Too Old to Fulltime - What Next???? - Page 2 - Montana Owners Club

Bill Hill · 02-21-2005, 02:17 PM

Shari and I have been kicking this one around too. We are 2 years 1 month from retirement (who's counting?). We plan to sell our townhome in the Los Angeles Harbor area and move to Prescott AZ. In fact, we just got home from a long weekend in Monterey and Carmel CA and are leaving for Prescott on Thursday to talk to our developer and look at a specifice piece of property. We will probably buy in a development of manufactured homes and will even be able to have an RV barn attached for the Montana (they do deserve the best don't they?). We are 99% sure that we'll have enough equity here to buy what we want in AZ outright and have no mortgage, homeowner dues, or trailer storage fees.

We are lucky that as City of Los Angeles employees (both of us) we have a decent pension plan and will be able to retire early, Shari will be 55 and I'll be 59. We plan to do a lot of "long-timing" (a month or more at a time) but still want to have a home base, especially for when we get to a point where drivng any type of RV doesn't make sense or is safe. We've put a lot of thought into where to retire as things like healthcare availability, social activities, church/synagogue (one of each!), etc. are important factors. We also don't want to be too far from So Cal where my parents and family still live.

We've considered full-timing, but for us it seems that there is a need for a permanent place to roost even though we both have the wanderlust and there's a whole lot of North America to see. Having the stickhouse will also give us a place to pursue some hobbies that might be difficult to accomadate in the full-timer lifestyle. What is interesting is that we still keep asking each other the question about full-timing every so often, even though so far we keep coming back to the permanent base answer. But who knows . . . . .

Montana_657 · 02-21-2005, 02:17 PM

Hanging onto the house is not an option that most people can handle. After settling and burrying all the old folks in the family we find ourselves next up to the plate.

All the relatives who held onto the house were forced sooner or later to market old, outdated obsolete properties in varying states of dissrepair.

Those who sold out before they became infirm and went into condos or some form of seniors houseing got top $$$ for the property. They had lots of friends their own age in the same facility they lived in. Lots of organized activity, support groups etc.

Equity from the house, invested became an income stream to help pay for the good life.

There is a lot to be said for selecting your seniors facility while your health is good... rather then have the kids find one for you.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the stick house is not where a lot of us end up anyway.... don't attach too much importance to owning one, your gonna be giving it up sooner or later anyway.

NJ Hillbilly · 02-21-2005, 03:04 PM

Just to add my 2 cents, my parents are retired (this year) but have been snowbirding for years. My mother worked in retail and my father was a union worker. Come Jan 1 they took off for 3-4 months. They have a lot at The Great Outdoors in Titusville Fla and also spend time in the Keys and in So Fla visiting friends. They sold the big house and downsized into a 2000+ sq ft Townhouse. The townhouse is within 10 minuted of my and my brother's homes so when they are home they are close. They felt that it is easier to lock the door on a fully maintained unit and walk away for months vs doing this with a conventional house. This way they keep their posessions yet are free to roam whenever. In the summer they head mid-west or north to visit some of their friends that they winter with in Fla.

I think this is the best of both worlds because they maintain a homebase in the event of an emergency yet are not really tied down. They have a place to fall back on. I can tell You that in our area if You sell and move away, chances are You won't be able to afford to but what You sold.

I look foreward to the day when I can load up and stay out on the trail for an extended period of time. I guess I too am a "Full Time Dreamer".

John

stiles watson · 02-21-2005, 03:15 PM

Gruffy,

You just told the rest of the story. I quit writing on the earlier post because it was getting too long. I served as counselor to some nursing homes and what you have stated is very true. My house is already 30 years old. Without my TLC, it would begin to deteriorate rapidly in the hands of renters or even faster when vacant for prolonged periods of time.

My sweetie has been moved around 28 different times in 45 years of marriage(18 years in this house). I HATE MOVING. Moving the "house" rather than packing and moving the stuff seems to us to be more palatable. My problem is not getting rid of the unnecessary stuff. It is going through the stuff to determine what must be kept. I would prefer to load what I need on the fiver and hire someone to just come and haul everything else off.

It is true that the resolution of this topic is very individualistic to the perceived needs of each of us. Maybe I am exposing to the world or at least this forum just how whacky I am. Wow, I'm glad Dianna loves me.

sreigle · 02-23-2005, 02:48 PM

Gordon, I'm really glad to hear you beat the 'big C'! Sounds like you folks have a good plan in place.

