Time has come......

[Old-Biscuit]

How many FTrs have an Exit Plan?

When we decided to go FT one of the items on our list was an Exit Plan. We listed all the things that could trigger it and how we would go about executing it.

Well that time has come.......so we are purchasing a home in central AZ. Finding a new house was easier than when we shopped for our 5th wheel. Pick up the keys tomorrow. Gads! Now we have to buy furniture (and new wood shop tools!)

Full time traveling for the past 7yrs. has been better than we ever imagined it could be. What a wonderful way to spend a portion of our lives. The places we have been, the sites seen, the folks meet all more than worth it.

We are still going to do some traveling but will now have a home base.
Coming off the road has transpired a bit sooner than we had envisioned but life continues to change so we have to accept those changes and adapt.
Guess we will sell the large wind sail and go for something smaller as we will not be living in it.

Any of you FTrs don't have an Exit Plan I would suggest you devise one cause you just never know when/if.
For us it was an 'if' but turned into a 'when'.

Guess we'll have to reclassify ourselves..Sunbirds?
Life is good....enjoy it!!

[Flanz]

Basically, you hit the nail right on the head. We are structuring our FT life the same way. We do have an exit plan, but it will be later in our age. During our travels we'll be looking for that state/town/city/home where we want to complete our retirement.

I agree, debt free is the way to go. We are currently debt free and plan to stay that way. Our plan over the next 2.5yrs is too continue to save and pay cash for the next MH. The money from the sale of the house will be put away for the next one. Once we stop working we DO NOT plan to go back. We've spent 35yrs working for the day when we could stop. Worst case we could Workkamp to save a little bit of money.

Good luck in your next adventure.....

Paul

[Old-Biscuit]

Exit Plan.....exactly that. What/how to come off the road traveling IF/When the time comes.

Buy a RV lot and park the rig
Buy unimproved property and park the rig......build a house
Buy a house
Buy condo/townhouse

These were the things we considered as part of our Exit Plan.

Then the where???
Location, rural, city.

And the How.......in other words. Money/finance with mortgage

So when it came time......we had a real good idea of what/where/how we wanted so really only needed to concentrate on the 'home shopping'.

We figured IF the wheels aren't rolling then we weren't going to live in rig parked so buying another home was always in the plan.
We used the monies from former home sale to purchase. That way we are still debit free and did not have to deal with banks/finance/mortgage etc.
I hate debit.....have tried to avoid it all my life and not going into large debit now that we are older. Ain't about to go back to work :B
We purchased in a semi-rural area with easy access to bigger town and larger cities if needed.

Most everything was already planned.........subject to change.
We just had to decide on the where, there was no 'when'.

Good luck in YOUR adventure. Our only regret is we couldn't go FT sooner.

[Flanz]

Hello -

Good to hear that you followed your dream and as you said "came full circle". We are in the mist of planning our fulltiming adventure. Should take place in about 2.5 yrs. You mention "Exit Plan". Could you elaborate on this?

When I think exit plan I think of finding a place to live as well as buying a home. My exit plan will consist of having the money from our current home put aside to be used for this purpose. What else should I have for this exit plan?

[Clay_L]

Even though we xeriscaped, we still have some grass in the front and side yard so I had to get a lawnmower also.
His name is Salvador and he charges $10 per week to cut and trim.

[linnemj]

Reading your posts tonight I thought to myself "now there is someone who did it right". It has to be difficult to know when it is time to stop full timing and your idea of setting checkpoints is a great idea.

We wish you all the best in your latest adventure! Be sure to take the time to pull out that journal once in a while to relive the "good old days"

[Old-Biscuit]

Well it's official..picked up the keys and set the RV up at the house. Man, forgot how much paper work involved even when paying cash. A tree died today!

We have 2 driveways..1 on each end of property. Double car detached garage (future wood shop) on north end and a 20' X 55' drive on south end with power pedestal/water and sewer connection.
Funny how things go 'round full circle. Lived in 5vr alongside previous home in CA while escrow closed and now we're living in 5vr alongside new home until we buy furniture :B

GF has kept a journal since day one with all our stops/adventures/experiences while on the road. I just need to organize all the pictures into a smaller album with the highlights. That reminds me........need a final pix of rig next to house.

Gonna have to hang a bell round my neck so I don't get lost inside the house.....280 Sq. Ft to 1500 Sq. Ft. is overwhelming. More so then vice versa when we moved into 5vr. Guess it will be different when it's not so empty. :B

Thanks for the well wishes......it's gonna be different, again. Can anyone say 'lawnmower'?

[Don_Shar]

We started full timing 2005 December. We love the life and been from Alaska to the center of Mexico in our Motorhome. I would not trade the last 8 years for anything at all. We have our exit plan in process now, we purchased a lot in Yuma, Az. It has 4 full hookups on it and we are going to build a house the end of 2015. We will not stop traveling but will have a home base to go to, will also sell the DP and probably get a pickup and small 5th wheel. Not full timing so don't need all the luxury the Beaver has in it.

[hitchup]

We never really had an Exit Plan, since we haven't even hit full retirement age yet. But over Christmas I had a health scare and ended up in the hospital for a few days.

Still not knowing what caused the problems, we may end up back near our children sooner rather than later instead of off traveling the country like tourists.

[Luna_C]

Now sit down and write that book about your travels and the lifestyle before they are distant memories

[Clay_L]

After 11 great years of full timing we did the same thing as you (except we bought in CO). We did put in two RV sites at the house we bought so RV friends can come visit. We also xeriscaped the property to eliminate yard work.

We knew the time would come when we either had to or wanted to get off the road and had always planed on buying a house when the time came.

Having an exit plan was important for us, not for some of our friends though and one couple is now paying the price for the lack of one.

[rockhillmanor]

Good luck on your ~new~ NEXT adventure! :C

I just did the same thing this year. Foreclosed homes sooo ridiculously low priced it was a no brainer to invest in one instead of spending that same money on CG fees when in the south for the winter.

The MH is still parked right outside the front window. Should have sold it months ago......finding it just a little hard to part with it. I too have decided to buy a smaller RV to replace the Queen Mary. Now to let her go and let some one else enjoy the road in her. I will still RV, reverse snowbird as they say.

[Dog_Folks]

Good luck in the next phase of your life. I have always enjoyed your posts and will miss them. Drop in once and awhile.

[Snowman9000]

I think when the time comes where you live in your parked rig that doesn't move, you are not really a full timer. You are a person who lives in a very small manufactured home with inconvenient sewage equipment and poor insulation. DW and I don't plan to FT, but we have said that if it comes to the point where we spend 6 months sitting somewhere, it's time to buy a vacation home, or move there altogether. YMMV.

[tomkaren13]

Good for you. Love it when proper planning is a success.