Is $900K enough to go full-timing ??? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

gauijons · RV-Dreams Community Member

Is $900K enough to go full-timing ???

RonaldNC · RV-Dreams Family Member

I guess I'll throw my "two cents" in... while a million dollars sounds like a lot of money (and it is), you are relatively young. After you buy your RV, you'll have around $800-$850k. You still have 10-15 years until social security kicks in (depending on your retirement option) and 10 years until Medicare kicks in. Most plans suggest that you can probably safely withdraw around 3-4% of your savings to live off, so that will generate around $24-30k per year (before taxes). That sounds pretty reasonable... except you'll need to pay for health insurance... you mention that your employer offers some, but I'm not sure what you are paying... but am guessing that it's a few thousand a year.

So if you don't work, you will be living on about $18,000 to $24,000... until Social Security kicks in... which many on this forum are able to live off. One other thing to consider (since you are relatively young) is that you may want to budget buying another RV in 10-15 years. Also, some would say that you need to consider long-term care insurance or creating some kind of fund for dealing with issues that may arise.

So... you certainly can do this... but you need to create a plan on how you will do it. All of the folk's blogs that I follow (including Howard and Linda) always have a pretty defined plan. What may seem like a lot of money can quickly disappear. Like others have said, some can do this with as little as $12,000 per year... others wouldn't think about doing this on less than $50,000 per year. It's just like "sticks and bricks" living... in my business (I'm a CPA) I see folks that make $100k to $200k that can't make ends meet. It sounds like you have lived on relatively little so far... so this may not be a problem for you. My guess is that you have a pretty good handle on your expenses already.

Hope all this rambling helps.

Whatever you decide to do... good luck!

Ron

-- Edited by RonaldNC on Tuesday 1st of January 2013 03:44:50 PM

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

It is impossible for anyone here to answer, people have embarked on the Fulltime journey with as little as $2,000 and as much as $3,000,000. Off the top of my head with no information regarding your lifestyle and expenses I would say No Problem....

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I feel the same as gene........It will depend on your lifestyle and investments...I am in the same age bracket (52) and was one of the 2000 dollar people who worked my way up.

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

First, welcome and Happy New Year. Your question is pretty subjective as it all depends on how you live your day to day life. We have all seen both sides of the spectrum even in the RV world, but the bottom line is that you can live very comfortably and practically in an RV. Living in an RV forces one to shrink down in scale knowing you cannot bring all your "stuff" that you have accummulated thru out the years with you. You learn to economize down to the simplest of things. We just started our FTing life and are learning as we go but we see how each day brings us new lessons bit also great pleasure and relief knowing we made the right choice. A lot of your budget planning will depend on how often you move around which will put fuel costs into play. You need to consider healthcare, food, campground site fees, energy cost (electric/ propane), vehicle insurances, maintenance costs, entertainment, misc. costs. If take on campground host positions you can eliminate a big chunk of costs. I would suggest you lay out you expected costs per month/ year and put a 15 to 20 year plan in place. Good Luck in your endeavors. Les

VanMar · RV-Dreams Family Member

I see you've been a member almost three years now. I'm a newbie(when does the 'newbie' designation expire? confuse )... only been here six months but I've learned a lot.

There was a thread on the forum you might want to look up that hashed this question pretty good. It ran from 4/11 to 8/12 and was posted by members Mark and Jenna.

I'm in the 'No problem' category concerning your situation but there were some important factors you didn't mention. Will you be owning and maintaining a S&B while FTing? Will you have any income, fixed or variable, while traveling? Are you debt free? You've done some sample budgets. With any income you have, and having access to the other two thirds of your savings, you should be able to determine how well you can do until any future retirement income kicks in. As others have said, it is always best to go into this lifestyle debt free.

Let us know what you come up with.

Vance

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome, and Happy New Year!

Without knowing all of your personal details it is impossible to say whether or not you can be full-timers, as others have said. Given that you have accumulated that much of a nest egg, though, it would seem that you are used to spending quite a bit less than what comes in, and that's a good thing. Remember that you are not on a years-long vacation, but are living at home (but in a home that can move from one place to another). Limit the visits to restaurants, shows, etc. and you should be good.

I wouldn't worry about the fact that some of your savings is locked away for a few years. You shouldn't need it for a long time yet anyway. I wonder, though, why you have mentioned a motor home at this point. Have you already done your homework, comparing your proposed travel plans with the type of coach? Although you can park a motor home for several months at a time, that isn't the best use of it. Towables generally are better choices if you are going to stay in one place for several months. If you are going to move a few times each month, though, a motor home is the best choice. That's out plan, so we're also looking at motor homes.