I really think the decision to fulltime, to most-time, to part-time, to weekend and vacation is a personal one dictated by personal desires and realities. I don't believe there is a global right or wrong answer, just what is right or wrong for each of us.

Vicki is a good example of someone who really wanted to maintain the stick house as a home base. That changed because of some expensive repairs on the house (long story). And I think she has adjusted very well. I also remember how when we took vacations, how good it was to come home. But it's different now. We're not on the go all day every day like when we vacationed. Today, for example, we didn't do much at all. Well, I did go check out the Bass Pro Shops they have here and stopped for a gallon of milk on the way home. Vicki went for a walk on the beach while I was gone. We have days when we do some sightseeing. We have days when we do housework/laundry/etc. We have days when we're just retired and do what we want. Or not if we don't want to. Now, when we go out for a few hours of sightseeing, it's nice to get home, but the Montana is our home. I'm just trying to say you adjust your life to fit the circumstances. If that makes any sense. So, if the boat floats, it must be right, whether fulltime, most time, part time, or occasional.

Stiles, what you propose, "I would prefer to load what I need on the fiver and hire someone to just come and haul everything else off." is surprisingly close to what we actually did. We loaded what we wanted to take with us in the Montana. We loaded anything else we would not part with and put it in our kids' basements (turnaround is fair play, right?), we sold a few things to neighbors and gave quite a bit to charities. A 'live estate' auction house picked up the rest and hauled it to their auction and sent us a check when done. We could have got more by doing a few weekends of yard sales but we avoided all the hassles.

Parrothead · 02-23-2005, 04:22 PM

Stiles,
We love you too. You gave some very good insight as did all the others. I hope for more replies. For us it is not that we love our house, we don't want to get rid of family heirlooms and we want someplace, whatever it is, to "come home" to someday. We want to travel and we love our Monty. We just returned after a week at our stick house in Southern Calif. and I don't really love the house (we only bought it because we could park an RV there) but I do like all of my "things". Family heirlooms, my angel collection which is huge and our trains. My Mother is 87 and stills lives in her Mobile Home that she and Daddy bought 27 years ago when they retired. Her family all lives to be in the 90's. Yet arthritis and hip replacements and back problems are very prevalent in our family so I'm trying to think ahead 20 years.

Jeff Heiser · 02-24-2005, 03:56 AM

Well depending on when we get to retire (more like if the last one home (our son) gets a football scholarship or does mom and dad have to pay for him too to go to college). We have plans to sell the stick home, then travel. We have raised our 3 kids and now its time for mom and dad to hit the road for a year maybe 2 or 3 or forever how long it feels good. We want to travel to Alaska, parts of Cananda and all out west again. After we get the traveling out of our systems (if we do) we plan on building a log cabin on our farm in north Florida or maybe NC. One thing is for sure we are out of Florida traveling once our son graduates high school. As for what happens when we get too old, we dont plan on ever being too old - we hope. We are looking forward to the day the house goes and we hit the road.

Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

sreigle · 02-24-2005, 04:45 AM

Sue, you don't have to part with heirlooms. You can store them. We did. Those things will come back to our stick home when we once again have one. But the part about having a place to come back to is the one that's really an important part of your decision. I don't personally think anyone should part with their stick home if they're not comfortable doing that. Take off for a month or two or three or six. If somewhere down the road you decide you don't really need the stick home and all that entails, then you can sell it. Or you can continue to keep it. That's the beauty of this, there are options. And you can always change your mind later.

If you don't have family to leave the heirlooms with, there is secure inside climate-controlled storage available. Just check the security part closely. I'd recommend inside access for that purpose.

Bowie · 02-25-2005, 02:44 AM

Just read this thread all the way through and must say that we are grateful for all the different points of view. Thanks all. We have an additional comment to Steve's excellent suggestion about climate controlled storage. Invest in the rental of a safety deposit box near a trusted relative who you will make a co-owner of the box so that it cannot be closed when you die. Get it large enough to contain your wills, insurance policies, letters directing the division of items stored elsewhere, labelled negatives of your treasured photos, irreplaceable old family letters or diaries, a current CD of your travel diary, family jewelry which you do not travel with (including notes as to its disposition and any other small items which your family would find irreplaceable. Leave a copy of the contents of the box with another trusted family member. This insures that much of your family's heritage can be safely stored while you are on the road--and makes it easy for you to access it when you come back to home base. Safety deposit boxes come in various sizes as needed and some can be enormous--but probably not big enough for the angel collection or trains.

vickir · 02-25-2005, 03:11 AM

Sue ... I didn't part with anything that my heart said "Keep!" The only things that went to auction were things that could be replaced. Which means when we do finally settle down to a stick house, we get to do some serious furniture and appliance shopping ... YIPPPEEEE!!!!!

