Our ten year anniversary of full timing is Nov 14th, and I thought it would be a good time to take a step back and really think about what we have learned. This lifestyle is great, but certainly not without challenges, and my perspective has definitely changed from ten years ago. I thought I would pass along my thoughts but as always your mileage will certainly vary.

The full timing lifestyle can look very different for different people – When we first started out we had a very specific idea of what the lifestyle would look like for us. This was largely based on some very influential blogs, and although I still find those lifestyles very aspirational, for us it has looked different over the years. The simplest criteria (living fulltime in an RV) we have done consistently but all other facets have varied. We have traveled frequently and stayed in one place for months on end, and even thought we were close to finding a permanent home. As we have traveled we have seen every type of full timing scenario you could imagine and it has reinforced the idea that there is no “one true way”.

Money really does matter – Our initial thought was if we were debt free we could find enough work along the way to support our lifestyle. This was absolutely proven to us, but it requires significant compromises in the way we travel. Becoming debt free and staying that way is still one of the best decisions we have ever made, but it requires that we live within our means, which vary depending on what type of work we are doing. Even those people who have retirement have a budget, and one thing that remains true is moving costs more than staying in place.

This lifestyle has an impact on relationships – I was pretty naïve about the impact our traveling would have on our family and personal relationships, thinking that the life would give us the opportunity to see our dispersed family more frequently. To some extent that was true but we also learned that people weren’t going to drop everything when we came to town. It was also much harder than I thought to bring people to us, since our living quarters aren’t great for guests and the expense of air travel and lodgings reduced the amount of times people came to visit us. The traveling also made it much harder to maintain relationships with people that stayed still. On the plus side we have made many wonderful friends who also travel that we wouldn’t have otherwise, but there definitely was an impact. Becoming grandparents has made for some really hard choices for all of us who travel and although we would probably have some of those anyways not having a stable place to host the holidays can sometimes be tough.

Not having a permanent “real” address is a pain in the ass – This country isn’t very friendly to people without a permanent address of some kind, and over the years we have had several issues with trying to navigate not having one. We actually have a great mail service which really helps, but we can’t always get mail or packages in places we stay. Voting, jury duty, and credit cards have all been issues throughout the years, and although we have always found solutions in the moment it has been more stressful than I would have liked. Many things I never thought of like insurance rates, available therapists, driver’s license renewals, and healthcare plans are tied to your address, and although I was vaguely aware of these factors I didn’t think it would be as big a deal as it has been. It is really frustrating that there is no way to just be “generic” but you really have to work within the system and figure it out. One last thing I will say here is that if you choose to use a relative’s address keep in mind when they move, you are moving also. Without your own little piece of dirt you are at the whim of others and government regulations.

Stuff matters less – One of the hardest parts of becoming full timers is letting go of a lot of your stuff. Like many others we maintained a storage unit for several years, but little by little we let things go. We also pick things up in our travels and let these things go much easier than I thought we would and overall the lesser importance of personal possessions has been freeing. I can clearly remember hyperventilating in our library at home when we were letting go of all of our books and although I have new books stuffed in every nook and cranny of our RV I am much better about picking things up and then donating them back than I ever was in a sticks and bricks house.

The “lack of permanence” feeling never goes away – It’s a weird transition going from a solid house to one on wheels, and although I do view this RV as my home, it’s more my home for the moment. Part of that is RV’s aren’t built to last for 30+ years, so even if we do this until we die it is likely we would need to replace our RV at some point. If we were parked on our own piece of land I think part of this feeling would go away, but always “renting” someone else’s space without even the basic protections of being a tenant leads to the feeling. The other issue for me at least is a loss of community. It is much harder than I thought it would be to jump into new communities and often around the time I start to feel settled we are moving on. This feeling bothers some people much more than others but in all fairness it is always there to some extent even when we stay in a place for an extended period of time. I always feel like I am just visiting.

Work kamping jobs are hard – A major part of our strategy was to work work kamping jobs to keep our costs down, and by and large those jobs were much more difficult than we thought they would be. The physical requirements could be very strenuous at times certainly compared to a desk job. Even with the RV site factored in the pay is pretty low especially if the job is your sole source of income rather than a supplement. That being said, some of those jobs have given us very unique experiences we wouldn’t have had any other way, but the lack of permanence in that seasonal work was always an issue for me. It’s hard to work your way into any kind of meaningful work when the employer knows you may not come back the following year, and for me at least I missed the mental stimulation and fulfillment a “permanent” job brings. I would love to say there is less stress with seasonal positions, but my experience is that people are people, and the politics are just as bad in a low paying position.

There is no perfect place – I really thought as we traveled we would find the “perfect place” for us and just stop and what I have discovered is truly there is no perfect place. Some places are too expensive, others are too remote, and none of them (we can afford) have year round perfect weather. The beautiful views (a main factor of mine) definitely cost more or require tradeoffs I have not been willing to. Plus I have to wonder after all these years of spectacular views if any one view could fit the bill. It is supremely cool going from deserts to mountains to oceans and it’s unlikely one view could provide everything. And since my family is spread across multiple states there is no central location that really makes sense for us. That being said going forward I want to get serious about finding at least one home base. The snowbird concept is very appealing to me and we are spending this winter really looking into what our winter options could be.

The lifestyle is sustainable – I would have bet a ton of money when we first started out we wouldn’t make it more than three years, yet here we are ten years later. I thought family, health issues, or simply not liking it would take us off the road, but so far that hasn’t been the case. To be clear we have other options and we could stop at any time, but the grass hasn’t been greener, at least not yet, and we are still getting more out of the lifestyle than any other we could imagine, so we keep going. That might be be the biggest surprise for me of all. One of the interesting things is this becomes your life and over time so many things that were difficult become the new norm. Human beings are amazingly flexible that way.

This country is a vast wonder – As a person who grew up in the Midwest, and had only traveled to major cities, I had no idea how amazing this country actually was. At this point we have been to most places (and every major city except Chicago) and I am surprised by how much I remember from those travels. My memory is a beautiful album of pictures and videos that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Looking at a picture or seeing a movie is NOT the same is standing in that space and smelling the smells and hearing the sounds.

It may sound after reading this that I am discouraging the lifestyle, but truly I am not. I am just sharing the things I didn’t know coming in, which maybe was for the best because it was a tough sell for me in the beginning. To be clear I wouldn’t do anything for ten years that I didn’t want to do, and Lee certainly wouldn’t either. This lifestyle on balance has worked for us in so many ways and continues to provide more than it requires.

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