To be a Fulltimer or Not?

[Vegasdan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BucketList . On one hand, I am thinking that living full time in a RV might get a bit confining, especially smaller units. So my intial thoughts would be to go as big as possible. Another reason for looking at the larger units is that they are more luxurious, more features, tag axle for driveablity, more power, etc.

Downsizing from a sticks and bricks should be a subject you and your wife should wrap your minds around. If you are a collector or have "things" that you just can't part with, you will need to rent a storage unit. Also, living in a motorcoach really doesn't confine you, we just open the door and step outside.

[bertnspike]

I think you can be very happy with less length and 2 to 4 slide outs. It's the narrowness that feels confining with 2 - the inability to get past each other.

[Tyler6357]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BucketList Just joined the forum and do not yet have an RV. Considering a Newmar DP Essex or King Aire 45' long coach. When I was a kid my family camped several times a year with a truck mount camper. My bucket list dream is to be a fulltimer. However, right now I own a home and have a full time job. And to be a fulltimer I will have to radically change my life by retiring and selling my home. How can I know if fulltiming is for me before make these types of decisions.

The housing market is not very seller friendly right now. I would recommend that you rent your home if possible. There are more people renting these days since the housing crises hit and you might be able to rent the place and get a positive cash flow until the market improves to sell it. Also, I would suggest that you try part timing to start off, take some short trips in your new coach to work out any little problems so that it will go smoothly when you make the transition to full time.

[Pbkwjk]

Don't forget you have outside as part of your RV home. We are in a 38' and stay outside more than I thought possible.

[saydiver]

What you're thinking about doing sounds exactly like us a few years ago. Like you we were CA residents. We moved to an apt in TX, then put our house in CA on the market and then we both retired. I was uneasy about moving directly to Livingston (domicile). I didn't want CA questioning us on residency status, like some states are now currently doing, so we decided living in an apt was fine and it gave us time to customize our coach to fit our lifestyle. When our coach was ready, we headed to IN to pick up our new home. Our King Aire is our first RV. Do we plan to do this forever? No, but for now, it's great to be able to 'live' all over the US and it certainly beats the high cost of living in CA and especially Silicon Valley.

We like lots of amenities and we carry a lot of stuff, so a 45' coach was a must for us. One of my earlier threads on the Newmar forum was on amenities and carrying stuff. Actually a few more feet would be nice, but.... Since we're too big to stay in national parks, we just stay nearby, usually in a RV park with 50 amp service. With two satellite dishes on the roof, one for HDTV and one for internet, most national parks have too many trees for us to get a clear signal, so even if we were smaller, we probably wouldn't stay in them. I don't think we've missed too much by staying nearby, instead of in the parks. We actually do fit is some state parks and USACE parks. We even took our King Aire to Alaska in 2010 and hope to do so again in a few years.

I know it's hard to say when is the right time to make such a drastic lifestyle change like you're considering. For us, life threw us a curve ball medically speaking, so we knew it was time to retire and once we retired, we no longer needed to be in CA. Others on this forums had different reasons. For many, being a full-timer is cheaper, but if you're buying a King Aire, it might not be, but it's better than giving a large chunk of it to CA.

Good luck with your decision,

Sue

[bsirby]

This is such a personal decision you and your wife need to make. What works for us probably will not work for you. We started out with a new Class C while we were still working. A couple years later, we knew the only way we could retire is to sell the house and live in the RV. Couldn't sell the house, so we rented it out and make $200.00 a month extra. If we need to go back to it we can. We were way to confined in the C, so we traded for a 2004 HR 37' with 3 slides. Perfect size for us. Also, we had to have everything paid in full. My DH and I sat many a night at the kitchen table listing pros and cons, money, expenses etc. How you fulltime will determine those expenses. The thing that did it for us was the realization that we are not promised tomorrow. So we are living out our dream. Good luck on your decision.