Friday, February 20, 2015

370 weeks remaining....

Well, with over 7 years remaining I still feel confident with our decision to fulltime. I read a blog yesterday where they saved about $70k before they started to fulltime. I was astonished with this number. I was thinking about $500k for us. This got me thinking about what is really needed. There are many people on the road now living the lifestyle with way less than I want to have and most likely a lot people have less savings than the people in the blog I talked about. So there must be a middle ground, balancing freedom and security. I'm hoping readers of my blog will chime in with what they anticipate or had when starting to fulltime. I know this is a tricky subject, but this conversation is being had all over the country every day.

On to a much brighter topic. We are headed to Glacier National Park in August and are very excited. I think we can stay two days on the west side of the park, then two days on the east side, then maybe a day or two in Waterton National Park in Canada. This will give us a good feel for these parks for future visits. We love wildlife and Yellowstone so I think this trip will be a no-brainer.

See you all on the road!

Bill

8 comments:

  1. Bill,
    Seems like an entirely personal number that one might or might not be comfortable with. Some folks can live on 15,000 a year, and feel comfortable, others believe they require 150,000 just to meet expenses. Some folks (you possibly) are budgeting out their entire retirement till death, others might be comfortable living year to year with a savings account for security. Some folks are planning on some sort of income while traveling, while others (apparently you) are expecting no income at all. Some are including ss while others are not. It's all relative.
    What the heck do you need half a million dollars for anyway?!?

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    1. Scott, your right it is personal. I put all this out there to get others insights. I am going full time in an RV to get out of the rat race and not have to work so hard or so much. 30k over 10 years is $300k and I will have more years before I can get SS. One health incident could wipe out hundreds of thousands of dollars in a few short weeks.
      This will be retirement for us and not just getting out in an RV.
      Thanks for your input.

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  2. Bill, this is a great topic and worth sharing information about. We have three “retirement to an RV scenarios”. The most financially sound plan, for us, is to leave with a net worth of around $550,000 with a monthly income from pensions and other at $3,172 before taxes. I would be 59 years of age and my wife a little older. We believe we would have to volunteer for a spot from time to time until I reach social security age of 62. $3,172 in 2023 dollars, because of inflation, will not cover our expected expenses - but then again it might. And we don’t want to live on savings for the three years although we could.

    Our second plan is to leave at 56 years of age with about $460,000 in net worth and monthly income at about $2,681 from pensions and other. When compared to the above plan at 59 years of age, this leaves us short another $500 each month. So, I have developed what is right now our preferred plan which I'm calling the hybrid plan.

    In the hybrid retirement plan, our exit date can vary. More importantly we can control it through what we choose to save today. This breaks the larger goal into smaller achievements which by human nature should make waiting to leave a little easier to endure. If we are short $500 a month in income and do not want to leave at 56, having to work jobs, then we have to save $6000 extra for every year we want to leave before 59 . This is what we are doing now.

    I'm posting about it soon over on my blog. I appreciate you are following it and enjoy your input. I'll get the post done in the next couple of days - maybe. There is a little more to the thought process but I did not want to take up all the space on your blog to write about it.

    I just don’t see myself wanting to live in an RV and go to a 40 hour a week job or we would have already done that. We might, however, work a sessional job at a state park or another place we want to stay.

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    1. Money is always a tough subject to talk about. I live in Los Angeles so everything here is expensive. When on the road I expect things to be cheaper and boondocking will help!

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  3. We retired very early (at 50 & 52) and were very focused on having enough to last us the rest of our lives without having to work again (unless we chose to). Fortunately one of us gets a pension and that was the deciding factor for us, as well as a substantial savings account. We estimated our annual expenses on the high side, anticipating $50k per year to live. We are definitely living on less than that, but are happy we overestimated. With so many unknowns in front of us I would never have retired with anything less than $500k in the bank.

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  4. Thanks Lisa! I would really rather not have to go back to work full time. I hope to have $500k just to make sure I wont have to.

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  5. Great post, Bill. I hope you reach your target goal soon!

    If you're ever looking for some info on finding the right trailer tires for your vehicle, check out this post: http://www.bigbrandtire.com/tires/trailer-tires

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