Q for Retirees... re: Extended trips

[pullin2]

For years, retirement was a distant concept to us, but now it's getting close and we're starting to wrap our heads around the idea. We're mostly empty-nesters now, and it appears the kids are that most-wonderful type of offspring (that actually move out). 🙂

Now that we can start thinking about long, relaxed trips in the fiver, we are wondering how folks handle leaving their house empty for extended periods? We've always been limited to a week or two because of work schedules, so we haven't really needed to plan for long absences. Both kids will (probably) be living in other states, so there aren't any relatives to periodically check on the house.

So how do experienced retirees (not full-timers) handle leaving your house empty for a month or more while traveling?

1. Mail? Do you have a forwarding service? Neighbors collect it?
2. Yard? Obviously we'll need a lawn service, but are leery of strangers knowing the house is empty. It seems asking my neighbors to watch and pick up flyers for months would be a little much.
3. Security? Do you have friends who periodically enter the house?
4. Maintenance? Planning to shut off the water, but a small problems could grow over the course of a month or so (ie. failed freezer, roof leak, etc.)
5. Bills? We're moving almost everything to online, but would appreciate any additional advice on this.

Finally to those who are retired, but haven't become full-timers, how long is your average trip now? Is it much different from when you were working? It seems we will be able to spend 3-4 or even 5 weeks leisurely working our way around the country, but sometimes the reality is different.

Any advice appreciated, we've been concentrating on the financial side of retirement planning, and haven't given a lot of thought to exactly "how" we'll really do it.

[pullin2]

Wow, thanks for all the replies, everyone. We're printing this one out and saving it. Quite a few things I hadn't thought of here.

Can't wait to start taking the really loooong trips. 🙂

[Texas_Roadrunn1]

Our longest trip was to Alaska, last summer, that was 3 1/2 months. Prior to that we have done several 2-3 month trips, some 6 weekers.
1. Mail. We pay our neighbor to retrieve our mail, water the plants (indoor plants move to her house), and check on the house from time to time. She opens any mail she thinks might be important, scans it and emails it to us.

2. Yard. We have had a lawn service for 8 or 9 years, they also water outdoor plants once a week. Before we hired our neighbor, we got a call 21/2 yrs. ago while we were in Canada, the yard guys saw water coming out from our front door! We too had heard bad things about turning water off to the house, so we turned water off to washer. We now turn off the water if we leave the house overnight! A good lawn service provides another entity checking on your place.

3. We have had a monitored security system since we built the house, we think it is worth the nominal cost.

4. All our bills are paid online.

This has been a learning process for us, and after 41/2 yrs., this is the routine that works best for us. Good luck, know you will figure out what works best for you. I will say that we thought the 3 1/2 month trip was a bit long, but Alaska and Canada took some time to visit. Going forward we think we will fly home for a few days on longer trips. We did that once before and we both liked checking on things at home and returning to the RV. Southwest flies almost everywhere and they are relatively inexpensive.

[Jim_Shoe]

My bank offers on line bill paying free of charge and my local post office holds mail indefinitely, but requires that it be picked up every 30 days or they toss it. A friend picks up the (mostly) junk mail each month and lets me know if anything looks important. It hasn't yet.
I had a whole house backup generator installed. Fully automatic. It runs on natural gas which runs underground as opposed to electric that runs on poles.

[skipnchar]

pullin2 wrote:
For years, retirement was a distant concept to us, but now it's getting close and we're starting to wrap our heads around the idea. We're mostly empty-nesters now, and it appears the kids are that most-wonderful type of offspring (that actually move out). 🙂

Now that we can start thinking about long, relaxed trips in the fiver, we are wondering how folks handle leaving their house empty for extended periods? We've always been limited to a week or two because of work schedules, so we haven't really needed to plan for long absences. Both kids will (probably) be living in other states, so there aren't any relatives to periodically check on the house.

So how do experienced retirees (not full-timers) handle leaving your house empty for a month or more while traveling?

