Dear Snow birds

[Greene728]

Sitting here reading all these posts of you snow birds heading south for the winter is so depressing. I'm only 41 with quite a few years of work still ahead and the wife has a few more than me at 36 yrs of age. We get to camp quite a bit during the spring, summer, and fall months and absolutely love every day of every trip. I hope the Good Lord sees fit for us to someday be able to do this and travel around at least on a semi full time basis. I'd love to someday just be able to load and hook up with no timetable or specific destination in mind and just return when we are good and dang ready. We live in West Central GA though and we probably wouldn't have to snow bird though as our winters are generally mild. But it would be great to just head down to the gulf somewhere and spend the winter just cause we can! Lol.
Anyways, all of you fortune enough to do this, have some fun for us! Hopefully someday we will see some of you out there and stay with you till were good and ready to go whenever and wherever we want! In the mean time, we're just gonna have to settle with living vicariously through you all!

Safe travels to you all!

[Jandsa]

Pipeman wrote:
....... Then there is the reality of looking forward to the golden years which aren't always golden. You'll be older and have aches and pains that you don't have now. Time will pass by really fast. Take what you have and live because you could look and feel like some of us do. What darsben said.......

....So agree to what you posted. I got to find the Cat in the Hat poem about older age.:D

[Jandsa]

Duh me....I didn't scroll down far enough to read to notice that Greene already has is set up to camp. Wonderful! Just enjoy the time that you are able to camp. My regret is that we did not buy another TT or 5ver sooner. Time has a way of slipping by and I guess we were just busy with our jobs and all the work that comes with a house.

A big hug to you for being a firefighter and paramedic...no easy job for sure...so you well know how circumstances can change an in an instant.

My wish to everyone is to have a Happy and Healthy New Year. Be Safe!

[Greene728]

I'm not wishing our lives away at all believe me. But the family and I love camping and traveling around in the comforts of home. I too am a firefighter/paramedic and dearly love my job and the folks I'm blessed to work with. And when the day comes I can retire, or am forced to, I'll probably be sobbing like a baby.
I already know to well how time flies. My girls are already 16 and 12 and I find myself looking around daily wondering where the time went. I also lost my dear sweet pawpaw on Christmas eve and he was the last living grand parent I had left. We will be laying him to rest tomorrow.
I'm just looking forward to the day when hopefully things slow down a bit and hopefully we have the time, health, and means to travel and do what we love which is travel and camp and see new places and faces.
I wouldn't trade my current situation for anything and we are planning as best we can with 2 young girls for the future. I was just reading some of the posts here and it got me thinking how much fun it must be if done right and prepared for.

Again, safe travels to you guys, and enjoy what you are able to do. And remember, some of us are looking up to you hoping to someday be where you are. But again, I am very happy where I am currently and wouldn't change a thing!

Happy new year to all!!!

[Nolan]

1. Don't have kids.
2. Don't need a fancy car and other toys.
3. Don't need to live in a fancy house.
4. Save, save, save and invest safely.

[Jandsa]

Greene,

Do not wish your life away. Enjoy your younger years with the youth and energy you have. Take one day at a time and cherish the little things in life that you may be taking for granted.

You don't have to live vicariously. You can start off with a used TT or even a pop-up or tent,and take mini-vacations during the weekend or even for a week at RV parks not too far from where you live.

We started out with a pop-up when the kids were little and took some weekend trips. Later, we got a 5ver when the kids were in school and during the summer took a month trip out west.

The 5ver was sold when the kids were teenagers, as they no longer wanted to go with us and we were NOT going to leave them at home alone. Can we spell p-a-r-t-y while the parents were gone.

Finally, the kids are gone and a much older Mom and Dad are able to have a 5ver again and travel more. We are just hoping we stay healthy enough to continue to do this for a few more years. I'm not ready for the rocking chair yet.

Do what brings you joy and please don't wish your life away until retirement. It will get there soon enough.

