It’s all about being happy…
Our life for the past ten years seems to be a quandary to some people. To others a dream lifestyle or “wish for” type of a thing. We took an early retirement but still work, living in a rv in campgrounds and rv resorts. Some people don’t see the whole picture. As we all have different goals in life, and lead our lives differently, and view happiness in different ways, there are many directions that people can go in. Most work until a normal retirement age of 65, collect their larger pension, live in their house of 30 plus years, and on average enjoy a sedimentary life, in their home, reaping the rewards of a lifetime of hard work. Some for just a few years, some perhaps another 10-15 years. Very conventional.
On home on wheels…
So lets take an age of 75 years old for the average lifespan. Normal retirement at 65 gives you ten good years to enjoy. Assuming a couple of things… one, you live that long… two, you are in moderately good health… and three, you can still both afford to enjoy the home you created over the past 30 years from a financial and health stand point. Many people go into assisted living or a condo and leave their cherished home. Pretty normal. Or, if you are lucky, you have children that appreciate you and all you have done for them and ask you to live with them.
My take on the normal conventional. I worked hard for 33 years, like most people… had the job, the house, the many cars and trucks over the years. I looked at the prospects for life beyond 50 years old. I was still in good health at 50… but how did I want to spend the rest of my life. I had already worked hard for all those years, and was faced with several possibilities. Some things got crossed off the list quickly… first I wasn’t independently wealthy, so that in it’s self created limitations. The rest of the possibilities and choices came easy.
Did I want to work another 15½ years to get to retirement in a demanding stressful job? How much time would I have to enjoy life after retirement from 65-75 years old, assuming I lived that long? How healthily would I be from 65-75 to physically enjoy life? Would I still be a slave to my home, both physically and financially and have little to travel on? What would the quality of my life be after retirement 65-75? I really didn’t like the answers or the evidence from what others were experiencing. 20% were dead by 65. Another 60% seemed to be physically used up by 65 and have health issues that would limit their enjoyment of retirement. Most people I knew were home bound, quietly living out the rest of their lives enjoying their home… with both health of finances limiting their options.
Now… my questions and choices. Was I going to more healthy from 50-65… or 65-80? Assuming that I could enjoy 15 years of life after retirement, it was oblivious that I could enjoy life more from 50-65 years old, rather then 65-80 years old. This was the “happiness factor”. Yes… I would be healthier and happier from 50-65 then from 65-80? Next, the finances. I would have more retirement dollars to live on had I worked until 65, but then the happiness and health factors could be, and probably would be, a major negative factor.
Happiness in new adventures and travel…
Retire at 50 with less money and be healthier and happier ( 50-65 years old) … or roll the dice with the averages against me, retire at 65 knowing that my health and happiness would have huge negative considerations. Plus there’s the fact that I’d have to work hard at the same stressful job, that wasn’t fun nor challenging, for another 15 years. The number one question… would I be healthier and happier, able to do more fun things from 50-65, or 65-80? Easy answer… 50-65! The trade off… enjoy the next 15 years (50-65) healthier and happier, able to do more, see more, travel more, and experience more… but maybe not have the buying power that I did while I was working. Could I have everything I need? yes! Everything I want? Most times. Sure, I’d like to have the extra income and financial base to be a world traveler… but I have all I need, and I am happy, and not physically and emotionally used up by having worked the past ten years (50-60), with still looking at another long 5 years to go (60-65).
What enabled me to do this? Full time rving. Yep, sell the house, basically a financial ball and chain, not to mention all the physical work to keep up the house… buy the rv of our dreams… and drive off into the sunset on a life filled with new adventures. Conventional? Nope, not by most standards. We’re all suppose to grow old and die in our home of 30 years.
Extended stays in vacation destinations…
So this was just on of life’s choices. For me, the decisions were not only easy, but living it for the last ten years has been one of the best decisions I ever made. Travel to meet have new adventures, meet new people, enjoy new things.
