As an 8+ year fulltimer who has far less income than you project, I am going to take a very different position. The first part of the question is, have you checked to see what health insurance will cost until you reach Medicare age, assuming that your present employer won't be providing it? That can be a major expense and if one of you has a history of serious health problems you may not be able to get coverage, at any price.
Second is the lifestyle that you now live. Just because you choose to move into an RV does not mean that your habits and preferences will change. If you enjoy eating out at expensive restaurants, fine wines and other high cost activities, living in your RV will not change that for very long. The best way to determine what your expenses will be is to look at what you are spending now. Most of us do spend significantly less, when retired.
Fuel for the RV will also play a major role in your budget. How much do you expect to travel? Since you have RV experience, you probably have an idea of what you want to do and where you want to travel. Sit down and make some plans for where you will travel and how you will spend your time. From that you can begin to determine what you will pay for fuel to get there, for entrance fees, and all of the other expenses to do the kind of activities that you enjoy. Whatever you do in your spare time now, expect to do more of it once you are retired.
What activities do you enjoy in free time now? Will those keep you busy and content when you no longer go to work? If not, you need to figure out what you will do with your time. Some hobbies can be very expensive while others cost very little. In order to be happy, most of us also need to keep busy doing something. Very few of us are content to do nothing for long and what we do choose to spend our time doing is the key to any retired budget.
Let me suggest that you visit the website in my signature as I have posted there the past five years of our expenses. Our budget is far less than yours but it will give some ideas of where your money will go. In addition, the links section has several others who post their expenses and who have very different budgets than mine. If you compare enough of them, you can begin to substitute your figures into the places where other fulltimers spend their money. It isn't simple, but it can be done with a pretty good degree of accuracy.
As Gaylord Maxwell once said, "What does it cost to live in an RV full-time? Whatever you have to spend." That is usually how most of us determine our budgets. The question is not if you can live in an RV on what you have. The real question is, can you do so and enjoy life?
firecapt1 wrote: There is one thing that you must consider! No matter what your income you need to be prepared for the day when you can't (or don't want to) full-time anymore. At that point would you have enough income to rent an apartment, home, or even buy something to finish out your lives in. I know, I sound like the grim reaper but if you are not ready or prepared of this, you'll be up that special creek without the requisite paddle!
I know what you mean, my parents had an income of about $4,200/month. When I had to take them out of assisted living and put them in a full care facility they wanted about $3,200 EACH. I was able to negotiate it down but it still took everything they had. They would have had over $250,000 in the bank but instead of saving it they gave it to my son over a 10 year period (we found the checks and receipts in their papers after they passed). I got stuck with all the collections calls over a two year period to boot
Deen - Vancouver, WA
'02 Dutch Star 4090 (41+', triple slide)
435/1200 ISC Cummins/Banks PowerPak
'08 Honda Civic/dolly
'05 Honda Odyssey/dolly
NRA Benefactor Life Member
FMCA f47302s, Life Member: Good Sam, Newmar DP Owners Group
51st yr of RV'ing
As an 8+ year fulltimer who has far less income than you project, I am going to take a very different position. The first part of the question is, have you checked to see what health insurance will cost until you reach Medicare age, assuming that your present employer won't be providing it? That can be a major expense and if one of you has a history of serious health problems you may not be able to get coverage, at any price.
Second is the lifestyle that you now live. Just because you choose to move into an RV does not mean that your habits and preferences will change. If you enjoy eating out at expensive restaurants, fine wines and other high cost activities, living in your RV will not change that for very long. The best way to determine what your expenses will be is to look at what you are spending now. Most of us do spend significantly less, when retired.
Fuel for the RV will also play a major role in your budget. How much do you expect to travel? Since you have RV experience, you probably have an idea of what you want to do and where you want to travel. Sit down and make some plans for where you will travel and how you will spend your time. From that you can begin to determine what you will pay for fuel to get there, for entrance fees, and all of the other expenses to do the kind of activities that you enjoy. Whatever you do in your spare time now, expect to do more of it once you are retired.
What activities do you enjoy in free time now? Will those keep you busy and content when you no longer go to work? If not, you need to figure out what you will do with your time. Some hobbies can be very expensive while others cost very little. In order to be happy, most of us also need to keep busy doing something. Very few of us are content to do nothing for long and what we do choose to spend our time doing is the key to any retired budget.
