Our first post

Johnny and I have been researching fulltime rv living.  We started talking about it after our annual trip to Daytona Beach Florida for the July NASCAR race.  We love Austin and our house, but we also love traveling!

Step one was to look at the financials.  While we won't be able to retire in the immediate future and just travel, we did learn some interesting things when we put pencil to paper -- or more accurately, figures in Excel!

Because Johnny works part of the year on the road doing powerplant outages, we already carry all the expenses of fulltime rving.  We ALSO have all the expenses of the sticks and bricks house.  While we could cut the rv expenses a little, they are still significant. 

Next we looked at the house.  Since I'm a Realtor, it was easy to check our options there.  If we sell the house we could probably net around $150K.  If we lease it it will cover the mortgage and other monthly expenses.  And when the mortgage is paid off would give us a nice monthly income, making retirement more feasible.  Selling and investing the $150K could never generate the same level of monthly income. 

So after lots of discussion, we made the call to hit the road fulltime.  Besides doing what we want to do, it also makes financial sense.  We're excited and overwhelmed and a little scared...

We still have lots of things to do and decisions to make, but we're working through them one at a time. 

Oh, one of the other things we learned in our research process is that lots of fulltimers have blogs.  It helps family and friends keep up with them.  They're also part of the way fulltimers create such a great sense of community -- even though we're on the road in different parts of the country.

Be patient with me while I figure out the blogging process and deal with periodic bouts of panic as we transition to a new way of life!