Hi: My husband and I are considering fulltiming in two years. I am ready to sell the house now, unfortunately I have several years yet to work. He is slightly older and retired. His only concern is "what if we tire of this in 10 years....then what?"He said he wouldn't like to start over and buy a house again, we have a comfortable retirement, but not nearly enough to start all over again. We do have a small mortgage but no other bills. I keep reminding him that without the expenses of a home we would actually save some money. I would love to either work on the road or become a camp host at a state park. I feel there are lots of options out there if one really wants to full time and have a small income. There as so many places we dream of seeing, but years quickly fly by and all we do is dream. We have rv'd over 10 years but to really see the country once retired I feel that fulltiming would be the best way to do this. I'm sure you all have your thoughts and I would love to hear them. This will be a major change for us so we really need to plan. Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.LouAnn

We are what they call half full timers now as we travel in the summer and winter. The spring and fall is spent at our cabin. We love it and soon may consider going full time as the cabin can be hard work at times (wood cutting, brush cutting, grass cutting, etc.). The only thing we don't like about it is the long travel days we sometimes have to make due to the distances of our planned stops. There is nothing like spending the winter in warm south TX for us.

One thing you might consider is to rent your house out to a tenant. Depending on where you live, and the amount of your mortgage payment, it may even provide additional cash flow. We are having a real estate agent handle ours. It cost us one month rent for the signing of a lease and 5 % monthly for her to handle all repair/incidental calls. Renting the house out may be scary to some extent, but with the proper financial and criminal background checks our agent is doing, we feel comfortable with the arrangement. You can even put a clause in the rental contract to give the tenant 90, 120 or 180 days to vacate in case of your desire to move back in.It is worth investigating in my humble opinion.

Freedom and less stress.Have you thought about renting the home and let it pay the morgage ans you can have it to fall back on if needes.

LarryDel wrote: His only concern is "what if we tire of this in 10 years....then what?"Now...anything.I believe it is far better to try something and not like it than to not try it and regret it. What if... in ten years, he gets tired of immobile house living? What if... in ten years, he still enjoys fulltiming and wants to continue?Try just three months. Close up the house one winter or summer and go. You have two years to save up some money and to plan what you would like to do. When the three months is over, make a decision for the next three months.Two years ago, my DH finally gave in and agreed to fulltime for a year. We are now 6 months away and he has decided that two years may be better and that we should sell the house. Once they get over the initial fear of 'jumping,' they sometimes 'jump' even further. It is often just that first step that is the hardest. I wish you the best of luck.

LarryDel wrote: I keep reminding him that without the expenses of a home we would actually save some money. I would love to either work on the road or become a camp host at a state park. I feel there are lots of options out there if one really wants to full time and have a small income. You may or may not save money as a fulltimer. If you move frequently, you'll pay higher rates in campgrounds or RV parks, not to mention the additional cost of fuel. Major repairs can also get very expensive. If you currently have a job that can go mobile, that would be your best bet for additional income. Second best would be seasonal work at a relatively high-paying job, like Amazon or sugar beet harvest. Camp hosting in general pays very little, often just an exchange for your site. Not saying that it can't be done or you shouldn't do it, just being realistic after fulltiming for 7 yrs.

Please share why you love the full time lifestyle??

weathershak
Explorer
Jul 08, 2013
LarryDel wrote:
Thanks to everyone for all of your wonderful thoughts and comments. Yes, Yes I agree with every one of you. It's a wonderful lifestyle and I am so ready to make the change. Larry has read all of the your comments and shakes his head yes and agrees with you all too! He knows it would be the best thing for us to do. He really does!!!! But it's just getting him to do it! Some of you have posted blogs for us to review. This is really helpful for him to see and hear about what fulltiming is all about. Did I forget to mention that I am 59 and he is 71--a young 71 but still 71!!! What is he waiting for I keep saying?????

Do you know what I like best about RV'ing...it's the wonderful people we have met in our travels and also the people who are taking the time to share with us their thoughts on the forum. Thanks so much, Lou Ann

BTW, I am presently RVing about 6 miles from Lewes, small world.
LarryDel
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
Thanks to everyone for all of your wonderful thoughts and comments. Yes, Yes I agree with every one of you. It's a wonderful lifestyle and I am so ready to make the change. Larry has read all of the your comments and shakes his head yes and agrees with you all too! He knows it would be the best thing for us to do. He really does!!!! But it's just getting him to do it! Some of you have posted blogs for us to review. This is really helpful for him to see and hear about what fulltiming is all about. Did I forget to mention that I am 59 and he is 71--a young 71 but still 71!!! What is he waiting for I keep saying?????

