So You Want To Learn The RV Lifestyle?
Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, Wyoming
Taking a deep breath, with eyes closed gently, as you inhale the salty fragrance of the ocean or the sweet smell of pines in a overgrown forest, you picture here, at this moment, this exact moment. Exhaling, you realize that this is the place, the place you have dreamed of or even strived for. A long time. With a smile, slowly you open your eyes, realizing you are not there yet, but can see it in your mind, taking a deep breath, you walk on, with gratitude and a feeling of bliss. Finding a more peaceful life, full of adventure, lots of photos or videos, making precious memories for this once in a lifetime adventure is the ticket to fulfilling your life’s dreams.
Beartooth Highway, Wyoming and Montana
That is exactly what I thought as we prepared for my husband to retire and our adventure to start. But did you know there is more to fulltime rving? Unexpected expenses (busted another sewer hose!), campground fees, gas (OMgoodness!), finding shopping and things to do nearby, health, and I could go and on! But before I overwhelm you, lets get started with the most basic and possibly the easiest on paper: the budget.
Yep, you will need a budget to start this new lifestyle. Anyone, including you, can do this lifestyle, even with the rising economy and how it is effecting everyone these days.
What I started my budget with was Excel, which is a spreadsheet program from MS Office. I suggest using a spreadsheet program like Excel, or Google Sheets (similar to Excel and is free), or if you prefer pencil and paper, go for it. Nothing like doing it the old fashion way!
I want you to write all your expenses you currently have plus income you currently receive. You will take some of your expenses with you as you fulltime rv, so this step is very important. Make sure your income is more than your expenses, or you will need to cut back on the expenses or increase your income. This is also important as fulltime rving can bring some challenging expenses to the table, like mechanical problems, which could be pricey.
Index Peak, Wyoming
Once you got a budget going, the next step will be: do you want to fulltime or part RV? For us, we decided to fulltime RV as it was a good time to sell the house, plus the thought of keeping it and renting it out was a bit more than we thought we could handle. I have heard horror stories of people renting out their homes, like lack of payment, trashing the house, and since we would be out of state, I did not feel comfortable renting our home. It would have been beyond our budget to afford to keep the house and travel. But there are good people out there that would take care of your house if you decide to keep it and rent it out.
And how long do you want to RV? This is also a question to think about and discuss with whomever you do this lifestyle with. Where do you want to land or do you want to do this for the rest of your life? Making plans for the future can be a sensitive topic that will need to be discussed, hopefully before you set out on the RV adventure. For us, we do not have an end point yet, however, when one of us has serious health problems, I thought about selling everything and purchasing a park model, which is a small home, similar to a mobile home that sits at a RV park. My husband wants to fulltime rv the rest of our lives, and there are others that feel the same. But it is your choice.
Are you young and have a family, single and wanting to RV in your 20s, or retiring and want to try this lifestyle? Age does make a difference as for young people, you may do this lifestyle for a short time, to see the country or even the world before you get old, and purchase land to build a house on when you are done. For us retired people, building a house seems like a daunting and expensive task, so living in a RV during retirement makes sense: we want to travel to before we cannot do it any longer. We want to see the many amazing places (and there are plenty!) that our great country has and make memories.
Glacier National Park, Montana, and an impending storm!
Ok, I think this is enough for now! How are you feeling? I hope not too overwhelmed! I am going to attach a spreadsheet that will prompt you to get started with your budget. It has things that we currently use in our own budget.
I am also creating a series on how to fulltime rv even through difficult economic times and this is the first part. I hope you will join me as I continue with purchasing your RV on the next blog!
Here are the links for the new series I created for you: Learning the Fulltime RV Lifestyle: