Everyone's timeline is different and the steps we go through can vary greatly. Some people take years, some of us decide and then have no time to act on it but still somehow find ourselves on the road in less than 6 months, now don't ask me how many sleepless nights we had in that 6 month period, it was truly intense.

If you've never RV'd before, definitely take Barb's advice and rent. I would also suggest you read through some of the info Howard has posted on getting ready to RV and consider attending one of the educational rallies.

www.rv-dreams.com/preparation.html

I am in a similar situation, and here are some of my checklist items and strategic thinking.

1. I met with a realtor, figured out what my home might be worth, and figured out a best case/middle/worst case financial scenario for how much I get out of a house sale. Going on the market in two weeks, a very scary but positive step.

2. I am aggressively downsizing personal possessions. They know me on sight at the local animal shelter and good will and Craigslist and EBay are my friends. You really have to be ruthless about this. I love my multiple pairs of boots and coats but one and a backup is it. If you have moved twice and not yet used something, it gets pitched.
I will have some amount of items, mostly family heirlooms and pictures, that will need to be stored somewhere. Considering a storage unit, or an enclosed utility trailer, to be located next to family in the event of my death. Alternatively, purchasing a very, very inexpensive home somewhere will give me a mortgage deduction, permanent residence status, a fallback place to live, mail drop, and a storage space. Still working on this one.

3. I have my RV narrowed down to two particular manufacturer models, a Class A and a 5th wheel. The 5th is edging ahead with lower total cost of ownership. Gathering info on the tech side of towing and tow vehicles.  Besides sales tax, also looking at registration and licensing fees.  Some states have a user fee to tack on their own sales tax.  Tennessee appears to be very friendly to RV owners.

4. Have to pay attention to taxes. If I finance a tow vehicle, no deduction. If I finance the trailer, then a deduction.

5. Attending the fall seminar in Sevierville, TN. Thankfully I live 60 miles away.

6. You mentioned health care. Good or bad, I have developed a relationship with my local doctor, dentist and eye doctor that I would like to maintain, and company-sponsored medical insurance good in any state. My initial thoughts are to get a full checkup from each once a year, and hit the road. All have websites I can communicate symptoms and photos if necessary.

7.  Figuring out what to do with the cat and the dog.  Neither have been crated, but are good travelers.

That's where I am so far...

-- Edited by Acheron2010 on Sunday 9th of July 2017 08:07:02 AM

A couple of things to think about regarding financing versus paying cash. IF you have a lot of money in tax deferred accounts, pulling that out will cause you to incur high tax rate because of large withdrawals. Better to finance and pull amount to cover payments over a few years as those withdrawals will likely be at a lower rate, especially if your return is > than your loan cost (as ours was). That also means that other income is in place to live on.

Do not assume that you will have enough deductions to itemize your return each year. We had enough the first year only, after that, standard deduction has been the way to go. Once you no longer have a large mortgage and property taxes, it is hard to come up with enough to justify itemizing.

Barb

Great points Barb, one should never lock oneself into one mindset without considering all options.

Keep in mind if you have no wages for income and no debt it will affect your credit. It could be very hard to get a loan in the future for a house if you come off the road or want to borrow to replace your rig or even a car in the future.
Mew had the cash to pay everything off ( that was our plan to begin with) but after looking at everything we decided to finance about 40% of our trailer at a very low Rate 2.99 %.( we have enough cash to pay it off if we want to.
By doing this we maintained our high credit rating and have a good size stash of cash if needed, this keeps us very flexible. Just a different point of view.

Good Input Bill, we also do the same thing with Credit cards, we try to pay everything with credit cards . As this for us makes it easier to track all expenses. We alway pay the cards off at the end of each month so we never carry a balance.
People who are not working just need to make sure they maintain there credit scores some how.
You just never know what the future holds for you, so you need to make sure you stay as flexible as possible. 3-5 years from now if we want to come off the road it may make more since to get a loan for a house instead of paying higher taxes to pull money out of our investment