FULL TIME vs full time

[Eric A.]

We've been "Full Time" for about two months now.  Well, that depends on who's definition of "Full Time" you use.  For the time being we've holed up in a seasonal campground.  DW still has her full time job we can't sacrifice yet so until we can get a "satellite" job lined up we can't stray too far.  Out 5th wheel is our home, we have no sticks and bricks to run back to.  It is a strange and liberating feeling knowing everything you own is in a 460 square foot box with wheels.  It's such a different vibe when you "camp" 24/7.  A whole lot of the rat race feeling is gone even though we aren't on the road like we want to be yet.  Endgame goal is a nice piece of remote land to call H.Q. And travel outward from there and just live!

[theeyres]

Eddie, I hope you are beginning to see that FULL TIME full time really has many facets and no one definition fits everybody that has been or is on the road. I know we did as you said and did the sight seeing pretty much non-stop the first year or year and a half. Then we found ourselves returning to several places for a month at a time and then a winter. We didn't think we would ever own a home again but, sure enough, the time came when we  got off the road and bought another home but in sun drenched AZ rather than our old cold, snowy Eastern OR. So just enjoy the journey at each stage. It will change and that is the joy and the excitement of it.

[sandsys]

17 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

I have no idea why watching locks in operation thrills me so, but it does. 

Given that, I highly recommend you travel the Great River Road along the mighty Mississippi River. Lots of locks to stop at along the way.

Linda Sand

[eddie1261]

Noted! Thanks Linda. I do love watching that stuff.

[Allentc2]

Eddie, you're where I want to be. Military retirement I assume? I'm still debating between a Class A or a truck camper. 

[eddie1261]

55 minutes ago, Allentc2 said:

Eddie, you're where I want to be. Military retirement I assume? I'm still debating between a Class A or a truck camper. 

I served just 3 years way back in the early 70s, Vietnam era, and retired from an IT position in 2013. I AM, however, drawing a 90% disability from the VA as well as my Social Security. I spent the last 4 years as a retiree who was held captive by a house and the bills that go with it. Once I sell the house, I will never look back. I went with a 25 ft Class C to be considerate of stop signs everywhere that I am sure I would smash with every right turn if I got a 40 ft Class A. Still not out and about, but very soon.

[Allentc2]

I will be wrapping up 20 years total here in a month or so, but I want to push it to 20 years active service (mix of time in Big Army and the National Guard) so I can start drawing my pension. No disability that I know of, though my knees suck. LOL I can't do both a house and an RV on my retirement, so I'm opting for the RV if I stay "in country."

I am thinking a 30' like the Newmar Baystar, or one of those humungous truck campers, like the Host Mammoth. Like you, I'm not a big fan of crowds and suspect I'd not be happy hanging around the KOA all the time. So a camper might be more my style, though the bigger ones still kinda limit me to where I can go. We shall see. 
 

Looking forward to reading about your progress!

[Solo18]

I sold my condo and my car 5+ years ago at age 69, quit my full-time job, but kept my part-time teaching online job.  Bought a brand-new 32' Class C and took off to travel the country.  I have kids on opposite ends of the country and do visit them and the grandkids as often as I can, which really isn't that often.  I have no property, and finally got rid of the storage room full of furniture last summer.  Kept it "just in case" I did not like this life or had to go back to a house for medical reasons.  I ended up with a dozen large plastic storage bins full of family things that I store at one son's house.  I have driven 104,000 miles in a little over five years and hope to continue as long as i can.  Teaching part-time while I travel pays for much of my travel costs, and I hope it also will keep my brain alive a few years longer. 

Home is wherever I stop for the night or a week or more, open my slides, and plug in my electrical connection and hook up water.  Last winter was a couple dozen state and COE campgrounds in Florida.  Summer was mostly Colorado where it was cool.  So right now I am in northern California.  September will be the Oregon coast, October will be Oregon and Yosemite, November will be southern California and December will be Death Valley and back to Northern California and flying to Ohio for Christmas with kids.

It's a good life.  

PS. If you like locks, there are three COE campground in Florida along the Caloosahatchee Canal--WP Franklin, Ortona South, and St. Lucie.  Also, in northern Michigan along the Soo Locks that separate Lake Superior and Lake Huron, you can stay at Aune-Osborn Campgrounds. It is pretty basic, but the big Great Lakes ships come so close to shore there that you can wave at the crew as they enter the St, Mary's river.  And try Tom Sawyer campground in West Memphis, Arkansas.  No locks, but tows come close to shore there also! 

