“I want to be a Fulltimer, how do we do it?”
“I am going to sell everything, buy an RV and be a Fulltimer”
These are two statements Terry and I hear all of the time from folks interested in our lifestyle. Fulltiming is seen by many to be romantic, carefree and adventurous. Many try the lifestyle and fail…why? I will try to give some insight as to why the failures may occur.
Fulltiming is not to be taken lightly. At the very least it is giving up all you have known, most of what you accumulated and jerking yourselves up by the roots…in many instances destroying those roots.
Most fulltimers we know do not own a home to return to. Some have a “homebase” such as a home park in a campground membership, a deeded lot somewhere they can return to when they want or need to or just a favorite area they like to stay in. These folks have found that maintaining a home somewhere takes away the pleasure of being on the road. There is always the worry about the physical problems back at the sticks and bricks. Most have sold the homestead to be free of those worries.
In our case we knew that when we retired we would not stay in the area we had lived in for 22 years, raised the kids and had a terrific but hard life. We needed a complete change of pace, location and lifestyle. We had no real ties…no family or land that have been passed down for generations. It was time to leave. but here would we go? We only knew that we did not want the desert again, we needed green and water. We would not have animals or pets again.
So…what to do? Our farm had been paid off for several years, we had no bills other than living expenses and all the extra dollars were being invested. Our truck and fiver were paid for…we owed nothing. We dispersed all of the farm stock, the household pets (two English budgies) sold the farm, the businesses, sold or gave the huge bulk of our possessions away. We had no dogs or cats to bring with us. All proceeds were invested. We only had what we put in the rig.
How to start getting rid of stuff? We had some very devastating fires in the area and I thought about that…what if we had a fire and lost everything? What would I want to keep? Really an easy answer…not much. Papers such as tax returns, the trust, etc. Some pictures and a very few momentos. That would come with us. Everything else was disposed of. My Mom, Dad and the kids took what they wanted, most everything stayed with the farm and what did not was donated or thrown away. We had not realized how much we had accumulated over 34 years and it was daunting! It took a bit of time which is another story…but it was done!
So…the farm and businesses were sold, the stuff gone and we were ready to hit the road. Not quite! During that period we had to make sure that arrangements were made for things like mail, getting bills paid, etc. We moved into the fiver two months before leaving the farm. Terry had not yet retired and we were going to San Diego to spend his last two months of working. We found an RV park about a mile from the office which would work and made reservations for a couple of months. Those four months gave us the chance to get used to living in the small space, decide what we really wanted to keep with us and adjust to our new lives.
Now we were ready to explore! We would hit the road and put lots of miles on, see tons of new places, meet so many folks and travel, travel, travel…that is what is is all about, right? No…but we will get to that!
Denis Gould
John, the url doesn’t work, perhaps you could correct it for us to use. Thanks so much.
John
I see the url did not show up under my name, so here it is: http://www.johnsruth.rvfreedom.hop.clickbank.net .
John
If anyone is thinking about a life of full-timing they should check out the website under my name. Full-timing can be the time of your life, but like anything else it takes some preparation. For some it can also be a change a lifestyle and habits. Though similar to weekends there some distinct differences.
Mike Day
We went full time 2 years ago with all of the same requirements, getting rid of everything, before we go. With the exception of some pictures we got rid of everything and have been traveling about 26,000 over the last 25 months. We love it and have new friends all over the United States and look forward to more places and people in the next ???? years. Unlike most we started with a 2006 40′ Forest River Charleston diesel pusher and traded it in this summer for a 2007 Alfa See Ya. We have a Harley on the back and flat tow a 2005 Chevy 4WD Colorado. Somehow we made the right decision with the right equipment.
curt
Voting is done through Escapees. This is your permanent address. You are in Polk County Tx.
Ben Lucas
We went full time 2 years ago, we did the same thing 3 garage sales and sell 2 cars and a van, our home.And then put some stuff in storage(wifes like to keep a lot of stuff) we have a Winniebago,MinnieWinnie ClassC 21ft. that we have had and loved for almost 23 years, It was our honey moon cottage 22years ago. It is as like new, as a 1973 could be and it has most all of the stuff we need IE:full bath with tub & shower roof air,microwave, 2 vcr’s 1 DVD player, tape/cd stereo, 2 tv’s, queen bed,and a 4000 watt generator. Over the years we had done some travelling, Alaska was great and it was even better the next time after I retired and could spend more time and not be rushed. This was and still is a problem for me (learning to be retired). But the bigest problems we have had is HEALTH INS.that is affordable and not an HMO. we still do not have that worked out. The next was our mail but we have that worked out now with a great service out of South Dakota. We did buy what they call a park model in Tucson AZ it is a 55 and over Rv resort with all the stuff and fluff for the winter. and we snow bird it here Nov. to May. There is one thing that you have to do to be really happy always agree with your wife or significant other!!!
FullTimerNormie
We also agree that full timing is not for everyone, but we know it is for us. We got our fiver 14 months ago so that we could have time to get it paid down before I retired…Clint is already retired. We came out of a 1224 sf three bedroom house that was completely furnished…to the hilt…including stuffed closets…and garage…into a 240 sf fiver. We had sales every weekend, and 2 estate style sales and sold it out in 30 days…what we didn’t sell we donated to various charities…a few things didn’t go, so we had to rent a storage unit for a few months until we could dispose of them.
But we are now almost out of under the “stuff” and we feel so much lighter (parden the pun)…we don’t have to worry about maintenance of the house, no more yard work, etc etc. We don’t have any children, so there is nothing to tie us to any particular place.
However, there are a whole new set of concerns in an RV…such as mail address and forwarding once we start to travel full time and voting (bummed out because we could not vote yesterday because CA sez we don’t have a permanent address so sorry), but we have a plan. We joined the Escapees club (check them out at http://www.escapees.com) and when we go full time traveling plan to sign up for a mail address with them; they seem to have a great mail forwarding program. We have spoken with others that use their service and they say its great. Voting is something we plan to look into if we plant our feet in one place for any length of time, but we do consider that one down side to full timing.
The opportnity to come and go as you please, and to see the many wonders in this great country of ours is somethng that we don’t want to miss before we are too old to be able to do it. We are sure there will come a time when we will not…and should not…be driving on the road, but in the meantime, we want to savor every second of it. We are looking forward to our full time travel.
Jaimie Hall- Bruzenak
I agree, full-timing is not for everyone. However one of the appeals of the RV lifestyle is that you can do it anyway that works for you. Some are part-time RVers, some are snow birds, others try out the full-time RV lifestyle. This lifestyle can be very fluid and a decision to RV isn’t necessarily a “for-the-rest-of-your life” decision.
You can run into difficulty if you jump into full-time RVing too quickly and sell everything. It could very well be that you will not be able to buy back your house or a similar one at the price you sold it. We were like you in that we did not plan to go back to the area where our house was if we did decide to get off the road.
So, if you aren’t sure and can afford to keep your house, it can be wise to not sell until you test the waters out. But even if you do and change your mind, you can always settle down again somewhere in a stick house. And you’ll carry your RV travel memories forever. Better then wishing years later that you had given it a shot.
Jaimie Hall-Bruzenak
http://rvhometown.typepad.com