To find out more information, some of the items are a link to where the information comes from.
| Item ____________ |
Minimum/ Month ________ |
Marnie & Steve ____________ |
Maximum __________ |
Comments _____________________ |
| Campsites | $300 | $560 | $1,000 | Full hookups (not boondocking) |
| Dining | $0 | $250 | $3,000 | I figure you could eat PB&J for $10 a day or if I add up what it would cost us to go out every meal... |
| Electric/Water | $0 | $25 | $300 | This is the first time we have had to pay Elec. |
| Fuel (Vehicular) | $0 | $25 | $2,250 | If you don't go anywhere vs. filling up every day (diesel) |
| Gym Memberships | $0 | $128 | $200 | Just a guess at the maximum, email me if you have a better guess |
| Groceries | $0 | $450 | $3,000 | You could eat out every meal... |
| Health Care | $0 | $50 | $1,000 | We have ins. as DW is still employed. |
| Insurance (Vehicular/RV) | $0 | $311 | $700 | $0 Insurance is not recommended or condoned! |
| Internet Access | $0 | $20 | $80 | Click on the link to see how I came up with these numbers. We have Earthlink & Verizon and this is the monthly amount and does not include setup. | LPG (Propane) | $0 | $100 | $300 | When we spent winter in Flagstaff (7500ft) it was higher of course. |
| Mail Forwarding | $0 | $100 | $200 | Click on the link to see how I came up with these numbers. |
| Pets | $0 | $25 | $200 | We have a cat who had surgery last year. |
| RV Parts/Repair/Replace | $0 | $1,100 | $2,000 | Put this in some kind of investment for pruchasing a replacement rig or emergency repairs. Just a guess at the maximum, email me if you have a better guess |
| Sat/Cable TV | $0 | $76 | $154 | We have idled Dish Network and are using Comcast |
| Wireless Phone | $0 | $350 | $1,000 | We have family everywhere but where we live. We use Verizon and have two phones plus two air cards. Just a guess at the maximum. |
| Storage | $0 | $0 | $1,000 | We were out in May 2007! Plan on $1/sq. ft. |
| Total | $300 | $3,570 | $16,371 | Most of us fall somewhere in between these extremes, you have to have a budget! |
What I haven't included is our a-typical finances and personal vehicle payments. DW is still working so our case is different from many. I did include RV replacement in the list but I leaned on the light side assuming we would have a trade-in.
So this works out to be our joint financial needs and our goal to quit working. Meaning, when our passive income exceeds this amount we will no longer have to work!
We aren't rich by our standards. As a matter-of-fact, we have nothing really. This is by plan. If you have nothing then you don't need to worry about frivolous lawsuits that have become most peoples retirement strategy. It is a sad state of affairs and I think the only way to put an end to it is to fine both the attorney and their client if a case is deemed frivolous. But I am not adding this section to talk politics or ethics. I am adding this page because too few people are willing to share how big their nest egg is (rightly so) or how much income they have in retirement and etc.
I can share some of our details because we don't own anything worth taking. And that is part of the strategy.
Just today I read on the Forum the question about "Exit Strategy" and one answer was "when you sell your house, don't use it to buy the RV and put it in Savings." I shook my head because this goes against all I have learned. For one thing, most folks don't have the money to buy the RV flat out without the money from selling their home. Different people are in different situations but the answer was pretty short sighted. Secondly, savings is putting your faith in both the value of the dollar (decreasing every day) and interest (always too little). There was a time that the US Dollar was a safe currency but I think that time is gone forever.
The idea of a "nest egg" is too risky for us. How much do you need? How long will you live? What if you run out? Any sentence that ends with a question mark is speculation. You don't really know the answer but are taking an educated (hopefully) guess. Scary.
Our ongoing strategy is our own Financial Education. We have an "expert" Financial Advisor and like him very much. We go back a long ways and we trust him with some of our retirement accounts. But experts say things like "diversify" and "long term" based on mainstream financial education. Well, if you read some of the text books yourself, or better yet, some of the books written by successful people you know that neither of those strategies alone are a good idea. If you are trusting in a Financial Advisor for all of your investing ask them why they still work. Because they love their job? Maybe they are about to quit next week... So we read a lot, have financial awareness groups, attend seminars and here is the important bit, put the ideas into practice. Do it!
And make mistakes, learn, do some more, just like real life. Find what risk is too much and mitigate that risk with contingency plans.
So what do we do? We are collecting passive income. Passive income is cashflow from investments for which you do not have to work. You are simply rewarded for work you have already done (writing royalties, pensions, patent royalties, business royalties) or investment efforts into assets that pay in constant cashflow (dividends, rental properties, come on - you can think of them).
So we did not sell our home, we hired a property manager, rented it out and bought more real estate. All this under Limited Liability Corporations to protect ourselves from predators. We buy assets to pay for our liabilities, like the RV. Have we been successful? No. We make mistakes, but DW is still working so we can pay for our mistakes and move on with more knowledge. We wanted to have everything in place to earn enough income passively to pay for Steve's living expenses before he retired, (Steve is much older!), but, sadly our plans were disrupted by a spinal cord injury and disability. Steve needed to work another year or more but now it will take longer. We will eventually create enough passive income for Marnie, hopefully very quickly based on what we have learned.
What if we have to stop the Fulltime RV lifestyle due to health or other reasons? We have addressed this by owning Real Estate, as the cost of Real Estate goes up (which it will as long as people have babies) the value of our holdings will go up at a similar rate.
What if our expenses increase? We have paper assets, stocks, that will probably track the cost of living. Our income will go up with the cost of living (or more!) We don't want to eat out less and travel less as we get older, we want to improve our lifestyle!
People always recommend, "Pay yourself first." but most don't say how. We use Quicken to track our finances and one of the coolest features is not documented well. You can set up virtual cash accounts and automatically transfer amounts to these accounts to, "Pay yourself first." Set up an investment, savings and tithe account and then put 10% of your paychecks into each to ensure it happens! It has been a great tool for us. I further set up accounts for saving for a new car and even for paying my credit cards off. I am an affiliate for Quicken because I use it so much. I have also done consulting on Quickbooks and if you have more than a rudimentary business this is a good tool.
Recommended reading, here is our booklist, and it is ever-growing! I am not going to do a book review here, and the list is only the ones I have notes on so it is by no means complete. We got more out of some of the books than others but this will get you started on your way on your own financial education if you haven't already.
Wealth Without Risk by Charles Givens
Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
Beat the Street by Peter Lynch
The Warren Buffett Way by Robert G. Hagstrom, Jr.
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip Fisher
Mortgage Magic by Dolf De Roos
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham
Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom? By David Leveah
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Lawrence A Cunningham
Rich Dad Prophecy by Robert T. Kiyosaki
For more investing info click here.
I use, have used or would recomend the following affiliations:
FulltimeRV Site Map:
Home (www.FulltimeRV.us)
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Weblog ("blog") [I looked it up]
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Other People's Weblogs
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Why are your dates backwards?
CB & HAM
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Jeep(s)
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Recent Adventures (Travel)
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Trucks We've Owned
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RVs We've Owned
Business Opportunities
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Financials (How much does it take?)
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RV Gadgets
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Holding Tanks Article
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Internet Access
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Mail Forwarding
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What to Keep? Article
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Winter Camping Article