[richfaa]

My definition of full timing was  that the only residence you had was the RV 24/7/365.That is not  necessarily the case .We  decided after the first year that the full time lifestyle was not for us .We kept our S&B although we are not there most of the year now after being on the road since 2006 we see the end of our adventure nearing. We have no problem with what we will do our S&B is  here. We just completed a road trip of the N.E states  which was the last part of the lower 48 we have not traveled in those 12 years.

Do what ever suites you and you can afford.

[eddie1261]

@richfaa I wish I had the option of keeping my house AND hitting the road, but like many, I can't afford a mortgage payment unless the RV NEVER has a major malfunction.And we all know what the odds of that are. Even in the best case scenario, tires wear out, and buying 6 of them at a time is huge. The transmissions tend to go out if the user chooses a lot of high elevations that call for mountain climbing. (That's not me. 4500-6000 feet is about it. No 11,000 mountaintops for me. 

If I could trust that I can find a tenant who will not plat the eviction game where he can squat for 90 days of non payment before I can evict him, during which I still have to pay the mortgage, I'd consider renting my house, but I really don't want that headache. So what did you do with your  house? Did family move in to use it while you have been gone for 12 years?

I am more impressed that you have 12 years in. Not knowing your age when you started, that is impressive. If I went 12 it would take me to 78, and I don't realistically see myself reaching 78. Diabetes will eventually ground me as my eyesight gets worse, or neuropathy causes me to lose toes and such. But I am going to ride the ride for as long as I can, probably starting next spring (if I can sell the house quickly). At the point I think the road is no longer for me, I can always land somewhere I like. I am just 45 miles away from your home base so I share that some wonderful Ohio winter weather.

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

I'd consider renting my house, but I really don't want that headache. So what did you do with your  house?

Much like your plan, we sold our stick house but we also set aside the funds for the day that our RV adventure had to come to an end. We managed to stay out as fulltimers for nearly 12 years when my wife's health problems reached a point of needing a place to land. But we have not given up totally and after 2 years off of the road, we are back traveling seasonally once more. We have spent as much as 5 consecutive months out with the RV but most years the doctors get in the way of that. We do expect to be out about 4 months next summer. 

By having set aside the money from our last stick house we were able to buy our present home-base when we left the fulltime lifestyle. 

[eddie1261]

1 hour ago, Kirk Wood said:

Much like your plan, we sold our stick house but we also set aside the funds for the day that our RV adventure had to come to an end.

I only bought in 2009, and the market in my neighborhood (it is bad here) is such that I won't have anything to set aside. I will be happy to break even just to get me out from under this mortgage. And this is not all that much of a house that anybody would see it and decide they HAVE to buy it RIGHT NOW!

So that plan is great, but not even close to a possibility in my case.

[richfaa]

4 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

@richfaa I wish I had the option of keeping my house AND hitting the road, but like many, I can't afford a mortgage payment unless the RV NEVER has a major malfunction.And we all know what the odds of that are. Even in the best case scenario, tires wear out, and buying 6 of them at a time is huge. The transmissions tend to go out if the user chooses a lot of high elevations that call for mountain climbing. (That's not me. 4500-6000 feet is about it. No 11,000 mountaintops for me. 

If I could trust that I can find a tenant who will not plat the eviction game where he can squat for 90 days of non payment before I can evict him, during which I still have to pay the mortgage, I'd consider renting my house, but I really don't want that headache. So what did you do with your  house? Did family move in to use it while you have been gone for 12 years?

I am more impressed that you have 12 years in. Not knowing your age when you started, that is impressive. If I went 12 it would take me to 78, and I don't realistically see myself reaching 78. Diabetes will eventually ground me as my eyesight gets worse, or neuropathy causes me to lose toes and such. But I am going to ride the ride for as long as I can, probably starting next spring (if I can sell the house quickly). At the point I think the road is no longer for me, I can always land somewhere I like. I am just 45 miles away from your home base so I share that some wonderful Ohio winter weather.

