After 18 months on the road ... and being happily (after an initial period of sad) house free ... our "budget" shows us to be spending exactly what we projected. We didn't really budget, but determined what we wanted to live on and then tried to project what what we could do on that amount of money. When you find a spot that you enjoy, get a monthly rate on the space rental and do not buy diesel, your costs drop dramatically. We found that we got a bit tired of eating out, and that we had set that figure too high. Places like Quartzsite ... where you can camp virtually for free ... are an added bonus. I think this post is a combination of "Quartzsite ... Who is there?" and "Do it NOW". You may have all you need ... start figuring! We add to the savings account every month for our eventual "end game" plan ... just don't know what part of the country the "end" will be located in! The search continues!
Very interesting post....
Interesting point... for virtually all full-timers there is an "end" but most spend a much longer time planning the "beginning" than thinking about the "end". This is probably human nature; after all. practically no one takes into consideration how they'll sell the house they just bought. But for nomads the decision is deeper. Most people probably stay in roughly the same geographic area... or move to where the kids (grandkids!) are. We have the ability to choose from a much larger plate.
Probably health issues are the major reason for hanging up the keys. After all, spending a winter in Quartzite presents a far different set of issues when you're 35 than it does if you're approaching 70. And for many of us selling the stix-and-brix is the way we finance being full-timers; but it's a far different scenario going back the other way! Even with the economic crash of 2008 the majority of homeowners in the USA still have a great deal of equity in their real estate... but motor homes don't appreciate. Even when we spend a LOT of money on upgrades.
One other issue with "hanging up the keys" is that so many RVers also drop out of the RV forums when they do it so examples of how they did it and whether it's working out for them are not documented. This means that a lot of data that prospective full-timers could use to complete their plans is missing. We have topics telling us the best places to declare as "home" when we are full-timing but damn little to tell us where the best places to STOP are.
Maybe some of the ex-full-timers from this forum (and looking back at the archives I notice that there were a lot of people who posted, say, 5 years ago who no longer post now) can fill us in.
Craig
To add to DW's post. 18 months and we have probably seen 5% of this country. Hopefully, it will be many years before we "end game". SO very much to see. The USA is amazing. Not something we spend much time discussing
Craig, I would say about the time to hang it up comes with different parameters for each person. SOme travel till they find a place that speaks to them and locate there and use the MH for trips. Others are happy roaming for years. It is all about planning but life does throw curveballs too. So, Plan the best you can but also remember to live today. It is a tough wire to walk...
Well, yeah... but we often hear about good RV parks and that's all subjective. I'm not saying that every "end game" is the same but there have to be better places for former RVers to live (and work if they have to) than others. It would be nice to have a comparison. Is Florida better than Green Valley, AZ? How about just settling in to an RV pad and not actually buying a house? Lots of perspectives means more data on which to base plans. :)
Craig
I think right now, I would either stay where I am in VA or I would move to Jackson Hole.... Live with the snow for all the beauty there is there in the Tetons.....
I like Jackson Hole a lot. Virginia.... not so much. :P (I spent some years working for a government agency in northern VA which had outstations all over the state... so I got around a lot.) I learned to fly airplanes at Manassas and Warrenton airfields back in 1970.
After so many years in the west I'm fond of low humidity but miss fireflies. I like the wide-open spaces but also enjoyed having a small town every 5 or 10 miles (Cupepper was one of my favorites). I liked the warm summer water of the Chesapeake (and the quaint towns along its periphery) but really like the beauty of the San Juan Islands by kayak.
I do not miss the traffic on the east coast; are all the freeway ramps still packed with truckers with their clearance lights on and their engines idling?
So as long as we're on the subject (which is off-topic) I'll try to explain how we are going to try to hedge the bet; to combine full-timing with a home base.
When we sold our farm we moved to a lake house that we originally bought for our daughter who promised to buy it from us when she graduated from college. Instead, she moved to Idaho and got married. So at least we found a use for the house. Naturally we had a lot of stuff left over from the farm which we needed to store until we could sell them. In a stroke of luck we found a 2-lot parcel only 1-1/2 blocks from our lake house which had a large shop/storage building on it and a more-or-less reasonable price.
That shop caught fire and burned up in 2009 (I would say that it "burned down" except that I had to tear it down) but insurance rebuilt it on the same footprint but higher allowing better storage and the ability to park a large RV inside.
We are building a 1-bedroom (700 square foot) apartment in that shop. It will be "home base". We won't be here all the time - or even all the summer time... but if we have to have a place to call "home" it will do. It's also in a small city (20k) relatively near kids and grandkids (and close to a hospital and medical facilities).
The downside is that it's in an area where snow and daytime temperatures of 20F are common in the winter. But the summers are glorious (and no, it doesn't rain all the time in some parts of Washington state). :)
Still... there may be a better place somewhere. And if you've found it, I'd like to hear about it. :D
Craig
Intresting topic, we are contemplating all of this. Living in the MH full time while I work another 3 years, Renting the sticks and bricks for income or selling it. Hanging it up where I have worked for 33 years and work camping for expenses. then there is health Insurance, leaving Friends and family in the area where both of us where born and raised, and the ending plan where you land when it's time to let go of the keys for what ever reason. We have kind of figured the monthly expenses for camping would be about the same as the sticks and bricks (excluding MH or house payments), after that what you spend can be controlled be what you do cook or eat out, how much fuel you burn moving around, and so on. I think if we sold the house that money would be invested for purchase of another home /condo when the time comes not for travel expenses.
Does everyone know about The Escapees CARE facility in Livingston, Texas? It provides elder services including meal preparation, housekeeping, nursing care, transportation to medical and other services, and,adult day care, all for RV'ers. You can lease a lot next to the facility by the month. If one of you can't travel temporarily due to a medical condition, you can stay there until the situation is resolved, then continue to travel. If you decide you can no longer travel, you can stay in a leased lot, or possibly buy one of the 500+ sites there at Rainbow's End. It's only one alternative for an end plan, but it's an option not generally available.
Amos... I hadn't heard of this option at all. But it's certainly a good one to keep in mind. Thanks for the input. This is *exactly* the sort of information I was hoping to elicit.
We have a 5-acre piece of land near Nogales, AZ that we can park on but would have to do some work to get it ready. The DW thinks she could make pocket money selling hot dogs and water to the illegal aliens passing by. :P
Craig
I've heard about Escapees CARE, and that's something we want to check into. Livingston is on our "possible" list for this summer. Of course, planning that something will be available at some point in the future is something of a risk, so we'd want to have another plan available, too.
WHAT'S A BUDGET??????
I've heard this before... perhaps it was George... "I don't have a budget, I have a motorhome!" :)) :))