Bowie ... the safety deposit box is an excellent idea. But we opted to go with a medium-sized fire box that holds all those important papers and stays with us ... in the corner of the closet and out-of-the-way, but handy if we ever need anything from it.

Lots of ways to do this ... all of them good!

sreigle · 02-25-2005, 04:55 AM

Talking about this with Vicki, I think if someone maintains a home base then the safety deposit box is an excellent way to go. But some of the things need to go with you if you are gone for extended periods of time or are fulltiming. Things like last year's tax papers so you can reference them to complete this year's tax forms, insurance papers, titles to vehicles in case you decide to trade or there's an accident and it's totaled. Etc. Everything else could go in a safety deposit box. This will vary depending on length and distance of your travels, of course. At least in my estimation. Excellent advice, Bowie.

Bowie · 02-25-2005, 05:11 AM

Vicki--the safety deposit box is in ADDITION to the fire box which goes with you and contains all those papers,documents and other items which you would need for yourselves while travelling. The safety deposit box holds the things you want to pass on to your family. It holds a notarized copy of your will (and so should your lawyer!. It also holds the original insurance policies. The suggestion to have both repositories is based on the unfortunate experience of a friend whose RV rolled on an interstate. While there were many helpful folks to lend them a hand, somehow their box disappeared while they were in hospital being checked for injuries. They lost a lot of family jewelry as well as those completely irreplaceable family photos. Insurance will cover your rig and all the stuff in it--but great-grandma's picture, a family christening gown and the Civil war letters from a great great uncle are gone forever. Those kinds of things need to be in your safety deposit box. The dog's rabies certificate, your health care plan, retirement info and your passports etc etc can go in the fire box in the closet.

CountryGuy · 02-25-2005, 05:28 AM

Bowie,

GREAT SUGGESTIONS!! and Great insight! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Carol

vickir · 02-25-2005, 08:54 AM

Bowie ... you couldn't be more correct! As Carol said, great insight. Thanks ... I think we might be making some adjustment to our present arrangement.

richfaa · 02-25-2005, 10:57 AM

I am a retired Federal Employee (FAA) and wife will be one (FAA) in less that two years. As we said before we will not, at first give up our home.As we speak we are in the process of upgrading our home (25 years old) kitchen, bathrooms, etc with selling it down the road in mind.It is our thought that we will not take to true full timing..No stick house just an Rv..but we WILL give it a try..but hang on to the house.The issue of taking care of things now while you still can is right on target.If you do not downsize and clear out your stuff your kids will be doing it for you...been there..done that...Our plan will be to downsize in a couple of years and travel till we can't do it any longer. Everyone will do what is best for them..but..think ahead. Remember..when you were 30 and looked ahead 30 years you said..no problem..when you are 60 and look aheard 30 years..you are dead.

Dave e Victoria · 02-25-2005, 01:23 PM

richfaa,
Well, maybe you but not me........LOL

Parrothead · 02-25-2005, 02:39 PM

This post has contained some wonderful insight from all of you. I like the safety deposit idea and we will probably do that. However, many of our family heirlooms are way to large to place there. We have a whole set of Noritake Azalea pattern china with every accessory piece made and quilts and a blanket that was dyed from seeds and woven by a great-great-great grandmother and on and on. We still have some thinking to do.

sreigle · 02-25-2005, 02:58 PM

I agree there's really some great advice in this thread. Bowie, you hit it square on the head.

Vicki and I talking as a result of this thread brought up a thought I had some time back but didn't follow up on. Besides the firebox we have some things in the lockbox that comes with the Montana. That box is metal. It serves well to keep things out of sight and make it more difficult for a thief to get to them. But, if this place were to burn, that metal box will get very hot and the papers and other things in there will likely combust and/or otherwise be damaged or destroyed. The firebox in the closet could be lifted and carried out by a thief if they found it. In our case it would take awhile, it's buried under shoe boxes and other things! So anything we truly do not want to lose in any way should not be with us.

Montana_657 · 02-25-2005, 03:00 PM

How about a rural property??? There are areas where an old house with a well and a septic tank can be had very cheap. ($20,000 or less) Use the old house for storage and set up an RV park in the driveway for those times when you'd like to be "in residence".

You may also like: