Dreamstreamr Odyssey's FAQ
rev Oct 9, 2009, answered top two questions
Recent questions from readers include these: Escapees
We'll answer these and others you bring up, if we can. I put these here for safekeeping so I wouldn't lose them. Answers (from our perspective, of course) soon.Click on any of the frequently asked questions below to go to the answer text.
Are State and Fed Parks the way to go? Once at the campground, how do you pick your spot? How did you come up with this idea of full-timing? Is a 25 foot trailer large enough to live in full-time? Is yours a new Airstream trailer? Do they still make Airstreams? Why did you ever think you could go full-timing in a travel trailer? When will you come back home? Have you made a list of the places you want to visit? Where will you stay? What did you do with all your household possessions? Did you really sell your house to go fulltiming? Aren't you too young to be quitting work? How long will you be full-timing? What are you doing about health insurance? How do you get your laundry done? How long have you been full-timing? Who is writing the website? How did you first become interested in Airstream? What do you miss most about your house? What's the biggest challenge you've found?
Are State and Fed Parks the way to go?
Once at the campground, how do you pick your spot?
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And not until 2009 did we figure out about "solar orientation" of our patio. Sometimes we get things figured out much faster than we did this one. We try, whenever we will have a warm and sunny exposure, to aim the trailer's patio to the east. The sun rises to our curb (patio) side and it's nice to watch morning sunrise from the patio. The midday sun is overhead and to our rear, and the low setting sun is on our street side. Our patio, on the curb side, is then full shade and pleasant in the heat of the afternoon.
It took us three months at one spot in south Florida to realize the benefit of the northerly orientation. We tried this at numerous spots throughout the year and have found we really like it. You might not always get the choice or you might find higher priority considerations. Sometimes the view is so much better the other direction, so we forgo patio-solar orientation. Lots of times we just take what is available and don't worry about it. But, if we have a choice . . .
What's the biggest challenge you've found, so far, in full-timing?
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What do you miss most about your house?
How did you first become interested in Airstream?
Who is writing the website?
How long have you been full-timing?
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How do you get your laundry done?
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What are you doing about health insurance?
From the Escapees web site, we found a link to www.ehealthinsurance.com. This was a great web site for getting quotes for health insurance and allowing us to compare the different plans. Some of the plans were High Deductible Health Plans (HDHP) which qualified for Health Savings Accounts (HSA). These plans were considerably less expensive (around $300-400/month) than the other plans we had been considering so we were interested in learning more. Deb began doing intensive research on HDHPs and HSAs to see what the benefits were, how the tax code worked, how to set up the HSA, etc. After much investigating, we liked what she found and decided to go with this option.
The plan we selected is with Golden Rule Insurance through United Healthcare. One of the reasons we selected this particular plan is all our doctors were on their list of preferred physicians and all our Charlotte hospitals were on their list of preferred hospitals. Also, reviewing their list of physicians it appeared they had preferred doctors available in all the lower 48 states.
In addition to selecting the insurance plan we had to select a HSA plan and determine the amount of money to contribute each month. Part of our analysis included a tabulation of our expected normal medical expenses that we would be paying for under the $10,000 deductible. We included our routine bi-annual physicals plus labs, Deb's annual Gyn visit, two office visits per year each, one urgent care visit, one ER visit, routine prescriptions, two dental cleanings each, bi-annual eye check-ups, new glasses every two years for each of us, etc. All of this averaged out to about $375 per month. Since we are both in good health and have no chronic health problems, we decided that anything beyond the routine or minor medical problems would be major medical so we felt that we could live with a $10,000 deductible. With this high deductible, the premium for both of us is $295 per month.
With a premium of $295, we decided to put $400 into the HSA each month since our original budget for health insurance was $700. Now the real benefit of the HSA is this is tax deductible so it is not really costing $400 but $400 less whatever our tax rate turns out to be. For 2007, if the combined federal and state rate comes to 28%, it will cost us $288 to contribute $400 each month.
Another big benefit of the HSA is you can select any financial institution for the account. There were several options offered as part of the United Healthcare plan and Deb also researched independent plans offered by various financial institutions. There was a lot of variety in the interests rates offered, fees charged, set up fees, and other fees for checks, etc. As it happened, the best deal was one of the ones being offered by the insurance company. It was through Exante Bank which offered 5% on the balance from the first dollar as opposed to a tiered structured that most of the banks offered, i.e., 2% on $0-5,000, 3% on $5,001-10,000, etc., to get up to 5%. Also, their set up fee was only $5. We have a "credit card" that we use to pay for covered medical expenses that draws down on the balance deposited in the HSA.
