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GR "Scott" Cundiff

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Everything posted by GR "Scott" Cundiff

  1. I just posted our 2018 Fulltime RVing Expense sheet. Frankly, it was an expensive year with major repairs on both 5th wheel and F350. Some years are like that for everyone: both RVers and folks living in Stix and Brix. This year it was our turn to feel some financial pain. Here's a link to the 2018 expense sheet.
  2. This thread came to mind today as I ran some figures on delaying Social Security another 16 months or starting it shortly. Obviously, everyone's situation is unique to them (health and other income sources being the main drivers). In my case, I've already delayed Social Security a while and I'm working on when to pull the trigger. My math shows that the loss of income from delaying 16 more months to get a bigger monthly benefit will even out when I am 82, after that, of course, it will be a gain. Honestly, I was a bit surprised to see that it would catch up that soon. Right now, though, I'm inclined to go to Social Security now and not wait much longer. Again, this is no one size fits all - and my thinking is not intended to address the concerns of those who are financially hand-to-mouth right now. Still, I found the speed of "catching up" on deferred Social Security income to be as quick as it is for me to be a bit of a surprise.
  3. Thanks Cherie! Good to know. Ron, I think I'm okay with Verizon at this time. I'm running the phone without a sim, making and receiving calls via WiFi. I just put the Jetpack in my pocket. It is just for the time being, to be sure the Jetpack setup works okay. I may get a cheapo cell plan for the phone.
  4. Cherie I'm relying on information from your website that putting my grandfathered unlimited plan sim in a Jetpack isn't going to get me into trouble with Verizon. Do you still think that is acceptable with Verizon? Thanks.
  5. At this time I'm going to stay with my old grandfathered unlimited plan. I see three concerns: 1. The new plan can be changed at any time - there is no contract - and Verizon has a history of floating new stuff and then quickly adjusting based on customer response. If I give up my old plan I can never get it back. 2. There is some differences in roaming coverage between a contract plan and a prepaid one. Not much, mind you, but traveling as we do there are many times when we end up off the beaten track - exactly the kind of places where roaming kicks in. 3. My old plan isn't subject to being relegated to a lower priority on busy cell towers, the prepaid plans are. It may never be an issue, but we've been in some places where our data slowed down on busy weekends - likely a result of several users loading down the local tower. So, while I'm going to keep an eye on developments, I don't think I will be an early adapter here.
  6. Not sure I follow. Get the prepaid account for the Jetpack, pay $65 a month.. Then go to a two line, 3Gig plan for $60. That's $125 a month.
  7. Intetesting...right now I'm running an old unlimited grandfathered sim in a jetpack because tethering to the phone is hard on the phone. I'd save money by giving up the grandfathered plan.
  8. Sometimes you just have to say, "Okay, thanks." Hang up, dial again (or use Chat which is actually better) and talk to the next person.
  9. I had some fun yesterday. We moved to the Roanoke, VA area. I did the online chat to update locals. The old listings disappeared in a few minutes but the new ones never showed up. I rebooted - still no joy. Ran check switch, Eastern Arc showed just fine. Contacted support, had them resend authorization - no go. Ended up chatting with advanced support. Took me through the same old stuff. Suddenly, it dawned on me. Roanoke is only on the Western Arc - nothing, not even SD on the east. After spending the last several months traveling in the northeast, I forgot that there are a very few places only on the Western Arc in this neck of the woods.
  10. When a change of programming is authorized, the satellite sends a signal addressed to only your receiver, reprogramming it. That signal is only sent for a certain number of times and then stops. So, if you call them to upgrade your locals and don't have your receiver on it won't receive the programming change prior to the satellite change signal stopping. Now, I have heard of people who knew they were going to be out of cell and internet range calling prior to the move and having them change the locals while they still had the dish up. As you can guess, it worked just fine.
  11. I don't know if this will help anyone, but here's the text I send using Facebook chat with Dish: Then, once they update it and tell me that I can change it myself using their app I send this: There is usually a brief interlude while they check out my information, and then they return and acknowledge I am right.
  12. Here's the message I send: Hi - we are traveling in our RV and have moved and need our locals updated to our new location, zip code 77???? I have done it via their website chat, but the past few months I've been going to their Facebook page and doing it via chat there.
