I do not mean to shed any darkness on anyone's choices, I am just wondering how things are going for those of you that have sold up your homes and now live on the road.
My husband and I have thought of doing this but you know the old fear creeps in. What will we do when the money is all gone or we no longer have a drivers licence and we will need to be off the road, and we then need somewhere to settle and live but will then no longer be able to repurchase a home. It just seems for me the home is our security for when we get old.
I am just wondering how you all do it and overcome those thoughts for the future, and maybe what are you plans for the future.
I would love to be convinced and do it so please try your hardest.
I sold everything that wouldn't fit in the van or vehicle and hit the road eight years ago.
I have had no regrets. However, the things you have raised do pass through my mind from time to time.
When they do, I remember these pieces of advice ...
As said by E. L. Doctorow - Life is like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.
Jeff Rich says - The one thing we know about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
Or Suzy Kassem - Life is no different than the weather. Not only is it unpredictable, but it shows us a new perspective of the world every day.
Some could say I am typified by this
However, I feel that many of the things that 'may' happen will happen anyway ... I will enjoy my life and then will face them when - and if - the occur.
Cheers - John
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2006 Discovery 3 TDV6 SE Auto - 2008 23ft Golden Eagle Hunter Some people feel the rain - the others just get wet - Bob Dylan
Thank you John,
I hear you in what you are saying, it is like keeping that beautiful china for when visitors come calling, but then years go by and they never come and you pass and you kids find it still unpacked in the box it came in, what a waist.
I know that I should not put our life on hold because of what may or may not happen.
If I could only come up with a plan if it all had to end.
I forgot to say, that I am the queen of worry worts.
We have recently retired and have been debating what to do ourselves. We have made the decision that to not have the security of any type of home is not for us. I know I would worry about the future too much. Our current home is considerably larger than we now need so are considering selling it and buying a smaller house or unit which we would rent out while we go on the road. We would then be able to move back to it if at any time in the future we needed to, while freeing up some capital we have in our large house. I also feel that I wouldn't have the same attachment issues that I would have in renting out a house we bought for that purpose as I would in renting out our family home.
We have also considered the same, selling our home and investing in a rental property. We did talk about renting our home, but we did that a few years ago now and it just got wrecked so we have decided not to do that again, it is difficult to hand over all your hard work only to have it destroyed. We did try to sell it last year but the market just did not want to pay what it was worth and after doing the math it would not have accomplished much it would have just swapped one for another. So if the market ever returns we may try again, that is if we have not just up and sold and gone on the road anyway.
The silly thing is that if we knew we only had 10 years left we would do it in a heart beat.
We plan to sell the home and buy a coupla rubust appartment / units to rent out for income while we stay on the road full time. We really don't want the stress of renting the family home, been there done that and a disaster, cost me over $40K... Might have to pick up work here or there but I don't mind, it'll be a good way to meet the locals. In the end we will have to sell the money machines and invest in something permanent I guess.
After being dealt a hard hand, as many here have and not coping well at all with that and other things I decided to travel after I lost my wife as my late wife and I were talking about doing. We lived in a village for over 55's for many moons so had pretty good security, there was a weekly fee we had to pay for being there but owned the 2 bedroom unit. That fee had to be paid every week if we were there or not. I bought a little Avan Camper and headed off on the start of "our" journey. After 3 years of being on the road for 8 out of 12 months each year and a letter while I was away in the 3rd year informing me the fees were going up yet again, I thought gee all that money each week and not even there most of the time.
Well, you can guess what I did next. Yep, sold the lot and what didn't sell the tip had the privilege of getting. I ended up selling the unit fully furnished so helped me and the buyer big time. I then upgraded the tow tug and den to what is in my signature.
Not once in the last 2 years have I ever looked back and yes I have thought of the "what if's" but they might or might not happen, my health might give up and finish me off without notice at anytime and then it might not.
Being a full time 'Grey Nomad' and proud to say so as I fill the criteria and tick all the boxes to be one. I have learnt heaps more than I ever did at school, I read more, something I wasn't good at as got bored very quickly, I have seen some great places with many more to see yet and the best thing of all is I have met many many members of this great forum and formed great friendships, most life long. Even though we are all out here doing 'our' thing I still speak with many of them by email or phone calls weekly. I have been doing a monthly 'Update' as I go and enjoy doing them and others have said they enjoy reading them so they continue to go to the printers each month. I heard that down the back!
