Jump to content

Is our budget realistic?


Krash

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Krash you might want to take a look at this thread regarding healthcare insurance in SD if you haven't done so already.

 

 

http://www.rvnetwork.com/index.php?showtopic=111570&hl=

Thanks for the heads up.

 

I was told that I would basically have to pay for everything out of pocket when outside of SD. The exception was Emergencies which they told me would be covered. They also said that we might be covered for non-emergency if at one of there facilities in another state if we got prior approval from them.

 

Based on reading about some of this, I am now going to ask for something in writing from them. I can't believe they have cancelled policies on people who have acted in good faith?? Just amazing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

I found that I have spent more on gifts to friends and relatives at home than I used to. The art, skilled crafts, and clothing/textiles are so different they are very special and unusual. I want to buy them, use them, and share them with their stories. Travel is so broadening! Also, most of my clothes from "before" have been replaced with a different fashion sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Health Insurance

 

 

3) All of the ACA plans must comply with a set of features. One of the features is a maximum out of pocket cap of approx $6,500 per person per year. Since I only have 3 years before I will be on Medicare, if I have a major event during that time, it could only cost a maximum of $6,500, and we can cover that for now.

 

 

 

Wow! $6500 per person, per year deductible. So you have to pay pretty much ALL your healthcare needs for 3yrs. That has the potential to be a real game changer. I had no idea that the deductibles were that high in the ACA. Kind of defeats the term affordable, doesn't it?

Fulltiming since 2010

2000 Dutch Star

2009 Saturn Vue

Myrtle Beach, SC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Re: health insurance. I have BCBS out of Fl. It has multi-state coverage, a $500 deductible, $2500 max annual out of pocket and costs $52 a month. It would be a bit cheaper but I purchased dental coverage also.

Is that a PPO or HMO? I've been doing the online calculator and trying to get an accurate budget estimate if we domicile in FL, but many say the online calculators aren't always accurate and not anxious for surprises after we pull the plug. I can't see how it's possible the OP can insure 2 for $200 a month. With the online calculators I come out with $400/mo but budgeting $1000/mo to cover deductibles and prescriptions. Curious of those insuring through ACA what your actual costs are and how you're finding using it. Might also help the OP with his calcs.

Cheers,

 

Don

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, you are self insured - except for required ACA items - up to the $6K. That might be modified depending on your plan. But since this is an RV forum I'll assume you want a PPO. An HMO does not work for a mobile RVer.

 

I've been living with a TX PPO BCBS ACA Exchange plan for a year now. (is that enough letters in a row for you? :) ) It has its good and bad points.

 

My physical is free...well until your Dr. bills you for the excess that the plans will not cover. And the billed price has gone UP over previous years. Significantly. Probably (my guess) in order to make up for the reduced schedule of prices. My flu shots, pneumonia and even shingles shots were actually free. My colonoscopy was mostly free. That is all on the "good" side.

 

My costs if you count the subsidy are around the same as my previous plans with the same company, in the same state. My coverage caps are better...lower threshold with the 6K - I had a 10K catastrophe plan.

 

My prescriptions are out of pocket until the 6K. Look at your plan carefully if you need presc. coverage. My 10K plan - lousy as it was, did partially cover prescriptions. So that is worse on the surface. What I found to be the case though, is that the Dr "found" (with my aggressive urging) alternative generic drugs that work as well as my previous drugs and cost FAR less. And I mean FAR less. Like under $50 for a 90 day vs OVER $250 for a 30 day. Yes you read that right. It did require some adjustments to meds, but that would likely not have happened without the ACA actions forcing it. So from that perspective the intent of the ACA is actually working. I will not comment on my feelings for the ACA, otherwise.

 

The only reason that my costs are the same are the subsidy. Without the subsidy my costs would almost double. And it is looking like I will lose the subsidy this coming year. So, for a plan that is supposed to reduce overall costs because of a larger pool of insured's it is not yet working. Hopefully, politics will be left behind and some modifications to the laws will occur to make it operate more efficiently. Because we do need changes to our health care system.

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Cost is a funny thing to talk about. Generally, I think you will spend about as much to live in your RV as you spend not living in your RV. Find out you actual fixed costs and go from there. Check out what your rv insurance will be if you fulltime. I guarantee it will go up. Keep a log of what you actually spend on food for a couple months.

 

I know people who are happily fulltiming on $1250 a month. I know people with three or four times that monthly income who can't seem to keep their credit card debt from going up.

 

A lot depends on the size of your rig. A lot depends on the size of your wants.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

These are some great suggestions! I knew about the Senior Pass, but didn't know it applied to Corp of Engineers parks. Those could be some great fishing holes!

 

We do plan to travel very slowly in order to save on fuel. A lot of smelling of roses planned. The $13 a day park cost was figured from using the RPI and Coast to Coast memberships. We are guessing that we will be in those parks for about 70% of the time. The rest will be boondocking, or at friends properties.

We also love to fish, but fishing in different states can get really expensive since you have to purchase out of state licenses, right? I usually skip the fishing and let Jim get the license to save money but it's not as much fun! How do you cover this?

