Fulltimer's Budget

The budget/costs of fulltiming is a popular topic around here. The basic answer is that it depends mostly on your lifestyle.

I came across these folk's budget vs actuals and thought it might be of interest to our members. It is 6 months of actual cost data.

http://www.flipflopvector.com/2012/10/6-mo-budget-eval-of-full-timing-rv.html

Interesting information and gave me some ideas of how to reclassify some things in mine. I have two years of data that will be interesting to trend.

Two things stand out to me. One is whether you use the information to compare living full time in an RV versus a stick house, and the second is whether you need to factor in the  difference between being retired and not retired.

Good information for both views.

The largest expense for many RV'ers is amortization.  I didn't see anything for that.  While doing a search on this forum, I came across a thread which addressed annual operating costs for motorhomes.  That one did included amortization and was a real eye opener.  It was also maybe 10 years old and I would love to see it updated or perhaps a new thread created. 
     

I might counter that from a strict accounting standpoint, amortization would not be a part of a budget for monthly cash outlay unless you had a plan to replace your RV. For example, if your RV was paid for, it would not surface in a monthly budget of items to be paid.

To your point, yes, it would be included in a sheet itemizing the total cost of ownership.

The focus of the analysis is what would drive the content of the spreadsheet.

If you are doing a monthly cash flow budget (income and out-go) and have a loan payment to make, then obviously that has to be part of your budget.  From an accounting viewpoint that's not quite the same as amortization, but from a practical view it's what counts.

This guy has 6 or 7 years worth of data.  Like Gary said it all depends on your lifestyle and budget.

http://www.rv-dreams.com/financial-information.html

Gary RV Roamer said:

From an accounting viewpoint that's not quite the same as amortization, but from a practical view it's what counts.

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From the moment the professor began explaining how a debit increases an asset account and decreases a liability account I knew my dream of being a CPA was going up in smoke. 

If you are like most of us and continue RVing more than 6-8 years the odds are very good you will be trading for another RV. There should be some way to estimate the future value of what you will have to trade in, amortization on a straight line basis, estimating the future value and dividing the depreciation by the number of years you plan to own it, etc. In our case the depreciation plus upgrades on our used diesel motorhomes have averaged 10,000 a year 

garyb1st said:

From the moment the professor began explaining how a debit increases an asset account and decreases a liability account I knew my dream of being a CPA was going up in smoke. 

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Look at this way. If you make a deposit in your bank account, its a credit for you, and a debit for the bank (or an increased liability) because the bank owes you the money when you "demand" it by writing a check.

I think most of us are more concerned with operating costs/budget than total cost of ownership. However, budgeting savings (towards eventual replacement) is a legitimate line item for a budget if your planning horizon extends out that far.

While the subject of this thread is Fulltimer's Budget, and while the linked article(s) are interesting, they really don't begin to address the subject adequately.  In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that a generic one-size-fits-all budget is at best a weak and possibly misleading starting point.  The term fulltimer RVer seems specific.  In fact, it is quite a broad category of RVers.  There are not many similarities between a fuilltimer who writes a check for a new motorhome and one who sells his stick built home in order to buy a used truck and RV.  The former likely takes the RV to the dealer for repairs.  The later most likely buys the parts and then looks for a cool spot on the side of the road to make the repair.  Their budgeting needs are like night and day.  Sadly the one who need a budget the most is the one who doesn't have one or has one that doesn't adequately address all the costs of full-timing. 
 
Based on the number of owners, and sadly widows, I come across hoping to unload an upside-down motorhome it is apparent that an adequate budget was not part of their game plan.   

When I made reference to amortization, I was really thinking cost of ownership.  What peaked my interest was a thread I looked at on this forum which addressed the subject.  At the time the budget I had in mind seemed quite adequate.  It was right in the ball park with many that had posted on the thread.  Unfortunately the data I was looking at was 10 years old.  Worse, it was a mixed bag.  Some members included ownership, some didn't.  So while the thread provide some worthwhile data, to an extent is was misleading.     

