CLASS OF 2016

[Boundered]

Hello to all! Our plan would put us in the Class of 2016, maybe 2017. Sooner would be better, but end of 2016 is probably realistic. Our situation MAY be a bit different than some. First, we do not have a home to get rid of. Second, we have a 32 ft. Bounder motorhome which we have owned since new. And although it is a 1990 1/2, and "vintage" at this point, it has only 37,000 original miles and has always been garaged. Most of the miles have been logged as the result of extended trips throughout the western states from Mexico to Canada and from Denver to the West Coast.

 

Until graduation, we will be working on getting rid of 32 years of stuff and unnecessary vehicles while beefing up savings at the rate of $900 per month beginning in the first quarter of 2015. We have no debt.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Boundered

[Gannet]

Hi gang! I guess we'll probably be in this class, or maybe January 2017, depending on taxes and when the house sells. We'll both be eligible for SS in July/August of 2016 so that's when we'll really start cutting ties.

 

Current timeline is to sell stuff and downsize until about January 2016, and at that point buy our RV and set it up here at home. Start moving into it and fixing any issues we find for the rest of the year. Be mostly out of the house (but still in the driveway) by August and put the house up for sale with a "sell now" price, and assume it'll take 90 days or so to close. Transfer address to the mail service in October. We're keeping our domicile in Florida so that should be pretty smooth. Estate sale for whatever is left in mid-December, and hit the road!

 

It seems like a long ways off but we have a ton of stuff to do, so I think it will go by fast.

 

Very excited to be here, and excited to soon not be here.

Edited August 29, 2014 by Gannet

[imadtchmn]

Welcome Gannet. you would be surprised how fast that time will fly. It looks like you have a great plan on getting to fulltime. Stick with it and it will be here before you know it. Along with all this, try to be debt free also. It makes life on the road so much easier. Good luck to you.

[mandolin57]

Imadtchmn, I'm asking permission to join your 2016 class, and I want to thank Tumbleweed for letting us in 2017 but we are moving things up slightly and it's looking like we could be full-time in 2016. That is so exciting for us, but adds a little more pressure for sure. We are hoping to list our home on our anniversary, April 16 2016 and then depending on the sale, we will be ready to roll. Tumbleweed, we won't lose track of the class of 2017, if in case we need to postpone for any reason and thank-you so much for the good info along the way. It's greatly appreciated and looking forward to some good insight for 2016! Thanks all!

[Max Death]

Well sold house paid off rv. Just got new one ton dually. Nice felling to pay cash for new truck and not having to go into debt.

Still looking to sell land. Hope it sells before I retire and we hit the road. Retirement planed for June 24 2016. Can't wait.

[imadtchmn]

Mandolin57, you are more than welcome to join any group in these forums. No permission needed. Welcome to the class and as the years go by, more and more will join. Ask any questions and we will try to answer them to the best of your ability.

 

Hopeimakeit, sounds like you're almost there. Sure you don't want to change your handle to Ididmakeit? jk. Glad you are getting the ducks all together. Sounds like you have a good plan in the works. Keep it up and keep the dirty side down.

[norton83]

Hello! We are newbies here and looking forward to an early retirement next year and hitting the road in 2016. We currently have a little more baggage than most as a son and his daughter live with us. Don't want to abandon our granddaughter but we also have a 2nd one in NC that we don't get to see to often. Our plan is to retire next year, sell our house and most of our "stuff." Won't get rid of everything just yet as we plan to have a home base somewhere, sometime. We bought our truck last year and our new Mobile Suites this year. We have family scattered all over so initially plan to just travel and visit but then want to move into workamping. We look forward to hearing any thought or suggestions from those of you that have, or will soon, be taking the plunge!! It's all pretty scary but also exciting.

 

Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Mark and Darcy

[imadtchmn]

Welcome Mark and Darcy. Glad to have you in our group. Feel free to ask any questions and yes it is scary and also exciting. We are in the same situation as you are. We have family and take care of grandkids while we fulltime in our RV. Once the grandkids graduate, I think we will feel free to wonder around this great country of ours. Until then, we'll stick around the southeast near homebase.

[M Clinkaberry]

I just joined Escapees yesterday so pardon me if I don't do this post correctly. My wife and I hope to go full time in 2016. We haven't bought the RV yet but have spent a lot of time researching and pretty much think we want a 35 foot Class A with a jeep for a toad. We haven't started on the downsizing yet and are not quite sure if we want to sell the house or rent it out.