1. Mail? Do you have a forwarding service? Neighbors collect it? We use free temporary change of address and have mail forwarded to friends or family who contact us frequently for instructions for anything that needs attention (which is rare).
2. Yard? Obviously we'll need a lawn service, but are leery of strangers knowing the house is empty. It seems asking my neighbors to watch and pick up flyers for months would be a little much. Neighbors watch for flyers etc. and my kids mow the lawn when it's needed. We fight over them allowing us to pay them when we return (only down side)
3. Security? Do you have friends who periodically enter the house?
4. Maintenance? Planning to shut off the water, but a small problems could grow over the course of a month or so (ie. failed freezer, roof leak, etc.) Several relatives and friends have access to our home and come in occasionally to inspect things.
5. Bills? We're moving almost everything to online, but would appreciate any additional advice on this. [COLOR=]On line bill paying is OK I guess but way too much trouble for me. We have all of our monthly bills set up on direct bank draft so they pay themselves automatically without intervention from us. I go only several times a week to check what has been paid and make appropriate corrections to amounts that have previously been posted in our checking account.

Finally to those who are retired, but haven't become full-timers, how long is your average trip now? Is it much different from when you were working? It seems we will be able to spend 3-4 or even 5 weeks leisurely working our way around the country, but sometimes the reality is different.

Any advice appreciated, we've been concentrating on the financial side of retirement planning, and haven't given a lot of thought to exactly "how" we'll really do it.

Retiring with ease while continuing to take care of financial responsibilities is an important issue and it takes a little practice. DW insisted on keeping a paper trail of each transaction for about the first two years before she relaxed and just let the computer program I wrote handle it, keeping checking account in balance and making sure we have complete records of what happens when.

[Bill___Kate]

Lot's of good advice and ideas here ....

Just one other comment: At least around here, there are several retired guys that, for a very reasonable fee, provide the service of checking out your property on a regular basis. They also will coordinate the efforts of lawn maintenance people, etc. if you want them too. As around or check out Craigslist ....

[Jean_S]

Just a note, make sure that someone does check on your house. You can't stop burglars if they are determined to break in, but you can stop some of the damage caused by them. Friends down the block were robbed while they were gone for the summer. Not much was taken, but the robbers left the patio door wide open. All summer. In Florida. They have a high fence, so no one saw it. When they came back, their house had been taken over by wildlife and vermin. Something had gnawed at the walls. She even found a snake under her couch.

[Jean_S]

Mail - We used our son's address for mail. We don't get much as we have most of our bills paid online and we use email, Facebook, and texting a lot

Yard -We had a lawn service. They disappeared mid trip and myson ended up dragging his mower over every week. Not a good solution.

Security - Lock up, depend on neighbors to keep eye on house, son stops by once in a while to check on his bees. Have good insurance anddon't worry about it.

Maintaince - Roof leaked. Son did not notice it. Had new roof put on when we got back. Roof may havve been leaking b4 we left, but we did not notice it, either.

Bills - We pay everything but the trash pickup bill online. Son paid that out of money we left with him when it came in. We can do multi-year vehicle tags. If we had been away this winter, we would have had son pay property taxes with check we mailed to him.

Everything can be worked out. That being said, our house goes on the market in January. We are also empty nesters. The house was great and gave us a good life. Now, we are ready for something different. Even if we did not want to RV fulltime for a while, we would be selling the house.

[Dennis_M_M]

Lots of good advice already and most of what we do. We snowbird and are gone 3 to 4 months at a time. Usually do 3-5 week trips during the summer.

A couple of details to think about:

Check with your insurance agent, some homeowners policies require the house to be occupied for a specific period.

Does your thermostat use batteries? Our programable one does and it just shuts the system down and does not operate at all when the batteries die! I put new ones in before we leave.

Turn off your hot water heater.

Cover toilet bowls with Saran Wrap, put mineral oil in all drain traps to retard evaporation.

Unplug appliances and TVs

Empty refrigerator and freezer as much as possible. We came home one spring to find our freezer had tripped a circuit breaker! A toxic mess to clean up.