I honestly believe that as one of the best, if not the best RVing forum on the Net, this group could provide a great service to all RVers by having a resource dedicated to budgeting.     

Retired fulltimers will be different from fulltimers who are work-campers. Sources of revenue will be different as well, as some will be on fixed incomes, and others will still be able to divest investments as they age to provide for their budget.

Its all relative. Just my two cents.

garyb1st said:

   

I honestly believe that as one of the best, if not the best RVing forum on the Net, this group could provide a great service to all RVers by having a resource dedicated to budgeting.   

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Gary,

I have long said,  When you are an RVer, you will spend all that  you have!  Budget or not, you will spend it all!

Betty Brewer said:

Gary,

I have long said,  When you are an RVer, you will spend all that  you have!  Budget or not, you will spend it all!

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RVer or not, spend it all, help the economy, LOL...

Betty, I think what you're saying is a penny saved is a penny than can be spent RVing. 

[quote author=garyb1st]I honestly believe that as one of the best, if not the best RVing forum on the Net, this group could provide a great service to all RVers by having a resource dedicated to budgeting.[/quote]

Gary, care to expand on that 'resource' comment? Care to help create something for our forum library?

Tom said:

Gary, care to expand on that 'resource' comment? Care to help create something for our forum library?

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Tom, you obviously have not read the entire tread.  I'm the guy who brought up amortization.  You don't even want to think about a spread sheet that I might create. lol 

I think it has been well pointed out how "different" everyone's situation might be when beginning to "fulltime".  Even fulltiming is different to some folks.  Obviously there is not a one size fits all budget.  It's similar to buying a house, everyone has a different situation going into buying a home, starting a family etc.  Each individual has to take the time to assess their situation, what assets they have and how to procure and maintain their "dream".  It's never simple, nor is it easy for most.  We were no exception to that and in fact, spent a great deal of time scrubbing our own financial situation to see if it was possible and even then have found that our situation at the moment will change dramatically in 9 months when we no longer have a tuition bill to pay for our son.  Still being wet behind the ears ourselves in our jouney, we have discovered this and tell people this when they ask.  1.  Be honest about your situation 2.  Be prepared to continue to make sacrifices as you did living sticks n bricks with a 9-5 JOB.  3.  The sky is the limit if you are willing and able to work a little to make things easier (just as most do prior to fulltiming). 
We are retired military, so we have a little income from that, but we knew we would have to workamp until our son graduated in 2013 to pay for his schooling and that is what we are doing.  If we did not have that income from retirement, we likely would have changed our ideas on our ability to fulltime when we decided to.  However, we knew what we must make in order to continue to make things comfortable.  We didn't have a house to sell when we started, but we did have a nest egg that would have been used when we "retired" at 60ish, but instead used it now so that we could retire at 40ish.  That helped to pay off the bills and put a chunk of change down on the new camper and truck.  We were quite concerned about work this upcoming winter, but that too has worked itself out and instead of being where we wanted to be, we took a job in a less ideal location but the pay was right.  All that being said, again, we KNOW that next year when we no longer have to pay for school, we won't have to be as particular about the types of jobs that we take to continue to be comfortable and in fact will likely only have to work one season vice two. 
It is such an individual decision and situation that I don't think there is a book/resource out there that will give everyone all the information that they are looking for.  No one else can do it for you. 

About the only generally useful resource I can think of would be a list of potential line items for an RVer's budget and a discussion for each as to what expenses the item contains and, where applicable, why it might or might not be included in one's budget. Maybe a sample spreadsheet to show how budget and tracking might be set up.  However, there are already numerous excellent budget spreadsheets available elsewhere on the net - you just plug in the items that are meaningful to you. Google 'budget spreadsheet' to locate them.

This one, that someone else previously posted in this thread is the best one I've seen.  And he has many options one can adapt to their own situation.

http://www.rv-dreams.com/fulltimingbudgets.html