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Our plan is to downsize (again) and take advantage of not having the responsibility of a "sticks and bricks" house, while we are still young. ; ) We want to follow the sun, (avoiding cold weather), and explore the USA, Canada and maybe even Mexico in our RV. Mr. Phil works primarily from home, so he can work anywhere he can get an internet connection. And, hopefully, he won't work forever!
It gets complicated preparing for not having a "sticks and bricks" house. You have to consider not only how you will get your mail, but also vote, renew drivers licenses, register automobiles, tag renewals, and insurance. Lots of people in the full time RV world take advantage of not having a permanent residence by choosing their state of domicile based on tax benefits. A few states do not not tax personal income: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, Washington, Wyoming, South Dakota and Texas. Tennessee has no income tax, but taxes interest and dividends. When I began contacting the various county and state departments regarding how this would work for us, I was told by my county clerk office, that if we sell our house and do not buy or rent another house that we would be considered homeless! That was a very odd response, and one that I had never considered. I told her that we would not be homeless, we would be taking our home with us! I explained that we would have a mail forwarding service that would provide us an address in the same zip code. I finally found someone with the state that told me how to go about handling our business while on the road. Whew!
So, keeping fingers crossed that the "For Sale" sign will soon change to "Sold". With the downturn in the economy, and with condominium owner want-to-be's treated like "trailer trash" by banks - it could be awhile. In the meantime, I will keep taking "stuff" to the Community Kitchen and Habitat for Humanity. It is amazing just how good that feels! We have gone from 3700 square feet 2 years ago, to 2150 square feet today, and if we realize our dream, we will live in about 400 square feet for a few years. I love it! That is a small footprint!
8 comments:
Hi, I am putting my house up for sale this year, also.
What type of RV do you have?
Hi Teri....we have a Winnebago View motorhome - 23ft. It will be too small for fulltiming for Me, My Cute Man, Cat and Dog...so we are thinkin' about going to a 5'er. The View gets great mileage, which is nice, but we sort of bump into/step on each other. I am a little worried about driving a honker truck hauling a house, but I am sure it will be old hat after a few trips. What do you plan to travel/live in on the road?
400 square fee is A LO less o clean!! & will free up ur ime o do fun suff wih ur hone buns :)
I swear, I don' have a speech impedimen. More on wh I'm ping weird omorrow!
P.S. If ou pu a "follower" widge on ur blog, people will be able o have u in hier dashboard so he can keep up wih ur blog!
Oh, I am so into less space and less stuff. It is amazing how we have been programmed to consume.
I thought you must be texting while mountain biking or something.... hopefully it's just a crumb stuck between the 't' and the 'y'!
There are some pretty nice fivers on the road right now...4 slides, fireplaces...fancy one...Just make sure you have a big enough truck to pull one. We have a 30' fiver with 3 slides...I think we could full-time in that...if McGuyver would do it...
Hi Donna, I hear it was -5 up your way this morning??? Brrrr. Yep, there are some really nice ones out there. I have done a lot of research to hopefully make good choices, but it gets really confusing sometimes. I am a little concerned about driving a big truck pulling my big house. But, I am sure we will get the hang of it. Funny, fulltiming has always appealed to me... I think I get restless staying in one place for too long. My hubby sort of has a driving force - reduce expenses = retire earlier!
Hi Deborah, Doesnt it feel good to rid our lives of clutter? I emptied all the closets and cupboards in our 2000SF house, and rid our lives of it! It was such a free-ing feeling. We lived in a 28ft pull trailer for our first 6 months, then bought a 38ft 5er with 3 big slides. We love it!!
We rented out our house, but are considering selling... but either way, we certainly are not homeless!
We are on the slow path to ridding ourselves of all the "keeping up with the Jones's" clutter we have bought over the years. It's going to take a long time but we'll get there!
Congrats on the retirement and safe travels!
Erik
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