ends of it. Knew that it was going to be the right thing for us. We designed the business (travel agency) to be one that could be fully internet, cell phone driven and that was a part of our planning. Even though now my wife has some health problems that is keeping us tethered to a winter and a summer place, no regrets.

We had a new home construction business and in 2003 had purchased a class A to have as a "mobile office" in a subdivision where we were building because it seemed better than renting an "office trailer." We took it on a couple weekend trips and when it was no longer needed as a "mobile office" we sold it. I was not all that impressed with the "RV Life" at that time because we were traveling in planes when we would go anywhere due to time constraints with working. Then came the economic "downturn" and we lost almost all of our earthly belongings. We had worked almost all of our adult lives building a reputable business and lost it all due to the economy. Needless to say, we were devastated. We were in our late 50's, no jobs, no insurance, almost no money. Well, after much soul searching, we decided to get off that ledge and I took a job I hated and my DH was trying to get a job also but at that time was almost possible. We started researching the RV fulltiming lifestyle and decided for our sanity we had to give it a try. We jumped in with all 4 feet, we were on the road for 1 year and worked at a wonderful RV resort in WY and at Amazon. Then I was getting cold feet because we didn't have health insurance and because of our ages we thought maybe it would be more prudent for us to go back to our hometown and try to get jobs again. We have regretted it since. We have been back working for 2 1/2 yrs, miss the RV lifestyle so bad, and will be going back out fulltiming in March 2014 and this time will not look back. We've seen both sides and know where our hearts are.........on the road.

Let me start this by saying that I had a massive heart attack when I was 34. I am now 52. My wife and I Always wanted a coach and to go full time. It was our pipe dream too. In April of 2009 we were walking through the marina in Saint Mary's GA when we came across a gentleman working on his sail boat. After chatting with him we learned that it was always a dream for him and his brother to own sailboats and cruise the world together. Well as fate would have it, in February of 2009 he buried his brother who died unexpectedly at the age of 47. He said it really made him think," when is really going to be the right time to make a move to live his dream. Nobody is guaranteed tomorrow" So he took ownership of the idea and made it happen. When we met him in St. Mary's he had just purchased his boat and was bringing it up from the Bahamas. So after hearing that story, it made us think. What are we waiting for? So we took ownership of the idea and made it happen. In January of 2010 we found our coach on a website for RV's that are owner financed(no banks). We have been fulltiming since with no regrets. Remember, IF YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOOSE!

For years, our vacations consisted of flying somewhere, renting a car, and driving a loop around the countryside - we covered about 40 states that way. We got tired of hotels and road food and so bought a boat. We could weekend camp on the boat so we did for nine months of the year for two years, even taking week long trips in the boat (towable) to places like Key West and the Outer Banks. But, a drawback of a boat is that you can't go for a hike when you feel like it (you can only walk so far on a 22' c-dory) so we decided to try a tt. We got a small 22' no slide jayco and, after the boat, it was luxurious. It had a toilet and a shower! So for two years we spent nearly every weekend (and many longer vacations) in our tt. We would leave friday afternoon and come home Sunday night; our s&b was where we stayed so we could work so we could travel on the weekends. Last September we traveled cross country to Arizona, Utah, and Colorado. About 8 days into our month long trip, a tree fell on our s&b. We had some family and friends assess the damage and meet with the insurance people. It damaged the garage, the electric service, my daily driver; we continued on our trip anyway. Every night, when we returned to the tt after an amazing day of hiking and site seeing, we thought, "eventually, we have to go home - our other home." So on the drive back east, we decided we would rather live in the tt than live in our house. We wouldn't have to drive for three days to get 'home' because we would already be there. We got home, fixed our house, went back to work. And hated every minute of it. By December, we were looking at new tts, one that we could live in full time. In January we bought one. I retired from my job July 1; DH retires on December 14. In January, we hit the road. We have been saving for years, living way below our means so we could retire early (we are 47). We just didn't know exactly what we would do when we retire. Now we do, at least for the first two years.

We haven't started fulltiming yet - we have four more months before we go. When we realized we only lived here because of our jobs, we decided we would leave when we retire. I have spent the last two months painting and purging - getting our house ready for sale. Right now the market is great for sellers so we hope to sell pretty quickly. And then, we are out of here.

Here's a link to our page on Why we Full Time

Barb

We had a large home on a private lake in Indiana that we had just spent five years remodeling, from the studs up. We loved it and planned to live there until we died. Life had other plans for us! We had a very nice Class C that we stored offsite and traveled every single weekend, year round. The bylaws stated we had 48 hours before and after each trip to have the RV onsite. Well, a rich old lady did not like it, the board was afraid of her, so they changed the bylaws to say we could not even drive past the guard house, not for five minutes. So, we had talked about loving the RV and what fun it would be to travel the U.S. We decided we would sell the house, live in an apartment for a few years to fast track our retirement, and then hit the road. I retired at 46 and we hit the road fulltime. We LOVE it!! We have no desire to own a house again, ever, so our exit plan is either our owned lot in a luxury RV resort in the south or an apartment some place. Whatever works best for us at the time. Karma......the board president at the development was fired, could not find another job, his house was on the market for over a year and they lost their shirts.

We bought our first Class A motorhome about 2 years before we were both due to retire from the military because we knew we wanted to see more of the country. It was a 34 footer with one slide. We had family in primarily in Indiana and Maryland. Dave didn't want to live in Indiana and Baltimore was so expensive so when we retired, we built a home on a golf course in Florida. We spent the next five years, golfing, eating, golfing, social drinking and traveling in our motorhome primarily in the summers to get away from the heat of Florida.

We found that we were waiting to travel in the summer until after the grandkids got out of school and visited us in Florida. That put it into mid June before we would start heading out.

We decided to look at moving further north, say Pennsylvania or Ohio (between the two families) and then traveling in our motorhome during the Winter. After not finding anything just right, we decided we would just sell the house and buy a bigger motorhome and live in it for 3-5 years. That was nearly six years ago. We still haven't been everywhere and seen everything on our list but it is getting a little smaller every year.

We will probably end up building a small 600-700 square foot RV Port home down in Florida in the next couple years. We still intend to travel 4-5 months of the year. We want to be able to have our motorhome parked right next to our next house with full hook-ups so it can provide additional living space and also so it can be ready to go at a moment's notice. We plan to basically still live in the motorhome but use the port home to spend the day in and to pursue hobbies not well suited to the smaller space of a motorhome.