by Gene Rusco
Our lifestyle transition began long before we made the decision to take up living on the road. This journey began on a spring day four years ago when we bought our first (and only) motorhome. As we drove away from the dealership I warned my wife, “don’t let me quit my job”. I didn’t know then that I wasn’t kidding. I hadn’t realized that the door had opened to the opportunities, possibilities, and the adventure known as “full-timing”. We were only in our mid-40’s and already having discussions about when we no longer would go back to the daily grind of “home” and careers. We began to imagine long trips without having to watch the calendar, much less a clock. “Some day”, we’d say, “it’s going to be great”. We didn’t know the day was soon to come. In our first motorhome we spent weekends on the beach (with full-hookups), dry camped in Wal-Mart and Costco parking lots, stayed in deluxe and not-so-deluxe campgrounds, drove thousands of miles through several states -- cramming all we could into vacations of one, two or three weeks. But at the end of all these adventures was the drive home. Back to the house with its roof that needed replacing, the lawn that needed mowing, the job, the boss, and the politics of it all. We got to the point of hating unpacking. We dreamed of the day when we didn’t “come back”. That day is now here. We no longer have a house or jobs. We’ve “hung it up”, “cashed in”, “walked away” and we’re not looking back. Can you? The answer may be yes!
DOUBTS
Could we live with one car, in a small space, spend most of our time together, and take our 2 dogs & 2 cats? Could we leave the familiar? . Could we leave the neighborhood we love so much with Peet’s coffee (our favorite neighborhood gathering place and coffee!) that is within walking distance?
DECIDING ON A RIG
Before I go further, I must make a confession: I’m an information junkie. I try and leave no stone unturned in a quest for information. I’ve got to have it. And I want yours as well. That’s what led me to this forum. It is one of several great forums where people can exchange information. Rvers Online should carry a warning: This web site is hazardous to a traditional life-style. There are others. As we shopped for our first RV a salesman handed me a photocopy of an article written by J.D. Gallant of the RV Consumer Group (www.rv.org). The article extolled the virtues of a coach we had just examined. This was exactly what I was looking for. I didn’t know anything about motor homes. I certainly couldn’t trust my judgment of the quality of an RV. I joined that organization and ordered their books. I believe it may be one of the best $100 investments I’ve ever made. I read and re-read the RV Rating Book that details their opinions on safety, reliability and durability of RVs. I continued talking to other Rvers about their experiences.
Armed with this information, and a regular reading of this and other web sites, we began shopping at dealers and RV shows. We looked at class B rigs, thinking we didn’t need anything larger than a converted van that would allow us to camp anywhere. Then we looked at the room available in a class C. They seemed so drivable, but we didn’t need sleeping room for 6. We talked to people about trailers (5th wheels and travel trailers) but we had no interest in having a pickup as our primary vehicle and towing seemed more complex. Then we looked at the class A motor home. We knew then that this was the RV for us. This would take us away on weekends and vacations. We’d never driven anything that large (33’) but we knew we could learn. We would sacrifice the remote campgrounds for the comfort of a queen size bed, larger holding tanks, and a usable shower. We learned that the initial investment in a motor home wasn’t the end of spending. It took a few thousand more dollars to equip the coach the way we wanted it: hydraulic jacks, awnings, chairs, automatic TV satellite, engine improvements, hoses, and assorted gear.
THE TRANSITION
In the summer of 2000 I left a job I’d had for 20 years. Linda was between jobs. Before we plunged back into the work world of California’s Silicon Valley we decided to take a few weeks off. We loaded the motor home for a two-month journey to Oregon, Washington and the Canadian Rockies. I also wanted to stop at the Country Coach and the Alpine Coach factories. I had been researching diesel pusher motor homes and had read Tom Gonser’s excellent series on this site detailing their personal selection of a “pusher”. I concurred with Tom’s opinion that these were two of the finest coaches built. Our findings on the factory tours were similar to those already expressed in that series (be sure to read RVing The Open Agenda). These factory visits changed our direction in life. The major factor in this change was the people we met. Visiting with coach owners at the factory made the possibilities real for us. We talked to other baby boomers who were traveling the country (and not working!). We began a serious look at our own options.
MONEY MATTERS!
How much is enough? How much do you need to retire? How much would we spend on groceries, gas, recreation, insurance? We needed to set up budgets. We needed to guestimate every conceivable expense. I used a computer financial program. There are several available, but I’ve found Quicken to be the best. Quicken’s retirement planner puts everything in black and white. Since we’ve already been using this program to keep track of our bank account and investments it was a rather simple exercise. I estimated the number of miles we might drive, divided that by an expected miles-per-gallon, then multiplied that by the price of a gallon of fuel. This would give me an estimated annual cost of fuel. I created other formulas to estimate costs of living full time in a motor home. Talking to others who are currently living the lifestyle is a great resource. I talked to RVers who stay only at luxury resorts, others who only dry camp (including one man who lives in a new Prevost conversion costing over a million dollars!) and others who use membership campgrounds. Somewhere in all of that is our lifestyle. Once I arrived at figures for each expense I would “pad” the number. I use what I believe are inflated figures to arrive at our own personal cost of living. Our final number is in the low 40-thousand dollar-per-year range. I think the real number will be considerably lower but I didn’t want any surprises. Using the Quicken retirement planner I plugged in this number, estimated inflation to be 3%, predicted my investments would return 8% a year. Estimating a return on investment is a tricky matter. Even though I’ve gotten a much higher return, I had to look at the market conditions of recent past. For ten years we’ve had a raging bull market. Many investors have come to expect the kind of returns we’ve seen since 1990. This is unrealistic. Historically the market has returned just over 10% annually (this includes the crash of ’29).
