Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Go with your gut!

Bob and I recently joined the Escapees (http://www.escapees.com/) organization. Now that the house is on the market and life is a bit slower finally, I've had a chance to begin reading the SKP forums and I've discovered a big item we should have done differently.

Simply put, we should have sold our house well before my husband's targeted retirement date. I'm not sure I could have gotten Bob to do it 2-3 years ago, but we regret we did not do it last spring. The market has changed so much since then. I'm afraid we've missed our prime window of opportunity.

Last spring I was ready to get going on this. Get the house sold and move into the RV. Bob could work on his current job until he was ready to retire. He just was not ready. Try as I might, I could not convince him to reconsider.

On the forum today I noticed many people have become full-timers several years before officially retiring. I wish we'd have joined SKPs earlier and read this useful information. Even though I know our house will sell soon, we could have made $10k to $15k more if we'd have acted sooner.

All last spring my gut kept telling me "this is the time to do it -- sell the house and begin full-timing." I know if Bob could have read the inspiring stories posted by other members, he would have felt more confortable with the pre-retirement change. I should have paid more attention to that little voice screaming at me to do it now! I should have followed my gut feelings.

If you are considering going full-time, I suggest you join the Escapees organization and devour the message forums. Lots of great advice and experience in those posts. As I said before, you can never have too much information at your fingertips. Escapee members appear to be very friendly and genuinely want to help each other. We're impressed!

Enjoy life, work, and traveling,

Vicky & Bob Heron (& Capt. Jack)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

So you want to go RVing full-time -- What about money?

When my parents, and their generation, decided to become full-time RVers, or to become "snowbirds," most knew how they were going to swing it financially.

Before I continue... just what is a snowbird? You see, my parents decided 22 years ago to keep the old homestead, our family farm in Illinois. But, they hate staying there in the winter months. As a matter of fact, many seniors and retired people living in the northern "cold winter weather" states are affected by this affliction.

The cure is to get in the RV and head south... to Arizona, Florida, or South Texas.

My parents went to Yuma, Arizona 22 years ago and have never looked back. Every year in late October or early November they pack up their home on wheels and go "on the road again." To Yuma. They love it there. Mom plays her keyboard and sings in "jam sessions" with other musicians. Dad just loves to listen to her work her magic!

Then in late March, or early April, they get the itch to come back home to roost. And there they stay until they repeat the whole process. We joined them for the trip to Yuma last year and was bitten by the RVing bug!

I'd say if there was a golden era of retiring in an RV it was the last 20 years. Before gas went up to $3.00 and $4.00 a gallon. Before pensions were lost (for whatever reasons). Before social security was in jeaopardy. Before RV park lot rent exceeded lot rent in a mobile home park.

So what are boomers to do about going on the road in an RV and driving blissfully off into the sunset? I'm glad you asked...

Before I answer that question, I'd like to share with you a trend I'm starting to see. People in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are deciding they want to experience the RV lifestyle too. With cell phones, wireless Internet, and home schooling, any couple or family with children can enjoy the traveling lifestyle. As a result, it is exploding.

The solution to all of these scenarios is to work as you travel. There are all kinds of jobs. Many are explained in the books you can buy explaining the full-time RV lifestyle.

One in particular sounded very appealing to us. And we found it quite by accident. You see, before we put the house on the market, we needed to find a place to park the RV. We needed it to be close since Bob is not retired yet.

While we were searching for the right RV park to move into, we found a great way to pay for our retirement and travels. I'll tell you all about it in my next post. Until then...

Enjoy life, work, and traveling,

Vicky & Bob Heron (& Capt. Jack)

How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Exciting Life-Changing Journey Begins

A few days ago I told you we were going to share insights into how we made the decision to become full-time RVers, how long we planned it, and how we got started. We also want these insights to make it easier for you. Some things along the way could have been planned a bit better. Hopefully our insights will help your transition into the full-timing RVing lifestyle a little easier.

First, there are a lot of good books on this subject. Read them. You can never have too much information when you're making a lifestyle change as substantial as this.

I think I bought about 6 or 7 books. If you don't know what type of rig will be best for you, these books will help guide you in this decision. We already knew we wanted a Class A motorhome. In fact, as I said before -- the purchase of our current motorhome inspired us to make this life change sooner rather than later.