 

We do plan to change domicile to either SD (if the healthcare availability improves) or TX.

 

CA is such a mess right now we're afraid to stay! Do you think its a good idea to change domicile before buying the RV or selling the house?

 

I've been following the Escapees forum and some of the other forums and everyone seems like a great bunch of people. We can't wait to get out there!

[Kirk W]

 

CA is such a mess right now we're afraid to stay! Do you think its a good idea to change domicile before buying the RV or selling the house?

Keep in mind that you must leave CA in order to change your domicile. While you don't have to sell the house before you go, you can not just do things to claim TX or SD and continue to live in CA until the house sells. One of the key issues will be CA taxes and most find that it is good to submit a partial year income tax report to the state in order to notify the state revenue department of that change. Of course that will also mean that you won't be able to be employed in CA when you do this.

 

I did make some other suggestions in the other thread that you have on this subject.

 

Welcome!

[mandolin57]

Time for an update 2016! As of Saturday we now own our future home and what a beauty! We purchased a 2015 Grand Design Soltiude 305RE and we're one step closer to heading out in 2016. We have plans to place house on market in April of 2016, and hopefully, it will sell quickly! It's hard to believe that a 5 year plan is down to about 18 months...and it's getting harder and harder to wait especially since our home is sitting in the drive way now Hope everyone else is moving forward as well! We're getting very anxious!

[imadtchmn]

Congrats on the progress and the new RV. As you, we are also looking forward to the day we can hit the road. Ours may be delayed a bit, but eventually we WILL be out there. Time does go by much quicker that you may realize. Before you know it, it's time to out and have the biggest adventure of your life. Currently we have our "final" 5th wheel and we love it. I don't see us getting another one unless something tragic happens to this one. Let's hope not.

 

Say "hi" to Maggie and maybe we will run into each other out there. You never know.

[Gannet]

Update from us.

 

We've done a lot of talking and early planning. We've decided on a DP, and looked at some. I'm getting more set on an older Wanderlodge. Their biggest gathering of the year is about 600 miles away in a couple weeks, so we're going to go up there and see what we can learn. The Blue Bird people are really friendly.

 

I traded my Lexus 430 for a 4WD pickup to act as toad. And yesterday I made my first Craigslist sale, my old Ford Crown Vic I was using as a "pickup".

 

We've also started sorting and pitching.

 

Progress!

[DebMiller]

Hello,

My husband and I are preparing to go full-time in 2016, when I can retire. We have started the process of getting rid of stuff and becoming debt free! Can't wait to start our adventure! We currently have a TT and go on weekend trips. We plan on buying a Grand Design Momentum toy hauler when we go full-time.

Hope to learn a lot from here!

[L&JSteinmetz]

Hello,

My husband and I are preparing to go full-time in 2016, when I can retire. We have started the process of getting rid of stuff and becoming debt free! Can't wait to start our adventure! We currently have a TT and go on weekend trips. We plan on buying a Grand Design Momentum toy hauler when we go full-time.

Hope to learn a lot from here!

Hi,

 

Congrats on your decision to go full-timing and your choice of rig. We have debated a toy hauler to act as a workshop and storage area for our recumbents but have decided (for now) that we don't want to give up that much living space. Look forward to hearing how it and your new lifestyle works out. Good luck!

[Gannet]

We went to the Wanderlodge Owners Group rally at Pine Mountain, Georgia over the weekend. What a great time and boy did we ever learn a lot! And such super-nice people! We were really made to feel welcome. Saturday morning was "open house" day when people (who chose to) opened up their coaches for show & tell. Betty said it was a big help to her to see coaches as they are actually lived in. It made it seem more "real", and easier to imagine us doing it.

 

So, Wanderlodge or otherwise, if you're a newbie and you get a chance to go to a rally of a friendly group (like Escapees!), do not miss the chance. You will learn A LOT and meet some great people too. We really feel like we progressed quite a bit towards lift-off by going to the rally. Recommended.

 

We're zeroing in on a coach, stay tuned...

[DebRandio]

Gannet, My wife and I went to the WOG rally last year and stayed in a Yurt. Now we own a Wanderlodge and love our coach.

We could not make the rally this year, big network change-over at work. But hey, I'm just getting things ready as I want to leave this place better than I found it for the next generation.

Only 2 years, 1 month and 23 days left to 'get er done'. : )

[whatsnext]

We too are planning a March 2016 launch date! We've been planning, prepping and budgeting for 5 years and it's now down to 16 months to go. Wow. Time seems like it's accelerating toward 2016.

