Do you?/Would you? Full time in a motorhome (1 Viewer)

[Bulletguy]

Going off on a slight tangent here this forum is very interesting and has a wealth of knowledge so it fasinated me there must be people from DVLA and VOSA that are members just by the law of averages- why on earth do they keep their heads below the parapet ?? why dont they come forward and give the accurate info

1 they don't know themselves

2 they watch and use this as a source of ideas for stops

any other thoughts

I suppose because of crackpot legalities.

 

[Snowbird]

Hi all,Heres my tupenyworth.Have discussed this so many times with so many people,but still the same answers come up.NFA means no veh insurance,no bank account,no driving licence,no road tax,no state pension,no state benifit,Was once told you can live on a boat fulltime but not in a camper.I even got a warning for not telling DVLA I had changed my address,and that was from one house to another,never mind moving into the RV.As I have said many times before,its not possible unless you are prepaired to start a string of lies,and once you start that and you are forever watching your back incase you have said somthing wrong to whichever powers that be,it just becomes to much hastle.Having said that,I would love to do it,but for me its not practical even though I would be much better off financialy.

 

[Bulletguy]

NFA means no veh insurance,no bank account,no driving licence,no road tax,no state pension,no state benefit...

Thats one hell of a lot of folk going without benefits then!!! Somehow i just can't see that!

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[Snowbird]

Thats one hell of a lot of folk going without benefits then!!! Somehow i just can't see that!

All weaving the web!!! Try getting a passport and tell em you dont have an address.You cant even get a mobile phone without one.

 

[scotjimland]

As I have said many times before,its not possible unless you are prepaired to start a string of lies,and once you start that and you are forever watching your back incase you have said somthing wrong to whichever powers that be,it just becomes to much hastle.

I totally agree .. as I said in an earlier post.. it's too stressful..

How many have dreamt of owning a little country pub, buying a little bit of Spain or where ever .. only to wake up to a nightmare and wishing the dream had never materialised .. reality seldom lives up to the dream.

Going by the poll we have 16 who full time.. but there are probably quite a few more who aren't on tonight or haven't voted ..

My question to the others, how many are planning to do this the rest of their lives and how many are thinking about giving it up or planning to in the future ?

I believe we have a duty to say it how it is, warts and all, no point in saying everything is hunky dory when it's not.. if I had known what I do now I would certainly have done it differently.

 

[vwalan]

its all about compromise. i cant compromise enough to get rid of all my life long bits .not rich pickings but life story bits, photo,s school certificates , books , tools , things from my grand parents /parents. make a good bonfire ,no value but valuable in my heart. thats why i need a base .maybe not in uk. but havnt found any where better. i think the uk is at the moment the best its ever been in my life time. apart from the weather. what a great place to have as a base. probably one of the cheapest places in europe to live at the moment since the pound fell. we can come and go as we please . working class people visiting countries all over the world. never happened years ago . be happy think positive its not that bad. what do you think?cheers alan.

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[Bulletguy]

All weaving the web!!! Try getting a passport and tell em you dont have an address.You cant even get a mobile phone without one.

Not heard that one before.....the mobile i currently use i bought about 4years ago, then got a Virgin sim card for it and have always paid via direct debit from my bank account. Though i don't doubt they could easily get my address if they wished to, they certainly never asked me for it when i bought the phone and the sim card.

 

[Snowbird]

its all about compromise. i cant compromise enough to get rid of all my life long bits .not rich pickings but life story bits, photo,s school certificates , books , tools , things from my grand parents /parents. make a good bonfire ,no value but valuable in my heart. thats why i need a base .maybe not in uk. but havnt found any where better. i think the uk is at the moment the best its ever been in my life time. apart from the weather. what a great place to have as a base. probably one of the cheapest places in europe to live at the moment since the pound fell. we can come and go as we please . working class people visiting countries all over the world. never happened years ago . be happy think positive its not that bad. what do you think?cheers alan.

Without any doubt the UK is by far the cheapest place in Europe to live.We have been conditioned for years to think that its expensive,but food clothes etc,the basic neads of life are much cheaper in UK now.Theres not much difference in the price of fuel now.So many have found the Spanish dream turn into a nightmare.Keep ya roots in UK and spend ya disposable where its cheap.Thats the best part of being mobile:thumb:

 

[vwalan]

how would you pay on debit card if you had no fixed abode so no bank account.the hows n wheres of fulltiming is going to go on for ever. if you have to ask too many questions then you havnt thought it through .when you stop asking then you may be ready. i will never do it. i hope to keep coming n going for the rest of my life i think its natures way. like the birds,turtles etc.

