PartyOf Five wrote:
Without putting a damper on your plans, it seems like you're making a big lifestyle shift- without explaining why. That's your business and right, of course, but it raises an eyebrow for me- like Pianotuna.
I suggest smaller steps to downsize and sell between now and then. Do you need the Jeep right away or could you visit dear off-road areas the first year and be fine with the Camaro, for example. I think it's be a blast. Ditto for leaving MI- maybe buy a 2 bdr and use 1 for storage, and then you have a domicile and a home base to park toys that didn't fetch a good price. You can sell the smaller house in a couple years- or use it instead of TN, going south in winter with the RV.
There are so many ways to slice it, and plenty of people I've talked to only see 1 option, and then have hindsight.
I understand your thinking and thanks for the suggestions, friends have told us the same thing, but we are set on it. We are so ready for this change, for the last twenty years my husband and I have worked (ourselves/not hired) to the bone on a house we built on a lake, building decks, installing wood floors, insulation, seawalls, gardens,crown molding, paver brick patios, installing underground sprinklers, recently repainting the whole interior, plus finishing a 1500 sq ft basement with full bathroom by himself, the list goes on and on and never ends, now we have to deal with the clean up of 20 tall oak trees, it consumes most of the week end until into December, during this time he also built 4 large 800 HP engines for our offshore boats. Up until a few years ago he worked 58 hrs a week for 30 years at GM, thankfully he retired from there a few years ago and took another full time job, thankfully it is only 40 hours which LOL almost feels part time to him. We have a lot of equity in our house and he will fully retire when he turns 63 in May. It's hard to explain but we want a break from everything to do with owing a home. Even if we rent or buy a small one, which we thought a little bit about we would still have responsibilities, things like mortgage, utilities, outside maintenance, getting broken into etc. We are craving the freedom from home ownership and the ability to go where we want, and spend time together. Those that know Ian feel he will not have trouble with the RV because he is use to driving a big diesel truck pulling a 43"boat and we love staying in marinas, I assume campgrounds will be similar. We snow ski and have been out west probably more than a 100 times but not once in the summer so we cannot wait to do that and not be thinking about a little house somewhere. We both agree that the worse that could happen is we not like it, and then just come off the road sooner than later and either sell the RV or use it for vacations. The camaro will definitely be sold, it's a convertible and when Ian bought it in 2017 he planned to own if just for about 3 years anyway. LOL my husband is a motorhead, with tons of construction abilities so i think we will be good. Me I just can't wait to travel, meet new people, hike, bike, spend time with my little pup, and curl up with a good book at night, LOL i might even pick up trying to learn to knit again.