Let me suggest that you visit the website in my signature as I have posted there the past five years of our expenses. Our budget is far less than yours but it will give some ideas of where your money will go. In addition, the links section has several others who post their expenses and who have very different budgets than mine. If you compare enough of them, you can begin to substitute your figures into the places where other fulltimers spend their money. It isn't simple, but it can be done with a pretty good degree of accuracy.
As Gaylord Maxwell once said, "What does it cost to live in an RV full-time? Whatever you have to spend." That is usually how most of us determine our budgets. The question is not if you can live in an RV on what you have. The real question is, can you do so and enjoy life?
We're not much for "high living", would like to take a few more cruises though. I finally got my wife to look at the budget now, subtract out the expenses that we won't have in the MH. All of a sudden she seems to have seen the light and that we can do it. The one holdup will be, as you said, health insurance. We could get COBRA coverage right now, but it would cost $700-1,300/MO!! I think that we'll wait till I turn 65 and Medicare kicks in just for that reason.
When in transit now we stay at Wal*Marts when we can (and we can easily afford a site at a campground, we just don't need it). We'lll have to find some hobies though! We don't gamble, we don't drink, we don't need a fancy car (just bought a '08 Honda Civic so I can get rid of the 10 year old Jeep). The MH won't be paid off till we sell the stick house, then everything will be paid for.
My quandry now is whether to start collecting SS in Jan (which limits how much you can earn without having to give 50% back) or wait, which means I can get more per month, but for a shorter time.
One thing that helps(?) is that part of my wifes company (45%) was just bought out. That part was where she has her retirement through. As part of the buyout they HAVE to start taking their retirement, but she can still keep working at her present pay rate. She had 24.895 years in but they credited her with the full 25.
One of the reasons we're so fortunate is that I took a state job knowing that I would receive low pay over the 30 years, but have a better retirement. I retired over 10 years ago and so far, have gotten more than I put in with another 30 years (judging from my families lifetimes) to go.
My step daughter died today without any warning leaving us with two grandkids to raise, a 16 year old and a 7 year old (both boys). The 7 year old doesn't even know yet as he is at my sons house. Will be going to the courthouse and filling paperwork for temp custody as there are two father involved that live in MN.
Oh Deen, what a tragedy! Our hearts are with you and whatever decisions you have to make.
Dianne
Donnelly, ID
DataStorm
HAM WB6N (Terry)
2005 Teton 39' Frontier Grand
2003 Freightliner FL60
Life Member Good Sam
Escapees
Geocache..."RVcachers" RV net Blog
DianneOK wrote: Oh Deen, what a tragedy! Our hearts are with you and whatever decisions you have to make.
The Coroner says she died of a blood clot that went from her legs in the lungs. Death was quick and she probably never knew what was happening. The 16 year old discovered the body, called my wife when he couldn't wake his mom and she was all blue. My wife called me and wanted me to get over there, but I'm the only one on staff after 5:00pm and I can't just run out. When I got there there were police, amb crew and EMT's (some of which I recognize from work). At first they thought it might be suicide due to the number of empty pill bottles. Now to put her to rest and rebuild the family. The 16 year old seems to be taking it OK, haven't told the 8 year old yet. That comes tomorrow after the cremation arrangments are made.
DianneOK wrote: Oh Deen, what a tragedy! Our hearts are with you and whatever decisions you have to make.
What else can I say, our prayers for you and your family.
Woodstick and Queen of the North
Woody and Patsy and our Furkids-Oreo, a black lab and Cookie, mix of Shihtzu, Bichon, Lhasa Apso
38' Sportsmen Sportster Toy Hauler
Pulled by 2003 3500 Dodge Diesel 6 speed Rolling Castle Blog
Patsy does all the posting.
Sounds like you have enough income so that you could pick and choose jobs a little and work for fun, sort of. My only thought is about the waiting. Life is short and the workamping we have done has been pretty hard and it seems like a new body part hurts every yeareven though we do enjoy it . It takes me 2 weeks to get used to being on my feet 8 hours but then we work 40 hrs/ week. My point is that we may be alive at 70 or 75 but no guarantee we will feel like traveling around the country and workamping so better do it now.
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