Help me wrap my arms around the full time process

[Thunder_Mountai]

Well, the wife announced she is thinking about full timing. I've thought about it but just stayed quiet. Need some advice from your vast experiences on this subject. Below are some points I would like help with.

1. We are in our early-mid 60s and in excellent health. So, I would expect we would have a good 10-15 years to full time. Did you sell everything or did you store some "seed" items to restart housekeeping after the road?
2. We are burdened by generations of family stuff plus 40 years of our own collecting and buying and selling. We have everything from a grand piano to a 6 1/2' antique rolltop desk. We have no kids or family that needs or wants our stuff. How long did it take you to sell out your stuff?
3. How did you get rid of the stuff? I figure some will go on eBay, some at an antique action, some at specialty auctions such as Native American stuff, a couple of yard sales and then a final on site auction to get rid of the lawn mowers, snow blowers and yard tools.
3. Did you rent a safety deposit box to keep jewelry and important papers or take everything on the road? What about your will?
4. Did you sell the house or lease it in case you didn't like the road?
5. Please share any additional information from you experiences!

[GypsiesAtHeart2]

Had 3 yard sales this past summer... way too much work, but it can get the word out that everything is for sale. Craig's List works & going to try E-bay.

A key strategy is to concentrate your energy on your best stuff. Research, clean & organize for best value. Everybody has nick knacks & junk.

Good Luck!

[Thunder_Mountai]

Roy&Lynne wrote:
Personally I'm of the opinion that if there is doubt, don't. Instead plan on a long trip, 2 or 3 months and then reassess when you get back. If both parties aren't onboard, it just doesn't work.

Been there done that for the last four years plus other two to three week jaunts. We're comfortable in the MH and that includes the three dogs and four cats!

[Roy_Lynne]

Personally I'm of the opinion that if there is doubt, don't. Instead plan on a long trip, 2 or 3 months and then reassess when you get back. If both parties aren't onboard, it just doesn't work.

[Thunder_Mountai]

Thanks to all of you. Don't know if we'll full time in the near future, but we are starting to downsize for the future. First load going to a Native American specialty auction. Starting to sell some items on eBay.

We have decided that we would put some items in storage to set up housekeeping again. Ran the numbers on five years of storage for one large unit, and I still couldn't replace my dad's 60 year old Snap-on, Williams and Blue Point tools. Also ran the numbers on replacing some of our solid wood and antique furniture that we use everyday with new junk. Most of the technology kind of stuff will be sold. Kind of fun calculating the cost of replacement vs. storage.

[C-Bears]

I can't really add any new ideas to what has already been stated. I will just relate what we did and how it is working for us.

First of all we sold the house and most of the furniture. Rented a 10x30 storage unit. Since the storage unit was 12' high I built a loft which was 8x10 because it was impossible to stack items 12' high. This enables us to keep our extra vehicle in the storage unit when we are out on the road for extended periods of time. We were aggressive in getting rid of stuff (Craigs List, family, friends) because if you start doing the math you sure don't want to rent 2 storage sheds for an extended period of time.

I am fortunate because our summer CG where we spend 3 - 4 months a year allows me to park a 24' enclosed trailer at their facility very cheaply. This trailer holds all my tools, golf cart, and extra stuff.

I am not shy about having all of our jewelry, passports, paperwork with us in our 5th wheel. I am well armed and shoot on a regular basis.

The only other thing we did that may be a little different than some fulltimers was how we set up our mail. We are about 95% paperless but there are some things that do come USPS. We changed our address to our oldest son's address. Our driver's license, registrations, and addresses for banking and everything else is that address. When we are in the "home" area for part of the summer we just stop by his house and pick up the mail. When we are gone the rest of the year he forwards our mail to us. We leave him several pre-stamped large padded envelopes and he just stuffs the mail in there every couple of weeks and sends it to where we tell him to. It works great!

It has been an extremely smooth transition and we love every minute of it. DW if having her second knee replacement in 3 weeks. The first one was done just before we went full time when we were in the house. It will actually be easier this time when she comes home because our 5th wheel has a large bathroom and it is only 3 or 4 steps from the master bedroom! Life is good!

[Clay_L]

TenOC wrote:

Clay L wrote:


I am sure glad we did not follow the convectional advice and get rid of all of it.
We have spent about $15,000 buying what we need for the house - stuff that we sold for maybe 10 percent of what it cost back then.

You should have bought used not new. How much longer are you going to live in the "new" home??????

Who knows?
I am 74 and my mother lived to 100 and my father to 88. My grand parents lived to their late eighties. My wifes parents lived even longer. Her father died at 101 and her mother is 98 and still lives alone -with some help cleaning and bathing.

This is our last house. Used didn't seem like a good option and we could easily afford new stuff anyway.

[TenOC]

Clay L wrote:


I am sure glad we did not follow the convectional advice and get rid of all of it.
We have spent about $15,000 buying what we need for the house - stuff that we sold for maybe 10 percent of what it cost back then.

You should have bought used not new. How much longer are you going to live in the "new" home??????

[Clay_L]

We sold a lot of stuff,gave a lot to our kids and places like the Salvation Army.
We did not follow the advice of many about getting rid of everything and put quite a bit in storage (10 by 30 storage unit).