Unplug your garage door opener. They can be subject to stray signals in tight urban areas.

Can't help much with outside stuff since our S&B is a townhouse so the exterior maintenance is taken care of.

Finally, make yourself a check list of ALL the things you need to do before leaving and use it. Just like your hook-up or moving out check lists that will help you avoid forgetting anything or wondering if you did.

Really finally - go and enjoy yourself! Don't get wrapped up in worrying about things back home. It will be fine and after all it's just "stuff".

[Traveler_II]

We’ve been retired for 15 years now and travel from 4-6 months a year.

1. Mail? Do you have a forwarding service? Neighbors collect it?

We use a mail forwarding service: Alternative Resources 800 477 2664

2. Yard? Obviously we'll need a lawn service, but are leery of strangers knowing the house is empty. It seems asking my neighbors to watch and pick up flyers for months would be a little much.

We’re home during the summer so most of the yard work we do. Our neighbors do have a key and do check the house for us. We contact our local police department to tell them we are out of town also.

3. Security? Do you have friends who periodically enter the house?
Yes,
4. Maintenance? Planning to shut off the water, but a small problems could grow over the course of a month or so (ie. failed freezer, roof leak, etc.)

We do shut off the water and have a light that will come on if the temperature in the house falls below 45 degrees. Each fall before we head out we have our furance checked out.

5. Bills? We're moving almost everything to online, but would appreciate any additional advice on this.

We pay 99% of our bills on line, we have just a few like our city water bill that we can’t and I just mail them an estimate of what I think the bill might be and take care of the rest when we get home. Most of the time I've over paid a small amount.

Finally to those who are retired, but haven't become full-timers, how long is your average trip now? Is it much different from when you were working? It seems we will be able to spend 3-4 or even 5 weeks leisurely working our way around the country, but sometimes the reality is different.

We enjoy exploring and driving the back roads. We travel 2-300 miles a day staying in an area for a few days and move on. Sometime if we like the area we might stay a few weeks. It doesn’t take long and the next thing we know 6 months have gone by.

[K_Charles]

Our post office lets us fill out more then one form to hold the mail, 30 days for each one. We are gone twice a year for about 2 months at a time. Most bills we pay on line but we used to just pay 2 months before we left home. Someone checks the house once a week to water the flowers and nothing gets shut off except the wood furnace.

[Snowman9000]

Some people have neighbors or relatives take care of mail. If that's not an option and you really are going to travel a lot, consider renting a private mail box at a UPS Store or similar place. Then switch all your house mail over to it, except for any you don't really care about. It's a lot easier to call the UPS Store and have them forward your mail in a parcel than to deal with USPS. OTOH if you are talking mostly about one long trip per year, then you can just use the post office's system. But for several trips a year, that is too much hassle IMO.

Yard & Security. No matter how hard you try, people are going to know that you are gone. Alarm system and good neighbors are your best bets. Obviously you have to find someone to mow the grass. And someone has to have a key in case of emergency.

Power failure. We bought an alarm on amazon.com which monitors for water in our sump pump, freezing temps, and power failure. It has a battery and connects to a phone line. It calls 3 programmed numbers in case of alarm. Works nice, although when it calls we keep looking at our cell phones and saying "why are we getting calls from home???" So far we've only had the power outages.

Bills. Move everything online. There are always a few things that can't quite be done that way, but usually they are known in advance. Tax bills etc.

Length of trip. 3 weeks is nothing once you get your system working. 1-2 months has been the limit for us due to logistics at home, though.

[dbbls]

1. I have had neighbors collect it if I will be gone over the 30 day limit the post office will hold it. Over winter I file a temporary address change at the posts office and have it sent to the RV park I'll be staying at.
2. I hire a lawn service to take care of it.
3. Yes, if gone over winter.
4. I do turn off the water, don't worry about the other things.
5. All of my bills are paid by automatic bank draft.

I have been gone from home as long as 10 weeks during our trip to Alaska, and several trips from a week to 4 weeks. Just go and enjoy.