I turned 80  this year and am slowing down. We had a small Mortgage when we started and have since paid it off. We also knew we would  hit the road in 2006 and implemented a 10 year plan in 1996. We had a good RV travel savings account by that time due to 1% excellent planning and 99% dumb luck. We are back in the S&B at least 3 months of the year during the summer sometimes longer .We have no problem with the S&B as it is well taken care of. We have not seen a Northern Ohio winter since 1996 which was our plan. We are on our 2nd Ford F-350 and our 2nd Montana 5th wheel. We have over 100K on the road miles total. We just logged the last of the lower 48 states this summer with a N.E states road trip.Wife and I talked it over and except for local travel ( to us that is @ 300 miles and a couple of rallies  we are pretty sure our RV adventure is over.We will keep Rv,ing as long as our health holds out.

[eddie1261]

@richfaa 80!!! Nice!!! I hope I can go that far. Either way I am not going to rent my house. That is just a headache I refuse to invite. And since I can't do both, travel wins. I gave myself 2 years of full time before I reevaluate. At that point I'll decide if I settle down or do another year. With a condition like neuropathy that worsens gradually I will have those plateaus built in by necessity. But I am one who believes about worrying about "then" then, not now. Absolute worst case, and a case that would not be so awful, is that I settle into an RV camp when I can no longer make the drives and just live there until the last sunset. With no family and few friends, it kind of doesn't matter where I play that last show! The Cleveland Agora, Sloppy Joe's in Key West, or the Chuggin' Monkey in Austin TX!    

[richfaa]

4 minutes ago, eddie1261 said:

@richfaa 80!!! Nice!!! I hope I can go that far. Either way I am not going to rent my house. That is just a headache I refuse to invite. And since I can't do both, travel wins. I gave myself 2 years of full time before I reevaluate. At that point I'll decide if I settle down or do another year. With a condition like neuropathy that worsens gradually I will have those plateaus built in by necessity. But I am one who believes about worrying about "then" then, not now. Absolute worst case, and a case that would not be so awful, is that I settle into an RV camp when I can no longer make the drives and just live there until the last sunset. With no family and few friends, it kind of doesn't matter where I play that last show! The Cleveland Agora, Sloppy Joe's in Key West, or the Chuggin' Monkey in Austin TX!    

We reevaluated after one year at that point it would have been sell the S&B and go 24/7/365 or not. We chose   or not. You have plan and you will make it work.

 

[sleeper125]

On 8/17/2017 at 9:00 PM, Allentc2 said:

...  So a camper might be more my style, though the bigger ones still kinda limit me to where I can go....

One thing to consider about a camper (that surprised me) was the size of truck you needed to have the payload weight good enough for many of the campers. 

[arboldt]

A year ago we sold our S&B and hit the road FT. For the past year we've visited relatives a lot (including 3 cousins I hadn't seen in 52 years). We feel we won't repeat that so much in the future -- but it was nice reconnecting.

We're currently spending a couple months in southern Minnesota with other family -- idling time because some (idiot?) scheduled my 50th class reunion September 29-30. We really didn't want to be this far north that late in the year.

We know that (1) statistically and/or (2) existing health issues for either or both of us will reach a point where our health will dictate we come off the road. Until that time, 'home is where we park it.'

That said, legally we all require a domicile (aka 'home'). For us, our son's is our domicile. He collects and forwards our mail, etc.

[sandsys]

44 minutes ago, arboldt said:

We're currently spending a couple months in southern Minnesota with other family -- idling time because some (idiot?) scheduled my 50th class reunion September 29-30. We really didn't want to be this far north that late in the year.

So wander around seeing the sights in Minnesota and Iowa during your waiting time. Have you been to Pipestone National Monument? Or the Spam museum? Or the Mayo Clinic? Parks around here are generally open until mid-October so you'll still have time to get south after your reunion. In the meantime, it's fun to do the tourist things in your home area that you never did while actually living there.

Linda Sand

[coachmac9]

I posted this on another thread but it also fits this one nicely. This is our experience, hope it helps!

This is our third year living in our RV full time...we didn't exactly plan it that way but everything fell just right for us to start our "full time" experience a little earlier than expected.

We knew we were going to go full time when we retired but the more we thought about it and added up the pluses and minus of the lifestyle versus the sticks and bricks version it was a no brainer for us...we both still love our jobs so we want to work a couple more years and now we can use the three months off(and holidays) to travel.