The trade off? … because everything comes with a price… working part of the year. Sometimes fulltime, sometimes part time, sometimes not at all. A real freedom of choice… what to do, when to do it, and where to do it. So, yes… we work after an early retirement. But not the like the 6 day a week stressful job I had for 30 years… and looking at doing the same thing for not only the past ten years, but another 5 years until I reached 65.
Working… now there’s another choice. Work is sometime a bit hard and time consuming, but mostly fun too. Something that it wasn’t in my old life. We have basically worked in two jobs since retirement. We were seasonal cast members at Disney World for 9 seasons, and doing activities in campgrounds and rv resorts. For the most part, fun jobs. We get paid to plan and have fun with the guests, which we only do for part of the year.
So what’s the freedom of work like. Not only do we have fun, but we can do it whenever we want, and take vacations whenever we want. Take off and spend entire summers with the grandkids. Take them to Disney for 10 weeks Disney vacations. Travel and work in different places, the mountains, the plains, the beaches… wherever we want. None of which would have been possible at the old career of 30 years. Be places for months that people dream about for a weeks vacation.
Everything Disney 2204-2011, usually 4-6 months every year…
It all comes down to freedom and happiness… and we have both. Someone said we should have planned retirement better, so we wouldn’t have to work. I said, I did… so I wouldn’t have to work the same old stress filled job from 50-65 years old, 6 days a week for another 15 years, in what would no doubt be the best years for the rest of our lives beyond 50 years old. Work yes… but with real freedom and happiness.
The house meant little to me beyond a financial ball and chain which took upwards of 2/3 of my spendable income for the mortgage, interest, taxes, utilities, and upkeep… not to mention time. It did provide us with the money to get the rv of our dreams when sold… but beyond that… there was no attachment to retiring in that house growing old.
Yep, life has many choices especially when you consider some outside the usual conventional life that society considers “normal”.
Life on the beach… toes in the sand…
Fulltime rving the past ten years has been wonderful. No regrets what so ever. Our home on wheels makes life great. Just check out the rest of the entries on my blog… where we have been, and the adventures we have had. When ever we tell people how we live our life, the first response is … “Wow, that’s a dream… I wish I could do that”! Yep… life is sweet… even if we have to sometimes still work for it. And, to top it all off… you can live in an Rv as cheaply as you want. For normal day to day living we have two resort memberships in Orlando. If we stay there 6 month a year it comes out to cost us around $40 a week to be in the vacation capital of the world. In other places, workamping about 9 hours each a week gives us our rv site and utilities. No property taxes, no personal property taxes, no state income taxes, no mortgage, no utility bills.
Our current home location… Yep, life is sweet!
Add to this, all the people and friends we have made in ten years of travel. Countless wonderful memories with our rving friends and rving family. Priceless! But that’s another story that would take much too long to cover in this entry. Ten years of new friends in new places. Covering a dozen states, dozens of rv parks, and locations from the mountains to the beaches and most places in between. Rv friends are the greatest. Sometimes you are together for months or years, sometimes just for a short while. You may see them every week, or every month, or simply as the seasons change… and sometimes even years later. One thing is constant… when you meet them again, it’s just like the months and years were a mere couple of days ago… and you pick up the relationship as if no time has elapsed at all. It’s not like household neighborhood when you maybe get to be friends with several different families and it never changes… rving is where most people are open and friendly, wave as you go by, even if you don’t know them. Everyone has a common bond that brings them together in a safe environment. The down side? The nature of rving is the travel and move on to different places. So you may not see them again for many months, perhaps years. For us, an additional downside… we started fulltime rving at 50 years old. Most of our rving friends were already retired at 65+ years old… and some have passed away, and some have given up rving and settled into a condo, assisted living, or moved in with children. The upside… they are still life long friends. And, the new places we go always results in new friends. So here’s to rving friends… friends for life! Miss y’all. Wouldn’t life be great if they could all be in the same place at the same time… all over again. Ya never know.
