Community Forums

zoemorn · 03-23-2011, 08:56 PM

Will be scouring these forums and bugging all of you with RV life questions. My wife and 2 gifts from Heaven are considering/contemplating roadschooling and full timing in an RV.
technically we're considering at least a couple of scenarios, primarily based on "work" (as I believe that my company is trending towards closing the IT shop i currently work in).
Scenario 1. Hit the Road, workamping, exploiting my IT abilities, boondocking in the front yards of you all that still have stick homes etc.

Scenario 2. Don't hit the road FT but still LIVE in an RV fulltime on a homebase (maybe an acre of land, put in some hookups, maybe a barn/storage bldg for when missouri winter sets in fierce) - and then we'd still have it for vaca's and weekendwarrior stuff, and 'maybe' find some costsavings compared to renting or buying another house (yes we're planning on selling/renting our current home and moving anyway, so this is an interesting time to have come up with the idea of "move into an RV")

ALL/ANY of your thoughts, ideas, visions, prayers, advice, considerations, are welcome. I've already met some nice folks via the chat feature who granted some good tips. Being someone that has to creatively outlet everything neat that I discover, i'll be blogging all this (not gonna post link though as it technically is adsensed so dunno if that counts as "commercial" or not but didnt want to risk it ha)

I'll try to keep my "Class A vs C vs 5er" newbie type questions to a minimum and search the highly opinionated threads first. thanks to you all in advance, your checks are in the mail

**JohnRR** · 03-23-2011, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoemorn

I'll try to keep my "Class A vs C vs 5er" newbie type questions to a minimum and search the highly opinionated threads first. thanks to you all in advance, your checks are in the mail

Ask as many questions and as often as you think is necessary you will find plenty of members here to offer their experience and opinions to you.

RickO · 03-23-2011, 09:53 PM

As John said, Welcome to the forum and feel free to ask away!

There's lots of great expertise available here but, at the end of the day, only you and your family will be able to know what's right for you. There are many stories of families doing exactly what you're contemplating and being very happy with the result. Never knowing what's around the next corner... but figuring it out as a family can be as good as it gets.

I'm sure some of our experts on work camping and full timing with a family while working will chime in soon.

Best of luck to you and enjoy your adventures!

Rick

zoemorn · 03-24-2011, 11:22 AM

Thanks for the welcome, i've already gotten a very encouraging PM by Pauland Ro; Good to know there are others that have done this successfully. My family is definitely the type, imo, to make it happen (both creative, tight knit etc). Got on the chat room last night, and it was encouraging to talk to other RVers because i dont really have any RVers in my circles that i know of, especially Full Timers or even Most Timers. So props to iRV2 for having a chat room, and props to all of you that jump in there from time to time.

zoemorn · 04-04-2011, 05:50 PM

So far, other than "lifestyle" change, the big hurdles currently blocking my view of FTRV vistas are:
1. the typically unfinancially sound choice of choosing to trade an asset that generally appreciates in value (house property) with one that depreciates in value (RV).
2. Weathering the cold - handling extreme temps is more challenging; this is obviously if snowbirding is out due to occupation (i'm not retired nor will be until someone gives me their winning lotto ticket)

Glassalley52 · 04-04-2011, 10:12 PM

Welcome - no advice to give from here - but welcome nonetheless. You will find everyone is more than willing to express opinions as everyone as one or two or a thousand.

Jack R · 04-04-2011, 10:31 PM

Welcome. Maybe you can trade your iT talents at a campground for a space. Never know unless you ask.

jack

John_N_Terry · 04-05-2011, 07:18 AM

Do it!! You won't regret it! It's a great lifestyle!! We actually started out fulltiming and working from one spot...now we are all over the place! We have no inclination of going back to the S&B life. As far as kids go, I think it would be a great education for them!!

Purplefans & Harvey · 04-05-2011, 01:29 PM

In this economy, it's great to have that home that can travel anywhere, I think. We upgraded our RV last year, and one of the behind the scenes reason was as a just in case the job disappears up here, we can rent the house out, and travel to where the next job is, although taking a long trip across country all - trying to make the best of a bad situation. Just in case. Welcome to RVing!

zoemorn · 04-05-2011, 02:33 PM

Thanks for the encouraging words. We mentioned the idea to my father-in-law who I respect as a businessman and good with money management. He of course, as expected, isn't too keen on the idea of trading equity in a home for depreciating equity of an RV (since the thought was, sell house, buy RV). I realize though, his mindset, and I totally agree that it's not a very 'financially sound' trade-off. But I also see a compromise .. if we instead got an apartment that equity would steadily be going down a hole until we got into another house to own. At least with an RV at least it still has tangible value, its still an asset even if a depreciating one.
We're also at a point in our live in which our future is very unstable seeming, probably gonna change work within the next few years and don't know where to. So the idea that Purplefans&Harvey mentions, being flexible to be able to readily GO TO a new location for a new job is pretty attractive to me versus the traditional process of: Find Job, then find a temporary place to move into ASAP so can start new job, while finding a permanent home to yet MOVE again and hope the job is long lasting and worthwhile.
John&Terry - your comment about having actually started out fulltime in one spot was also very encouraging as that's kinda what i'm figuring we would do if I do get into a new career here in my area (or wherever i guess).
The issue of Health Insurance was also a biggie for my DaddyInLaw concerning the idea of being self-employed, he's pretty big on the thought that working somewhere that handles your insurance is preferable. Theyre dealing with cancer so medical expenses are very in front of him right now and I totally agree. And its something to contend with, I've seen people that are yet retired discuss health insurance options in these forums, so I know there are options; but I do agree it'd be preferable if I could land a gig that provides insurance.
thanks again everyone for the encouraging words and thoughts.