Future Full-Timer!

toedtoes wrote:

Rickehshay wrote:

2oldman wrote:
Fulltiming means being retired and travelling about. If that's not you, what are you doing for income?

Sorry, Full-Time to me was living in it year round.

I have a full-time job at a warehouse making $18/hr, as well as a few computer repair jobs that pay around $45/hour, but this is mainly on weekends for 4-5 hours.

I have looked at apartments, they just feel too big to me.

I think the idea of fulltiming in an RV because an apartment is "too big" is not really thinking ahead. What happens in a year or two if/when you have a girlfriend - how is she going to like that dinky RV?

How will you entertain when there's no space for a couple friends to hang out?

School isn't going to last forever (well, it can, but then you've got a whole other problem to worry about). What happens when you suddenly aren't gone all day and want to be able to enjoy being at home? You're now stuck in a 200 sq ft space.

What if you get laid off and need to cut expenses - can't get a roommate in that RV and reduce your $1000 payment and $300 space rent in half - you can get a roommate and cut your apartment rent in half.

You're looking at putting an awful lot of money into an RV that, in reality, will only make sense for a couple years at most. After that, your life will change (school ends, girlfriend, etc.) and those apartments that seem "too big" now will be extremely desirable. But you'll be stuck making payments on an RV you don't want anymore and can't get a buyer quick enough for.

Why not look into renting a studio apartment or a room in a house, etc.? There are lots of older properties in Sonoma County that could work - places with a small cottage that gets rented out, or an inlaw suite, or an old house converted into apartments. Heck, you could probably even find someone renting out an RV for living. If you do one of these, you can walk away far easier when you want something different for your life.

Going to approach your response in order. You bring up extremely valid points, which to a normal person might make sense.

I had a girlfriend, was with her for close to 3 years, we lived together for two of them. Wasn't really my thing, I could be considered a control freak for how I live. Would never go down that road of living with someone again.

I have no one I would even bother to entertain. Ever. I'm very anti-social in the real world. Unless you are into cars, computers, and could talk about it 24/7 and literally nothing else. We best be on normal speaking terms and hanging out at random places.

School better not last forever. Once it's over, I plan on finding better jobs. Taking on multiple clients for computer repair. Right now I have 3, I have turned a few down simply for not feeling comfortable with their setups and being able to keep them operating at a business level. (Something school is helping me fix.)

If you knew me, you could leave me alone for a week and come back and I will be in the same exact spot. Not to mention I do have some dirtbikes and don't mind leaving my tiny space if need be. However; TV, Bed, Bathroom, Wifi. Keeps me happy and satisfied with life. (Pathetic apparently).

Looked into renting rooms. The protection granted to me in California is dismal for renting private rooms. I'd be in a constant state of worry that someone was going through my stuff while I wasn't there. Not an option to bring it with me to work either. Things that would be in the same price range as a monthly payment and rent of this spot I'm looking at, are scooped up so fast I'd have to setup a script to auto reply to anything in the parameters. (Sucks living next to two colleges).

I also like to modify things. Can't rent a room and make it your own MOST of the time. No running speakers, no mounting a decent TV or running a media server.

However, I have not looked into people renting RVs... Don't even know where I would look for that. How it works, what sort of protection I get, what the requirements of it are. (RVs aren't technically homes, so don't know if the usual lease that protects renters/landlords can legally be applied.) It's out of my scope of knowledge at the time of typing this.

I don't plan on getting this in the next week or two. I plan on doing several months of planning, most likely waiting for school to end and see what other clients I can get. I've never been in a position of real risk. Primarily because I like to plan the **** out of it. I honestly could outright buy the trailer I want. However, it would put me into the red zone and I would be screwed if I was laid off and would not be able to afford rent of the space.

I will be planning more, just felt like posting here to get other peoples views of things. Everything helps in my choice. Thank you for the response. It did bring light on things I wasn't seeing.