If you are familiar with typical HSAs offered by employers, you know at the end of the year you use the remaining balance or lose it. Not so with this HSA - the money rolls over to the next year and continues earning interest. What a deal! And it gets even better. If you stay healthy and don't use the extra office, ER, and urgent care visits then you will likely have a balance in your HSA at age 65. This balance will then rollover to an IRA. Now that's some incentive to stay healthy and only spend what we need for the preventive care. Of course we have the insurance coverage if we do need it for some castrophic illness.
We don't know for sure how this will work our for us but will keep you posted on our experiences. If we have to fine-tune the plan as we go, we'll post those changes also.
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How long will you be full-timing?
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Aren't you too young to be quitting work?
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Did you really sell your house to go fulltiming?
Several of our church members live in a neighborhood we liked so we put the word out to watch for houses on the market. A fellow Airstreamer who lived in the same neighborhood owned a duplex that he was selling to move to a retirement community. This appealed to us since there would be someone living in the other unit who could keep an eye on things when we were traveling. We made an offer but he had a previous offer so we decided this wasn't meant for us. We also considered condos so we wouldn't have to worry about the yard work while we were away and exterior maintenance but didn't like the idea that we would have to find off-site storage for the Airstream.
During this time we also began learning about full-timing and seriously considering this as a lifestyle for post-retirement. As we learned more about full- timing and became more interested in the prospects of living anywhere anytime, we began thinking about the issues of maintaining a permanent residence while on the road. We heard horror stories from others of water pipes bursting and coming home to several inches of water in the house. If we rented the house, we'd be sure to get calls at the most inconvenient times about the water heater blowing up or the furnace dying in the middle of the night. We gradually warmed to the idea of not having a permanent residence at all once we retired. We decided it would be most economical to stay where we were for the remainder of our working career and then have just one sale and not have to move.
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What did you do with all your household possessions?
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Where will you stay?
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Have you made a list of the places you want to visit?
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When will you come back home?
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Why did you ever think you could go full-timing in a travel trailer?
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Do they still make Airstreams?
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Is yours a new Airstream trailer?
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Is a 25 foot trailer large enough to live in full-time?
We think our trailer is amply large for full-timing. But this is Not True according to most people we meet. Everyone says we'll be trading up to a 34 foot before long. We believe we'll use the amount of space we have available. We were pleasantly surprised to find that when we loaded the trailer with all the things we needed for our first big trip, we had space left over. We are keeping a list of things we want to add when we return home and so far it's a very short list. We'll also go through what we packed and see what we didn't use that we can take out of the trailer and truck. We're very flexible -- we'll try this and see how it works out and let you know later. You can check on our Lifestyles page for some of this info.
In addition to the issue of having enough space for all your stuff, there's the issue of having enough space for the two of us. People ask how we can possibly get along full-time in 200 square feet of space. Of course, we don't stay in the trailer all the time. We are out sightseeing, touring, shopping, and hiking during the day and enjoy spending time outside during the evening if the weather is nice. We spend the most time together in our truck when we're driving between locations. It's fortunate that we really enjoy being together and so far the closeness has not been a problem for us.
Finally, a trailer's size does not necessarily equate to it's net carrying capacity, or the weight of your cargo. We weigh our trailer several times annually to ensure it is balanced (at least ten percent of trailer's weight is at the hitch)and to ensure we are within our gross vehicle weight rating, or gvwr. We moved heavier stuff from the trailer's rear end (exterior cargo compartments and interior overhead bin)and placed the stuff in the truck. Lighter weight stuff (e.g. down sleeping bags, fleece blanket) replaced the heavy stuff. It is way too easy, and a bad thing, to overload a trailer's weight capacity.
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How did you come up with this idea of full- timing?
Tom and Mary happened to mention they were full-timers, having sold their house 20 some-odd years earlier to their daughter. They had started on a two month trip to explore America and just never came back home. Their daughter, after two years housesitting, bought Tom's and Mary's house. We were awestruck. Who knew you could do that in an Airstream? The idea came along at just the right time for us. Ed and Anne Barrett were promoting full-time RVing at the 2007 WBCCI International Rally, and we fell in love with them and the lifestyle they were presenting.
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Those are really great questions, aren't they? Please give us more questions, we promise to try to answer them. This is supposed to be frequently asked, and answered as we have time. You can email us at as4822@gmail.com
