What to do to get ready?

[sherri330]

FInally! My dreams are starting to come true! DH was never a camper. When I met him, he had never been camping. So....I started him out with the basics. For about 5 years, we tent camped. Then, he told me he didn't want to do it anymore. He still wanted the experience but said he wanted a camper of some kind (here is where I should mention that this was the reaction I was hoping for ) At that time, we were not financially ready. However, we started going to shows and checking out RV dealerships. Researching is best done when you don't have the money to be talked into anything! We were free to look at everything with no pressure. Jumping to the present, we finally bought our first TT last year! Get this...after 5 or 6 trips out, DH tells me he could do this full time! Now, by full time, he means live in an RV, but he really enjoys his job and is not ready to quit. I, on the other hand, could walk out tomorrow! So, we have agreed that when I turn 55, in 5 years, I can retire and he will continue working. In order for me to retire, we will have to sell our house. Since full timing is now an option, no big deal! Since we won't be on the road full time, we are looking to upgrade to a 5th wheel to start out. 5 more years of researching = more fun!

Here is where I need some advice. Obviously, we need to pick out the RV we want to live in. Also, we have some debt to get rid of (not much) and we have some work we want to do to the house before we put it on the market. As long as I'm still working, we should be able to take care of these issues. My question is, what else can we be doing now to get ready for this exciting new lifestyle? I hope to have some type of part time work after I retire. I'm willing to workamp or find some type of job locally but I would prefer to work from home. How do we find a place that will let us stay long term if one of us is not working there? I'm open to any advice anyone wants to give. Obviously, I will continue researching the internet. These forums are the best I have found so far! Thanks so much in advance. I don't know how I will control my excitement for 5 more years!

[RanCarr]

Originally Posted by sherri330

Here is where I need some advice. Obviously, we need to pick out the RV we want to live in.

My question is, what else can we be doing now to get ready for this exciting new lifestyle? I hope to have some type of part time work after I retire.

Start looking into what the cost of full-timing is. Check what the CGs are charging by the month where you hope to live. You may be shocked to find the cost of the better places. Many of the least costly where people live fulltime are disaster areas. Or do you plan on doing a lot of boondocking and moving around? Pick the largest TT or 5th you can afford. Too many people chose one too small then have the added cost of replacing it with a larger rig. Allow space for any hobbies or pets you have.

I'm willing to workamp or find some type of job locally but I would prefer to work from home. How do we find a place that will let us stay long term if one of us is not working there?

Call the places you would like to stay fulltime or for months or weeks at a time and ask. That will get you the best updated information. Check the places out before you decide to stay there. You can't go by their websites we learned. They never show the stray dogs and cats or the raving drunks living there permanently or the 20' TT with 9 men living in it and suspicious looking half naked women (hookers?) visiting them on weekends. There was one place we booked for the weekend near Chattanooga TN that was close to the worst. We packed up as early as possible Sunday morning and fled...... I would have left Fri night but all the nearby places were booked for the weekend. Fortunately most CGs are well run, clean and safe.

"CGs run from horrible to heavenly," as one old time camper in FL said.

I'm open to any advice anyone wants to give. Obviously, I will continue researching the internet. These forums are the best I have found so far! Thanks so much in advance. I don't know how I will control my excitement for 5 more years!

Keep reading, keep asking questions and don't ever feel any question is a silly one.

We also learned a lot from these RV forums. I love getting everyone's opinion even if I may not agree with them on something. PS my husband never camped before I got him started about 6 or 7 years ago. The only tent he was ever in was in Viet Nam back in 1969. One summer tent camping was all it took to have him looking at TTs.

[sherri330]

RanCarr
Thanks for the tips, and advice! If you think of anything else, keep posting. I'm going to start a list. I find that lists come in handy with anything to do with camping

[bpendley]

We have been doing this for a year and have much more to learn, ourselves.

The first thing I would do/did is to establish a new mailing address with the ability to have your mail forwarded. It always takes people months to get your new address correct. We established a new address in January. Nine months later, some of my clients keep sending checks to the wrong address. I use a Pack/Mail service where I rent a couple of boxes. The ladies will send me the mail when I ask. Since we stay for 1 week in a particular location, I always have everything forwarded Priority Mail.

Go on extended trips (a month) to see what you really need to take with you or leave behind.

Study and investigate Thousand Trails, Resorts of Distinction, and other memberships to see what makes best financial sense for you.

Not wanting to start a debate, but we have been comforted on a few occasions to have a gun. I got a concealed weapons permit. 99% of the time we had no need for it. However, we do have 4 experiences this first year where I had to be ready and the comfort of having protection was helpful.

----

Probably the most difficult thing for me is that I wanted to get going right away. We spent 5 months preparing and every day we got more anxious to get on the road. My dad had a heart attack and was put into a coma for 6 weeks! We parked in his backyard to help my mom. We were glad to have the extra 6 weeks because we realized we were taking too much with us. (My dad is doing very well now).

