In my mid-fifties and looking down the short (shorter) road to retirement. Having been diagnosed with ADHD, beginning a project is the most difficult part. It gets overwhelming and my brain tends to lock up in indecision; sort of like tripping a breaker. My intention is to create a sort of Step-by-Step guide so a person like myself can start on this journey. Like learning a musical instrument, you have to begin with the basics before you can improvise.
Avoiding the project and buying a cheap move in ready RV is the better choice for many people.
I’ve bought many older motorhomes and camper vans for under $2500, frequently under $1,000. Many are in excellent shape, and have very low miles on them. Some might need new tires, hoses, & belts due to age, and maybe new batteries too. Even needing all those things it usually comes out to under $2500-$3000. Cheaper than a cheap & beat car.
I like saving money immediately, rather than expecting to live cheaper later after spending a ton of time & money on something.
Depending on where you want to be, you can also take advantage of things like “Thousand Trails”. The country is divided into 5 regions I think, and it’s as low as $450 a year per region, for unlimited full hook up camping. I’m currently paying ~$1500 a year for the whole country. Most campgrounds have a 2-3 week limit, but we’ve been rotating between 2 of them all winter in S. Florida and it’s been nice. They’re only about 20 minutes apart, so it’s a very short move. We’ll be headed North before it gets to hot.
There are nearly unlimited options and opportunities available to everyone if we seek them out. Life is what we choose to make it, and the good life can even be obtained on a shoestring budget if we choose to. I choose to, not out of desperation, but more of a challenge. I prefer to eat well and thoroughly enjoy my adventures than spend a fortune on my housing choices. That doesn’t mean I’m not living in total comfort either, because comfort is also high on my priority list.
Will your job allow you to work remotely? If not, I would start by obtaining a stable remote job. We can live cheaply, but it isn’t free. I failed at retirement, just too boring, so I’m still working at 78 years old and very disabled. It hasn’t slowed me down though, I can still drive, and my mobility scooter can take me anywhere I want to go once I get there. I love my nomadic lifestyle.
Thank you so much for the reply. You’ve given me new things to think about (and inspiration). More things to think about? Brain overload! ADHD kicking in! blip.
Again - thank you.
Always glad to help when I can…
I grew up in poverty and couldn’t afford college. After high school, all my friends went off to college, while I jumped in my VW camper van and headed out looking for better job opportunities, determined to break my families tradition of poverty.
Walk in day labor turned out to be amazing. I could work every day, anywhere, and get paid the same day. I could even work double shifts if I needed extra money, and it worked perfectly along with my goal to explore the country. I was living so cheap, I was able to really save a ton of money in the process too.
I was able to pay off my parents & grand parents houses, buy them new cars, and raise everybody out of poverty. When I would find somewhere fantastic, I would fly everybody out to come and visit me.
When my friends got out off college, they couldn’t find jobs, so I funded a thrift store startup to give everybody jobs, in an abandoned Safeway store. Gave the owner a 10% cut instead of regular rent. It turned out to be a gold mine, allowing all of us to retire wealthy within a year, and just pay others to run it. 60 years later, it’s still a gold mine.
I went back to traveling & working, because I loved the lifestyle. New friends & opportunities everywhere. The library, making money, and starting new small businesses was my favorite hobby, because I found it fascinating. During the recession of the 80’s, I was able to help many people who had gotten laid off, start their own small businesses.
When the internet became a thing in the 90’s I jumped on that. So many new opportunities! Virtual storefronts & services, that I could run by myself, from anywhere. AMAZING! By then I was attending many nomad gatherings, and learning even more ways to make money.
Life’s had it ups & downs over the last 60+ years, had to start over from scratch multiple times, due to natural disasters, or thieves/criminals. Even with a ton of money in the bank, criminals can steal it, or when you get robbed and lose all your ID, you lose access to it. Luckily, there was always jobs whenever I needed them, until I could get back on my feet. Getting copies of your ID’s without any ID’s for proof, can be a real challenge. Today, I keep copies in a safety deposit box, and keep a “Club” on all my vehicles to prevent theft. ( And the theft of my home! )
[quote=“jcdekalb, post:1, topic:13715”]
I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD but I know I must have it, Eeasily distracted, difficulty following instructions or completing tasks, challenges with social interactions and when going to sleep. I vape cannabis and it helps a lot.
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Motorhomes and camper vans for under $2500, damn I wish I knew you. I searched for almost a year and paid $8 k for a 2013 ford van.
I just go on Craigslist, and tell it too sort by price, and add how far away to search. The best prices are usually at least 20 miles from a big city.
I’m in So Cal and nothing is cheap around here.
Here ya go, only $3450
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/rvs/d/south-gate-dodgevintage-1974-dodge/7831902910.html
Here’s another one for $3500
https://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/rvs/d/palmdale-1992-pinnacle-motorhome/7835947990.html
And that was just 2 minute search in a single area. They’re out there.
Thanks however I’ve seen a few like those and the ones I looked at would not make it back to my home, one I saw was in hesperia 80 miles away and it did look good in and out but was run down so bad I would have needed to replace the engian and trans. Cheap RVs need a lot of $$$ to get them road worthy.