After 11 years of full timing we bought a house in western CO and had all of our stuff moved here from NH. We had sold all of the big appliances and most of the soft furniture but still had a lot of stuff.

I am sure glad we did not follow the convectional advice and get rid of all of it.
We have spent about $15,000 buying what we need for the house - stuff that we sold for maybe 10 percent of what it cost back then.

If we had to replace what we had stored - like guns, complete woodworking shop, my wifes equipment for building miniatures, her genealogy research records and small appliances, desks and office equipment, and my electronic gear, it would have cost a lot more than what we spent for storage.
Some things like heirlooms that came from as far back as our great grand parents could not be replaced at any cost.

As an aside, while full timing we so loved the freedom from yard work that we have zeriscaped our grounds to eliminate yard work as much as possible. It has certainly minimized it to a point where it can be handled even if we become limited by health issues That is common in western CO so it isn't out of place. The house has vinyl sided so is a very low maintenance item.
We have also put in two RV sites with hookups for RV friends that visit.

[Thunder_Mountai]

Thanks for the responses. Some food for thought. Wife took a big step last night. Found out that her grand piano is worth $15-20K and has someone interested. Be glad to get that boat anchor out of my life.

[Dog_Folks]

rockhillmanor wrote:

Dog Folks wrote: The last little bit was placed at the curb with a "free to take" sign.

:B

That is what I ended up doing too!

As I continued to prepare the house for sale, tired of having yard sales I made a big FREE sign and placed the items at the end of my driveway every morning. Actually made me feel good as people stopped by to find something they needed for free.

It worked for us. People came out of the "woodwork" and most of it was gone in 15 minutes! We did this immediately after closing the yard sale.

Made us wonder:"Where were all these people when it was for sale?

Were they hiding behind their curtains waiting for the "free" sign? :h

[rockhillmanor]

Dog Folks wrote: The last little bit was placed at the curb with a "free to take" sign.

:B

That is what I ended up doing too!

As I continued to prepare the house for sale, tired of having yard sales I made a big FREE sign and placed the items at the end of my driveway every morning. Actually made me feel good as people stopped by to find something they needed for free.

[TechWriter]

Thunder Mountain wrote:

1. We are in our early-mid 60s and in excellent health. So, I would expect we would have a good 10-15 years to full time. Did you sell everything or did you store some "seed" items to restart housekeeping after the road?

Since we sold the S&B, everything had to go because we didn't want to store anything.

2. We are burdened by generations of family stuff plus 40 years of our own collecting and buying and selling. We have everything from a grand piano to a 6 1/2' antique rolltop desk. We have no kids or family that needs or wants our stuff. How long did it take you to sell out your stuff?

Timing will depend on your particular situation. Here's ours . . . Our house went on the market in January, sold in March, and we had to be out of the house April 26.

Though we were able to get rid of some of our possessions before the house sold, we had a boatload of "stuff" left, so we had an estate sale the week before we had to leave the house.

The estate company was able to get rid of most of our things during a weekend sale. The remaining items were sold on consignment. However, an estate sale means pennies on the dollar. C'est la vie.

3. Did you rent a safety deposit box to keep jewelry and important papers or take everything on the road? What about your will?

Nope, but not a bad idea. We tried to scan as many of those important papers as possible.

4. Did you sell the house or lease it in case you didn't like the road?

It's sold.

5. Please share any additional information from you experiences!

DOMICILE -- Unless you currently live in Florida, South Dakota, or Texas, you may want to change your domicile to one of these 3 states because of no state taxes.

On the other hand, if you have to buy individual heath insurance (because you're not on Medicare), South Dakota would probably not be the best choice because of limited choices.

That said, we domicile in AZ because we bought a park model there.

BANKING -- If you don't have one already, I'd suggest a national bank (BOA, Wells Fargo, etc) instead of a state bank as it's handy having branch offices and ATMs all over the country.

[TenOC]

1. Pretend that you and your wife die. Dispose of the "stuff" the way you would want the kids to do if you die -- Think of the problems you will save them.

2. Have an exit plan if you stop FT.

3. You can always buy replacement "stuff" at someone else "estate sale".


4. Even with your best plans, you will keep way too much stuff. If you have not used it in 3 months, you do not need it.

[Old-Biscuit]

When we decided to go FT we shopped for over 6 months before purchasing 5vr/truck, then we ordered them.

When we picked up our rigs we then contacted family/friends to come and get what they wanted........or let us know and we shipped it to them.
Then we had an estate sale and sold EVERYTHING in one day.
We then placed house up for sale and moved into 5vr parked next to house.
Sold house and closed escrow 60 days later.
Our important stuff went with us.......set up new wills to reflect our new 'domicile' state (SD).
5vr was our home so the insurance policy was same as S&B........plus.

We had an 'exit' plan for the just in case but had no intentions of exercising it.......7 yrs. later life changed and we used our exit plan.

Our only regret....should have hit the road sooner.
Life is good..but we sure did enjoy the full time travel and are thankful we did it.

We found out that 'stuff' was just that...stuff. Less is more.