[Barbaraok]

Start downsizing. REALLY downsizing. And don't purchase anything new for a year with the exception of underwear. That's one of the first thing you need to accomplish and if you can downsize and resist buying to fill space, then you are one the road to making it as a fulltimer.

Barb

[WheelingIt]

Many private campgrounds offer monthly deals and the $$ can vary a lot, so shop around for the best overall deal ($$ versus location/amenities). Most places will allow longer stays too. For example here in San Diego there's a lovely county park (Santee lakes) which allows stays up to 6months, then you have to exit for 2weeks before you can come back. Some folks stay there all year that way.

If you're more mobile public campgrounds can be great deals especially BLM and National Forest.

Workamping is a great way to stay and save some $$. Many campgrounds (private and public) will hire workampers for an entire season.

[Wanabee FTer]

Originally Posted by Barbaraok

Start downsizing. REALLY downsizing.

Barb

Great advice.

I had 6 months to let all of my material "stuff" go. (The good stuff went to family members)
If I had 5 years to do it, I could have made great use of that time with a whole lot less stress.

If you could manage to get all of your posessions to fit into one room before you move into your RV, you will be way ahead of the game!

I did the best I could in 6 months, but I still had to rent a storage unit and go back later to clean it all out.

[sherri330]

I knew I could count on getting good advice on here! Thanks everyone! Keep it coming. My list is growing.

As for downsizing, I'm not the hoarder in this relationship . I've never had a problem getting rid of "things". I do have some sentimental items, but we have 3 grown children and I know they will take care of those for us. As for the DH....well, thank goodness I have 5 years! I'm going to show him this string and let him see that others agree with me. Hopefully, that will help .

[WheelingIt]

Originally Posted by Barbaraok

Start downsizing. REALLY downsizing. And don't purchase anything new for a year with the exception of underwear. That's one of the first thing you need to accomplish and if you can downsize and resist buying to fill space, then you are one the road to making it as a fulltimer.

Barb

This is good advice. I spent months downsizing before we moved into the RV and kinda wished I'd had more time. Some things we did before moving:

- Got rid of furniture & big items Craig's List
- Donated bags worth of clothing to Goodwill
- Put most of our (extensive) book collection on paperbackswap.com and collected points that we've been using on the road
- Shredded years of filing and digitized most of our important documents

We also researched residency and decided which State we wanted to declare domicile for our full-time travels. FL, TX & SD are the most popular states (because they are tax-free), but take your time to look at costs in each location. Check out car insurance costs, car & RV registration costs, car & RV registration requirements & health insurance costs. Many good organizations offer help in each of these states (for example Escapees in TX, Alternative Resources in SD etc.)

[Frantz]

[QUOTE=bpendley;1160845]

Study and investigate Thousand Trails, Resorts of Distinction, and other memberships to see what makes best financial sense for you.


Totally agree with the above. Do a thorough investigation on the Thousand Trails system. IF it works for you, ie. locations, $$$, length of stays, dues, etc., it can be some of the best $$ spent/invested. The key is to REALLY understand what you are buying. Sometimes it is best to find an older contract on the resale market. The older contracts sometimes have lower dues or frozen dues, are sometimes lifetime contracts and can be upgraded for less than purchasing a new contract. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different contracts out there.

We are Thousand Trails members. Our contract has frozen dues of less than $400.00 year. We stay 3 weeks in any TT park and then move directly to another TT park for another 3 weeks. We can make reservations 120 days in advance. Longer stays are also available for reasonable $$$. Our membership includes RPI which helps in the places there are no TT. We also get deep discounts at Encore Resorts which are part of the TT family. We are full-time in a motorhome since June 2011. Prior to FT we used the parks for vacation get-aways. We purchased a new membership in March 2000, upgraded to Platinum Dec 2001, upgraded to Elite Basic Dec 2011. We now have 80+ campgrounds available across the country. At this point including all costs we are paying approx. $20.00 a night. Of course that average drops with every night we stay.

Yes, we are fans....BUT we ONLY recommend the system to those who will use it. Thousand Trails is not for everyone even if they try to convince you otherwise.

Best of luck. You will be surprised how fast the years go.

Marilyn

[Dave Knoll]

I have also been told that once you get all loaded to go get your MH or TT weighed. You can do this at most any big truck stop. Then once a year you can weigh it again and see how much stuff you have accumulated. You don't want to have to much weight in you MH or TT. You may be supprised on how much stuff you may add to you new home.

[Rowanova]

No such thing as getting started to soon. You'll be surprised how much "stuff" you can sell-yes, other people will buy it. And after years, or decades, that's a lot of stuff turned into cash. Craigslist, eBay, bookoo.com, hipswap,com, and any others you may be aware of. Yard sales, swap meets, consignment centers, the list goes on.

On storage unit rental: What is the value of the items being stored? Why are you (paying) not to get rid of it? How long will you pay the storage rent fees before you've spent as much or more than that stuff is actually worth? The point here is this: if you need to rent storage you didn't get rid of enough possessions. And now it's costing money every month while delivering zero benefit. There are few exceptions.