My husband and I recently bought a travel trailer. This is
not a small expense. It came after much research and thought, including
considerable mental flip-flopping on my part about spending money when I have a
very unpredictable income, our ready cash stash is dwindling (due to my
unpredictable income), and our current budget cannot afford this expense. Not
only that, we’ve never tried the RV life together. We just think we’ll like it.
A little backstory might be useful, if you’re wondering why we would make what
might appear on the surface to be such a reckless decision.
As baby boomers approaching the years when we will be freer
to choose how we spend our days, weeks, and months and enjoy pursuits that
full-time jobs typically preclude (like weeks on the road in an RV), we got the
notion that having an RV would be a great retirement adventure. So we started
dream shopping a few months ago, assuring the RV dealer that we were scoping
out a purchase that we’d make five or so years from now. At that time we expect
my husband will be able to retire completely, or will take on some consulting
work that will give him work flexibility. As for me, I am a freelance writer
and can work anywhere, anytime, so my work life fits well with the freedom of
RVing. I expect I will continue to “write for money” for as long as I enjoy it.
I should also mention I have no experience RVing, but I have
“camped” on a power boat and loved it. Plus, I’d been feeling like I’ve been missing out on my nature fix over the past several years. My husband is a seasoned travel
trailer camper, but hasn’t done it in more than a decade. However, we both love
to travel and thought the idea of towing a home around behind us sounded like a
good one. We can bring our dog along and don’t have to waste time or money researching
and booking accommodations well in advance whenever we want to take a vacation.
The idea was very appealing.
At the time we started scouting out RV setups for the
future, we were considering a major purchase -- a large fifth wheel and a heavy duty diesel
truck to go with it. However, the RV dealer suggested we might want to start
with something smaller and cheaper in the meantime -- essentially to try out
RVing without much investment and see how we like the RV life. A seed was planted.
It occurred to us that maybe we didn’t have to wait for retirement to start
having some RV fun.
We spent the next few months looking at new and used travel
trailers, assessing floor plans, evaluating weight and towing capacity, and
even checking out new trucks. At first glance, the cost of the truck was
prohibitive (more part of our five-year plan, not the “right now” plan), so the
next step was finding a trailer our existing older truck could pull. After
touring through a number of used trailers it was clear to us that new was the
way to go. Three days at an RV show and several hours of sitting in RVs at the
local dealer narrowed the search down to “the one” -- the perfect floor plan, a
very good quality four-season unit, and a trailer our existing truck could pull, at least on flat ground and for short distances. However, the trailer was
new and well beyond the “try it out” budget we had in mind. We came
face-to-face with the ultimate decision. Buy this trailer now and start
enjoying it or wait until we could afford it.
In evaluating this decision, it became very clear to me that
those of us in the second half of life must adopt a new way of thinking,
because we are living a new reality. The bulk of our life is behind us. The
quality of the years ahead is questionable. What if we get sick? What if we
lose our spouse? What if we hesitate to do something now that we have put off
in all those years of working, building our lives, raising children, saving money and growing up and suddenly, because of some “what if” circumstance,
we don’t realize our retirement dreams? I believe there is no time to squander
when facing the risk of a “what if.” For me, at this age there is one thing for
certain. There are fewer years ahead of me than behind me and I better make
the most of them.
At this juncture, a little more backstory might be useful.
This backstory is about money. Even though I’m still working, my income is
erratic and is less than half of what I made just a few years ago, when I
worked for a large, hi-tech company. I, probably like many other baby boomers
who are in this transitional time, am
having to adjust to the notion that there are all kinds of money: money
you make, money that’s making money for you, and money that you’ve made that
the government has set aside to help you in the golden years. It feels odd to
me to now be in the position to tap other resources that have been set aside
for the future (I’m talking about my IRA -- and Social Security in another
three years). My habitual thought patterns say my IRA funds are for down the
line. But I’ve come to realize they can also be for right now. This is a new
way of thinking for me, but an important concept to embrace. Of course, my
preference would be to generate enough income to make our trailer payments. But
if I can’t, my IRA will do that for us.
So we bought the brand new trailer, because I was able to
successfully ask and answer for myself what I consider to be the real question, “If not now, when?” That is a very important question for those of us who
are at this stage of life to ask ourselves. I think the answer is a no-brainer.
By the way, we bought the big, new truck too so we can
pull that trailer anywhere we want to and have as many adventures as we can
manage -- right now.
