"AH-HA" Moment

[Kneedeep0525]

As a newcomer to RVing, I'm curious as to how the full timers came to the conclusion that full time rving was for them. Was it an idea developed over time, or was it more of a sudden realization that a sticks and bricks life style was not for you? The wife and I are considering the full time life style and are interested in learning how others started their journey.

Thanks for your input,

Tom

[Clay L]

We are sort of “accidental” full timers.
We didn't intend to full time, just wanted to take a three to six month trip around the country visiting friends and family and then find some warmer, cheaper place to buy or build a house.

We threw away stuff, gave stuff to places that could make use of it and distributed as much as possible to our kids.
We put all of the rest of our stuff in storage so we wouldn't have to go back to NH if the house sold quickly and it was still cold and yucky there.

The house did sell quickly (in a month) and we found after about a year that we were having so much fun traveling and having no ties to a stick house that we decided to keep on full timing. We traded the 96 motor home in on a new 2004 with a lot more CCC, storage space and two slides.

That was 10 years ago and so far we both love the life style. We intend to continue full timing until we get too old or too sick or too bored to do it any longer.

[WheelingIt]

I don't think you ever really know for sure until you try it. Hubby and I had the "idea" several years ago, bought the rig without thinking too much about, got rid of most of our stuff and decided we'd try it out "just for a year".

I love to travel and am always up for trying something new. I knew about 1 month into our "experiment" that I simply loved this lifestyle. Hubby took a little more time to adjust, but after ~6 months started to enjoy himself. A year on the road we realized we were both simply loving it and there was no way we could stop so soon. Two years on and still going strong. We don't really see an end to the fulltiming at the moment.

[paz]

DW got the idea of full-timing from reading a book on RVing. That was about 7 years before our expected retirement date, so we had a lot of time to think about it. It took several years to make a definite decision to full-time, then we planned and researched RVs for a few more years before finally retiring.

We closed on the sale of our house in the morning, and hit the road after lunch. That was almost 6 years ago, and we have no plans to stop in the foreseeable future.

[Sundance3200]

We lived on a houseboat for 6 years and loved it. The fiver has more room and is comfortable. How did we know, well we thought about it for the last couple of years while working and wanted to see parts of the country that neither of us had seen. I hate cutting grass and she wasn't a gardener so we figured this was the best thing for us. Kids grown and out, they only came by to visit once a month unless they needed something. We sold the sticks and bricks, paid off all bills and hit the road. We have not regretted it one bit. Remember once it gets in your blood you might as well do it. If you are unhappy then go back to the house. Good Luck.

[Barbaraok]

My parents were fulltimers (5 years on a boat, 7 years in an RV) so it was something we talked about as the years went by. Then we both had life threatening health issues and having looked over the edge, we figured that we really wanted to do more with our lives than just work, so we looked at finances and determined we could take early retirement and go. 5+ years later, we are still going, though we do now spend about 3 months in the winter in one place, and have no immediate plans to stop.

[Paul R. Haller]

For me it took a while of long summer trips around the country before I got the full time bug. I however want both my house and my RV. I have a large lot in Walnut Creek California and was a carpenter through grad school. I finished building another house on the lot in my spare time over the last 4 years and now have 2 houses and an RV. I rent one and live in the other while we get ready to retire. My wife retires next year and I have another 3 years at UC before I can retire. My three kids, 2 of which I have put through college with the last on his way, will probably live in one house when we are away. That's the plan anyway.
-Paul R. Haller-

[mick]

I used to camp just about every weekend. I met a lot of fulltimers in the parks where I went. I listened to their "stories" for several months.

Went home , figured up how much money I had coming in if I quit work and sold it all. It came out on the "go" button. That was 1982. I live what I think is a great life.

[smack2020]

This past January I was looking at RV websites and ran across the "escapee forum". I read a lot of post and thought, WOW, I did not even know about people full timing. Me and my wife have been married for 11 years and started tent camping, moved up to a TT and then in dec of 2007 we bought our current 32' Moho. My wife fought two battles with breast cancer and she only wants to work until she is 50. I will be 53 when we retire. We know we can't afford to keep our house and travel with amount of retirement $$ we will be getting. We love our house, but I think the sacrifice will be worth it.

We are hoping to be on the road just after Christmas of 2014. We are so exited, we can't wait.

[TravelingJ]

Our job pushed us into it. I've been a traveling tech for 7 years now. After 2 years they had an opening and asked if I wanted to bring my girlfriend on the road with me. After our first project, and 2.5 months in the same hotel we saw the $5,500.00 hotel bill, and started looking for alternatives. We bought a cheap travel trailer to see if we could do it without killing each other. For 2 full years we lived in that 'weekend model' trailer while working across the country. Year 3 it was parked while she took a job near her sick mother, and then we started using our house again. Now we are back to living in the RV's for 3-4 months at a time with a weekend or two at our house. We would sure like to sell it, but it still needs a bit of clean up work to get ready for the market. I know I average 40k miles a year on my truck, and I'm sure the camper sees about 20k of that.

[AndrewC]

For us after 47 year's of marriage we spend 10 months in our MH and no fight
we live in Quebec and the 4 summer month we are park in front of a fishing lake
winter 6 month in Floride,and Dauphin Island,we still have our house for sale
and after we will live have a place at my daughter house we are 71 and 68 and i hope be able to do that kind of life for a wile
André

[dandandan]

Not a full timer yet.

But, if I could get rid of this brick house I could save at least $12k per year and a hassle. So more freedom and less expenses has got to motivate people.

[bsirby]

Getting the RV was something we always wanted to do. No way was I going to tent camp like we did when the kids were young. After we bought the RV, it just seemed like we never had time to go anywhere. Husband was overworked and stressed out. He refused to retire until I could, so I told him, lets sell the house and belongings and go. We ended up renting the house and are actually happier with that decision. We took off from NC to CA and spent time with family and friends we hadn't seen in years. When we are not on the road, we stay in our daughters back yard and spend time with the Grandkids. When we get restless, we take off again. Love it.

[weedpatch]

For us it was a Spring day, we were at Walmart and there was an RV show in the parking lot. On a whim, DH wanted to "just look" at them. We went in the 5ver they had, he sat down in the Lazy Butt chair and declared he could live in here. Decision made. He will retire in 3 years or so. The salesman invited us to their dealership to look at different models. We went over and spent the afternoon seeing all the 5vers they had. We made a list of our wants, and went to every dealer in our area before settling on our Grand Junction. We thought we were pioneers in our thinking of living full time on the road. I stumbled onto several forums and found there was another culture out there. It was a tough decision to not keep the house, but we wanted to travel when he retires and this is how we choose to do it. Some of the family think we're crazy, my DD doesn't want us to sell the house, but we are sticking with the plan. I am so envious of those who are already there. We aren't there yet but that's where we are headed.