I have said many many times to many people that have asked the same question as you. It is a personal choice and only you can decide. We can only pass on our experience so far.
Good luck with it all and keep safe on the roads.
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Live Life On Your Terms
DOUGChief One Feather (Losing feathers with age)
TUG.......2014 Holden LT Colorado Twin Cab Ute with Canopy
DEN....... 2014 "Chief" Arrow CV (with some changes)
As others have said, it's up to the individual, everyone's different. We would never sell our anchor, we live close to family & enjoy being involved with our 4 grand-kids aged between 2yrs & 10 yrs, 2 boys & 2 girls. We spend a total of 6 months away on trips of around 4 weeks spread throughout the year. We love going away & love getting home. While we're away bush camping our gas, electricity, water etc bills reduce dramatically which offsets fuel usage. Perfect for us.
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Cheers Keith
Our land abounds in Nature's gifts, of beauty rich & rare. We'll be out there enjoying it somewhere, camped by ourselves much of the time.
I am sorry for the lose of your wife, it must have been a really hard time for you.
It is a bit like standing on top of the 10 meter diving platform and get up the courage to jump, I have done it in my younger years and although it was scary (every time) it was exhilarating doing it. I just need to get up the courage and do it. My husband keeps dropping hints every now and then and in his job speaks to a lot of travelers that are doing it, and he comes home and tells me that he met this person or that person, bless his heart, but he knows how bad I worry. I want to, so bad, but....................................I just need to get rid of the but.
You may have something there. Hubby is planing on retiring from work some time this year I hope, he is already over retirement age. it is a bit like a fishing with him, in stead of just one more cast its, just one more month. I am not eligible for retirement yet, still quite a few years to go, but I do work part time so I may be able to have time off and we could start by going on long road trips after he does retire. We wanted to do it all in a nice caravan or ultimately a mobile home, at the moment we have a Johnno's Camper trailer, it is quite comfortable so we could just do it that way. It may just be enough for me to get the bug so bad that the fear becomes not so strong. Food for thought.
Selling up we would not be for us, as looking back over the past 10 years there have been multiple medical problems and that are not something I would have liked to cope with living in a van, but that is just our opinion everyone is different and have different needs and problems.
I have just been fitted with a pace maker and that came right out of the blue, now just starting on 3 months hormone treatment for prostate cancer, followed by 2 months radiation treatment.
But I'm sure I will come out the other side OK, as have already survived secondary melanoma from 10 years ago.
Then again if I was on my own I might do exactly what Dougwe is doing.
But at the moment enjoy caravanning for 6 to 8 weeks at a time and then returning back home.
Cheers
David
Sounds good, and you are correct,"everyone is different and have different needs and problems".
I have started drafting plans on how to get it done and how to go about it. this could take me months to get organised.
I remember our very first trip I organised, it was to Tasmania for a whole month, over 10 years ago now. It took me almost 4 months in the planing, I wanted to make sure we saw and experienced everything. My agenda almost went all according to plan, we missed on a few things. We were like gypsies, all we had was the Holden Ute with a canopy on it with a mattress in the back. We spent a whole month just driving around all over Tasmania seeing everything and when it started to get late in the afternoon we just pulled into a caravan park and spent the night there. We had the out look that we were there to see as much as we could and all we had to find was some where to sleep at night. We had a ball, the best memories I will always cherish. Just thinking about it makes me want to go again.
we decided after several near misses health wise we would sell up and 'hit the road' so sold our house, bought a unit, bought a container to store what we would need when/if we eventually moved into the unit, stored it with friends and headed off. Tenants in the unit gave us a small income, plus a bit of interest from savings plus we have found casual/part time work for 2 3 month stints each year. After 5 yrs we wanted our own base so took over the unit in Dec. , did a reno and plan on travelling for about 6-7 mths each year. During this time we upgraded the van and car and also really enjoyed our own place for the 4 mths we were there. We are happy travelling again and look forward to going 'home' for Xmas.
Unless I had a lot of money I would not like to not have something to come back to - we were worried we could get priced out of the market when /if the need for a home became necessary.
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Jenny and Barry
2009 Roma Elegance / 2013 Colorado. Permanent travellers 2011-2015 now just travel for 4-6 mths
A few years ago, a survey carried out by some Uni students interviewing people with a terminal illness and the question was asked "What is your biggest regret in your life, now that you know you are dying?"