I guess that’s the difference between us. I’d buy that Dodge, drive it until somebody offered me $10k for it, sell it and upgrade. I could live nicely on just what I’ve made doing exactly that, but I’m easily bored, and like money, so I’d still work everyday.
When I look at that, I see a comfortable home on wheels and a future profit, with very little time or money spent on it. I like saving money starting instantly, and those savings can fund many adventures, good food, and cheap & easy living.
If we don’t get stupid and start adding solar & expensive batteries etc. but live in them as they were intended, their value will only increase because we bought it at a bargain basement price. That rig has 200k-300k trouble free miles left in it with only normal maintenance.
You could replace the whole drivetrain, engine, transmission, rear end, steering, suspension, & brakes for under $2500 at a makerspace, and they’ll have all the tools, knowhow, and help needed.
You can not replace all that for 2500 bucks, just fyi you can not even replace a clutch for 2500 bucks in most places out West now.
I would really hate to see people who are not skilled mechanics to get suckered into ruinous financial decisions buying these old vehicles. This is happening all the time and vehicle just gets towed to a lot and junked. Also, its unsafe to drive these if boondocking in nature, being stuck miles from help and water can be unsafe, we have a woman missing for 1.5 years now after her vehicle got disabled in semi remote area of National Forest in Arizona and a woman dead after car trouble in local desert. These were cases of lack of driving skills leading to incapacitates vehicles but very old vehicle multiplies chances of trouble. Get a newer reiable vehicle in good shape unless you are a mechanic or have one in the family. Mechanics will bleed you dry these days.
Just get into it organically, start by doing camping trips in reliable vehicle, sleeping in a tent, inside a vehicle, you will soon see what your needs really are and won’t need online guides. Watch CheapRVLiving youtube channel, there are all kinds of setups showcased there, from minimalistic to entire RVs, but instead of mulling over online stuff ,which can often lead you in the wrong direction, just start camping and you will naturally see what you needs are.
A friend in California just replaced his entire engine, transmission, and differential in a 1975 Dodge based motorhome for $1200 from a wrecking yard and they did the work. $600 for the parts, and $600 for the swap. He got over 350k miles on the originals, and the replacements had under 50k miles on them. He paid $900 to purchase it, and put 150k trouble free miles on it. The upgrade was pro-active, not due to an actual failure. Total swap in under a day.
People have been brainwashed into believing newer is better, but those days are long gone, only the brainwashing has survived. Quality has been replaced by greed.
You have been falsely mislead into believing that older vehicles are less reliable. Older vehicles are more reliable because they have much less to go wrong with them. They’re cheaper and easier to repair, cheaper to license & insure, and better built to higher quality standards to begin with.
Wrecks used to be the major cause of cars in the junkyards, today it’s mainly engine, transmission, or electronics failures. Just the facts…
How old were those vehicles in question? The latest missing 3 person car & family in Arizona was driving a 2004 BMW. The odds are that anything in the last 30 years involved newer vehicles, not older ones. With the addition of computers, cars became much less reliable, which was the actual reason they went with them. Pre-computerized cars were too reliable and people were keeping them too long, hurting new car sales. While they claimed it was for polution efficiency, and better fuel economy, but the insiders spilled the beans with the truth.
Beginning in the 80’s, the car manufacturers wanted to increase their profits. To accomplish this they started paying their dealers less, and told them they could make up the difference in their repair shops, due to the new models needing more maintenance and repairs. I saw this memo with my own eyes at a Chevy dealership. The owner was a friend of mine, and he needed ideas on how to expand his shop space to handle future repairs. Repairs that didn’t actually start increasing for several years, and almost put him out of business.
All of the manufacturers made the same shift, and many dealerships were forced to close. Those new cars didn’t start needing major repairs until 30k-50k miles. With struggling dealers, the mfg’rs decided to double down and add electronics to the transmissions, to make them less reliable as well. Ever since, buyers have been plagued by check engine lights, failed sensors, and other failures caused by the purposely unneeded electronics. And they keep getting worse.
All of the euro vans, sprinter, transit, & ram, are junk compared to older models. Maintenance costs are sky high, and reliability is in the toilet. Exactly what the makers & dealers wanted. Today at 30k-80k they all start being money pits, by design. They want you buying new cars every couple of years. As the new vans and trucks are now sitting unsold, maybe this trend might be forced to reverse, but only time will tell.
If we don’t bring back quality, in everything, we’re in for a world of hurt. When American goods stood for quality, the manufacturers thrived, but now they’re all struggling because of greed. Hopefully they’ll see the light…
Then when they started pushing electric vehicles, that was an even bigger boondoggle, causing the manufacturers more losses. Now they’re being forced to do whatever it takes just to stay in business. Electric cars aren’t what the future needs, cheap renewable fuel sources are what’s needed. On demand hydrogen just before it enters the engine is probably the best solution, and if done properly, all existing gas and diesel engines could be retrofitted extreme cheaply. We could convert every car in America cheaper than what they spent on the pandemic, and then the converted cars would also produce no pollution.