We found a very affordable, small (10 spots) RV park that is very quiet and very safe that is about 5 miles from school that we call our home base. It is cheap enough that we keep it even when we are gone for extended periods of time so we don't have to worry about finding another place when we return...all in all, it works for us!! 

[swtamiet]

On 8/19/2017 at 11:29 PM, Solo18 said:

I sold my condo and my car 5+ years ago at age 69, quit my full-time job, but kept my part-time teaching online job.  Bought a brand-new 32' Class C and took off to travel the country.  I have kids on opposite ends of the country and do visit them and the grandkids as often as I can, which really isn't that often.  I have no property, and finally got rid of the storage room full of furniture last summer.  Kept it "just in case" I did not like this life or had to go back to a house for medical reasons.  I ended up with a dozen large plastic storage bins full of family things that I store at one son's house.  I have driven 104,000 miles in a little over five years and hope to continue as long as i can.  Teaching part-time while I travel pays for much of my travel costs, and I hope it also will keep my brain alive a few years longer. 

Home is wherever I stop for the night or a week or more, open my slides, and plug in my electrical connection and hook up water.  Last winter was a couple dozen state and COE campgrounds in Florida.  Summer was mostly Colorado where it was cool.  So right now I am in northern California.  September will be the Oregon coast, October will be Oregon and Yosemite, November will be southern California and December will be Death Valley and back to Northern California and flying to Ohio for Christmas with kids.

It's a good life.  

PS. If you like locks, there are three COE campground in Florida along the Caloosahatchee Canal--WP Franklin, Ortona South, and St. Lucie.  Also, in northern Michigan along the Soo Locks that separate Lake Superior and Lake Huron, you can stay at Aune-Osborn Campgrounds. It is pretty basic, but the big Great Lakes ships come so close to shore there that you can wave at the crew as they enter the St, Mary's river.  And try Tom Sawyer campground in West Memphis, Arkansas.  No locks, but tows come close to shore there also! 

That does sound like an ideal life. Sounds like the goal we have when we decide we can afford it. Just took a fairly large step in that direction by buying a small property with a couple of RV spots (although its not where our jobs are). My husband works for Yosemite. Hopefully, when you get out this way, the fires will be out. October - Feb is the best time in Yosemite IMO. 

[hutchman]

We moved into our RV the second week of June this and it has been home since.....well we actually traded up to a larger 5th wheel last month.  We closed on the sale of our house in July and plan to stay on the road untill we have to park and stay in one spot.  Our hope is that we will be on the road in the RV untill we take the"nap."

We do have a storage unit that we plan to empty next month.  After that, we will only have a little bit of stuff stored at our son's place.

We have decided that all of the keep sake stuff is just that......stuff.  It has taken a lifetime to get here and we plan to enjoy the rest of it.  We will go where we want when we want.

Someone asked me where we we're planning to go......my answer, "I don't know for certain, but I am certain I'll know when we get there.

[Kirk W]

On 9/3/2017 at 1:59 PM, swtamiet said:

Sounds like the goal we have when we decide we can afford it.

There is an old saying which you need to keep in mind. "People who wait to retire until they have enough money to afford it never do retire."

The key to financial security is not having enough money to live happily but it is learning to live happily on the amount of money that you have. 

[eddie1261]

1 hour ago, Kirk Wood said:

The key to financial security is not having enough money to live happily but it is learning to live happily on the amount of money that you have. 

That is both deep and accurate. I know several people who continue to go deeper into debt by doing things like selling the 55 inch TV for $150 so they can spent $3000 on the 65 inch 4k resolution model. Dinner out 5 times a week, etc.

When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.

[Pat & Pete]

18 minutes ago, eddie1261 said:

That is both deep and accurate. I know several people who continue to go deeper into debt by doing things like selling the 55 inch TV for $150 so they can spent $3000 on the 65 inch 4k resolution model. Dinner out 5 times a week, etc.

When you find yourself in a hole, the first thing you do is stop digging.

Some dig faster and deeper , hoping to find diamonds and gold . 

[coachmac9]

4 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

There is an old saying which you need to keep in mind. "People who wait to retire until they have enough money to afford it never do retire."

The key to financial security is not having enough money to live happily but it is learning to live happily on the amount of money that you have. 

Both are absolutely right!!