I'd suggest that you research high-end diesel pushers. There are lots available in your price range. You will also want a toad (a vehicle that is towed behind the MH). If you are happy with your present vehicle, check to see whether or not it can be towed four-down. If not, now would be a good time to trade vehicles.

We have been told repeatedly that we should look only at used coaches at first. We don't have your money, so we're always limited to used, but the initial reasoning is still sound. Many people find that they go through 3-5 coaches in a short time, as they learn exactly what fits them. There will be less loss on a used coach than on a new one.

Enjoy the hunt. Join some of the owners' forums for brands that you are considering, lurk for a while, and then start asking questions. Check some of the earlier threads for suggested brands to consider and websites for more information. If you'd like to know what we did, and where I hang out, PM or email me.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Like the others, without more of your lifestyle intentions exposed it is hard to say for SURE. But I'd also say "no problem". You can not anticipate every thing you will encounter going forward. But you have enough that you have some latitude in planning. And you can always workamp to minimize expenses. Even if you move around a lot you should be fine. Just make sure you have GOOD insurance, because health care costs can wipe you out in a flash.

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'll be a little more blunt than the rest. If you can't figure out how to make it with a million dollar nest egg, you might want to reevaluate your lifestyle. There are people getting by with nothing more than social security.

Workinrvers · RV-Dreams Family Member

like the others have said, not knowing your lifestyle is the big hang up from anyone giving advice.
Having property/house to maintain while you are traveling around has costs associated to it. Staying in high $$ resorts in popular tourist areas most nights and moving every 2-3 days has a lot of costs associated to it. Do you plan to eat a lot of meals at high $$ 5 star restaurants?

There are a lot of variables involved in this lifestyle and it can be as expensive as you can imagine or as least expensive as you want to make it.
We do a lot of work camping because we don't have a huge savings and, like you, what we do have we cannot access for a few more years.

I can, with confidence, tell you that if having close to $1M in savings was a requirement to live the fulltime lifestyle there would be very, very few of us out here.

Phil

gauijons · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thank you all for your quick and honest responses. We live in a mobile home now (which is one reason we have saved so much and are debt-free) so are used to living in a small space and will be selling it when we retire. We have gone to many RV shows and done a LOT of research and plan to buy a used diesel pusher. We're both driving cars over 10 years old so will need to buy a new (to us) car as a toad. We would like to stay primarily in national/state parks for a week or two at a time and sightsee wherever we're parked. My wife will have continued healthcare insurance through her employer after retiring so we are fortunate.

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

It certainly sounds like you have set things up right and that you already live a modest lifestyle. Keep up the hard work and research and you will be rewarded.

gauijons · RV-Dreams Community Member

Ron, you make some very valid points. I neglected to mention that my wife will inherit a large estate from her father, currently valued at $400,000. While we are certainly in no hurry to get it, it does factor in our decision. Obviously more research is in order and we appreciate the input from everyone.

RonaldNC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sounds great. My biggest blockage from retiring is obtaining affordable health insurance for the next few. I'm 57 and am uncomfortable with the current insurance situation. I'm currently self employed and am paying $11,000 per year for a high deductible plan, that gets more expensive every year. Just three years ago, it was "only" $8,000 per year. I'm not sure what the ultimate results will be with the Affordable Health Care Act, but health insurance is one of the key factors for me being able to retire before Medicare kicks in.

Good luck!

Ron

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

Look through Linda and Howard' financial pages on the RV-Dreams website. You can see month to month the associated costs they have run up against for the past 7 years. This should give you a feel for the typical expenses fulltime RVers run into and have to plan for.

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

MarkS wrote:
I'll be a little more blunt than the rest. If you can't figure out how to make it with a million dollar nest egg, you might want to reevaluate your lifestyle. There are people getting by with nothing more than social security.

Wow! Have to say that this thread is a little scary for me (us) For someone with a million $$$ budget, to be worried about going fulltime, scares the **** outa me! Especially as it sounds like there will be no RV financing to worry about either?

We are even younger than the poster and have already moved fulltime into our (financed) RV, We are presently 'static' fulltimers, living in a Famcamp on a military base, hubby is retired AF, but still working full time on base as a DOD Civillian, we are planning on leaving here in the next 12 months, we will hopefuly have minimum debt, mainly just the RV payments, but we will only have Jays military retirement as a regular income. Fortunately, we will also have Tricare health insurance so that is a big worry off our minds. We are also willing and happy to cut our living costs by volunteering or hosting, during this next year we are going to concentrate on trying to find something that we can do from the RV, that will bring in a little extra income. Jay has his GI Bill to fall back on too, he has been told that he can go to school fulltime for 36 months max and the military will pay his living expenses while he does that, he just has to decided what courses to take that would help us in our future travels/finances.

