Exit Strategy: Hanging up the Keys

Question: Do you have an exit strategy for going back to a permanent home when you get too old or ill to be on the road full time?

Answer: This is a great question. While we hope to be on the road for a long time, we do have some ideas for what we might do when we either have to, or choose to, come off the road.

One scenario is that we buy or rent a small home and possibly get a small RV for part-time travel. Since we have become accustomed to living in a small space, we figure a move into an affordable mobile home somewhere would actually seem spacious. We have seen many RV Parks in Florida and the Southwest that appear to be affordable places to live. Or perhaps a small apartment in a city or college community will be more appealing. It’s hard to say what our preferences will be at that stage of the game. But we definitely won’t be seeking a large home or anything requiring much maintenance.

Another variation on this is to get a fifth wheel and pretty much keep it in one place in an RV Park by buying into an annual site. As members of Thousand Trails and Escapees, we will certainly look at the options offered by those membership programs.

We have been paying for Long Term Care insurance as a safeguard for the future. So if we require major care, we will have coverage to see us through those years. On a related note, Escapees has a CARE center designed just for RVers who need to come off the road, and we may want to take advantage of that program.

That’s about the jist of our thinking so far. We continue to welcome new opportunities, so you never know where our paths may take us.

It is definitely something to think about when considering the fulltime lifestyle. In general, planning for old age really should be part of everyone’s retirement planning.