  13. My guess is that you talk to the same people no matter how you chat - either through their website, through the app, or via their Facebook page. I've been doing it via Facebook with good results.
  14. If we have it our way we will quit when we are good and ready! We'll look at each other and say, "Let's stop traveling and do something else." However, we are well aware that life doesn't always work that way. So our second preference is to gradually slow down. Longer stops, fewer moves, ultimately becoming point to point travelers - summer and winter. And, truth be told, there's a good chance that we won't get a choice in the matter. Life will happen and we'll suddenly find ourselves unable to travel. In other words, we have our plans and hopes but we know we aren't always in control. We'll just appreciate today, plan for tomorrow, and then deal with what actually comes.
  15. By the time people reach 62+ years their circumstances vary wildly. There simply is no one size fits all. There are elderly parents, disabled children, past health issues, financial windfalls and disasters and a thousand other situations that impact one's retirement decision. That doesn't take into account one's current work situation - some people love their jobs and are having the time of their life going to work every day. Others are just barely hanging on trying to get to exits. If you narrow the discussion down to just one specific aspect of retirement - like which will get the biggest monthly check or will result in the biggest pile of money at the end of life - it gets a bit easier but even then different people have different life situations. So, ultimately, we have to each do what we think is best for us at the time. For me to tell others they need to do what I did is foolish on my part and, if they copy what I did it would be foolish on theirs.
  16. Since Dish still hasn't enabled the service address feature on my app I'm still doing it the old fashioned way. However, the last couple of moves I went to their Facebook page and did it via the message function. I think the response time is even faster than it is using the online chat on their website.
  17. Probably the first response to the question is "what do you mean by fulltiming?" If the answer is "live in an RV parked behind my cousin's house" the answer is probably "yes." If the answer is "travel the country, staying in state, national, private, etc. campgrounds" the answer is probably "no."
  18. Right. I see people who are work camping and not paying for their campsite say their campsite cost is $0. If a person is researching fulltiming costs intends on doing the same thing that's valuable information. Otherwise, the estimated value of the of the campsite needs to be included. Or stated differently, if I were parked in the campsite next to you and paying what would it cost me? When I post my expense information I note that in my camping cost I'm including an estimated value of the site during the months when I volunteer and also annual dues for Thousand Trails, etc. in my camping costs. (Also, I'll mention that I include a note that I'm not including start up costs - again, like Thousand Trails initial cost, etc.) I wrote about reading other people's budgets here.
  19. While I know this poll isn't scientific, I'm thinking it is possibly the best snapshot anywhere of what fulltime RVers spend. I refer people who are researching fulltiming to it all the time.
  20. I'm using the paid version of this Android app - there's a bit of a learning curve, but it makes record keeping pretty easy.
  21. Ha - might just be a symptom of being a tightwad. I have a expense app on my phone - anytime we spend money I enter the amount in the phone. If it is cash, I may be a bit less accurate on things like eating out. If it is a credit card charge or bank charge, I have to get it right or I can't balance the statement. It has become almost second nature to enter expenditures in the phone.
  22. Update: I got ambitious tonight and created a spreadsheet that includes 2013-2017 using annual figures. The information is actually the same as you would find in the year end reports, but it is presented in spreadsheet format and gives annual amounts rather than monthly averages. It might help some folks doing research to see all the information in this way. Annual Expenses 2013-2017
  23. We did just under 5000 miles towing in 2017. A rule of thumb for us is that we do equal to that in sightseeing, just living, etc. so you can put us down for 10,000 miles on the year. We did about 4 months volunteering and then two one month stays. The rest of the time we moved around once a week. When you are working with other people's expense lists it is wise to do exactly what you are doing here - drill down so you can use the portions of information that will apply to you. Also, I will mention that most people, when they first start out, are in "vacation mode" that includes lots of shorter stops and longer days of driving. Once you get past that period you will likely slow down. We did a couple of 1 month stops this year and decided that we really don't like them very much. It does save some money but we get hitch itch and are ready to travel again. In the future we may do just 1 one month stay early in the year but I doubt we will want to do back to back stops that long again. Also, in addition to our regular 3 month winter volunteering-for-campsite gig I agreed to an additional 1 month fill in job. We were glad to help out, but, really, that's too much sitting around. Good luck on your planning. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
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