We have decided on a fifth wheel and a Volvo 780 to pull it....so yes, we are going over to the "dark side"! LOL

My DW is feverishly converting all of our family photo's to digital and our daughter is eyeing all the "stuff" that she will inherit rather quickly! ha,ha. It's neat to let her have it while we are still able to enjoy her getting it.

 

We plan on finalizing in the next 45 days where we will purchase our HDT & coach from and look forward to attending the Rally in Hutchinson with our newly acquired "home set up".

 

We continue to get a lot of help from this forum and plan on joining Escapee's soon.

 

See you on the road.....in 2016.

[Gannet]

We went to the Tampa "mini" RV show last weekend. If anything, we're more confused than ever. Now that we have slightly more experienced eyes we're seeing even more units that "could" work for us. One result is that we're waffling on a Wanderlodge. I'm not sure I want something that old, or that complex. They're wonderful, but we need a home, not a hobby. Plus, now we see the advantages in the more modern floorplans that started to come in in the mid-2000s. If I had to pick today I think it would be a Monaco. We did decide we're not going to do any more shopping until we have our purchase money arranged, which should be in a month or so. That's actually good news, as we now feel we're ready to buy. Progress!

[DebRandio]

We went to the Tampa "mini" RV show last weekend. If anything, we're more confused than ever. Now that we have slightly more experienced eyes we're seeing even more units that "could" work for us. One result is that we're waffling on a Wanderlodge. I'm not sure I want something that old, or that complex. They're wonderful, but we need a home, not a hobby. Plus, now we see the advantages in the more modern floorplans that started to come in in the mid-2000s. If I had to pick today I think it would be a Monaco. We did decide we're not going to do any more shopping until we have our purchase money arranged, which should be in a month or so. That's actually good news, as we now feel we're ready to buy. Progress!

 

 

That is the opposite of why I bought the Wanderlodge to full-time in, mine will be a home, not a hobby. It'll have maintenance like any RV, the more you can do yourself the less the hit, call it a hobby. The PO had it almost since new and made me feel most confident in my purchase and he and his WL friends have been a huge help with the nothing problems that have arising. It's not complex, it's the 'best of the best' at that point in time. Also at the price point I got in, I think my investment will not lose as much value in the long run as some. Is that not the only reason you would buy a 'home' of known declining value financially?

 

Good luck whatever you decide.

Edited November 17, 2014 by DebRandio

[nessybean]

I'm not sure I count as part of the calss of 2016, but I plan to begin the full-time RV lifestyle in 2016, although I will be working as a traveling nurse and not retiring. I have just begun the research and can't wait til it's time to start getting rid of stuff. I'm making a mental inventory of the things I will be able to sell. Right now I'm planning to get a 5th wheel, and would like it to be 27-30ft or so, but I'm still shopping around to get ideas. I currently live in an apartment with a roomate so I don't think downsizing will be too difficult for me. I can't wait!

[mandolin57]

Good luck on your search Nessybean and hope you can head out in 2016. 2015 is going to be a busy year for us with painting house, yard sales and prepping for listing house etc by April 2016. Keep posted here....you can get some good ideas, but from our perspective...fiver is best way to go! Take care!

[imadtchmn]

Welcome to the class, where we learn from each other. We started out with a TT and then upgraded to a fiver. I have to agree, a fiver is the way to go if you fulltime IMHO.

Edited November 29, 2014 by imadtchmn

[HighwayRanger]

By way of an update, we're under the one-year mark till retirement. That will mean an RV purchase next December, with our launch being in the spring of 2016. Today, we're leaning toward a nice fifth wheel and a 1-ton dually. Tomorrow, we may swerve back to a motorhome. We've been planning for this adventure for so long, that I'm running out of gas researching/planning/dreaming! Hopefully it will get here very soon!

 

See you on the road!

 

Roy

[mandolin57]

Wow Highway Ranger!.....it's got to be getting exciting now! We're like you, seemingly planning a lifetime for this, and we will hit our year mark in April 2015. Selling our house in April 2016 will be the last big hurtle. Hopefully the market has improved from several years ago.....do not want to go down that road again with wait time to sell and loss we took! I hope your transition is smooth and you find the right RV for you! We went with Grand Design Solitude 5th wheel.....got it in October and only used it twice before winterizing it....but loving, loving, loving it!!! I'm pretty sure we'll be very comfy living full-time in it! You leaning towards something in particular yet?