Once we convinced ourselves that we really could do this – just drop everything and take off in an RV – my head started to swim with all that was involved in “just dropping everything.” I started to compile a list.
The thing that is the greatest showstopper risk is the house. We absolutely need to rent it, furnished, for at least a year. And the rent needs to cover the cost of carrying the mortgage. That means at least $2,700 per month. While that is not an unreasonable amount for a 4-bedroom house on a nice, fenced-in property in a fine neighborhood near schools and transportation (this is the salesman in me talking), it needs to be ready to rent. To that end, the first items on the ToDo list were painting and minor repair items, too long neglected:
- Paint all 9 rooms, 2 staircases and 2 hallways.
- Finish the hardwood flooring in the second floor hallway (a project started and nearly completed two years ago, but stymied by my inability to figure out how to put hardwood under the radiator).
- Install hardwood in the second floor office (I have a lot of left over flooring, so why not?).
- Fix the window between the living room and the porch (the latch was smashed during a break-in two years ago).
- Repair the deck (it has some soft spots where the wood should be replaced).
- Contract for new carpeting in three bedrooms and the staircase to the third floor (the existing carpeting is a mess).
- Clean out the basement (needs to be done anyway and whatever we want to keep will go into storage).
- Clean out the attic (ditto, except that we might just lock it and use it for personal storage).
I laid out these tasks month-by-month and set about to paint the third floor bedroom. So how am I doing? Well, the third floor got done, as did the staircase. I also finished the hardwood floor in the hallway (that radiator didn’t need no stinkin’ flooring under it anyway). But it has been slow going otherwise. I am about to start painting the second floor hallway. Really! I promise! I had that scheduled for August. Two months behind. Not good.
What other tasks? There was just one other house-related task: get rid of the old entertainment center. It worked great before the introduction of flat-screen 16:9 televisions, but our current 47-inch HDTV just doesn’t fit. Might be nice for an aquarium.
Other tasks, all of which need to be done in 2012:
- Get a 5th wheel RV (have an option to purchase).
- Figure out how to withdraw from my IRA. Pay off credit card balances and have enough on hand for the RV down payment, taxes and insurance.
- Arrange for RV financing. I plan to finance it for a year, then probably pay it off in 2013 when my tax rate will be as low as it will go.
- Arrange for RV insurance.
- Reserve a spot in a campground in NH for the summer 2012 season (we have reserved one).
- Get rid of our Comcast email accounts (we will be using ourwanderyears.com henceforth). This involves notifying everyone who has that email. Not a simple chore.
- Convert all ongoing creditors to paperless billing. All of our banking and bill paying will have to be done electronically.
- Arrange for mail forwarding. There shouldn’t be much that we care about, but there will be some.
- Trade in our vehicles and get a big, powerful, 1-ton diesel pickup with crew cab.
- Register and insure the truck.
- Get a hitch installed in the truck.
- Get a rack mounted for bicycle or scooter (we want a second form of transportation for short trips by one).
- Get a bicycle or scooter.
- Notify friends of our plans and new contact into.
- Arrange for caretakers of our two properties in MA.
- Terminate utilities.
- Rent a storage unit and move everything we want to keep but don’t want to take with us to that unit.
- Dispose of all unwanted items – sell, give away or trash.
- Find a home for Laila, my son’s dog, if she is still with us (we really can’t take more than 2 dogs!).
- Get a safe for the RV.
- Move all items from the safe deposit box to the safe and close the box account.
Finally, the two most important items:
- Rent the house for at least a year.
- Find affordable health care.
On the health care topic, my brother actually had some useful advice. He pointed out that (1) Medicare starts at 65 and (2) the COBRA insurance option can cover us for 18 months. Given that I probably won’t quit my job until I am 63.5 years old, the combination of the two works out nicely for me. Jett, who is a year and a half younger, is left in the lurch. But it is a fairly small lurch and we have 18 months to figure it out. So we need to find out how much the COBRA coverage will cost. It won’t be cheap, but I think we can manage it for those 18 months.
So that really leaves renting the house as the single major threat to the feasibility of this plan. I may place an ad soon to gauge interest. I am guardedly optimistic because the stock of furnished houses is pretty slim and ours is very nice. We are also fortunate in that there are hundreds of colleges in the area. Not that I want my house turned into a fraternity.
Then again, if Bluto and the boys from Delta Tau Chi can afford the rent… why not? I will be far away.