[Bamaman11]

And to meet one's ultimate goals requires:
1. Living below your means. Buy much less house than you can afford. Drive vehicles until they're unservicable.
2. Saving to the max. including taking advantage of all matching funds on 401K's, etc. Pay yourself first.
3. Starting saving earlier, rather than later. Only time and compounding of interest will get you to your goals.
4. Investing in a diversified investment portfolio. You'll get nowhere in just savings accounts and CD's in this "no interest" times.

[valhalla360]

I strongly suggest you lay out a plan and start working on it.
- 1. Set up a budget and track where everything goes today.
- 2. Determine what lifestyle you want.
- 3. Determine what that lifestyle will cost.
- 4. Compare where you are and what it will take to make steps 2 & 3 work at the same time.
- 5. Go back and refine steps 2 & 3 until you are comfortable with the results of step 4. (in other words balance how much time and effort are you willing to put in to get the lifestyle you expect)
- 6. Based on the results, start working towards that goal (but reassess periodically)

We went into semi-retirement (work part time for insurance) at age 37 (7yrs ago). We split time between our boat and our 5th wheel. Currently writing this from an apartment in Mexico and heading to Rome for a couple months in late January.

[Splashers3]

Green728 - what a very nice post, for a lot of reasons...you've gotten some nice replies back.

I have 3-4 years until retirement, unless something changes and I need to keep working....wife, has a few more than I. I can't wait to put the miles on the rig also.

Enjoy what you have, and as was previously stated, it will come.

Mike

[Pipeman]

I've been retired for going on 13 years now. I was one of the lucky ones who loved my job from the start to the finish, so I miss the people I worked with and the adrenalin rush of doing what I loved.I was able to retire at 56. That said, I will say don't push the retirement thing unless you are ready in your head and hopefully financially. Then there is the reality of looking forward to the golden years which aren't always golden. You'll be older and have aches and pains that you don't have now. Time will pass by really fast. Take what you have and live because you could look and feel like some of us do. What darsben said.......

[LynnandCarol]

Been retired for 4 years and sometimes take the wonderful winters on the Gulf for granted! It is a wonderful post like yours that reminds us of how truly blessed we really our! Stay focused and you will be here sooner than you think...lol

[Executive45]

Retirement isn't all it's cracked up to be !!!

The biggest issue we've found since retiring and going full time is:

WE NEVER GET A DAY OFF !!...:B:B:B

Dennis

[greende]

My situation is even more different than above. I have three more work days till I retire, but DW is A LOT younger than me. She is only 48. We're trying to eventually see if she can get a job where she can work from a computer and we'll do extended stays in various parts of the country.

[Padlin]

I'm in the middle, and I think it's even worse. I retired about a year ago, my wife has less then 1 to go. Almost had her convinced yesterday to take a month off and head south, but here we sit.

[rmalik1]

Greene728 wrote:
Sitting here reading all these posts of you snow birds heading south for the winter is so depressing. I'm only 41 with quite a few years of work still ahead and the wife has a few more than me at 36 yrs of age. We get to camp quite a bit during the spring, summer, and fall months and absolutely love every day of every trip. I hope the Good Lord sees fit for us to someday be able to do this and travel around at least on a semi full time basis. I'd love to someday just be able to load and hook up with no timetable or specific destination in mind and just return when we are good and dang ready. We live in West Central GA though and we probably wouldn't have to snow bird though as our winters are generally mild. But it would be great to just head down to the gulf somewhere and spend the winter just cause we can! Lol.
Anyways, all of you fortune enough to do this, have some fun for us! Hopefully someday we will see some of you out there and stay with you till were good and ready to go whenever and wherever we want! In the mean time, we're just gonna have to settle with living vicariously through you all!

Safe travels to you all!

U may not have to snow bird in the winter but being at elevation in the summer can be very comfortable - FT means u can chase spring!

[Paul_Clancy]

The real trick is to figure out how to retire at 41. I watch the big Rv pusher clubs come through some of the campgrounds we stay at and think I sure hope I have the energy they do when I retire.