There’s no place like home! When you walk through its doors, you feel welcomed, safe, and comfortable. You’re surrounded by your favorite possessions and meaningful memories. But with retirement comes a new phase of life, one of freedom, excitement, and endless possibilities. Retirement is a great time to reexamine what you want to do with your time, which you have a lot more of. It’s a great time to try something new! Recently, more and more retirees have been uprooting themselves and adopting the adventurous lifestyle of RVing. That’s right, they’ve been selling their family homes and moving into much smaller digs on wheels. They’re still surrounded by their favorite things, just fewer of them (a lot fewer!). The allure of the open road has been too great for them to ignore. And after reading these 8 great reasons why you should retire into an RV too, we don’t think you’ll be able to ignore it either!
Escape the Boredom
We’re all creatures of habit. It’s just a fact. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept that the daily routine you’ve been in for years is what you’re destined to endure forever. After all, you’re retired and now have time to learn new skills, experience new things, and meet new people. Retiring into the RV lifestyle opens your eyes to all the adventures that await you outside of your comfortable bubble. While routine is easy and comforting, it also holds us back from seeing and doing exciting new things! When we step out of our comfort zones, we grow in so many ways and discover that we’re capable of so much more than we ever imagined!
Ditch the Freezing Temps
If you live in the northern half of the US, you no doubt have to deal with unpleasant winter weather that gets old pretty fast. From freezing rain and sleet in the southern states to snow storms that bury parts of the Midwest and New England for days, there aren’t a lot of places that are free of cold weather. But there are a few! From the deserts of California to the Gulf Coast of Florida, you can escape the winter doldrums and enjoy warm sunshine, outdoor activities, ocean breezes, and poolside drinks. A few destinations that top the list of snowbird destinations are Key West, FL, Phoenix, AZ, Brownsville, TX, and Las Vegas, NV.
See our Beautiful Country
It’s easy to become so comfortable in our own little world at home that we don’t venture out beyond our walls of security and experience the beauty that surrounds us every day. Well, if you sell your home and take to the open road in an RV, you have no choice but to see the amazing countryside, landmarks, cities, and historical sights that our country has to offer. Living in an RV almost forces you to adopt a vacation-esque way of life. You’re eternally on vacation … until you’re not. The beauty of RVing is that you can come and go as you please, staying at any one place for as long as you like. If you want to settle into a lovely campsite by the ocean for the winter, you can do that! Or if you want to keep checking places off on your Places-to-See checklist, you can keep moving at a fast pace and fill your memory books with photos and postcards.
Live a Simpler Life
Possessions can weigh you down, literally and figuratively! While it may be difficult initially to decide what can stay and what should go, you’ll feel lighter and freer once you start letting go of possessions that you don’t need anymore. When transitioning from a large home (or even a small home) to an RV, there is definitely some downsizing of stuff that you’ll have to do. You can always put things in storage, but try to only keep items you’ll actually use or things that have sentimental value. Once you go without your many possessions for a length of time, you’ll realize that you never really needed them in the first place. Sure, we all need and want some fun things, like a smoothie maker or a home brewing system, so keep what you want and use it while you RV! We’re pretty confident that you’ll come to like the simpler, less-cluttered RV life!
Be Social
Campgrounds are filled with friendly campers who welcome new guests and RVers freely. The RV lifestyle is by nature an easy-going, relaxed way of living, so it makes sense that most campers are more than happy to meet new people and make new friends. When you leave your home and familiar way of life behind for a new RVing way of life, it can be a little lonely at first. It helps to know that you’re not the only ones feeling this way. In a campground with full-time RVers, it starts to take on a community-like feeling all its own. You’ll find that seasoned full timers are happy to share tips and tricks for new full timers on anything from mail service and RV maintenance to grocery shopping and local attractions. It won’t be long before you’re feeling right at home in your new surroundings.
See Your Grandkids
If you’re like most retirees, you have kids and grandkids scattered all over the country. And if you’re like most retirees, you don’t get enough grandbaby time! Full-time RVing gives you the freedom and excuse (not that you need one!) to travel around the country and see them! Spend quality time with them and attend their sporting events, musical concerts, dance recitals, plays, and other special events that you might miss if you weren’t able to take to the open road so freely. And they’ll think it’s pretty cool when grandma and grandpa pull up to their house in their big RV. Make sure the bunks or sofas are ready for overnight guests, just in case your grandkids want to spend the night in the RV with you!
Save Money
One of the big draws to retiring and adopting the RV lifestyle is the affordability of it! Life in an RV has many financial benefits! When you either sell (or rent out) your house and take up residence in an RV, you free yourself of a lot of home-related expenses. These include yard maintenance, snow removal, trash service, a home security system, utilities (electricity, heating/cooling), mortgage, property taxes, home improvements/repairs, a homeowners’ association fee, and more. While RV living has its own share of expenses, such as the cost of the RV, campground fees, RV maintenance, and more, RV-related expenses pale in comparison to homeowner expenses.
No Yard Work
Yay, no yard work! Unless you have a green thumb and love tending to your precious dahlias and hydrangeas, you might love the “no yard work” attribute of the RV lifestyle! With no yard comes no yard maintenance, no gardening tools, no lawn mower, no lawn service fees, no annual planting and replanting of flowers, no monthly fertilizing, no critter issues (moles!), and more. Not only will you have a lot of newfound time on your hands that used to be devoted to maintaining your home’s beautiful yard, but you’ll have more money in your wallet since you don’t have a yard to take care of. If you miss the beauty of a yard and flowers, buy a small piece of “fake grass carpet,” or astro turf, for your RV’s patio and some flowers that you can plant in containers. Other than a watering can for the flowers and maybe a broom for your “grass”, you won’t need anything to maintain your RV’s “yard.”
Are you a full-time RVer? What tips and tricks do you have for anyone considering this big step? Let us know in the comments!
