Well we finally got there- both houses gone unconditional, one settles on Friday, 22nd this month and other on 26th. We have our van packed in driveway ready to go, Thursday. "Been a long time coming but we made it!" They say never say never- BUT I am NEVER going to own property again! Was sooooooo stressful selling! Two houses sold in four months one went smoothly but other one WOW what a problem. All over now so moving on.Visit Rellies from Ballina down to ACT then head north ANYWHERE! Hope to catch up over the years to some of you GNs out there during our travels. Look out Grace & Gary(Galloping Gazza) and John & Lynda we are on our way!(friends already out there)
-- Edited by Dawn on Friday 15th of October 2010 11:10:19 PM
Good luck on your travels, but is a complete sell-up the way to go? What happens if you tire of life on the road? Or (God forbid) a serious illness intervenes? Renting is becoming impossible unless you want or are forced to live in one of those horrible little burghs in the middle of nowhere with limited facilities. And getting back into the buying market is rapidy becoming impossible. If you have two houses, perhaps it would have been beter to keep one and rent it out so you at least have a bolthole. Cheers, Tony
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If you don't stand behind our troops, please feel free to stand in front of them.
I guess it is a matter of personal choice Tony we sold hour house because we go away so much but bought into a retirement village as I say a matter of personal choice. Some people wouldn't go into a retirement village we have had comments like oh those places you are waiting for God etc. but as I say it is a matter of personal choice. Good luck to all whichever way you choose to travel just be happy and enjoy Helena.
I agree to it being a very personal choice .. I sold my house last year and have now just completed my first 12 months on the road and couldn't be happier. For me it was to go with a very positive attitude that didn't include pre-empting the negatives in life that we all face .. " .. but what if this (or that) happens ? .. what will you do ? .. " These questions are all quite valid, but as we are all very different in our own wants and needs, the answers you seek will be the ones that suit you.
Whatever your choice, do it for yourself (yourselves) first .. then you put in your own variations to the mix in your life-style.
As I mentioned earlier, we are going to be putting our house on the market shortly, will invest the money in super (won't affect our pensions) and down the track, we also plan to purchase in a retirement/over 50's village.
Just to add a little about God's Waiting Room - we have lived here (Bribie Island Qld) for the past 10 years and - still waiting!!!! So blow the waiting, we are going to hit the road, and keep going!!!
By the way, Pete put in his notice on Friday to finish up work 16th December - yippee!!!!!
That's step one.
-- Edited by Pejay on Sunday 17th of October 2010 05:56:02 PM
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Pejay are travelling in a 2014 Holden Colorado LTZ Twin Cab Ute + 2013 Coromal Element van
I have lived in an over 50"s village here on the South Coast of NSW for 9 years now and it was the best move I have made.
We can go away, as we did recently for 5 months and not have to worry about our house.
The neighbours keep an eye on things and water the garden when it's needed.
Another benefit is that if something goes wrong and you need help quickly all you have to do is go out the front and "holla" and there will always be someone there to help you.
The age range in our village is 53 - 94. There are many and varied activities which you can choose OR NOT to be involved in. We don't live in each others pockets and you can be as involved for uninvolved as is your choice.
Good move for us.
I certainly don't look at it as "waiting for God". He will just have to wait for me I have to many places to go and things to see.......
-- Edited by Ma on Sunday 17th of October 2010 07:11:10 PM
I've never been into real estate nor furniture. I never understood why people tie themselves to one spot with a huge mortgage and debts incurred while trying to furnish it with all the furniture to fill all those useless rooms. Then they put the biggest, fluffiest towels in all those bathrooms, and then there's all that cleaning. Nah! The van life for me. The van way has been my lifestyle since 1998, and was in the 70's until the babies came along. If the time comes when I can't negotiate the van steps anymore I'll get someone to make my a ramp, or I'll find a state housing unit on the ground floor in a town with all the services I'm likely to need. I don't expect my kids to look after me or house me. While I'm feeling fit and better than I used to, thanks to Qld medicine, I'm going to cover some miles and find some work to top up the diesel fund, so I can keep doing it. As I tell everyone, my van is my home and where I'm parked is where I live. Invest your money somewhere so it grows, rather than putting into property. There are indications the market is not what it was, the the sky limit may have been reached, and could be on the way down.
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20ft Roma caravan - Mercedes Benz Sprinter - SA-based at the moment. Transport has no borders.