So aside from the type of rig you want, what other things need to be considered?

Bob, my beloved soulmate, is 63-years-old this year. I just turned 54-years-old. With gas prices between $3.50 and $4.00 per gallon, we knew we should plan on working part time to help supplement our expenses. Another factor is we'll soon have to pay for health insurance.

This helped us to make the big decision to sell our house. It went on the market yesterday. We have a lovely and highly skilled realtor named Beverly Pironti. Her website is http://www.beverlypironti.com/. In 2004 she sold two houses across the street for full asking price. One went in eight days, the other in 27 days. We knew we wanted to keep her in mind for when we decided to sell (in 2004 we had no idea when that would be).

Right after she closed these two properties, Beverly sent out a postcard to our neighborhood announcing those house sales and how quickly they sold. I stuck that card away "just in case."

When the time came and we decided to sell the house, we couldn't for the life of us remember her name. We called our former neighbor (the Internet is sure helpful in finding people) to get this realtor's contact information. They could not find it anywhere.

As luck would have it, as I was cleaning out clutter and getting rid of "stuff," I found that postcard.

Now before I tell you why her houses sell so quickly, I'm going to share some of our mistakes with you.

1. Interview more than one realtor and ask good questions about how you need to prepare your house and how they will market your house for the quickest sale at the best price. We almost went with a realtor who was a lot less experienced. She was a lovely person, but she was not as knowledgeable about how to really move houses. She told us some brief things to do.

When I found Beverly's card I thought we were about to sign on the dotted line and list with the first lady we interviewed.

Boy -- was I wrong!

Which brings me to our next mistake...

2. Allow plenty of time to get your house in tip-top condition for showing. If you scrimp here it will cost you later.

Beverly came in and said to get out a paper and pencil and take notes. I'm going to tell you what you need to do specifically to get your house ready. She said right now "you're not ready."

Before she became a realtor, Beverly was an interior designer. And it showed! She told us to do things I never would have known to do -- or even thought of. I can't tell you specifically since these are her secrets to success. But suffice it to say, she gave us a week and a half to get our to-do list completed. It went well beyond touch up painting and cleaning off the countertops in the kitchen (de-cluttering).

All summer I told family members that we were putting the house on the market September 1st. Well... we did not start doing anything until mid August. Big mistake!

It takes time to sort through and decide what to dispose of, what to give to kids (if they want it), and what can and will go in the RV. Basically, our challenge was how to go from over 1900 sq. ft. of space down to 444 sq. ft. This includes when all three slide out rooms are extended. A lot has to go. Of course, there are certain things that must go in storage.

For example, I have my own copywriting and marketing business. So I have client files and lots of stuff I've accumulated over the years. When we decided to full-time it, we decided we'd enjoy doing work we could do on the road. Something we could work on together. Something that would take us to new places and help pay our expenses. We found it!

So I tossed (shredded) all of my old client stuff, our old tax stuff and about anything else I could get my hands on. Just kidding. We went through closets and cleaned them out. I finally got it through my thick head that I will not be a size 4 again, or size 6, or size 8. But that's okay, the Salvation Army got two big loads of really good items. It was alot easier than getting ready for a garage sale. Now all we have to do is give a value to all of the donated items and deduct it from our taxes.

If we would have started getting the house ready earlier, we wouldn't have been so rushed and exhausted. I'm happy to say that now we are enjoying our beautifully staged and uncluttered home. Why didn't we do this sooner? (Beverly says she hears that a lot :-))

Stay tuned for my next post as I share with you how I found the "perfect fit" for us job wise.

Please feel free to comment on these posts. I'll be looking at each one. If you have specific questions I'll be happy to answer them. Soon I'll get Bob to join in and share some important information about how to get your rig ready to go. He's working on a project right now that will potentially give us a couple of miles per gallon in mileage which will be a big help in that behemoth. We'll be testing it next weekend. I'll have him give you all the details, I promise.

So keep watching, better yet -- click on the link to follow this blog as it is updated.

Vicky & Bob Heron (& Capt. Jack)
How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!