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Old 10-03-2005, 05:27 AM   #1
Wagonmaster
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Whats the cost?

A kinda of personal question. Since full timing is in the not to distant future, We were wondering about the cost of full timing in relation to the cost of maintaining a stone house. Saying that nothing was owed on the house or the tv or monty.I realize a lot depends on your travels and life styles but just wondering about a ball park figure Thank you Jack & Janet
 
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Old 10-03-2005, 07:14 AM   #2
richfaa
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We are not full timers but seriously considered it. Don't know how many folks could manage to be completely debt free. If we sold our home at present market value and most all that is in it we could have got the TV we now have(or a better one) and the Montana we are going to buy, paid off every debt and still have a chunk of cash left over.If you are just looking at the cost of lodgings, fuel, food, phone, TV and Camper maint it has got to be less money per month to full time by a fairly large margin. Again, IF you could start off completely debt free.How you full time will make a difference,Do you travel 500 miles then stay for a month or two or do you travel 200 miles and stay for a day or week.CG rates around here start at around 350 to 400 per month.(right now). Now you can stay at CG's for a lot less but one thing we would not do would be to lower our standard of living or our Quality of life. I would say that meeting your qualifiers Full timing would be very cost effective.
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Old 10-03-2005, 09:37 AM   #3
patodonn
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There was a similar thread here about 2 years ago re the same topic, and I seem to recall I got lots of specific info from it. Might do a Searchin the archives. Also suggest the Escapee's Forum for similar info.

In general, we have found full timing to be cheaper than maintaining a home (with a mortgage). If you don't owe anything on the stone house, maybe it would be a wash, but then you don't have the benefit of the travel. I will tell you that selling a home now on this ever-climbing housing market will cost you $$ in the long run. Your TV and Monty certainly won't appreciate in value, and whatever "piggy bank" you put the $$ into almost certainly won't appreciate as fast as the house under present conditions. Would I do it again, knowing what I do now? Almost certainly, because I still don't believe the housing market can support these prices, and we wanted to get out of the S. Calif area.

Hope that view is of some value....more specifics copming via e-mail..

Best,
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Old 10-03-2005, 11:33 AM   #4
sreigle
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Patodonn's experience is pretty similar to ours. Our total costs are probably less than when in a stick home. So much depends on the lifestyle you lead before and while fulltiming and how much you change that. If you move around a lot you will have higher fuel bills (towing costs more in fuel) and in rv park costs (weekly and monthly are cheaper than daily).

Like many fulltimers we began with the excitement of seeing all those things we wanted to see. So we moved a lot. After 18 months or so we slowed down and began really enjoying the area we were in. Our CG bills went down markedly. Fuel bills did, too, except in areas where we did a lot of driving to get to sightseeing areas.

I had to chuckle at a post where someone mentioned they'll be gone 3 or 4 weeks and couldn't imagine being gone that long. When we first started we planned to go from NE Kansas to San Diego in a month. That initially looked like forever. I had trouble imagining what would take so long. We used to drive that trip, solo, straight through in 25 hours or so. Now, taking a week or two or three to get somewhere is 'normal.' When we leave Minden, NV, for Kansas City, after the rally, we plan to take almost 3 weeks. That's around 1800 miles. But we plan to stop and enjoy some areas on the way.

Bottom line, I guess, is it can cost less than living in the stone house or it can cost more, depending on the lifestyle you choose to live. Not much help, huh?
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Old 10-03-2005, 11:37 AM   #5
jrgwdenner
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Our monthly expenses for our trip to Alaska total around $4000 per month. That should be well above the average cost of fulltiming since we never stayed more than eleven days in one place and had special fees needed while traveling, i.e. National Parks fees, GS tax in Canada, etc. And we've driven almost 13,000 miles which calls for a lot of diesel. That includes every expense that we had. Certainly traveling in the lower 48 and staying for a month in one place would greatly lower your monthly expenses.
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Old 10-04-2005, 04:18 AM   #6
patodonn
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Just went over to Escapees.com this AM and the second Subject in their Forum was this same one. Here is the link:
http://escapees.infopop.cc/groupee/f...1/m/8781065141

Should be able to view their Member's take on this subject there.

