Life's short.. what did you do today?

[oakcreekeric]

A friend sent me this article/link and it made me think.. what did you do today?

Many times while reading through posts... I see many of our fellow forum members are sitting on the fence and haven't made that buying decision yet.. While most are waiting for the right time.. the right deal.. or they need to build up enough courage to finally make the purchase.. Time is fleeting in one way or another... to me, buying an RV was like deciding to have children.. when is the right time.. do you have enough money.. can you afford to have kids... funny thing about it.. you're never truly ready to have kids.. you NEVER have enough money to have kids, but yet, you had them and you were able to find a way to afford them and they brought nothing but joy into your life... I feel having an RV is similar to having kids..

After reading this article/blog... all I can say is.. why wait??

And So There Must Come an EndÂ*|Â*Charlotte Kitley

I hope after reading this it encourages some of you to reach out and grasp for the "brass ring" of RV ownership... start your memories today.. cause there may not be a tomorrow....

Good luck and God Bless !!

[bulldog2]

very nice and touching ,thank you, i lost the wife 3 yrs ago to cancer ,we where raising our grandkids because there mothers have issues ,now its just me and them ,and to tell the truth iam still lost ,as are they she was the glue that held us all together,at 65 iam finding this harder and harder to do every day ,but i made a promise ,and will see it thru

[Gordon Dewald]

The movie "The Bucket List" was an inspiration. There are no "do overs" in life.

[ctpres]

Suffered thru another day of labor in yard at S&B. Oh how I wish DW would agree to FT. You haven't lived until you have a seven acre yard to maintain.

[rgvtexan]

Lucky Me. Finished packing the MH and winterizing the S&B. Head out in the AM for 7 months.

See Ya at the Balloon Fiesta!

[JALTAR]

My wife said to me this morning "what did you do yesterday"?

I said nothing!

She said "what you doing today"?

I said nothing...

She said "But you did that yesterday"....

I said, but I wasn't finished...

She walked away with a sigh...lol

[beamisl]

Eric,

This is so very true but some of us (like me) will still wait until next summer to buy our MH because of many different reasons. This did make me think though because there are no guarantees.

Thank you for posting this story, it makes us realize that anything can happen at any minute.

Lynne

[MandG-Fun]

Finalized the last few items for our winter stay in AZ. The snow shovel will not be coming with us :-). We're not waiting for the perfect time to come around, we make every day perfect... Even when everything's not so perfect.

[Superslif]

100% right "life is too short"...we work work work....and before you know it your in your late 60's 70's and have no plans or its too late to do the things you thought you wanted to do back when you where more active.

Been planning retirement since I was in my teens. 341 work days left..then off to AK. RVing forces us to spend family time together...away from the temptation of working.

Retire as soon as possible !!!

[okcnewbie]

While dreamin' of FT after retirement in 2020.....

I rode my bicycle to work. Put in my 8 hours. Rode my bicycle to the tennis courts and played three sets. Rode my bicycle home and fed the dogs and jumped in the pool. Played catch with the dogs from the pool. Pretty good day indeed.

[Superslif]

Knew as a teen "I'll retire before the age of 55" hope to realize that goal at age 53... I hope

Live in a lifestyle that keeps you out of debt, or close to it.

Who cares if the Johnson's have big flashy vehicles parked in their driveway, The Millers's who bought new RV's every two years. If you can afford only a tent, so be it...you can't live at the mercy of "The Payment". Only the banker / finance companies win.

Too many things to see in this great and free country. Get out and smell the woods, show your kids what a great countryside lives out here besides their gaming toys...

[NorthernDriv]

Life is to short to screw around! Sitting in my M/H, in a campground, in a town where I used to live. Visited my old workmates and had dinner with one couple. I drove my Lotus Evora to dinner. Thats the car I promised myself just before they put me to sleep. I figured IF I wake up, I deserve that car. Made the 15 1/2 hour operation and the other 6. Now I am now 2 years Cancer free. Yup, the cancer was free didn't have to pay for it(HA HA)! Living on the edge, petal to the metal, full throttle Because I DON'T know how much time I have left.......AND NEITHER DO YOU!
Thank you for the link, it touched me deeply.

[JMonroe]

I like to think we had this figured out a long time ago. We lost the first of our friends and contemporaries to cancer many years ago at the young age of 30. We've lost too many more since. We had planned to retire at age 55 but when the time got here we started having the same doubts outlined by the OP. Is now the right time, do we have enough money.

Like millions of others in our generation our retirement investments hadn't performed well since the turn of the millennium. About the year 2000 I'm thinking all we need to reach our financial goals for age 55 is a modest 5 or 6% return on our investments, we had been realizing returns much higher up to that point. You all know how that turned out. So, we turned 55 and were too scared to jump into our full time retirement plan. We resolved to hang on for another 5 years.

The financial world comes to an end in 2008. A couple of years later our home isn't worth what we have in it, let alone realizing any appreciation. We continue to loose family, friends and co-workers "before their time". Late 2009 we decided the world is uncertain, time will not change that, it will only bring our ultimate demise closer. We were going to immediately put our retirement plans into full "go for it" mode. I gave my employer a retirement date for mid 2010, Peggy gave her employer another two years past that. We figured it would take us those two years to sell two homes, find a suitable "retirement home" (the motor home we now live in) and organize our finances. As to the latter point, by all means seek out a good financial advisor. We were lucky enough to find one through the referral of a couple of managers and executives Peggy had worked for at her employer. He actually helped convince us we weren't crazy and could afford to retire.

We got "lucky" in that we were able to sell both homes, our primary and vacation home, virtually immediately after we put them up for sale. I say lucky, as we had equity well in excess of the then market value, albeit well below what they'd been appraised for just a few years earlier. It came down to - do we sit on these waiting for the market price to come back, or do we move on with our lives. We chose the latter.

I'm now past 4 years since retirement, Peggy is two years out. For now our finances are solid, and below is a photo representing what we're doing right at this minute. We have no regrets, if anything, maybe we should have stuck to plan 'A' and gone at 55.

Find a way...

[oakcreekeric]

Awesome JMonroe !!!

Congratulations on making it work and finding a way...

Funny how survivors always find a way to make things work...