Hello,
I have been researching everything I need to go full time. In 5 years I can have about 50k to get a minivan (I’d like a toyota hybrid, but might not be able to afford it simply for the climate control), savings, and off to a start. I make 1200 a month on disability but am currently taking care of my elderly parents as they refuse to go to a home, and this is time I can never get back, so I’m taking it.
Just wanted to say hi. You have great people here, and I follow a few on YouTube.
Welcome and good on you for starting your planning so far in advance. Our planning was a little bit shorter but nonetheless thoroughly planned out to the smallest detail. Money saved, what type of vehicle we were going to purchase, exactly how we were going to actually do this, financial boundaries, emergency funds set aside, etc...
I 53 right now and my wife is 48. Like you, my parents are in moderately poor health. I was able to retire a a Professional FF at the age of 47 with a full pension with a 3% COLA that compounds each year for as long as I live. I have not touched my investments since I left the job. My wife works for the largest Scientific Research Hospital in the state. While on a 2+ week vacation out West we kept on seeing these 4WD Sprinter vans with Flarespace sides in the back etc... At the time I had never seen a vehicle like this. They are not popular in the state that I live in. In fact... I think we might be one of the only ones in this state that actually own a van like this. They are much more popular in the Western states. Not here. I finally got a good look at one parked in a parking lot in Utah and quickly realized that people were living in these.
So over a bit of time my wife and I started doing heavy research on any information we could find. Our plan has always been to move to Colorado once my daughter graduates next year. She will be attending the University of Colorado Boulder. My wife and I were married right outside of Durango Co. 22 years ago. I've been traveling to Colorado since I was 9 years old. So Colorado has always felt like home to us since we make 2-3 trips out there each year.
This is where our conversion van comes into play. We did as much research as we could and found the perfect van for us. It is a fully loaded 2022 MB 4WD Sprinter that we have about $180,000 in with all of the options that we felt
we needed. I completely understand that we spent a lot of money of this. And truthfully, we could have spent much less. But... what this will allow us to do is live in the van full time until we either get tired of it or just can't do it anymore. It has every creature comfort you could ask for. But that was where our research came in and where our "must haves" came into play since we
will be spending a large amount of time in such a small space.
It is much easier if you are single. You have to have a complete "buy in" from the other person if you are involved in a relationship. Luckily my wife and I share the same passion for travel and adventure. Come next spring, we are selling our house (which we were going to do before the van purchase ever came into the picture). We were going to put down roots in Colorado Springs as that is a perfect staging point for everything we want to do in that state or the surrounding states. My wife will retire at 48 and we will hit the road after we get our daughter acclimated to college life. But... we came to realize that we will have to remain mobile due do my parents health. It seemed silly to pay for a place in Colorado only to have to come back to this state if something should happen to my parents (maybe for sometimes months at a time). Paying for a place in Colorado and not actually being able to stay there during the times we will have to come back just didn't make a lot of sense to us. So this was the next best option. Being able to camp where we want, when we want with no timeframe appeals to us.
I completely understand we are going to be living outside the lines of what a "normal" adult our age is expected to do. But I have lived in between the lines for long enough. And I want to enjoy what life I have left doing the things that I want to do, when I want to do them. Life is to short not to be lived.
There has been a stream of people here who are presently looking after their aged folks. I'm all for them as I've spent some time doing that myself.
