Who has a home base and where?

[brandss]

Wife and I wonder how common it is for Full Timers to have a "paid for" pad as their home base. A little bit about us is that I am 51 and she is 45, I work all over the US and travel at least every two weeks currently by plane, then rental car, then hotel. I'm sure you get the picture. This will be our life until I retire at some point. We can't help but wonder why we don't take advantage of my work life and enjoy it as I work. Why rent a plane, car, hotel, not to mention be apart from each other so much of the year. Instead of my company paying expenses to the airlines, hotels and rental cars, let's save the company money and allow us to enjoy life even more, and put the expense money toward our rig and expense of traveling. Right now I spend $48,000 for expenses traveling each year. I can easily save my company half that amount and enjoy life 100% more. Nothing better than being with my best friend.

As we look into the full time life it seems appealing to have a bought for, home base, so when life is really crazy, and we need to stay put, we have a "home". Is this a crazy thought? Would love to know how many of you have a home base and where it is. Anything we need to consider, good or bad?

Appreciate any help on this subject.

[bluepill]

Choosing a legal domicile has a profound effect on your tax situation. Do your research before you choose.

[okcnewbie]

When we start full timing in a few years we don't plan on getting rid of the S & B right away. We may let one of our kids stay in it. We haven't decided yet. We just know that we will be spending many months a year near our kids and grand kids. Time will tell if we need a home base after a few years or not. It will likely be the same for you.
Good luck.

[RockyMtnRide]

Although we love to travel in our motorhome, my wife would never give up our house. Me on the other hand..........

[powerboatr]

we have a home base in north east texas.
it qualifies for homestead exemption which lowers property tax, if your a 100% disabled veteran property taxes are zero up to 26 acres.

we use it to help with the umbrella of car, bus and home insurance.
its covered so the rv is protected from the weather and we have a 850 sq ft apartment with loft attached to the rv port.

texas has no income tax, as do soem other states, our weather here in north east texas can be cold as an ice cube at times and hot as hades other times

but its nice country and lots to see and do for those times we are at home base. far enough away from dallas to not get the big city drone, but close enough to day trip

where ever you check....check water and sewer costs...ours if 137 a month for water and sewer, this give you 2k gallons then a charge for every 1k over...but its very high quality, power is cheap,

[brandss]

I should have been more clear in my original post. We have no desire to have a S & B, what we are considering is a pad at a motorcoach resort. We have already taken into account the two kids and the 3 grand kids, and what we are looking at makes visiting and staying for awhile possible.

[okcnewbie]

I think a pad with hookups in a strategic location is a great idea.

[okcnewbie]

There aren't really any resorts near us and it would actually be cheaper to keep our house than rent a lot. If any of my kids end up in Florida we may look into the same thing.

[Airedale]

We just started full timing. We sold out house in upstate NY and changed our domicile to SD. We have been using a seasonal site in a local campground run by a town park since June and plan on staying until they close end of Nov. At that time, husband will be eligible to retire. Our plan is to travel, workkamp and chase adventures around tbe USA 9 months of the year and come back to this "home base" in NY Aug thru Nov each year to watch grandkids sports, visit family and friends.

[Airedale]

To clarify, the seasonal site we are using as our "home base" is in NY

[Selah]

Having a home base is a very practical idea and I would recommend it. We are full timers but own a lot on Hilton Head Island, SC. We typically spend the spring and fall months there (the really nice weather) and travel the rest of the time. North in the summer and south or west in the winter. The lot on Hilton Head is our safety net. Should one of us break a leg or require any kind of extended health care we have a place to go and stay as long as we want. We moved our health care there so we have regular doctors, regular vet, and good friends who do the same thing.

[Cypressloser]

We do own property and use it as our home base but no house (sold).
In Canada we have to have a place of residency and be present for a certain number of days per year in order to qualify for public healthcare but with the lousy coverage and long wait times I highly doubt that's a benefit and we have to buy private coverage for when you're outside our province of residency. There is no tax advantage between one province and another anymore, so no matter where we set up shop we're screwed.

[TJFogelberg]

Escapee Co-op Parks might be an option. Have to be 55 in some of them. We're just starting our research.

[ctpres]

Home base is Creede, CO were we have a 40 year RV resort site lease. Domicile is Tx. Works great for us. Low taxes and annual cost.