Greetings All,

Really need to hear from all of you - pro and con!

Here's our situation.  My job will disappear in 6 months or less and we recently had an offer made on our home.  With this offer we could purchase a fifth wheeler and new truck to travel in, but while we would not owe on either, we would not have much left in the bank.

We intend to "workcamp" as we would need income for insurance, gas, food, etc.

So, given this financial situation, is going full time really a viable option for us?  We really want the change, but honestly it scares us too!

Thank you for any and all feed back!

Peace,
Al

Sure it is scary! But you have come to the right place. Howard has put so much work into keeping their expenses and budget up to date, that it should be fairly easy to see what dollars it takes them to do what they do. Of course you don't have to do everything they do but it is the best and most complete information I have found on what full timing can be. Only you can decide how much you want to spend and full timing means different things to different folks.

Given that you're losing your job anyway, the question becomes is it cheaper to live in a paid for RV, or where you are now? All other expenses should be the same. Additional benefits to RV, ing are seeing other places and staying in pleasant weather year round. Good luck with whatever you decide, Fred

If you've already made the decision that you want to fulltime, then losing your job & getting an offer on your house sounds like the perfect situation!  
If you're unsure about leaving all that is familiar to you, you could buy your RV and live in a campground in/near your town for several months.  You don't have to immediately lose your job, sell your house & leave your familair surroundings.  You could ease into a mobile fulltiming life. 
Or if you stay in your current town, do you have any friends/family who would let you park your RV on their property for a few months?  That would save you the cost of campground fees.  Maybe you could find another job locally that would permit you to put away some more money before you go on the road.
If selling your house would allow you to buy your rig & be debt free, I'll bet you can find ways to use your existing skills/talents to support yourself. 

Change is scarey even if it is exciting too.

We are currently at the KOA in Gunnison CO. They have several work campers and they have the best time working together. You can tell they put their heart and soul into making this a beautiful park.

Jerry and I had met a couple in your situation before we started fulltiming. They are now in their 4th year. They mentored us through the process. Over lunch one day Jerry asked them what they would do different. Sandy's response was we would have done it sooner. <g> That was all we needed to hear to put the next foot forward.

We learned so much from this forum and all the tools that Howard has provided to help us work through the financial aspects.

Stick around and the answers will come.

You've picked a great spot to begin! The folks on this forum are extremely helpful. You've already been given some great advice and a lot of things to think about. If you decide to fulltime having your house sold is a BIG hurdle. One thing Howard and Linda have proven in their fulltime lifestyle is that this lifestyle can be lived and enjoyed on different levels. Some choose to just travel and NEVER host, volunteer or workamp and others host, volunteer or workamp their way across America. Some do a combination of the above. Read over Howard's financial spreadsheets - both the yearly and monthly statements. You can get a really good idea of the cost and of course tweek theirs to fit your circumstances. Good luck and welcome to the RV Dreams family.

Here's another consideration.... instead of buying new 5th wheel and truck, you may want to buy used. RV's depreciate in value quickly, so that means you can pick up a 2 to 3 year old model for a lot less than a new unit.

In addition, most RVs are kept in great shape, it's a big investment, so folks tend to take good care of them.

So shop around and look for a bargain on an older unit. Or a truck and 5th wheel combination someone is selling. I see truck and 5th wheel combo units for sale all the time in escapees forum, craigslist and on ebay.

Be sure to have a mechanic look everything over to make sure it's sound.

Advantage of used vs. new- if you decide the fulltime lifestyle isn't for you, you haven't invested as much as if you had bought new.

Good luck in your decision, It seems the majority of folks who decide to fulltime are very glad they did and would never go back to their old way of life.

-- Edited by thebearII on Thursday 25th of June 2009 09:44:39 AM

theBearII has excellent advice here. Now that we know what we're doing, we would never buy a new RV again. Most RV's are only used for a few weeks a year and are in wonderful shape even though the paperwork says they are 2 or 3 years old.

Good advice from all here.Read all you can here and ask all the questions you want.This is the BEST RV forum on the net.Bear has a very good idea.There are many good deals out there on used, in good condition units.Just be sure you can personally inspect it or hire someone to inspect it.Educate your self about weights,carry capacity and the such.Do not believe much of anything a Salesman at the dealer will tell you. Read,ask and learn and you will do fine.

-- Edited by Racerguy on Thursday 25th of June 2009 10:34:09 AM

We are in a similar situation and here's how I look at it:

RVing will provide you with mobility to travel to other parts of the country wherein your skills or trade are more in demand.

Its very likely that it will be a lower cost lifestyle which will require fewer work hours needed to float the boat (& more time for fun!).

The lower cost allows for a career switch to something that you might find more fun but have lower pay.

Even if it didn't work out, you'd have a really cool rig to vacation in.


Being used to a steady paycheck and all, I'm a little nervous about it too but looking back, I was nervous about some other things that worked out pretty well (getting married,..... having kids,..... buying my first house, .....etc. , etc)

Best of Luck!

We agree with others that encourage used RV and truck purchases. We purchased a used truck easily enough, but now would consider a used RV. Now that we've been out in the RV world for about 6 months, we have consistently seen that RV folk take excellent care of their 'homes'. We also do not have work kamping in our immediate future, but know that we would pursue whatever was necessary to make our financial ends meet. As another post indicated, you have the flexibility to go where opportunity exists! Best wishes in your decision!

My job just disappeared, and my spouse wishes hers would, too.  We just bought a used truck and fiver, and we're planning to sell our house and head west to look around and settle.

We are probably having the same fears as you.  Conventional wisdom tells us that we're supposed to play by all the rules, max out our IRAs and put our heads down to get through the next 20 years until retirement.

We're just not buying it anymore.  So, you won't get a dose of Mom's voice here - I think you should go while you can.  Sure, you can go later, but right now, your "stars" are aligned.  When will this convergence of circumstance come again?

Good luck, whichever way you go.

http://thegoodluckduck.blogspot.com/

-- Edited by chillyrodent on Friday 26th of June 2009 08:04:57 PM

We purchased a new 2007 Winnebago Voyage 38' MH in Dec 2008. As the 2009s were already out and 2010s not far behind, we felt we got a great deal altho it was new. We also worked a 5 yr warranty in the deal. With the economic situation, dealers are needing to move RV's. We plan to sell our house at auction in early fall and move into our MH until husb retires in 2010. We are scared -- mainly because of the econ situation, but definitely feel we can/will live more frugally in our MH than our sticks and bricks. We have 3 children who live in 3 diff states -- we see this as an opport to see them and our grandchildren more and we also hope to workkamp.