Planning for the road

Maggie64 · Newbie

Planning for the road

TheHeaths · Guru

I will get in early Sandra, and say this. May not be much help, but is meant to set you off of the planning route.

Living comfortably is a most subjective and personal thing. If you are happy the way you live now and want to maintain that, then take what you spend now, deduct the house expenses, add the cost of travel (fuel, caravan parks, etc) and you have a figure. I can't say what the travel figure would be as that depends on how far you want to go, if you want to free camp mainly or caravan park every night, it is entirely up to you.

If you consider that you can live a bit more frugally than you do now, adjust those figures down somewhat. If you wish to live a bit more expansively, add some more to the figure you have.

Only you know how you want to live.

That said, I am certain those on the road now will come along with good advice, and I can say that we spend between $0.80 and $1.00 per kilometre that we travel on our trips. We maintain a home base however. As some do the travel happily on the pension, I would think the figure is likely to be somewhere between $500 and $1000 per week.

Tony Bev · Guru

Hello Maggie64

May I be one of the first to welcome you to the forum

That is a question which will be hard to answer, as we are all different, and we all seek different levels of luxury, which means that we all have different levels of expense
Below is a link to a website which will give a free copy of a spreadsheet to help you plan your travelling

http://www.expeditionaustralia.com.au/free-big-lap-budget-spreadsheet/

I believe that someone on this forum already has such a spreadsheet, if they spot this post, then I am sure they will put it up for you

I have talked to old age pensioners, out on the road, who travel full time on a normal OAP, so it can be done cheaply
But...
They do not put mileage under their belt, every single day, as they have to budget, and stretch their money

Hope that this info is helpful to you

woolman · Guru

It is really how long is a piece of string. If you spend time stopping to smell the roses then fuel and vehicle costs are no more than normal. We average 2 nights a fortnight in caravan parks. It is doable on a pension but totally up to you. It would be good to have a backup fund for emergencies but a lot don't. We travel around 10,000 klms per year in motorhome and same for car we A frame separate to motorhome. Good luck and enjoy. Neil

rockylizard · Guru

Tony Bev wrote:
Hello Maggie64

May I be one of the first to welcome you to the forum

SNIP~~~ Below is a link to a website which will give a free copy of a spreadsheet to help you plan your travelling

http://www.expeditionaustralia.com.au/free-big-lap-budget-spreadsheet/

I believe that someone on this forum already has such a spreadsheet, if they spot this post, then I am sure they will put it up for you
~~~SNIP
Hope that this info is helpful to you

Gday...

I have that spreadsheet .. and probably have posted it on a thread or two for assistance in budgeting.

However, it is just as easy to download it from that site - it is the same ... if not very similar.

Cheers - John

Dougwe · Chief one feather

Welcome to the gang Maggie64, enjoy here and out in the playground.

Mmmmm, I am fulltime in the playground and do things my way and that lady over there does it her way and that young bloke over there dies it his way, Oh! and that couple on the other side of the free camp do it their way so that all said and I do not give 'advice' as souch I will not do so here.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

moamajohn · Guru

Short and sweet ...comfortable is 52k per annum. Just go to a bank website and ask it appears the current go is @ 58k ish . Cheers.

madaboutled · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
Welcome to the gang Maggie64, enjoy here and out in the playground.

Mmmmm, I am fulltime in the playground and do things my way and that lady over there does it her way and that young bloke over there dies it his way, Oh! and that couple on the other side of the free camp do it their way so that all said and I do not give 'advice' as souch I will not do so here.

Keep Safe on the roads and out there.

Dougwe.... What's wrong with the young bloke ????

Dougwe · Chief one feather

biggrin Maybe he spent too much and didn't eat biggrin

Nah! Should be "does". Silly me.

madaboutled · Guru

Dougwe wrote:
Maybe he spent too much and didn't eat
Nah! Should be "does". Silly me.

Yeah I know.... couldn't resist!. biggrin biggrin biggrin

Hey Jim · Guru

Maggie64 wrote:
Hi all and thanks for such an informative forum.
My husband and I are planning on selling up and hitting the road ( I'm 52, he is 55 ). If we want to live comfortably, how much would you recommend for living expenses per year if we don't work while travelling. We can't access super yet but will have equity from the sale of our house.
Cheers in advance

Hi Sandra,

Can I ask a few questions first.

1. Do you own your home outright.2. If so why on earth do you want to sell it. Capital growth in your home will out strip most other forms of capital gain, in our ever changing demographic society. Lease it out for god sake,$$$ smile smile smile in your pocket, and let it grow with you!

Where would invest the proceeds of your home???? Bank =Negative return on savings going backwards from day one.

Term deposits 2-2.5% at best = negative going backwards.

Shares with full franking on dividends. smile A gross return of 6% Nett 4.7% wink Plus growth. smile

No further money going into your super A/C

If you do a turn around, where do you go? cry

3. If one of you become poorly (ill) where will you hold up. It happens confuse

4.Do you have other streams of income? Investments? Perhaps an Inheritance? hmm

At your ages take a break 3-6months if you have the money to cover this period.

If you sell up now, you will most likely, never recover unless you both have professional careers.

Become smarter and think long and hard. Seek sound advise. Its still a long road ahead.

You have come this far, the gate is not all that far away.

Regards Jim

Ge · Senior Member

Very sound advice from Jim. Please consider what Jim has written.
Good luck, BTW I get by on about $30,000.00 p/y but I'm an Orthodox tight arse..

-- Edited by Ge on Wednesday 7th of December 2016 10:33:55 PM

Desert Dweller · Guru

You may be ''popping your cork'' a little too early. Using the equity in your home as a bridge until you can access your super can end up being a mistake. We've met a few people on the road that wish that they'd never done it.

Your home isn't counted as an asset when applying for a part government pension to supplement your super further down the track.

You hopefully have a lot of years ahead of you to enjoy traveling around in the future. Patience is a virtue. It'll all still be there in 5 years time.

Bas + Eve · Senior Member

TheHeaths nailed it.