SELL THE HOUSE & EVERYTHING?
We concluded that if we were to sell our house we would never have to work again. But a house is more than just an asset. Parting with a house is also parting with a neighborhood, a community, everything that is familiar. It is not an easy decision. We were fortunate to live where we could profit from the sale of our house, and since we still owed a lot of money on it we would not have to continue to work to pay for our house.
We made the decision to sell everything. In our many talks with other full timers we had heard the stories of people who left their stick houses but kept furniture and other personal belongings. Every month they pay rent for storage. Some have even forgotten what they’ve stored. We reasoned that it would be best to cut the ties to traditional living. If this were a mistake, we would pay the price to refurnish a stick house later. We viewed storage as an unwanted burden. It would be easier to sell our belongings from our house than to come back in a year or two and try to organize a sale from a storage yard.
Linda made lists of our belongings and researched their values. We looked through classified ads in newspapers, searched the Internet and talked to people at garage sales. We visited used furniture stores and thrift shops. We had two weekend garage sales. The work was not the sale itself but the preparation. Our realtor bought the bulk of our furniture. Our best customers were our friends. Once word was out that we were selling everything our phone began to ring. One friend bought one of our cars, another bought the TV and computer we would leave behind. Others bought furniture, clothes, and household items. Friends who were not buying were telling their friends of our sale. It was a fabulous network of buyers! We were fortunate to live in the booming Silicon Valley of California. There are many people with lots of money.
If we did it again we would only have one yard sale for 3 days – Fri, Sat & Sun and advertise it to death. Two different sales is too much work and not needed. Or, have a professional do the whole thing. They generally charge 25%. There are also great books at the library on how to do a yard sale. We didn’t sell everything. What was left was given away or donated.
Our house sold within 2 days of our decision to sell. That deal fell through but within 2 weeks there was another buyer. The second deal fell through. In another week there was a third (and final) buyer. We sold the house for more than our asking price. Within 3 months of our decision to go full time we had sold our house and all our belongings (and ordered a new motor home).
This happened seemingly fast. But everyday was a long day of dealing with the details and chore of liquidating everything. Everyday, all day, there was work to do. Thank God we didn’t also have paying jobs! All of this work was done while we dealt with the emotional aspect of a complete life change. We were saying goodbye to all that is familiar. Our dear friends and neighbors gave us their blessings but hated to see us go. We kept telling ourselves we were moving away but would have the freedom to return for a visit whenever we wished.
TECHNOLOGY HELPS
Our cell phone would be a local call for our friends no matter where we were. Email makes it possible to have regular “talks” with many of our friends (remember, we’re from the Silicon Valley where almost everyone works on a computer). We’ve come to realize what an important role technology plays in our lives. We have it so easy compared to those who began fulltiming just a few years ago. ATM’s make cash available in almost every city. Electronic fund transfers make bill paying on the road a snap. Cell phones make it possible to get a reservation or talk to family while driving down the road. Our Global Positioning System guides us to campgrounds or helps us locate a destination. Our satellite TV keeps us entertained and informed even in the most remote campgrounds.
ADJUSTING
We’re adjusting to this new lifestyle. We spent our first holiday season as full timers. We bowed out of Christmas because we just couldn’t deal with anymore “stuff” this year, but we did send Christmas cards with our new mailing address. Our cell phone bill was large at first as we continued regular contact with the friends we left behind. We suspect that may diminish as our lives fill with new friends we will meet as we travel. We are still thrilled with the idea of retirement at such a young age, with living in many places all over the country, and with the people we’ll meet. Linda is probably most surprised that WE REALLY DON’T MISS THE HOUSE, and WE DON’T MISS OUR STUFF. Friends are missed, but not the house and all the upkeep. Everyday we wake up and can’t believe we don’t have to work. That doesn’t mean we won’t do something we want to do down the road, but not for a while. And, fortunately Peet’s will send coffee by mail.
THE PETS
Linda kept saying as we were liquidating everything “the only things that really matter are those that live”. We had regularly taken our two small dogs on our travels but never our two cats. How could we possibly give up our cats? Could they travel with our dogs also? We had dear friends volunteer to take our cats but the thought of just abandoning them to these loving homes was hard for us. We decided we would give it a try. We found cats to be very accommodating to this lifestyle. They’ve found their “nests” around our small home. The dogs are learning to accept the felines crawling around the furniture. We are becoming one very happy family of two people, two dogs and two cats.
MAIL FORWARDING
There are many excellent services to stay in touch via “snail mail” (the term used among computer literate for the U.S. mail). We’ve chosen the Escapees service for several reasons: they’re inexpensive, the service is personal and dependable and we’ve chosen their home base in Texas as our own. We discourage this form of communication in favor of email however we have friends and family that have not yet moved to the “e” world of computers. The world of commerce is still adjusting to the eworld and many still rely on “physical” addresses. We think that will change in time.
SUMMARY
This is a process not a completed task, a journey not a destination. We have much to learn as we travel this “full-time” road. Life is no dress rehearsal. We could no longer put off what we really wanted in this life. Once we accepted this we began putting our plans into action. The help we found on this and other web sites helped make the change possible. We are blessed to live in such an exciting time. Those who have already taken this journey have paved the road making it easier for those of us who follow. The challenges we face are different and in our opinion not nearly as difficult.
We hope to meet you on this adventure.
Editor's Note: Our thanks to Gene and Linda Rusco for sharing this very helpful experience with our readers.