Overwhelmingly, the answer was that they wished they had taken more risks. Not physical risks but the type of risks such as chucking your safe job for another or moving out of your comfort zone.
The results resonated with me as I was involved with a friend dying from a brain tumour at the time and he had no chance to fulfil his dreams. I have lived my life by that credo since and do not for one second regret anything I have done in the past 20 years.
In a bigger context, your life is short. Get out and live it.
It is the political masters that want you scared. Do not give in to them.
We sold our home 16 years ago. I suppose we are lucky that our motorhome is a large American one & if we have to park up because we can no longer drive or some such we would still be quite comfortable in it. Alice
This topic has been raised and discussed many times before on this forum. As you can see with the answers feeding back to you it has a lot to do with the individuals and couples personal situations when making the decision. In our own situation we planned well in advance and have made some life time decisions. The family home of some 22 yrs was sold, the furniture stored and a time frame was put in place for our "on the road" journey. We also understood very early in our journey that just traveling/caravaning full time would not work.
So we discovered house sitting and now spend 50% of our time traveling this country house sitting, meeting vey nice people and seeing the country on our terms. While we are currently in Queensland having done South East, we will head to Cairns early July.
In the mean time we are on a Scenic River Cruise just passed through Regensburg and heading to Linz in Austria.
This is part of our 5 year plans that will see us in 2019 (all being well) re enter the property market with a few acres, dog and a garden. As you will see people's situations and circumstances are all different and varied. The need to plan and look to the future is paramount and such a course of action will allay those fears you have.
As you all say, there is a lot to research and think about. This is why I asked the question. We both have lived full lives and there are only a couple of things that you could say the boat has sailed, but there are no serious regrets at this stage. I thank you all for your words of wisdom and I have taken them all on board. I am sure that we will end up doing our travels not in the too distance future weather it will be via car trips and car camping, or via the camper trailer, or maybe a caravan in the future, who knows but come hell or high water some how it will happen.
John and I sold up everything where we lived in SA in 2008 - got rid of 35 years of accumulated 'stuff' (like that special china set!) - had our 5th-wheeler built in Brisbane and took to the road. Our idea was - like Alice - that we could just park somewhere once we were no longer mobile, as our van is spacious and comfortable. We'd never realised just how little space one really needs to live!
After two years of nibbling at the little cash we had left, we decided to start house-sitting. We stick to rural and semi-rural areas, where we can park the rig near the house and hook up to power and water, and still live at home while caring for pets ond overseeing the stock. We've made lifetime friends of property-owners, from the mid-north coast of NSW and up into Queensland, to the west coast from Geraldton down to the lower south-west of WA. And we've seen lots of out-of-the-way places while doing so.
We're now in SA, on a property near Strathalbyn, still loving the lifestyle and with another booking yet in the Clare Valley. However, since his 80th birthday last month, John has a sudden yen to live in one spot, probably in SA, and we're looking out for a unit to rent. We'll need to sell the rig, too, which will be a wrench, but also a new beginning. John had a health scare in 2013, one which nearly carried him off and saw him helicoptered to Newcastle for emergency surgery to release pressure on his brain. He now suffers a lack of balance, which he finds exhausting, and, while he also still enjoys our lifestyle, he would be more comfortable in a more stable environment.
So we're now looking to a new chapter in our lives - but we're still in touch with all the wonderful friends we've made, and will certainly see some of them from time to time.
As already stated earlier, each one must make their own decision, but we still believe our choices were worth every minute!
Good luck to you both -
Andrea and John (who urged me to write this rather lengthy response!)
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Free-ranging, in a Southern Cross 5th wheeler, in between property-minding (to save money!).
Andrea its very sad that the lifestyle you love is coming to an end and hopefully John's health will soon improve. I one of those who needs the security of a house "just in case". This will limit the length of our trips but once we're really into the lifestyle, who knows, things may change.
Andrea its very sad that the lifestyle you love is coming to an end and hopefully John's health will soon improve. I one of those who needs the security of a house "just in case". This will limit the length of our trips but once we're really into the lifestyle, who knows, things may change.
Thanks, Bryan; and yes, you never know - things can always look different tomorrow... ;)
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Free-ranging, in a Southern Cross 5th wheeler, in between property-minding (to save money!).
) we are all different.
