 |
| Add caption |
The big question for many people who are considering
full-timing is - Can we afford to be
full-timers?
Pamela and I are full-timers. Besides our experience, I am a
compulsive number cruncher. I keep a
large spread sheet (A1-W367) where I enter everything about where we stayed,
how far we traveled, gas mileage, etc. I
just finished writing the equations to summarize, average and annualize all of
the figures for our 2018 budget. With a
bit of explanation, I hope this will help would-be full-timers and may even be
of interest to others.
The biggest mistake we see new full-timers make is getting
themselves into serious debt buying an expensive living unit - Class A or C RV or big trailer. We live in
a cozy twenty-foot trailer we call Nitsitapiisinni (Blackfeet for “our way of
life”) that has a queen-sized bed; a lovely dining and sitting area with a
giant window in the back; a kitchen complete with gas range & oven, double
sink and full fridge; and full bath with a bath tub. Sure, we only have 160
square feet but it is quite comfortable. The important thing is that we got a
good deal on a unit, which we like and serves our needs, for which we could pay
cash. Even if we had needed to finance,
our monthly payment would have been less than a week’s groceries and supplies. Point: don’t let a slick salesperson talk you
into more than you can afford. You don’t
need to have a unit big enough to hold everything you’ve accumulated for the
past forty years. What do you think you need? Now think about that again.
The second inhibitor,
which is not a mistake but a problem of expectation or priority, is what I am
calling “site cost” =df the cost of parking your unit for the night. We live off the grid most of the time. That’s
what we enjoy. We know that most people probably prefer to be near towns with
restaurants, shopping, etc. That’s just not us. We love being in the
wilderness. Nevertheless, between living off the grid and our five months at
Glacier, we only pay for a site 29% of the time. Some people want to stay in a KOA every
night. That isn’t going to work unless you have about $15,000 or more a year in
your budget just for that. Right now, we
are averaging $11.85/night for nights that we do pay. (If we divided our
site cost by 365 that would be down to $3.85/night.) The only reason that it is that high is that
we occasional splurge and stay somewhere that is neither free nor takes a
federal Senior (1/2 price) Pass. Since
our annualized site cost is only $1,266.55, we can afford to splurge when we
want. Some full-timers actually have a
better per day rate than we do even though they have a higher annual cost.
These people find campgrounds that charge around $300/month and will stay in
one place for months. Our actual cost is lower because we love to volunteer for
the National Park Service, so we have around five months a year where we have
no site cost. But please be advised, don’t volunteer just to get a free site.
Unless you love the work, it isn’t worth it. The work is very real and the
hours are long, but we love it. That’s a whole other story, so let’s move
on.
We have 320 watts of photovoltaic panels on our roof and
another 160 watts portable solar panels, so we can generate plenty of electricity.
We also have two 224 amp hour 6 volt batteries giving us 224 amp hours of 12
volt power. This not only removed generator expenses but mean that we don’t
have to look for a place to stay where we can get “pole power”. We use propane for heat, hot water,
refrigerator and cooking, but we only average $0.85/day. That’s good because we spend a lot of our time
in cooler climates where we frequently need heat. The bottom line here is that
you want to be as self-sufficient as you can and have good high-efficiency
equipment. We do own a generator but we
have only used it a few times in the past four plus years. The problem with
generators is that they do cost money, they require maintenance and they do
burn gasoline. I would also add that a generator is a pain in the gluteus
maximus. Running a generator may not
seem like much when you do it while on your family vacation, but try 365 days a
year. I love our photovoltaic system. The two 160 watt panels on the roof, the
top-of-the-line 30 amp control unit, and installation cost us only $1,800. The new solar technology is so amazing that
I’ve actually seen our system generate power from moonlight. Granted, it wasn’t
enough to run an LED bulb, but it was still generating. And even better . . . I don’t have to start it
or plug it in. I don’t have to do anything.
One of our biggest cost is towing our trailer. We have a 2013 Dodge Ram 1500 4x4 half-ton
heavy with a 5.7L Hemi gas engine, tow package and a beefed up rear end. The
truck is sufficiently powerful, efficient and paid for. The modifications on
the truck cost us less than $1,000.
Having experienced the benefits, I would have been willing to pay much,
much more. Amazingly the beefed up rear end makes hooking up the big Blue Ox so
much easier. (Again, a story for another day.)
Our truck and trailer together are about 42 feet long and weigh just shy
of 10,000 pounds (5 tons). With the ½ ton heavy and the top-of-the-line Blue Ox
hitch I can go just about anywhere safely. The thing is that this combo does
cost money to move. Our travel cost –
based upon $3/gallon – is around 36 cents a mile. I use $3/gallon as a base because, even though
we average closer to $2.50 or less, places like California and extremely remote
areas will be $3 or more. I would much rather base my budget on a higher
number. We cover lots of miles each year.
Our annualized gasoline cost is $5,258.66. Gas is our third largest budget item after
food/supplies and healthcare.
