Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Well there's a bit of difference in the economics between selling your home and using your RV as a sole residence (as i plan to do someday with that $400K RV), or just having an RV as a luxury vehicle (which is what I currently do).

In the second case, the economics really don't justify it.  But economic sense is not really the point of luxury vehicles.  Much like our boat, our RV enables us to experience things that we couldn't otherwise do.  All of the state parks, national parks, and various other places we've explored, would not be accessible without the RV.  Sure you can buy day passes to some of those places, but it's not at all the same experience as spending all day and all night there, for a week or more.

So you can't really think of it as an economic investment, but rather as purchasing experiences.  Same as any other vacation.

Also, I've rented RVs and when you factor in all costs, if I use my RV for four long weekends in a year, I come out ahead.  In reality I use it a lot more than that.

Definitely agree that if you're talking about selling your home and living in the RV basically full-time, it's a completely different calculation. I wasn't clear on that from your first post. 

I'm still not sure it's a great financial move because your RV will be losing value for as long as you do it (and I would think you'd get sick of it being your full-time residence after a year or two, but no more than 4-5 years), while that home will maintain or potentially gain value while you're on the road. 

I suppose the best alternative would be to keep your home, and rent it home out for a couple years while you're using the RV full-time. Especially if you've owned a home a while, it would likely be cash-flow positive relative to a mortgage (if a mortgage still exists) and then you'd have some place to come back to in a few years when RV life lost its luster. 

Even if the goal was to downsize after RV life (because the kids are gone), it might still make sense to keep the house as a rental property for a while, or if you can afford it, keep the house as a rental property even after downsizing. 

Yes we'll likely do that.  Just as we kept our prior home as a rental, when we purchased this one.

Regardless, though, the point is not the economics.  It's the experience.  If I were solely interested in economics, I wouldn't currently own a boat or an RV.  And our lives would be a lot less fun, consequently.

Yeah, I totally get that. I'm the same way when it comes to gifts. I don't want birthday gifts from people. I'd rather go out to dinner or drinks with them.

I'm not entirely sure I'm cut out for RV life, though, which is why to me the question is what kind of experience I really want. Driving across the country and having to set up and break camp every week seems like a lot of work. I'd rather save some of that $400K and spend it $10K at a time in places I can fly to ;-)  

Yeah, I totally get that. I'm the same way when it comes to gifts. I don't want birthday gifts from people. I'd rather go out to dinner or drinks with them.

I'm not entirely sure I'm cut out for RV life, though, which is why to me the question is what kind of experience I really want. Driving across the country and having to set up and break camp every week seems like a lot of work. I'd rather save some of that $400K and spend it $10K at a time in places I can fly to ;-) 

We basically do both.

But in reality, although we do well financially, we're not the kind of people that are going to spend $10K-$15K taking the entire family to Europe every year.  That's something we're likely to only do with our family ONCE (and it was supposed to be 2020, now 2022).

We do like to get everyone down to a beach resort in the Caribbean every couple of years, but that's only like $3K-$4K total.

What's a lot simpler and easier and therefore more likely to happen for us, is to get to a state park or the national seashore for 4-7 days at a time. And despite the trips we've taken with the kids to Mexico and Grand Cayman and Jamaica and other exotic-ish locations, the ones they talk the most about, are the camping trips.

don't want anything that large, don't want to tow a smaller vehicle

but, it's just me - no wife

I just need a good hot shower in the morning

simple dirt farmer

The Wife & I came real close to buying something like this last year.  Kind of regret not buying it.  Plenty big enough for the two of us.  The debate has been retire and become snow birds.  House here and house in New England area or House and an RV or just as house and do the normal travel thing. Since my wife won't let me retire yet, I am in a current paralysis by analysis on what is the best decision. 

yup, the RV would be a home on the road for a year or two between the current residence and the retirement residence in Texas.

sell one house, no taxes or upkeep (too lazy to have a rental place and put up with tenants), travel in the RV for a year or two (until I tire of it, maybe a month), then sell the RV and move into retirement house in Texas

if I'm vacationing, a Holiday Inn or AirBNB for an extended stay is preferable.

Clusterfest is back in Atlanta, and MARTA says, 'Take MARTA' | Urbanize Atlanta
Clusterfest is back in Atlanta, and MARTA says, 'Take MARTA' | Urbanize Atlanta

Dragon Con, Chick-fil-A Kickoff Games, Atlanta Jazz Festival, PGA Tour, food festivals—it's all happening Labor Day Weekend

After a hiatus in 2020, one of the country's most popular and largest free music festivals returns to Piedmont Park over Labor Day Weekend (Sunday and Monday).

The 43rd Atlanta Jazz Festival will showcase top jazz performers and acts—Mike Phillips, Archie Shepp, and Patti Austin among them—plus a free Jazz 101 master class for a maximum of 250 attendees per workshop.

Gonna be an interesting weekend around here.  I'll be in front of the TV Sat of course.

been to Florida four times

too wet and humid there, too many hurricanes, too many insects and reptiles

too many east coast retirees

Texas is way better

How about California then?  Not so wet and humid there, no hurricanes, no reptiles, insects aren't worse than most other places. Perfect weather. No east coast retirees either.

California is the place you oughtta be!