Management makes the decisions, but is not affected by the decisions it makes.
You must have some sort of ESP Christine, at dinner time tonight Blue and I were only saying that now we have joined the ranks of the "true" nomad we consider our van our home and the dwelling in the village to be our holiday home.
It sort of hits you when you first venture out just how much stuff you take with you that you never use. Then after you have done a couple of trips and come back to base you realise that there is so much "stuff" in the house that you never use and are never likely too.
I told my kids to come around and go through the house and choose what they want and if I'm not using it or don't need it they can have it now rather than wait till I'm pusing up daisies.
Wholeheartedly agree with the last few posts, after all it's just stuff, that when we are gone ( hopefully a long way off ) won't really mean a lot to other people, the important things our memories we will never get rid of, and if we do eventually forget them we won't remember what they are.
I love reading all your stories and takes on life ~ Ta!
I have beautiful 110 year old cottage that I love ~ it's mine and it's peaceful ~ my retreat...BUT
This week I spent a full 8 hours doing the yard after winter and constant rain and bad weather and it all looks beautiful but now I am out of action as a result ~ busted my goofa doing too much all at once after doing too little for too long.
I am constantly questioning myself...what are you doing? It's only grass for G's sake....do you want to spend that much time cutting GRASS!? Whoever invented "lawn" must have had a groundsman to do the work cause no one in their right mind would grow the stuff if they had to maintain such a useless "weed" themselves and then suffer for their trouble ~ you can't eat it or wear it or make anything from it except compost.
I am in the process of planting a forest so that all I have under it is leafmould, beneficial microbes and negative ions.... that aside, what I am getting to is fighting off the habitual thought processes of security, comfort etc etc. oh! and I have to wait for the cat to die of old age before I can take off guilt free....
I also have too much "stuff" .... is there any hope for me or do I need (more) therapy
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~ life is what happens while you're busy making other plans ~ Peace ~ Sunshine
Ma Our unit is much the same as yours almost a holiday home as we are never there the kids reckon they have to make an appointment to see us such a good life that we all lead. Have just come home after 4 months on the road and great not to have to worry about the unit as you say just lock it up and go. Helena.
How right you all are - after finally finishing going through my mum & dad's stuff of more than 60 years collecting (and never throwing anything out), NOW I have to start on our own stuff, I tend to agree with you all, why would we want to go get ourselves another property down the track, but like Mas says, we will most probably treat it like a holiday home and our van as our 'true' home.
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Pejay are travelling in a 2014 Holden Colorado LTZ Twin Cab Ute + 2013 Coromal Element van
i just thougth ide say i can see the pic in the post lol as nobody mentioned that they could see the post .
how wonderful good on you i hope that our business sets us up for life we arent old but we arent young either, hubby 53 me 50 next june i yearn for the day to hit the road never to return or maybe just to visit friends.
ide like to be able to sell both our houses, we rent one out and have two huge mortgages the rent on the 1st home doesnt even cover the repayments at moment due to five hikes in the bank, but we get by ,slowly but surely, we have a fantastic business which astounds our bookeeper and tax lady every time they do our books for tax, just grows and grows we just recently won a tender with rd tek for two years and unity water, we are now awaiting energex tender ,so it all makes our business worth more when you get tenders, just hoping we are still willing and able when the time comes, im always lookin at cheap land to buy as the plan for me is to hopefully afford some cheap land to put a small place on for our return .
we had a lovely block of 2 acres up north near curra at glenwood in a small no through road fully fenced power to block but some person decided that they were going to build a bloody dog breeding kennel (rottweilers) im not against dogs but this would of made our block worth zilch, so we tried to fight it at a council meeting in taro, we lost that fight, low and behold after the amalgamation went through and it turned to maryborough council they themselves said we have no idea how this went ahead or even why ? too late now , i said i know how hands under the table thats how unfortunately it does happen .so we sold our block ofland that we planned to retire on in january was very sad as it was a real pretty block but not anymore with a huge breeding kennel just down a couple of blocks, when we owned it the people that were building the kennels were renting a house right across the road from our block so six snarling dribbling vicious looking dogs used to come to the fenceline everytime we visited our block it was awful.
hence i am always on the lookout now for cheap blocks of land, we purchased that block for 52,000 3 years ago and sold it for 85,000 so we made a profit, dear old tax man wants some of that now too.