Best,

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Old 10-04-2005, 05:33 AM   #7
Ontheroad
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Ditto what Sreigle said. Since we started full timing it has taken over a year to get out of the "vacation" mode where you want to see everything to the "fulltiming" mode where you take your time and enjoy where you are. Also, we couldn't afford to maintain the pace or the expense of the past year. Bottom line is, the slower you go, the less it costs. My opinion.
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Old 10-04-2005, 02:39 PM   #8
owenwetzel
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We sold our home in Feb.. We no longer have the big homeowners insurace, property taxes heating bills of a 7 room with basement home, no water or sewer bills, high electric bills for AC and other electric items. AND NO GRASS TO MOW OR TRIM. I FELT BAD THIS YEAR NOT MOWING THE 1/2 ACER AFTER 25 YEARS. LOL
We love the new life stile.
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Old 10-13-2005, 06:48 PM   #9
mobilrvn
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When we started full timing, we had sold the house, paid the bills, got a new 5W since it had S/Os and lots of storage, but then had to buy a used TV, but we had no debt. We work camped and had no retirement income. We would travel, run out of money and then work to start it all over again--we spent all of what we made, probably $1,200 a month. Finally the retirement income started coming in bit by bit. Now we have better equipment, some debt and we spend nearly all of our retirement monthly income of about $4,500, but we sure are enjoying our life!
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Old 10-14-2005, 12:29 AM   #10
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We sold the house, kept some property & found expenses to be about the same.Spending the house money was never a consideration & we pretty much lived the same...be it on the road or parked. Granted, we didn't park for long. For us, the point of full timing was to see all we could of this country. That we did.One expense few ppl mention is saving for repairs/replacing trailer/tow vehicle.That can be a major chunk of money.We also had our "exit" plan in mind for when we were ready to stay in one place.There's lots to think about & the best advice I could give is to plan & plan some more.....then enjoy.
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Old 10-14-2005, 02:58 AM   #11
ols1932
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I just looked at a report on my computer. For the year-to-date it has cost us $23,404. This is our TOTAL living expenses which includes truck, fuel, repairs (both truck and rig) park memberships, food, meals out, 2 Verizon phone plans, DirecTV, vehicle insurances, life insurance, and everything else that we had in our permanent home. We travel continually, not staying in one place more than an average of 7-8 days. Most of the time we visit a place for a couple days and we're on the road again. It cost us well over $3,000/month and we didn't go anywhere. Our fuel alone only costs us $1,890 so far this year. I know it'll go up some next year, but it's still not too bad.
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Old 10-16-2005, 10:43 AM   #12
Kimmrg
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Glad to know we are not the only ones who went through vacation fever in our first year. I think that you spend much less on this life style once you get through the manic phase!
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Old 10-24-2005, 04:00 AM   #13
bwney
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Not all real estate is aprreciating wildly. We are in North Texas, and it is hard to see anything out of the ordinary. There is always building going on, and has been since we moved here 20+ years ago.

We are getting our house ready to sell. This house was never our retirement dream. It was a house to live in while we worked. It is far from paid off. I have worked the math a 100 times, and we are going to fulltime without a house until we get tired of it. Could be 1 year, or 5 years or 10 years. At that time, we may get another stick built, or maybe an RV site. In our travels, maybe we'll find paradise. But I'm pretty certain North Texas isn't paradise.
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Old 10-24-2005, 05:27 AM   #14
jrgwdenner
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Welcome to the forum, bwney. There are a lot of folks from northeast Texas in this group. Sounds like you're well into your plan to fulltime and have thought through the process. What model of Montana do or will you have?

You're in a good position for fulltiming since you know you don't want to retire in your present home. It won't hurt so much to sell it and start your adventure. We built our dream home and are thinking about renting it out while we fulltime but that's always scarey. We still have to make a decision.
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Old 10-24-2005, 06:07 AM   #15
vickir
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Welcome to the MOC, Bwney! Where are you in North Texas? We're headed to Amarillo at the end of the week ... are you anywhere near there?

We started the full-timing adventure with the same philosophy ... we'll keep going until, heaven forbid, health issues force us to stop or one or both of us get tired of it. After 31 months, we're still going and having the time of our lives.

Looking forward to reading about your adventures!
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Old 10-24-2005, 12:36 PM   #16
bwney
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Thanks for the welcome!

We are in Keller, a little north of Fort Worth.

We have been RV shopping for about 2 years. My wife had never camped, so we bought a small 5er to test the waters on weekends. We have looked at so many fifth wheels, toy haulers, TTs, and motorhomes in 2 years. We spend hours and hours at the RV shows.

At the Fort Worth show this year, we went in a Montana 3400RL. Right away, we both knew. This is it!

Expecting delivery in mid-November of a 2006 3400RL. I officially retired 10/21, my wife has been retired since 2003. She is currently contracting, and is going to end that around Thanksgiving. Need to do some work around the house, and have it on the market in December. We have a Florida trip planned for January- all of January.

Oh, ya. I'm 51. Wife is....... about the same.

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Old 10-24-2005, 01:54 PM   #17
sreigle
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Welcome and good luck on the early retirement! As Vicki said, we're very much enjoying our fulltiming lifestyle. I think fulltiming is what you make it be and what you want it to be. For some, that means a few days here, on the road, a few days there. For us it was that way the first year to 18 months and then we discovered how much we like exploring an area, which staying in one place longer lets us do. It also costs less since monthly rv park rates are far lower than daily and weekly rates. In any case, different strokes...
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Old 10-24-2005, 03:58 PM   #18
Parrothead
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bwney
You've choosen a great model to FT in. We lived in ours for 9 months when we first bought it last year. I hope all your plans work out for you. We don't plan on staying in So. Calif. forever so understand your wanting to see other places. I hope we find paradise also (could be the same place).
Happy trails..........................
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