Traveling full-time in an RV is something I hoped to do when I retired. After all, I thought that retirees were the only ones that were RVing full-time. Then Melissa showed me there is a whole community of all ages out there RVing full-time. It made me curious could we RV full-time now and not wait until we retired.
3 Events 5 Years
After all, life goes by quickly, and I knew this all too well. My mother passed away in 2009 after being diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer before she was to retire. Seeing my In-Laws, who worked good paying jobs, finally, get to retirement only to have large sums of their retirement evaporate during the 2008 financial crisis. In 2012, Melissa’ diagnoses of Gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) meant that she could no longer work full-time.
The Presure Builds
Then the stress of my job was finally catching up to me. Gaining well over 60 lbs by 2016, being Having to monitor my blood pressure for several weeks to see if I would need medication to get it under control, was a real wake up call. Something was going to need to change, but what? Melissa and I started hiking, along with making significant changes to my diet. By the end of 2017, I had lost over 40 lbs. Though the stresses of work showed no signs of improving; they were only getting worse. Something needed to give.
Asking Questions
I started to contemplate what I was doing and finally asking myself some serious question. Was the compensation that I received worth what we were conceding? What was the point if by the time I retire, the only thing I have is a fat bank account, that I only get to use to pay medical bills? Would Melissa and myself ever get the opportunity to travel the country?
Looking for the Solution
We started thinking of a way to improve our situation by researching the different options we discovered that would allow us to take control of our time. Looking first into homesteading we both enjoyed the property we owned in Spokane why not do it again. This time without the 3000 sqft home.
Maybe we could do something more modest like a small cabin or a tiny house. We did the number crunching and research, we came to the conclusion that nither would not be a viable option, at least not for the area that we wanted to be in.
A Solution
The idea Melissa had about RVing full-time was still very appealing. We would get to travel, there would be lots of opportunities to hike, and we would have more time together. So we scrapped the plans of the truck bed camper that we were toying with and started reaching something bigger. Within a few short months, we sold 90% of our belongings and were living full time in a 5th-wheel.