Jim & Alona traveling with River, Rocky & Indy.

Our home, a 33' 1988 Southwind which we love!

 

http://arjrontheroad.blogspot.com

http://gatewatchers.blogspot.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We also love to fish, but fishing in different states can get really expensive since you have to purchase out of state licenses, right? I usually skip the fishing and let Jim get the license to save money but it's not as much fun! How do you cover this?

In my opinion, fishing licenses are really not that expensive, in fact I consider them a bargain. There are generally several choices from a day or two to a whole season. Since I have been told, on this forum, that fulltimers really don't travel much, how many licenses a year are you talking about? I think $66 for a year is the most I have paid. If you look at it from the perspective of recreation/entertainment; how much does it cost to go to a movie, download a movie, go out to dinner, have a drink or two, go to a museum or other attraction? If you can fish right at the campground, you are not burning gas going somewhere. The last time I calculated the cost/benefit of licenses for the different states I fished in it came out to between $0.25-1.00 per entree. You can't buy fish for that price at the grocery store. My biggest problem is the size of the RV freezer, not the cost of the licenses. To me it is a matter of priorities and what value you place on the different choices for how you spend your money.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Wow! $6500 per person, per year deductible. So you have to pay pretty much ALL your healthcare needs for 3yrs. That has the potential to be a real game changer. I had no idea that the deductibles were that high in the ACA. Kind of defeats the term affordable, doesn't it?

No need to worry, the new ones in DC are going to vote the ACA out soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"$6500 deductible ... all your healthcare needs."

 

So, choose another plan! That $6500 will be a drop in the bucket if you have a real health problem. DH'S knee replacement ran over $110,000. Seeing the hospital bill for a friend's heart attack almost gave him another one. Everybody wants good medical care, but it isn't cheap. Actually, if we got the insurance companies out of the way, it would be a lot cheaper, but we passed up the opportuniy to go to single payer. Medicare does what it does with 6% administration fees. Private insurers are allowed to whack you for 20% admin fees.

 

There are things to be tweaked, but at least families will no longer be driven to bankruptcy by medical bills, anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question for you drifting (or anyone who cares to respond), did the hospital make you pay the $6,500 deductible up front before they would give you that $110,000 worth of treatment? Or did they do the work and bill you afterwards for the deductible, accepting monthly payments? The reason I ask is I don't expect to have that kind of money laying around during retirement, so if they won't accept payments, I won't be able to get treatment.

 

I remember back in the 1990's my DW required a life saving surgery (I was living in California at the time). The hospital would not admit her until I had paid the entire estimated bill in full (BTW, they actually charged me twice what they estimated - and still didn't accept monthly payments for the balance, they made me take out a high interest loan with a finance company for the balance.). Since I had no insurance, for her if I could not pay the entire amount up front they would have simply let her die - or sent her to another, second rate charity hospital. I ended up emptying my 401k (paying a huge penalty) and maxing out my credit cards with cash advances - what choice do you have when a loved one's life is at stake? Now I don't have the resources to pay the $6,500 anymore, so I couldn't do now what I did then.

 

Chip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Hey everyone - First time posting to the forum. I've got a follow up question to Krash's post. I'm trying to figure out a way to make an all-access pass for year-round camping and could use some feedback on your experiences - just three questions, so nothing too much. Wondering how to cut down on that nightly rate line item (even though $13 sounds very reasonable). Appreciate any help!




Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forum.

 

I don't see how you could get much below $13 a night on a full-time basis unless you were obsessive about boondocking. If you join Escapees (for about $30) then you can take advantage of SKP co-op parks which typically have nightly rates of about $20... so two nights boondocking or dry camping (or even sleeping overnight at a rest area on a long trip) and one night in an SKP park would lower the average.

 

National parks have both FHU (Full Hook Up) RV camps and campsites with nothing... just a restroom with showers (if you're lucky) down the road. But with a geezer pass (over 62 discount pass good at Federal campsites for 50% off) you can get a pretty secure spot for about $5 a night.

 

National forest has free camping under certain conditions. BLM has many free campsites all over the country as well as campsites you where you can get FHU for $15 or so.

 

Any RV park with a monthly rate of under $395 a month will beat that $13 a night and a lot of SKP parks will beat the $395 a month rate.

 

WDR

1993 Foretravel U225 with Pacbrake and 5.9 Cummins with Banks

1999 Jeep Wrangler, 4" lift and 33" tires

Raspberry Pi Coach Computer

Ham Radio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is pretty easy to get down to the low teens, several months at rates of around $300-$350, 100 or so nights in membership parks at $0-$10 dollars, lots of nights in COE parks at $8-$10/night with the Senior Pass, sprinkle in some boon docking and then Passport Parks along with a few SKP parks and once in a while a Good Same park and you would be in the $13/night for the year. We average $17 a night because we don't boondock, we pay more than $350 a month for our site, but otherwise, we take advantage of our different memberships/PPA/Senior Pass opportunities. BTW - the $17 includes the annual dues for our memberships.

