Scaling back for retirement and Rv'ing - RV-Dreams Community Forum

robreab · RV-Dreams Community Member

Scaling back for retirement and Rv'ing

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome ... full timing kinda eliminates the need for a house. You're living in your house, it just has a frame and wheels instead of a foundation. I think that all of us will cross the bridge you mentioned (either tire of it or have health limiting issues that brings the party to an end). I consider that as inevitable. The drag on our financials when we "owned" our home ($5,000 per year for insurance, $7,000 per year in property taxes), plus the upkeep, pool maintenance, yard maintenance, homeowner's association fees, etc. were substantial. We sold our home and put the money in the bank ... so it's there if needed. Our current (always subject to change) exit strategy is to rent something nice when we come off the road. Renting eliminates most of the financial drags, while providing most of the benefits of home ownership. The downside is no appreciation on the property (and no inheritance of the house to relatives), but that is more myth than reality. WE (not everyone is the same), paid about $20,000 per year for the privilege of living in our paid for home. It takes a LOT of appreciation to swallow those "hidden" costs. So renting just makes more sense to US. As they always say ... your mileage may vary. I told my kids "would you rather inherit a house or the cash value of it?" ... what do you think they said.

Good luck with your decision ... there is no "right way" to do this. There is just your way. As long as you are happy with it, life is pretty good.

LarryW21 · RV-Dreams Family Member

"I'm worried that, at some point we'll tire of it, have health issues etc. and want to go back to sticks and bricks. "

This rings true with me and you could, later on, sell the smaller home.

firstcirce · RV-Dreams Community Member

We sold our house and bought one with wheels. Our solution has been to find a small piece of land that we can put the improvements on when we are ready or no longer able to travel. As of this date, we have not found anything we like. However, we can also find a nice long term park and pay the monthly charge. Obviously, this is our solution, others may have a different solution.

Good luck, we have not regretted our choice to pursue this life style. I am 71, my husband is 70, we discovered prior to our decision to become full timers, that staying in one location was making us old, and we will keep on living a life we enjoy.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Most people I know who fulltimed a few years ended up getting a smaller place than the one they moved out of to fulltime, often in another location. A condo or even a small mobile will feel quite roomy after living in an RV. It will also be easier to maintain, which is important as you get older. Having that large piece of property out in the country is not always a wise choice once you can't take care of it yourself or can't transport yourself.

Selah · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are much like RonC. All the proceeds from selling the house went into short term investments so it is readily available. In addition we put only enough down n the RV to stay ahead of depreciation. Should something happen that prevents so from continuing this life style (or we just get tired of it) we can get something more permenant without having to try and sell the RV first and then sell the RV for at least what we have in it. Most all full timers need some sort of exit plan.
In our circumstance the full time expenditures is less that when we owned to home. Some of that is due to change of domicile. We "moved" to FL where there are no state taxes, no personal property tax on vehicles, and vehicle registeration is significantly less that our previous home state.

robreab · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks all, for the comments and advice. Lot's of good points and things to consider. - Rob

fun2travel · RV-Dreams Family Member

We paid cash for our rig and truck, sold our home, now the proceeds of the sale sit in an account. We may or may not buy another home at some point, but we have options.

RonC · RV-Dreams Family Member

fun2travel wrote:
We paid cash for our rig and truck, sold our home, now the proceeds of the sale sit in an account. We may or may not buy another home at some point, but we have options.

That's exactly what we did. Additionally, we are able to live comfortably (and save a little) on our "fixed income" ... retirement from military and social security. Only taking the RMD from the IRA's and reinvesting that, so we're Okie Dokie on the financials. Hope to do this (full time) for 10-20 years. Hope to NEVER pay another cent of property tax to anybody! Actually, I set a reminder in my calendar to remind me when my property taxes would be due ... then have a little internal celebration!

Barb and Frank · RV-Dreams Family Member

RonC wrote:
fun2travel wrote:
We paid cash for our rig and truck, sold our home, now the proceeds of the sale sit in an account. We may or may not buy another home at some point, but we have options.
That's exactly what we did. Additionally, we are able to live comfortably (and save a little) on our "fixed income" ... retirement from military and social security. Only taking the RMD from the IRA's and reinvesting that, so we're Okie Dokie on the financials. Hope to do this (full time) for 10-20 years. Hope to NEVER pay another cent of property tax to anybody! Actually, I set a reminder in my calendar to remind me when my property taxes would be due ... then have a little internal celebration!

Same here - we paid cash for our rig and truck and have no debt - however we have wild crazy property taxes. Instead of selling our house, we are renting it to our daughter and her family. She will rent it for the cost of the property taxes - which will be a great deal for her. I refuse to have property taxes suck away my retirement savings. When we ultimately decide to come off the road, we will sell the house and get a condo, or live in the rig and buy a lot.