Financial Columnists Suggest RVing Alternative

The financial column, Motley Fool, recently ran a piece entitled "The Cost of Working." In it, authors Billy and Akaisha Kaderli questioned the wisdom of working longer to build up the 401K retirement plan. After examining just how much more it costs to work, rather than to retire, the Kaderlis provided some suggestions on how to cut back on costs. One of them? Consider leaving the conventional stix and brix house behind.

"And why not try someplace new? There are many ways to downsize your housing expenses. You could rent or purchase a condo, with amenities that management takes care of," write the minding-your-money folks, "You could move to a sailing vessel or houseboat, or maybe an RV. We know many RV and boat "full-timers" who long ago gave up the conventional house. It's not because they cannot afford one -- they simply prefer the unhampered lifestyle."

The article also provides other insights on how to reduce the cost of working--and helps you get closer to retirement (and that fulltime RV lifestyle). Check it out here.

Photo: AndWat on flickr.com

Backpacker "Doesn't Get It"

"If you drive a motor home, you’re insulated from the rain. Your hips will never lay down to rest on a rock that’s sharp enough to poke through your sleeping pad. You won’t wake up covered in condensation, you won’t drool on the down jacket that doubles as a pillow, and you won’t have to pump your stove 45 times."

Ah, the idylic life of the backpacker. These are the comments of Evelyn Spence, an editor with Backpacker Magazine. She and a friend took a road trip through the west and were amazed at the curious names RV manufacturers choose to adorn their rigs with.

Writes Spence,"As we bee-lined across the Bonneville Salt Flats the next morning, we had numerous wildlife sightings. Dolphin. Coyote. Mallard. The Eagle. Road Bear. We had cute, nonsensical re-spellings that would make Lynne Truss want to kill herself. Carri-Lite. Komfort. Magestic. We even had mythical heroes (Midas). Heroic descriptors, or slightly exploitative First Nations references (Brave, Chieftain). Classic rock stars (Santana). Possible cartoon superheroes (The Road Ranger). Some of the names I just didn’t get. Layton. (Was that someone’s dad?) Prowler (um, creepy). Concourse. (Aren’t you driving an RV to get away from airports?)"

After mentioning how tough the life of an RVer must be, after all, we'll never hear the howl of the coyotes, nor be able to drink in the fresh scents of the wilderness, readers are presented with an opportunity to make their own comments. Not surprisingly, one of the first ones came from a Washington state woman, Elaine W. Perhaps echoing the comments of many of us 'old duffers,' Elaine writes (in part), "After 24 years growing herbs for the wholesale business, bending, weeding, planting, and constantly working so hard that most people, including you, probably can't even imagine, I want to SEE this great country of ours and sleep in my own bed at night. We are taking the plunge to 'fulltimers"... So...get over yourself! And add this to your list... "Yipee-ti-yi-yae!"

For the full story, and your own opportunity to comment, visit the High Country News.

Fulltime First Day on the Road

Many fulltimers were inveterate RVers long before they jumped into the lifestyle fulltime. However, we're finding a lot of young people these days who are selling off their homes, or getting out of rented homes and apartments and moving directly into an RV. Older ones too, on reaching retirement are ready to hit the road, and sometimes do so without prior RV experience.

If you can, "practice" the fulltime lifestyle by moving into your RV in the driveway or an RV park near your old home first. It'll give you an opportunity to learn how to get around in your rig, and establish what new ways of doing things you'll need to cover. If you have to move into your rig directly, make sure your "first day on the road," is a SHORT one--no more than just a few hours. Leave yourself plenty of daylight to get some of the immediate bugs worked out. Not only that, you'll feel a lot less pressured and you can enter the ranks of the fulltimers without unnecessary stress.

Reflections on Too Much Highway, Way Too Fast

My friend Dick Budrow would have taken a look at us, and with a quick sniff rolled out the pronouncement: "You look like a couple of vagabonds, and smell like unwashed camels."

It's no way to live--running down the road with deadlines ahead and too much pavement to cover in the time allowed. I don't know about other fulltimers, but five hours in the saddle is just way too much time behind the wheel. But to try and meet appointment deadlines in the Northwest, that's about what it's taking to make the deadline.

Drive. And drive. And drive. Make the occasional fuel stop and grumble about the high prices. Find a suitable place to drop anchor. Make a quick meal. Try and unwind. Then fall into the sheets with road weariness. I know the Israelites wandered 40 years in the wilderness; still I think Moses had them sit tight for more than just a night before moving on to the next stop.

This day to day grind causes you to miss too much. Driving so fast with the "next stop" in your sights doesn't allow enough time to smell roses, or anything else--other than yourself and the exhaust pipe of the guy ahead of you. Of the two, I'm not sure which is worse. I know I'll be kicking myself for a while over the one that happened yesterday: Driving across an empty stretch of Nevada I came upon a "deer crossing" warning sign. Sure enough, some frustrated hunter had used the sign for target practice--but he didn't just put the obligatory single shot through the deer's heart area: He roundly and precisely put shots all around the silhouette of the critter. Would have been a great addition to my "sign" photo collection. But I didn't have time to stop and shoot the sign myself.

On the return trip, I promise myself, things will be different.