Do you know what I like best about RV'ing...it's the wonderful people we have met in our travels and also the people who are taking the time to share with us their thoughts on the forum. Thanks so much, Lou Ann
weathershak
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
2oldman wrote:
weathershak wrote:
. No house, No lawn, No mortgage, No property taxes. And if you get tired of the view, you can change it any time you want.
Boy that's it for me too, although I struggle to stay rid of the houses.

I love the freedom of being able to move from noisy places, and there are many of those.

My plans to fulltime was to be in about 8 years. I had to do it sooner. Should I mention the big "D" word, reason no house. I sure do not miss the house and yard maintenance. I am still working and am taking my time as far as future plans. After a year, I still have no interest in buying or renting. Even after going thru the winter months, I am looking forward to doing this over and over again. I am back to traveling up and down the east coast like I did during the prior years when we were a family. DW left and kids grew up. I still have a void to fill, but having the freedom to travel and make change, fills that void for now. Its a great life, even when you are single.
stickdog
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
LarryDel wrote:
Hi: My husband and I are considering fulltiming in two years. I am ready to sell the house now, unfortunately I have several years yet to work. He is slightly older and retired. His only concern is "what if we tire of this in 10 years....then what?"

What makes him think he'll be around in 10 years? We only have so much time on this earth and health. Years ago we were visiting Rocky Mountain NP, we ran into a older couple that were severely affected by the altitude they lamented that they should have done this when they were younger and healthier.

Fulltime 3 yrs enjoying every minute.
soos
Explorer II
Jul 07, 2013
I just talked to someone about this the other day and I think there are two "must haves" for fulltiming.
1. MUST get along extremely well wth partner
2. must have an exit strategy.

Other than that, everyone has their own way of fulltiming. some do it for a long time, others only for a few years. There are definite challenges at times, but every life style has those.
I don't think its that easy to make significant money on the road, but there are certainly ways to cut expenses- such as volunteering and workcamping.

YOLO!

Sue
Pop-Pop_C
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
DW and I retired two years ago. Sold the house the last of may two years ago.
We like it very well. Why worry about 10 years from now. A lot of things can happen
Between now and the why waste it. DW and I figure we will just rent a place at the end of
Our journey.
invstr55
Explorer
Jul 07, 2013
no property taxes, FREEDOM, no lawn to mow, FREEDOM, no hedges to trim, FREEDOM, no garage to clean, FREEDOM, Get to choose our own weather, FREEDOM, choose how close we will live to the things that interest us today, FREEDOM, live near all of the best motorcycle riding in the country, FREEDOM, live near the best mountains, FREEDOM, live near the best beaches, FREEDOM,live near the best cities, FREEDOM, live in the wilderness, FREEDOM...
Well you get the idea and by the way did I mention FREEDOM.

Happy Camping

Dan & Janice
chast
Explorer II
Jul 07, 2013
Hi--DW and I have full-timed for the past 20 years. We, like you, cannot afford to "start over" and buy a house to come off the road. Luckily, for us, we both feel much more comfortable in a motorhome than a stick house and do not feel that we ever would want to live in anything else! When the time comes, we will choose a campground to live in and stay put. We find that we control our expenses much more than when we owned a home. You can choose to travel or we can choose to stay put. We can boondock if we don't want to pay for a campground. For us it boils down to having the freedom to choose much more than it did when we owned a home. Good luck!
phil_crouch
Explorer
Jul 06, 2013
Selling the house was easy for us... We were going to downsize anyway, so decided to Sell and go fulltime... We put that money from the house into an Investment Account..

Went fulltime at 55, and did so for almost 10 years.. Wife then decided she wanted another house, which we bought with money from our last house..

I wanted to keep fulltiming.. Loved staying in fair-weather-year-round...

The costs of fulltiming was less than living in this house, both the RV and house paid for... AND I hate living in one spot day after day... Sure we still
take vacations, but not the same as the freedom felt while fulltiming and taking
our little house too.. We were home every day we fulltimed...

If the wife gave the word, this house would be in the hands of a Real Estate salesperson before the sun had a chance to set..

BE very careful on deciding to go fulltime, the BUG you get may never go away...
2oldman
Explorer II
Jul 06, 2013
weathershak wrote:
. No house, No lawn, No mortgage, No property taxes. And if you get tired of the view, you can change it any time you want.
Boy that's it for me too, although I struggle to stay rid of the houses.

I love the freedom of being able to move from noisy places, and there are many of those.