Escape Plan

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
halfwright

halfwright

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2013
Posts
1,212
We have been full time for about 4 years and have no plans for quitting any time soon. But, we do not have any type of escape plan at all. In fact, I do not know what one would look like. We have $20,000 set aside for emergencies that we have not touched since we started. I guess that would set us up in a rental some where. We sold everything when we started so there is not a house to go back to.  So, I am curious about what others have in mind when and if it is time to come off the road.

What does your escape plan look like??
 
Our exit strategy was to keep some specific investments for the eventual purchase of property when we decided where we wanted to end up.  We were in no hurry and eventually decided on the Texas Hill Country.  We found a nice lot in a subdivision populated with lots of RVers and specifically designed to allow one or more RV sites on each lot.  We used the earmarked funds to purchase the lot and develop it with 2 full hookup RV sites.  We continued to full time for a few years, then decided it was time to build a house, so we bought a manufactured home and put it on the lot.  The development costs for that were minimal as we already had 200A electric service, water and a septic system.  So now we have the house and one full hookup site for our motorhome, or for RV friends when they visit.
 
Please don't hear this response as facetious, but our "escape plan" is actually no different than if we were in a stick house.

We would simply change how we live. Whether that means a manufactured home on a lot, an apartment, assisted living, etc., I think the only difference would be that we would be coming out of a motorhome instead of more conventional living quarters.

After five years on the road, we, too, maintain a very healthy cash emergency fund, long term but liquid investments, and plenty of insurance.

The ability to react to any situation gracefully is part and parcel of living on the road and we feel relatively prepared for what comes next. The specifics will be dictated by the situation so maybe that really is an "escape plan".

There are really tight planners and relatively loose planners and I don't think either is "wrong". We all have different ideas of what is comfortable and that is what makes this fun! Right now we are comfortable; you might not get the same answer in five years.  ;)

Kim
 
While only fully retired for not quite 5 years our exit plan is to come back to the house and sit for longer periods of time in my recliner. Eventually I won't be able to drive the MH, and eventually we won't want to be in the boat floating somewhere between WA state and Alaska. Everything is paid for and money is set aside for unexpected problems. The moving homes will be sold or given away when we can no longer use them like we want to. The stick and brick was chosen 20 years ago to be our forever home, close to hospitals, shopping and friends.

ken
 
I've never been particularly fond of people telling me what I can and can't do in my own home so the idea of renting or living in a planned community is probably not going to happen.  That said, I'm beginning to really hate the never ending projects associated with home ownership.  So my problem is just the opposite of you full timers.  I'd like to try it and the idea of taking a few bucks worth of equity to buy a motorhome is pretty appealing.  The only thing holding us back is the DW's insistence that I couldn't handle being on the road full time.  She may be right.  We've done 3 months twice and I couldn't wait to get back.  However, the living conditions were less than optimal.  Once in a 27 foot trailer and once in our non-slide 32 foot motorhome.  If all goes as planned, we'll be on the road in a few days when we begin what could be a 6 month road trip.  After that if we haven't gone through a "War of the Roses" situation, I'm going to put the S/B on the market and begin looking for a motorhome.  If nothing else, we'd live in it until we found a suitable place to relocate.   
 
My wife and I have spent the past two winters in Yuma AZ in an RV park paying $300 per month.  Recently friends of ours bit the bullet and bought a lot with a small house on it and hook ups for their MH.  They fixed up the home and rent it out for more than their  $380. mortgage pmt.  They are a young couple and they live in the MH.

Down side to this of course is the Yuma Summer temperatures. 

Land prices are VERY reasonable there. 

Another friend who is a long time resident has a house on a nice lot.  Assessed value is $50K and Market value is $80K.

Just an example of what is out there if you look.

Tom...
 
We've discused this issue as we find ourselves travelling to the same places each year. Current thinking is to either park the MH or trade for a fiver and park it, probably in an rv park where we have friends. I guess that's to say we'll just stop traveling.

We enjoy living in our MH and find it comfortable. If we ever get rid of the house/storage bldg, we'll never get another. Anyone want to buy 20A at the end of the road in N Texas? Comes with small house and lots of old toys, AND a pond plus woods, n fields.

Ernie
 
halfwright said:
So, I am curious about what others have in mind when and if it is time to come off the road.

What does your escape plan look like??
Click to expand...

Escape [?], do you mean a 2nd stationary retirement?

I hate the word "escape", it tends to conjure up images of nut cases running around in the bush trying to survive with automatic weapons.
I can see that kind of thing getting old real fast.

I RV and work full time, so "escape" to me would mean settling down somewhere and or doing
something that is totally different from traveling in an RV.

With working full time and traveling with the job, living in an RV is the ideal way to save as much money in the shortest timespan.
I don't know how that would look with someone who is already retired, but I would assume one would have resources.
If you don't, you need to start seriously thinking about that now, after all, you're not 20 years old anymore.

Whatever you do you'll need some money. A homestead with a few acres would be nice.
But if you're getting old and feeble, being near family might be beneficial, otherwise your looking at either a
retirement home of some sort or another.
 
I have been full timing for 30+ years in my stick and mortar home and my escape plan is the RV.  We also own a condo on one of the Great Lakes in Ohio.  Like someone else stated, really never liked someone else telling me what I can and can not do on my property, but after owning one I think condo living might be right for me after all.  Just be careful on the HOA fees if you consider one.  More amenities mean higher fees and check for historical special assessments if any.  Some use special assessments to artificially show lower monthly fees.  At this point in my life, let someone else maintain the property, time to have fun.  I also own some rentals and like I tell my tenants, "I own the property, but it is your home."  Bottom line, home is where you make it.  Seems like everyone has different things that make them happy and/or comfortable.
 
We sold our primary home and most of our furnishings, but we kept our small (700 sq ft) seasonal lakeside cottage in the Adirondacks. We've since remodeled and fully insulated it for year round living. The full hookup RV parking spot we added next to it gives us a great place to "camp" while we visit our kids and friends that live nearby. Most of the time we're there, we just keep right on living in the coach, just using the cottage for laundry and occasional entertaining when we need more space. Taxes and utilities only cost a couple of thousand a year, and it gives us great peace of mind to know that we have a fallback place whenever it might be needed, even if only temporarily for illness or injury recovery.
 
I'm still working on escaping from the sticks and bricks, but I have thought about the same thing you are.  I am not the kind of person that likes to live right jam up beside my neighbor.  If I could live on 10 plus acres I would.  I figure this can work for us two ways, getting into the RV full time and getting back into a S&B. 

I would like to buy my acreage, put in an RV pad, but not necessarily in the most desirable spot on the property.  Put in a septic (with RV dump), a well or water, and electricity.  That way, I can start farming the land and camping there on weekends when the wife is off.  After she retires, we have the land paid off and we just cruise around and get the travel bug out of our system.  When we tire of it, we park the RV back on our land and commence building a house.  By then, my vineyard should be in full production and I start making wine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,000 (members: 27, guests: 973)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,974
Posts
1,388,474
Members
137,722
Latest member
RoyL57
Back
Top Bottom