We already know that we will not be able nor do we want to be the kind of Fulltimers that can move from one private campground to another every other week, we are happy to plan on staying somewhere for months at a time, we are in no hurry, we plan on being around a long time and able to explore each and every beautiful State in this Country and beyond! We don't like to eat out that much ( I love to cook) neither of us are high maintenance as far as fashion/entertainment goes, we have no commitments in any particular State, although Jays parents are getting older and may eventually need some support (not financially)

What worries me with this thread, is that the original poster didn't get a resounding YES!!! of course you can do this on a million $$$ budget!!! If we had that much in savings, we wouldn't have any worries and would be on the road tomorrow, am I being unrealistic thinking that we can do this on much less?

I have read a lot of threads/blogs on budgets, there are some that would be way out of line for us, but there are others that seem to be more realistic with our budget. Obviously, everyone has different requirements and priorities when they start to plan a fulltime life and I do 'get it' that nobody can tell someone else that they have 'enough' income to live this life easily/comfortably, there are also things that can crop up that can just blow it all out of the water....God forbid!!!

My opinion in the end (and it is only my opinion) is that it's kinda like planning to have kids, there really is no way to know when you can 'afford' to start a family, sooooooo we have to go into this knowing that we will probably have some periods of "oh my goodness, what have we done", but hopefuly more times where we say "we should have done this years ago!!" ...............No Regrest!!!

Huggs Kim x

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

When I started out Kim my budget was far from 6 figures........I was at my happiest!!!!!

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

Lucky Mike wrote:
When I started out Kim my budget was far from 6 figures........I was at my happiest!!!!!

Thank you Mike smile That is encouraging!!

huggs Kim x

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kim,

I think what most were trying to convey was that whether you have $1,000 or $1,000,000 it really depends on how you live your lifestyle as to how much you need.

We are in our early 50's and just entered the FT lifestyle in August and know that with what we have planned for over the last 12 years or so that we will be comfortable in the RV.

In the end I am sure you have heard stories of how people win the lottery and go thru that money like a wildfire in a hay field, so how much money you have is relative to what priorities you place on your own self preservation!

JMHO but if you cannot make it on that kind of nest egg in the RV world of minimalists then no matter what you do you are going to have an issue.

We took a look at Howard and Linda's 5 1/2 year detailed expense report showing all the costs they incurred with a yearly average and drew the conclusion that we are on the right track.

Here is a link to it:

http://www.rv-dreams.com/Five-Year-Expense-Averages.html

Keep the Faith!

Les

RonaldNC · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kim,

As I stated earlier, it all really depends on you. Just like sticks and bricks dwellers, some folks live on very little and some folks have trouble making it on $100k to $200k. There's little difference in the RV fulltiming world... I follow one fellow's blog that lives on $11k per year and lives in a Class B RV. I follow another fellow's blog that spends around $60k to $70k per year in a large Class A RV. The first fellow would be living in clover with $900k in the bank... the second fellow has to mind his budget to live for 30 years with $900k in the bank.

As most have said on this thread... you just need to make a plan and a corresponding budget... and make it happen!

Good luck!

Ron

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I base out at 1200 per month and never exceed 2000 a month , and am enjoying myself......there are times that budget will spiral because of medical or repairs and such........but I couldnt keep a stick & brick for that.

I could live alot higher on the hog but chose a simple lifestyle and have no regrets or even want to change it

I draw 6000 a month off my dividends and either reinvest it in a little buy and sell business I started or put it back into my account...
(I buy & sell low end RV's)....Plus a little fleamarket & shows vending makes life good.

My son is coming back out with me this time and he does RV & Boat Detailing so he makes his own way too!!

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

bigboomer wrote:
Kim,
I think what most were trying to convey was that whether you have $1,000 or $1,000,000 it really depends on how you live your lifestyle as to how much you need.
We are in our early 50's and just entered the FT lifestyle in August and know that with what we have planned for over the last 12 years or so that we will be comfortable in the RV.
In the end I am sure you have heard stories of how people win the lottery and go thru that money like a wildfire in a hay field, so how much money you have is relative to what priorities you place on your own self preservation!
JMHO but if you cannot make it on that kind of nest egg in the RV world of minimalists then no matter what you do you are going to have an issue.
We took a look at Howard and Linda's 5 1/2 year detailed expense report showing all the costs they incurred with a yearly average and drew the conclusion that we are on the right track.
Here is a link to it:
http://www.rv-dreams.com/Five-Year-Expense-Averages.html
Keep the Faith!
Les

Thank you Les :)
Love your rig by the way, Beautiful!!
I agree, it is definitely an individual and subjective topic. We are absolutely living the minimalistic lifestyle right now, we are trying to pay off as much of our debt as quickly as we can, so from this experience has come an appreciation for a frugal lifestyle! I actually think that when we are able to 'pull the plug' we will have more money available!! lol.

