Full timing ... Then what???

[CORattler]

Those of you that have chosen to full time (or are planning on full timing) and have sold your stick house... what is your plan after you stop full timing? The value of your RV goes down and the price of real estate goes up. I'm talking from the financial perspective.

[DQDick]

First we've got to get the damn house sold. After that, frankly, we're not worrying about it. We've both had to deal with a number of bad situations over the years and managed to survive and prosper. When we know the time is right the proper answer will also present itself. It might be pulling off the road and still living in the rig such as with the Escapee's in Livingstone, an apartment somewhere or one or both of us may land in a nursing home or assisted living, who knows. We'll deal with it when we get there. It's like dealing with the tires on the rig. Once you've done the right thing and got rid of the Marathons you need to enjoy the road and not continue to obsess about the tires. Right now, hopefully, we've got a few more years to enjoy life on the road.

[Champ_49]

I worried all my life about getting to retirement and doing what I wanted. I am now there and for sure am not going to worry about what I might do down the road again. My future is today and what am I going to do with this day. Not really worried about the future at this point. Yes I know there will be a day that I will no longer be able to travel and we will do what it takes to get it done. Just not worried about it is all.

Dave

[sola123]

Great Attitudes!!

[CORattler]

Agreed! Now if I can just get DW to think like that....

quote:Originally posted by sola123

Great Attitudes!!

[subra1228]

Perhaps not an answer to your specific question, but we are fulltiming and did not sell the house. Partly in response to your thoughts, but also since we know that we're (most likely) not FTers until death (or near death). We'll do this for a while (whatever that may be....3 years, 5 years, longer....) and then want to be back in a house - maybe not the one we have now, but then at least we'll have this one to sell and bu another).

[1retired06]

This is what we did,you do need a plan: Many variables can affect full timing, serious illness being one example. We had a 3800 square foot house in an expensive area (Northern VA) which was paid for. Great when we had the kids. We sold it, put the money into a separate investment account we called "House Money". Key is to pick a good investment. We then full-timed for six years always keeping an eye out for someplace we might like to settle in. When grandkids starting coming, we bought a beautiful lake house on Lake Gaston in North Carolina, a rural less expensive area, and smaller 1700 square feet, perfect retirement home. By moving from big house/expensive area to a less expensive/smaller house, we had sufficient funding in our account to pay cash for the home with money left over for our new boat.

PS: We stored almost all our furniture in a environment controlled facility for six years at $2800 per year. Everything came out in great shape, but most of it did not look right in our new lakehouse environment and we ended up replacing piece by piece. If I had to do over, would have sold, given away, dumped, most of it. The $2800 was a waste of money. If you do store, needs to be environment controlled or junk in a few years.

[RickW]

We are still undecided on if we are going long time or full time. While the house will be paid for before we hit retirement, I don't think there will be anything left in area to keep us here. I anticipate us going long time for a few years, finally selling the house and going full time for several years and then eventually finding a home base again. I only see us stop traveling once we can no longer travel due to health.

If/when we sell the house the proceeds will go in a investment. Low risk and most likely low return. But the purpose will be that once we slow down we will have the funds to purchase another home base. It is important to us that once we decide to leave the road we have the ability to setup house once again and not have a mortgage or rent payments. On the other hand if we are well in to our 80s when we decide to come off the road we will most likely rent. It just makes our estate easier when the time comes.

[stiles watson]

This thread always brings me to the undesirable realities of life. It does come to an end at some point. Everybody gets old and everybody dies. One spouse will be left behind to struggle with being alone and dealing with the stuff that the other always did. Typically and statistically, it will be the wife.

In our case (everyone is different), my wife can no longer drive nor could she handle the sitting up or taking down the rig. As a responsible and caring husband, that demands I make provision for the possibility that Dianna will outlive me. Additionally, physical decline makes travel less than enjoyable for Dianna. When she is just tolerating travel it diminishes any joy I may receive.

At this posting, we are involved with the purchase of a large home with our son and his family, large enough to house eleven people comfortably. Dianna and I will have our own section of the house to close ourselves off from the seven grandchildren when we need to do that. Otherwise, we will be able to interact with the grandchildren in ways that will let us pass on a heritage of faith and ideals. Dianna and I are both able teachers and can support the homeschooling of the grand kids.

Not all families have harmonious relationships allowing for this kind of solution. But for me, having the assurance that Dianna's needs will be attended by those who love her adds to my personal feeling of security. In the mean time, we will pull the rig along side of the new house and live in it until renovations are complete.

Everyone has a different set of circumstances, but attention to some kind of exit strategy seems prudent. Facing the inevitable future is learning to be adaptable to what lies ahead and embracing it with forward looking optimism. A book I read tells me that I can do all thing through Christ who strengthens me.

