Hi Steve,

We are waiting for two years until we head out into the playground. As we have little super (as Les has retired twice already), we are selling our home, we have 50% equity in the house, so we have enough money to pay off the mortgage debt and the caravan loan debt and still have money to invest. We are making our caravan our home, until we can't do it anymore, then we will either rent a unit in the town where our daughter is or live in the caravan on her property.

I know some people like to have a base to go back too, but our home was too big and the gardens and upkeep are too much. So either way we were always going to sell it. We particularly don't want to get tied down again with mortgage, rates, water, electricity, etc etc etc bills...we seem to spend more and more money on everything else besides us. We have no intention of doing that anymore. When we travel we will own everything, and pay as we go. We love this kind of freedom, and we can relax knowing we don't have anything else to maintain or pay for.

Roving-Dutchy wrote:

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If you are looking at claiming a Centrelink pension make an appointment to consult a Centrelink Financial Planner you will get excellent advice and they have no barrow to push, they strive to show you how Centrelink can best help you.
Centrelink also hold seminars in regions all over Australia to help retirees or near retirees to make plans for their future, they are interesting and you can find out when there will be one in your area by contacting your Centrelink office.
Cheers
David

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 Excellent advice.

Everyone is different, I have retired three times previously and again early this year.  This time I am serious and have had enough practice at getting it right. (for us)

Initially, we sold our large home and all its associated maintenance problems. We moved into a smaller home, which could hold our possessions, locked it up and "took off" for six years.

Came back and found that my hobbies where becoming a business, and so the story goes on.

Finally for us, we moved into a small two bedroom home with very limited upkeep. We travel a lot, when away the neighbours kindly look after the place, collect the mail and forward it on to us as we require.  This way, should anything go wrong, health, accident, mechanical, etc. we have abase to come bacck to. We don't have to concern ourselves with "getting the tennants out" or "have they looked after the place?"

A big thing to remember, is that should you rent your property, it becomes an investment property and will be subject to "capital gains tax" on selling.

 

Good luck with your ventures for the future.

 

Ken

 

 

Grams wrote:

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Hi Steve,

We are waiting for two years until we head out into the playground. As we have little super (as Les has retired twice already), we are selling our home, we have 50% equity in the house, so we have enough money to pay off the mortgage debt and the caravan loan debt and still have money to invest. We are making our caravan our home, until we can't do it anymore, then we will either rent a unit in the town where our daughter is or live in the caravan on her property.

I know some people like to have a base to go back too, but our home was too big and the gardens and upkeep are too much. So either way we were always going to sell it. We particularly don't want to get tied down again with mortgage, rates, water, electricity, etc etc etc bills...we seem to spend more and more money on everything else besides us. We have no intention of doing that anymore. When we travel we will own everything, and pay as we go. We love this kind of freedom, and we can relax knowing we don't have anything else to maintain or pay for.

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 This seems ideal to me no ties no stress I think we're heading down this same road.

 

Cheers Grams

Gerty Dancer wrote:

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There was a comprehensive thread on this subject only a few weeks back... I've tried the search button and havent found it ... help?

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 There is also a thread on another forum (CF I think) that is entitled, "How much is enough?"

it basically says that a sum of $1 million in super is required for an income to maintain any degree of living standard and a back up for getting back into a residence.

If you do your sums correctly, it is very close to the truth.

Ken

Caravaners forum, herbie... note only one n in caravaners.

Hi Steve

We are in a similar situation you can see some of my ramblings here http://thegreynomads.activeboard.com/t50985955/getting-organised-to-be-a-full-timer/

We are now looking at taking it slow for the next year or so and leave the house empty. If we love the life (more so if my wife does).

We are looking at buiding a shed on my sons property and then renting out the house for say 5 years then making a final desision.

There is a large cost in selling and buying (aprox 30-35k in our case)

You can rent your primary residance out for upto 6 years without any risk of capital gains tax.

This will give us time to decide what we want to do in the long term.

I am in my late 50's and am lucky enought not to have to sell etc.

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Hi Steve, just take your time, do not rush into it....we are on the road full time ,as we are still working ,but we also are very lucky to be able to only work for part of each year.So it gives us the best of both worlds,i guess and to be honest i do not know if i would like this life full time if we both were not working. We sold the house as it was just a pain in the b.. for us to keep maintaining.And there was no way i was going to rent it out.A few years back we brought a bit of land down around the coast, and put a shed on it, Just as a feel safe thingo , if our situation changed due to health or what ever.It takes a lot of money to set one up to be on the road ,so don't jump in head first or should that be feet first...When i say if i was not working i may not like this style of life on the road full time the reason is every thing is becoming so restricted what and where one is allowed to go /do /camp/ fuel/..and if they ever closed free camps well that would be the end of travelling full time for me. As we have to most times stay in c/ parks while we work,so they are the last place i want to park up in when on the move.But in saying all this the up side is the down to earth wonderful people you cross paths with on the journey.

Regards Herbie.