Our main reason for taking this next year as static fulltimers (apart from paying off debt) is to come up with the extra income ideas for when we are on the move, we are both realistic when it comes to unexpected costs cropping up along the way, Rv repairs etc, unless we have the ability to earn extra money to cover those costs, that could be the end of our dream!

On this subject, does anyone have any ideas on where I can find any info on successful mobile businesses? We have a few ideas that we are researching, but would appreciate any 'insider' info :)
huggs Kim x

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kim,

We belong to Workampers.com which is by far the easiest way to find work on the road. Sue just landed a job a campground in the spring while I continue to work FT.

See the link here: http://www.workamper.com/?gclid=CLfzw9DazLQCFUOK4AodzgwAYA

It is amazing how many jobs are out there for us FT'ers!

Good Luck,

Les

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

bigboomer wrote:
Kim,
We belong to Workampers.com which is by far the easiest way to find work on the road. Sue just landed a job a campground in the spring while I continue to work FT.
See the link here: http://www.workamper.com/?gclid=CLfzw9DazLQCFUOK4AodzgwAYA
It is amazing how many jobs are out there for us FT'ers!
Good Luck,
Les

Thank you (again) Les :)

Yep, we are members of that forum too, we have seen lots of interesting seasonal/fulltime jobs on their site, great info and personal reviews too! We are hoping to get to visit them all at the renezvous in AK later in the year, we should be just about ready to begin our 'mobile' fulltiming by then!!

Thanx again hunni, hope to see you on the road sometime:)

huggs Kim x

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kim -

As others have said, it really all comes down to your own style. We're also much younger than the original poster (39/40) and working as we roam. We certainly don't have that huge of a nest egg... but then again, we didn't enter this as an early retirement. Just taking our careers on the road. For us, the costs of living on the road are less than our previous stationary lives. Thus far (6 years in), it's been cheaper for us and much more rewarding.

As long as we keep the income coming in :)

For ideas on mobile income that we've encountered amongst our fellow nomads, here's a post we made with over 60 ideas:
http://www.technomadia.com/2011/12/jobs-careers-and-income-sources-for-travelers

We also have a video series where we interviewed some of our nomadic friends, including about their income sources:
http://www.technomadia.com/ramblings

And we have a pretty comprehensive listing of other nomads working on the road (and who blog about it):
http://www.technomadia.com/young-full-time-rving-nomads/

Hope that might help provide some ideas and inspiration,
- Cherie

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well, I can say that when we finally get to travel instead of being static, we certainly won't have six-figures worth of investment or cash. On the other hand, while filet mignon might be nice, we are perfectly content with hamburger. We don't consume "adult beverages," so there is no need for storage for bottles or the expense to buy them.

We will be living off of "moderate" pensions and Social Security. Since we plan to locate an area to stay and then maybe stay 3 to 6 months in that area while seeing the things in that area that there is to see, we would be having the opportunity to do some part time work to supplement our pensions. In addition, we'll look into other options for generating an income, perhaps online.

Since I have worked ever since I was about 12 years old, I'm not sure of what I would do if I had nothing to do. If I won't be out taking pictures, I'll likely be looking for something to do, wherever I am. Even if it is nothing more than irritating my neighbors.

Terry

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

Technomadia wrote:
Kim -

As others have said, it really all comes down to your own style. We're also much younger than the original poster (39/40) and working as we roam. We certainly don't have that huge of a nest egg... but then again, we didn't enter this as an early retirement. Just taking our careers on the road. For us, the costs of living on the road are less than our previous stationary lives. Thus far (6 years in), it's been cheaper for us and much more rewarding.

As long as we keep the income coming in :)

For ideas on mobile income that we've encountered amongst our fellow nomads, here's a post we made with over 60 ideas:
http://www.technomadia.com/2011/12/jobs-careers-and-income-sources-for-travelers

We also have a video series where we interviewed some of our nomadic friends, including about their income sources:
http://www.technomadia.com/ramblings

And we have a pretty comprehensive listing of other nomads working on the road (and who blog about it):
http://www.technomadia.com/young-full-time-rving-nomads/

Hope that might help provide some ideas and inspiration,
- Cherie

Thank you Cherie:)
Sounds like you guys are living the life we aspire too, we are quite happy to work our way through the next half of our lives, just would like it to be more fun/casual!!

You have given me lots of reading/research there, that should keep me out of trouble for a couple days!! lol.
Really appreciate you sharing your experience!!
huggs Kim x