You must also plan on routine maintenance. Even though we get high quality tires and
they do last more than a year, I budget for buying a set of truck and trailer tires
each year. Put that with routine oil changes and an expectation of around
$1,000/yr repair work, we budget around $2,800 a year for maintenance. We went years without spending this much, but
the one year that we did, we were happy that we had it in our budget.
We cannot talk about full-timing or any retirement without
talking about health care. Pamela has a
little over two years before she’s eligible for Medicare. Montana ACA is really good so our monthly
budget, premiums and co-pays, for both of us is $500. Still, this is $6,000 a
year and our second biggest expense. Honestly, we’ve started visiting Mexico
where you can buy prescription medications at a fraction of the cost in the US.
The last time we came through US Customs from Mexico we stood in an enormously
long line of mostly US seniors. When the US Customs Officer asked what we brought
back, almost every person said “medications”. In the Mexican town across from Yuma, AZ they
have excellent dentists. Our friend, who
is terrified of a dentist’s office, won’t go anywhere else now. I wear contacts. Contacts aren’t cheaper but
you can get a pair of bifocals with transitional lens for around $100. These are quality products. Mexico has universal healthcare and, as
visitors, we are permitted to benefit from it, like some folks who go to Canada
for medicine.
Putting this all together in a budget, we expect around $20,348.72
a year in basic living expenses; i.e. site cost, propane, gas, food/supplies
and healthcare; and another $2,832.34 a year in maintenance. This comes to
$1,931/month. Of course, there are other expenses. Since anything we buy must fit into our
trailer or the truck, we don’t buy a lot of “stuff”, so we don’t have a lot of
incidental costs. Because our basics are
easily covered by our monthly income, we do occasionally treat ourselves to a
restaurant meal. Be careful. It is easy to run up a big monthly bill by eating
out, especially during those times when you’re on the road. We eat out as
seldom as possible. Pamela might make
sandwiches while I’m pumping gas. Even as little as we eat out our food/supplies
budget is around $150 a week. Some times that $150 is every two weeks, but we
have found that we’re wiser to figure on weekly. If you eat out even once a day, a $150 food
budget isn’t going to get you through a week.
Don’t even think that we actually live on $1,931 a month,
although some full-timers actually do live on less. There always seems to be
something else that we need or must pay.
My point is that by looking after the basics, which is not really
difficult and far from austerity, you should have sufficient funds if both of
you have Social Security or one person has Social Security and a small
pension. Pamela and I are two widows who
found each other several years ago. We have lived for four years without touching
any of the principal in our retirement. We have lived on Social Security and
two small pensions.
One last word – home state.
I guess that’s two. Your home
state can make a big difference in your annual expenses. I don’t worry about the taxes and fees
because Montana is good to seniors, there is no sales tax, ACA is excellent,
and you only pay for your trailer tag once, not annually. We have heard that this is also true of South
Dakota, Florida and Texas. We’re extremely
happy that Montana is so good to seniors because Montana really is our home. In
the average year we spend 5 months in Montana and 7 months roaming around ten
other states, not counting the time we take to go to the Midwest to visit our
children. Be sure to check out the
residency requirements for the state of your choice. Check out the tax
structure, cost of healthcare, sales and other incidental taxes, license plate
fees, etc. If you are not a true
resident, check on the requirements for becoming a bona fide resident. It could save you money.
Full-timing isn’t for everyone. You have to really love
being a nomad. It does offer the most
marvelous true independence one can imagine. This is true if you, like us,
prefer back roads and wilderness or interstates and RV parks. While we do spend
most of our time off the grid, we have a marvelous social life and a great many
friends scattered throughout western North America with whom we keep in regular
contact. We meet and interact with an amazing number of like-minded nomads who
become good friends. I think you would
be surprised at the number of evenings, even for those of us who frequent the
wilderness, that we have friends in for dinner or visit their units. We spend
many evenings with a bottle of wine, a glass or beer or tea, getting to know
new friends or sharing adventures with old friends. We can almost never tell
you the day or the date. Half the time we probably can’t tell you the month,
and we frequently have to stop and figure out the season of the year. At this
writing I can’t really tell you the local time zone. Tonight we are staying in a lovely campground
on the Colorado River at the southern end of the Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area. We’re only here because we saw a sign that said “Lee’s Ferry”
and decided to turn. We do that routinely and have discovered some marvelous
places. We might stay here just tonight.
We might be here next week. Because we have made ourselves totally
self-contained, the only thing which can make us leave our beloved wilderness
is the need to dump waste and take on fresh water.
If you think this life is for you, that’s great. I would
make two suggestions. Firstly, spend a
lot of time planning and crunching numbers.
It is most likely that you can afford to be a full-timer, but it is much
more enjoyable when you know you have things covered. Secondly, do a trial run before you
completely cut your ties to sticks-n-bricks.
Most people we know who start out on such a ‘trial run’ never go back,
but if something comes up, you’re not caught in a very difficult situation.