 

Barb

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
2002 Alpine 36 MDDS (Figment II), 2018 Ford C-Max HYBRID
Blog: http://www.barbanddave.net
SPK# 90761 FMCA #F337834

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to affirm what WDR and Barb said - I think a fulltimer who travels quite a bit needs to have a variety of tricks up their sleeve if they want to keep their camping expenses down. During our travel months (around 8 months out of the year) my order of preference is something like Thousand Trails, COE, County Parks, SKP, PPA, Fairgrounds, State Parks, other.

 

During our winter longer stays we're trying volunteering for a campsite so the out of pocket cost is $0 but we're trading 25 hours a week for that savings. We're having fun doing what we're doing so it really isn't fair to try to figure what we're "making" an hour but we are saving monthly fees of probably $450-550 a month.

 

If you can do some volunteering or workamping a few months (and some people do nothing but that) each year and then work at finding the best camping deals you can probably pull your camping costs down below $13 a night but I have the idea that over time you'll feel a bit limited in your fulltiming experience.

 

My budget stuff is here.

Our "Here and There" Blog

 

2005 Safari Cheetah Motorhome

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the Escapee forums! Happy to have you join us here.

 

I'm not quite sure if I understand the question that you are asking. The nightly rate for staying in your RV is being answered, but I'll add in that there are also a significant number of us who spend much of our time as resident volunteers as mentioned above. We also are members of Escapees and we have used the "stoppin spots" that the club directory lists which has a listing of members who have a place that they will allow traveling Escapee members to spend a night for free, or perhaps a small contribution to pay for electricity. But what I don't understand is the remark:

 

I'm trying to figure out a way to make an all-access pass for year-round camping

What do you mean by an all-access pass? There is the federal senior pass which is good at nearly all federal parks and camping areas, and some states have an annual parks pass for sale. As far as I know there is no pass that is good for all states and federal parks, if that is what you mean.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I never thought of it that way but $100/day for diesel sure makes it easy to budget while on the move. In making my budget for our full-time adventure I figured $500/month for diesel and $500/month for rv park. If we stay within that average per month we will be golden. Staying for a week or a month at one park makes a big difference in the annual park cost as does boondocking while on the move. The fail safe is spending a month or two in Quartzite to recover any overages we encountered during the year or volunteer camp host. The biggest cost drivers are fuel and parks, the rest of the budget is pretty individual for each traveler.

 

Now the biggest thing preventing me from heading out right now is that I want to wait until my s&b equity returns. Hopefully, that will be in a year or two at most.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've found that when you spend 3-4 months in the winter in one spot you end up paying for at least one months stay by not using any diesel. Another cost saver is driveway parking if your relatives/friends have a way to accommodate you for a few days. Though this can be tricky - relatives like fish are usually great for 3 days and then start to deteriorate.

 

How much is it going to cost you in terms of mortgage payments (especially interest) while waiting for your S&B to return to what you think it should be worth in terms of equity? And if you drop dead during that time frame, look at what you will have missed. We've known to may who were waiting for just a little more in terms of pay/equity/savings only to drop dead and never get to enjoy their retirement. Don't wait to long. Skimp on money and get out there - trust me (and I would guess most will tell you this) you will never regret it.

 

Barb

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
2002 Alpine 36 MDDS (Figment II), 2018 Ford C-Max HYBRID
Blog: http://www.barbanddave.net
SPK# 90761 FMCA #F337834

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tried that but the DW nixed that idea, she wants as much $ cash in the bank before we go.

I've known several people like that. They never did get on the road. Something was always around the corner requiring "just a little more". That said, you do have to have "enough". But once you have that, my suggestion is to resist the temptation for more, more more.

Jack & Danielle Mayer #60376 Lifetime Member
Living on the road since 2000

PLEASE no PM's. Email me. jackdanmayer AT gmail
2016 DRV Houston 44' 5er (we still have it)
2022 New Horizons 43' 5er
2016 Itasca 27N 28' motorhome 
2019 Volvo 860, D13 455/1850, 236" wb, I-Shift, battery-based APU
No truck at the moment - we use one of our demo units
2016 smart Passion, piggyback on the truck
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
See our website for info on New Horizons 5th wheels, HDTs as tow vehicles, communications on the road, and use of solar power
www.jackdanmayer.com
Principal in RVH Lifestyles. RVH-Lifestyles.com

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

But once you have that, my suggestion is to resist the temptation for more, more more.

If you do not retire until you believe that you have plenty of money, most people never reach that point and retire. To set a goal is sensible but once that goal is reached, you need to hit the road. Life has no guarantees and while there may be risk in leaving work and heading off on a new adventure, every time that you delay that event you risk never being able to experience it.

 

Remember that time is the only thing that a person has which once lost can never be recovered nor replaced! If you do not use your time to enjoy life, you may not survive to to ever do so. Tomorrow is not a sure thing and it is denied to many. Travels and experiences shared by a couple have value beyond price and far too many people wait too long and find themselves alone without having experienced their dreams. :(

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


RVers Online University

campgroundviews.com

RV Destinations

Find out more or sign up for Escapees RV'ers Bootcamp.

Advertise your product or service here.

The Rvers- Now Streaming

RVTravel.com Logo



×
×
  • Create New...