What do you do with your mail?

In reality, it sounds like you are 'going full time'. You state 'we are not coming back to the same place. Once we are on the road, we are homeless, so to speak.'. That's pretty much the definition of Fulltiming.

As others have said, you really are looking for a domicile state. The 3 big choices are Texas, Florida, and South Dakota, mainly because they do not have an income tax and they are very Fulltime friendly.

Basically, you are saying that you will no longer be a resident of your current state, probably because you will no longer own property or be renting an apartment - you will be living in your RV. You will need to declare a domicile state. As an example, the address on your current driver's license will no longer be valid.

Your statement - "I guess I worry if things are forwarded to an out of state address, that waves red flags to people. Who? I'm not really sure. DMV,Insurance,tax collector," - really doesn't apply. Once you declare a domicile, then you will have an address in that state and your mail will go there, your DL will show that address, you will use that address for banking, vehicle registration, IRS, etc. That will be your REAL address.

Contact Escapees and have a talk with them. I am a fulltimer and have Florida as my domicile state. I use St Brendan's Isle in Florida for my mail. You could also call them as they are very helpful.

I also suggest that you visit the Fulltimer's forum and start spending a lot of time reading the posts.

Tim

luvmydogs wrote:
..we are not coming back to the same place. Once we are on the road, we are homeless, so to speak.

Ok, so are you informing anyone who sends you mail that your address no longer works?

luvmydogs wrote:
I guess I worry if things are forwarded to an out of state address, that waves red flags to people. Who? I'm not really sure. DMV,Insurance,tax collector, people like th

It doesn't wave flags. If you're counting on paper mail for bills, that's a big problem. You'll need to have ALL your bills online.

When we hit the road we could have had DD pickup our mail but didn't want her to have to deal with it. We did get a mail service in another state but we also planned to set residency there after we sold our house. The state and county of our then domicile had no problem sending tax bills to us there nor did insurance companies, as it was not our legal address just our mailing address. Also had no problem signing up for SS benefits although I was questioned why mailing address was in one state and legal address was in another. I explained to the interviewer why and that was that.

luvmydogs wrote:
plus we are not coming back to the same place.

Then the discussion isn't about mail - it is about changing your domicile / legal residence. (Assuming you are not planning to keep a home or land you currently own).

You have to have a physical address. Otherwise you cannot get a drivers' license, vote, get the vehicles registered, etc.

Your choices come down to:

1) Change your residence every time you move.

or

2) Establish a legal residence/ domicile in one of the states which make it easy to do so.

The most popular choices are Texas, Florida and South Dakota - because they have easy rules, and they have no state income tax.

Go to the Escapees web site and look at their information. You don't have to join Escapees - but they have a lot of good information on this subject. You can even call them and ask questions.

Now the BIG ISSUE - which is not mail.

Health Insurance/ Health Care - If you are on Medicare or Tricare (US military health coverage) - changing your state of residence is not a big deal.

Under age 65 - it gets complicated. You need professional advice.

We use a mail forwarding service as we are full-time. Florida, S Dakota and Texas has many of these services available. You would sign up with them, change your address on all of your mail to one they give you. They then send mail to you wherever you are when requested. Many RV parks will accept mail for you, or it can be sent to the local post office general delivery. You would want to be somewhere you would be staying for a few days. Do a search for mail forwarding services in each of those states and there is an information page on each of their websites. If you also wish to establish residency in their state, they can help you do that too. You would then get your drivers license, register vehicles etc. You would then have a legal street address in that new state that would be used for tax purposes etc. We currently pay $10 month service fee with cost of postage to forward the mail. Most fulltimers establish residency in these states because there is no state tax, their registration fees are lower for vehicles and rvs, they are very accommodating to fulltimers and have an understanding of our life style.

Alll great info, but sadly I have no one here that will take in my mail, plus we are not coming back to the same place. Once we are on the road, we are homeless, so to speak. Our post office doesnt seem like the kind that will be interested in helping at all, but I can give that a try. I guess I worry if things are forwarded to an out of state address, that waves red flags to people. Who? I'm not really sure. DMV,Insurance,tax collector, people like that. I dont know why its a problem if I pay all my taxes and bills, I just dont want to do anything to piss anyone off. So I'm torn between a good service out of this state, or a mediocor one here. Would be much easier if I was coming back or had people here to trust, but I dont. Thank everyone for your info though, feel free to wiegh in more if you have any other opinions.

neighbor or relative.

if not, use a mail service. I use http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/ the plan i have is she keeps the mail until i ask for it. we are in mexico so it may be months before we actually receive mail. she pays bills if we ask and etc. talk to terri.

insurance and residence are two other issues that you need to consider if you own a home.....weigh the options.

couple of things. who ever sends you your mail you can always use "general delivery" in the USA to a specific post office. we do this when we know we'll be at a specific city at a certain time.

I pay a trusted neighbor to pick up the mail daily and water the plants weekly. He is a retiree on a fixed income and appreciated the extra cash.

As mentioned above - there is a lot of discussion of mail issues in the Snowbirds and the Fulltiming sections of this forum.

Some quick short items.

luvmydogs wrote:
Sorry I have so many questions, but trying to get all ducks in a row before taking off and dont want to make to many mistakes. My question is, when your going to be gone for months to indefinitly, what do you do with your mail and mailing address.

Assuming you are planning to return to your present home/ location - you can use a local area friend or relative to pick up your mail and deal with it.

This usually does not work well for more than a few weeks.

luvmydogs wrote:
I know there are mail services that have regular addresses who will forward and some even will let you look at your mail online (love this option), but where do you get it?

First local option is usually a UPS store with mail boxes. We are full-timers so we use Escapees Mail Service in Livingston, TX.

luvmydogs wrote:
Do you need an address in the same state as your drivers license? As your insurance? Or does that even matter.

Now you are asking questions about domicile or residence - not mail.

Yes, you can have a 'temporary' mailing address anywhere - which is not in the state of your driver's license, insurance, etc. However, you have to maintain your domicile/ residence at the address on your driver's license. All states require you to update your driver's license, insurance, voting address when you move your residence.

When we move to a volunteer position and will be there for longer than two months - we always get a local PO box. But that is mainly for the mail service to forward items to us. We never change our official address.

Again - assuming you plan to come back to your home, that you own property (a home, land, etc) at that location - you need to keep some ability to receive mail at that location.

luvmydogs wrote:
I found the best services out west, but do I need to have a service in the state I leave? I have to put something into the post office of where I will no longer be to forward mail somewhere. Any ideas?

We have friends who are gone sometimes up to six months at a time from their home. No, they are not moving to full-time.

They work with their local post office (helps to be in a small town where you can know the local postmaster) to hold their mail for the time they are out of town.

---------------------------

Today most folks can do almost everything on-line and avoid physical mail all together. The only thing we actually need a physical mail address for are things like receiving our prescriptions, updated credit cards, etc.

We pay extra for, and have Escapees throw away 99.9% of the mail received at our mail box.

We call them, they tell us what is each item in our mail box, and we tell them what to forward, and to throw away everything else. (Especially offers to refinance the house we sold a year ago.)

my daughter has my po key. we live in the same state so she gets my mail and tells me about anything important. Do you have relatives that could do this, or friends in your town?

bills I do online at my bank.