[southern thunder]

Our house or real estate is only worth abot 60% of what we paid for it plus improvements 8 years ago. Here in West Central Florida.

[mlh]

Another question, why do you full time? Travel, adventure, sick of a house, other.
Lynwood

[HOOK]

DW and I are in this discussion also. I would sell and try to grow the money. She is not so sure. Sooooo...., I guess we are in the perfect situation to go forward as we have 2 apts. both rented to good tenants and friends who watch out for us when we are traveling.Our 3 sons are all successful and want us to go for it. We are able to travel at our leisure and are enjoying ourselves emensely. We are both survivors of the big "C" and beleive that our attitude of faith in God brought us through that and He will again provide direction for us when needed. We find our time becoming more precious as it lessens, sooooooo..., we are trying to not just watch it pass, but spend it well and even extravagantly on occasion (Montana was on bucket list). We have both seen alot of the world and we will now explore this most beautiful America as much as possible in the time left. She and I spend our time thinking about today and the adventure at hand and beleive we will be able to deal with tomorrow upon it's arrival the same as we have the last 47 yrs. LET'S ROLL!!!!!!

[Champ_49]

One more thing that we thought when it came down to getting rid of the house. Where will we go when fulltiming comes to an end. Our answer was this. If I can't fulltime anymore which will more than likely be because I can't travel or set up anymore etc., or medical reasons, then I don't see how I can effectively take care of my own house either. A lot of upkeep on a house along with the mowing of the lawn and all its needs, the snow blowing of snow, the painting of the house and on and on. So that made our decision come down to some sort of senoir living or something along that line. Condo, appt. or whatever it is the work is done for you.

[lasater]

When I retired the second time, we bought a small piece of land in a 2-mile-square town (Golden Shores, AZ). We put a small (1150 sqft) manufactured home on it with and over-sized garage. With our last tax assessment, the home is still worth more than we owe on it .

This is the DW's home base. We live in the Monty for up to 9 months out of the year and in our house the rest of the time. When we can no longer travel, we can find plenty of people to help us do maintenance. Since we are in the desert, I cut my grass using Round-Up ()...the yard is all gravel. Roof repairs, plumbing, etcera; are all done by hired help.

Schwan's delivers food right to our front door and the general store is close by for milk, eggs, bread....

[DQDick]

Need to apologize to Jay. We're actually not as unstructured as we thought. By accident we have a solution, if we want to use it, for the end of the road days. We're building a combination storage facility (for the stuff we can't part with) and RV dock for when we come up here in the summer to help our daughter with the store. As we were running the water, sewer and electric yesterday it occurred to me that the same hookup an RV uses could also service a mobile home, I guess we're building one answer without intending too. We have three city lots in the middle of a very small town that was happy for the Montana to move in. They would love it if we brought a decent mobile home in and stayed full time.

[CasaDelSol]

We live near Tampa, FL and sold the big house 10 years ago and downsized to a condo in a retirement community. When...and I mean when not if...we go fulltime, we will rent out the condo and completely remodel it when we are ready to settle down again.

[bigmurf]

quote:Originally posted by mlh

Another question, why do you full time? Travel, adventure, sick of a house, other.
Lynwood

Yeah.

[richfaa]

Our solution was NOT to sell off our home and possessions and to go long timer. Out goals were to travel, see the country and stay out of cold weather. We have done that. We have no problem with the Northern Ohio part of the country our S&B is in except for the winter time. We live the best of both worlds.
Now one must be sure they have the financial ability to do that.Do the number carefully.

[DonandJudy_12]

Champ49 said it best- JMHO- Don

[Montana Sky]

After going back and forth over this very decision the past 5 years, I've decided to pull the trigger and go full time. At 33 yrs of age, I have another 22-27 years of work ahead of me. My job moves me around the country every 2-4 years and after 16 months of my house being on the market, it finally sold. Sadly, there was no profit to be made as I built the house in the prime of the market and sold in the basement. At least I sold it for enough to pay off the current mortgage and walk away debt free. After pouring over the financials, I have found that owning a house is not a smart financial decision for me as the bottom of the real estate market is no where in site according to those who claim to be experts. I have found that by going full time in my coach, I can maximize the contributions into my retirement accounts while living very inexpensively in my rig. I understand that an RV is a depreciating asset, but in today's housing market, so is owning a stick house. Pen to paper has shown that if the market stays at its current rate, I actually lose less per month on my coach than I do owning a stick built. Bottom line for me: I am going to be ordering my new 2013 Big Sky within the next 4 weeks and will live comfortably while enjoying the RV lifestyle and maximizing my retirement accounts over the next 25 years. I guess all I can do now is hope the investments don't bottom out either... best of luck in deciding what works best for your personal situation.