A Word from the Wife... by Cait!

     I've been thinking about what we do and don't want from fulltiming.  We're still figuring things out, and I'm sure much more will be revealed once we're actually out there, living it.

     Being around people is important to my husband.  He needs the juice of human interaction, the hum and the buzz of other people to talk to (in addition to me).  Some time out in the woods alone is fine, but then he wants to go into town.  He loves to shoot the shit, press the flesh, rub elbows, trade stories, hear opinions, ask questions, break bread, maybe get in a game of pickle ball.  He's a people person.  So I think we will want to stay in campgrounds and RV parks at least half the time, and boondock alone in the middle of nowhere once in a while.

     My family is what's really important to me.  I want to be able to spend a good amount of time with them several times a year, at least.  So even though I want to see the far reaches of the country, I don't want to be too far away for too long at a stretch.  Or maybe traveling half to two-thirds of the year and wintering near family would work. 

     This will all require some balancing and some compromise on both our parts. One thing I know I need to do is re-calibrate my idea of where "home" will be.  Home won't be back in So Cal.  It will be on the road with my honey.  We will get used to it, and if parts of it aren't working for us we can make adjustments.

     There's a lot to do to get ready, but I wish we could leave right now!

374 weeks remaining....

Blogging ended up being harder than I expected, having to come up with something to say every week or so. But, in the end I keep writing.

Finances are going great and I can really see the end of the tunnel now. Just finished my taxes and am getting less than expected back.  That is disappointing, but better then owing. We've paid off 50% of our debt and hope to make it 100% in the next 12 months or so. Then to the savings.

I'm still having worries about what happens if I run out of money before Social Security kicks in. I am still hoping to get on the road early even if it's just to an RV park close to work. The thing that would allow this to happen is the housing market going up. I'm tired of taking care of all the expenses of a house. If I can sell it and make a profit I would be saving nearly $75k a year. That would give us the cushion we need to feel conformable to retire at 53.

I started a new Facebook group called "SoCal RV Fulltimer Wannabes". I'm looking for people that are in the same position as us so we can get together and discuss plans, hopes, dreams and just some fellowship with like-minded people.

As for a rig, I think it's come down to cost. A Class A will just be too expensive so it's back to a 5th Wheel. Plus I like all the added room a 5er gives you inside, and I love the front living room models.

So that's enough out of me for now. Until next time, keep RVing!

376 weeks remaining....

Hope everyone had a great holiday. The wife and I went to an SKP resort near Temecula and it was completely awesome. Everyone there was friendly and made the visit nice. We played some ping pong, pickle ball, pool and also went to the Friday afternoon ice cream social and went on a short hike....

Not much going on right now, but I will be heading out to Mojave National Preserve this weekend with some friends to find some great boondocking spots. I know one, and hope to find others to document for my other blog.

It's about tax time and I hope to get a good refund so I can pay off the last credit card this year.

Until next time, keep on RVing!

378 weeks remaining....

I hope everyone had a great holiday and all your wishes came true. For us, it was a quiet week off work. It's been a little while since our last trip to the desert and we are itching to get to Jojoba Hills SKP park this Thursday, Jan 1st....

We have been planning to go full time for almost a year now and received a little resistance from the family as expected. Though something interesting happened a few weeks ago. My mother in law saw a mouse in the house and needed to escape until the issues was resolved. Guess what happened? She requested to stay in our trailer. Three weeks later she was back home, mouse free. When I asked her how she liked staying the the trailer, she said she could totally live in one. Now she doesn't think it is such a crazy idea. Everyone comes around in their own time.

We have seven years to go and we are still excited. Everything is falling into place and some decisions have been made. Others we are allowing to fall into place in due time. I am itching to get a new rig, but the wife is keeping me in check. We have decided to make our domicile Texas due to health care issues. This is also good because my son and his wife live there and we soon expect to have grandkids.

Well that's the end of the first year of planning. I am excited to see what comes this year. I am looking forward to increasing the percentage on my 401k and saving more money. It isn't cheap to retire early so I need to learn more about budgeting and sticking to a budget.

Until next year, keep on RVing!

381 Weeks remaining....

It's been a few weeks since my last post and not much of anything happened. We did complete the house refi and will be saving a little less than we thought due to property taxes going up this year. We are also well on track with paying down debt. By the end of this year we will have paid off well over $15k in credit card debt left over from the days before we decided to go fulltime in an RV.

We did go to Joshua Tree over the long Thanksgiving weekend and had a great time with all our RVing pals. Camping on a dry lake bed in windy conditions is not the best place to setup camp, but ended up being a fun time. For New Year's we are planning to go to the Escapees resort near Temecula, CA. Looks like a great place and just from the emails they are a friendly bunch.

Even though we have a no new "stuff" policy, we will be getting a new refrigerator for the house. No need to suffer for the next seven years with a broken fridge.

Until next time, enjoy life.

386 weeks remaining....

After our last trip to the Eastern Sierras this past moth, I noticed that I will definitely need television. After a few days of boondocking in the chilly weather near Mono Lake, being inside without TV was a hardship. We ended up staying only 2 days there before seeking out refuge in an RV park near Bishop, CA. The park was great with 50+ channels of cable TV.

So this bring me back to an earlier conversation about solar power and satellite TV reception. If we wanted 4 hours of TV a night how much solar and how many batteries would we need?  I am no electrician and hope someone reading this page can answer that question. Water/sewer seemed to be a non-issue, as we have learned over the years of RVing to conserve water.

I also started to examine how much space we "needed" to live comfortably. The size I am thinking for starting out is about 30 feet. Then as the years go by I think we would be doing less boondocking and more parking in nice RV parks.

I'm still reviewing daily the cost of fulltiming in an RV. I am planning on living off of $30k per year in today's dollars, adjusted annually for inflation. Currently we are plowing down our debt and I am feeling really good about the position we are in now. We are currently in progress on our second home refi of the year for an additional savings of $1200 per year. All that can go into our savings.

This is June Lake Oct 2014

390 weeks remaining...

Getting close to our next trip. This time we are heading to the Northern coast of California for a few days to attend a family friend's wedding.  Then we'll wind our way down to the eastern sierras for a week of boondocking. I am thinking of spending as much time and I can near Mono Lake assuming it will not be freezing. I really do get excited to practice fulltiming . This may sound weird but I think it does us good to find out if we even can do it for long periods of time. Also this helps with figuring out what rig we will choose. Boondocking also shows us how long we can go between dumping and getting water and how much we end up cooking and not going out to eat.

This weekend is the big RV show is Pomona and me and the wife will be going to see all the new rigs and all the neat gadgets. I promise I will not be buying a new rig no matter how good the deal is. We are will saving and learning how to trim our budget. This is the one thing that I keep thinking about,  because I don't want to be forced to go back to work full time.

So until next time. Enjoy your life now!