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[Bulletguy]

My question to the others, how many are planning to do this the rest of their lives and how many are thinking about giving it up or planning to in the future ?

Have to admit Jim i'm one of the 'might consider it' voters....and i put that out of honesty rather than the dreamers who say they are definately going to fulltime.

I'm keeping my options open and basically narrowed it down to two alternatives. Either way i intend to eventually sell my house.

Option 1) Purchase of a 'sizeable' motorhome which is both practical and reasonable to inhabit and use for touring 365 days a year. No property.

Option 2) Live in small rented flat and buy a smaller motorhome/camper (ie Transit Duetto) which can be used pretty much the same as a car.

 

[Snowbird]

Not heard that one before.....the mobile i currently use i bought about 4years ago, then got a Virgin sim card for it and have always paid via direct debit from my bank account. Though i don't doubt they could easily get my address if they wished to, they certainly never asked me for it when i bought the phone and the sim card.

New law came in some time ago,ALL mobile phones must be registerd to an address,PAYG or contract.

 

[Bulletguy]

New law came in some time ago,ALL mobile phones must be registerd to an address,PAYG or contract.

Wow.....so now i'm an owner of an 'illegal' mobile?!!

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[scotjimland]

Wow.....so now i'm an owner of an 'illegal' mobile?!!

not to worry, I'm the illegal owner of an RV, passport, driving license, health card, and a dozen other things I've forgotten about .. prepare join the real world of full timing

 

[wizzer59]

Is a static on a site an address?

 

[wizzer59]

I/we are one of the ones who are teetering on the edge, the reasons, two of them, ONE, my wife finding out that the horrendous headaches she was getting were Cerebrovascular disease which means she could die or have a stroke at any time, and TWO, 8 months on the dole for the first time in my life after being in full time employment since I left school at fifteen, made us think about how we were living (from hand to mouth) and why we were living that way.
I think we all get sucked into this ideal of you've GOT to have bricks & mortar and all that entails, but we have both decided we have not seen or done enough in this world and if we leave it till later then it may not happen, SO we want an alternative lifestyle, SO the house is up for sale and we are sussing out our next move, buy a van and full time? or buy a static and van and part time, we both love france and apparently you can buy land and park on it a lot easier than here (not researched that yet though) but one things for sure we want travel in a motorhome and see as much as we can for as long as we want to.

So your thoughts on this subject have been and are very interesting to us as well.:thumb:

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[Snowbird]

I/we are one of the ones who are teetering on the edge, the reasons, two of them, ONE, my wife finding out that the horrendous headaches she was getting were Cerebrovascular disease which means she could die or have a stroke at any time, and TWO, 8 months on the dole for the first time in my life after being in full time employment since I left school at fifteen, made us think about how we were living (from hand to mouth) and why we were living that way.
I think we all get sucked into this ideal of you've GOT to have bricks & mortar and all that entails, but we have both decided we have not seen or done enough in this world and if we leave it till later then it may not happen, SO we want an alternative lifestyle, SO the house is up for sale and we are sussing out our next move, buy a van and full time? or buy a static and van and part time, we both love france and apparently you can buy land and park on it a lot easier than here (not researched that yet though) but one things for sure we want travel in a motorhome and see as much as we can for as long as we want to.

So your thoughts on this subject have been and are very interesting to us as well.:thumb:

I simpathise with you becouse my situation is similar,the problem is,how long would your capital last if you had no benifits at all.??????

 

[Chani]

I/we are one of the ones who are teetering on the edge, the reasons, two of them, ONE, my wife finding out that the horrendous headaches she was getting were Cerebrovascular disease which means she could die or have a stroke at any time, and TWO, 8 months on the dole for the first time in my life after being in full time employment since I left school at fifteen, made us think about how we were living (from hand to mouth) and why we were living that way.
I think we all get sucked into this ideal of you've GOT to have bricks & mortar and all that entails, but we have both decided we have not seen or done enough in this world and if we leave it till later then it may not happen, SO we want an alternative lifestyle, SO the house is up for sale and we are sussing out our next move, buy a van and full time? or buy a static and van and part time, we both love france and apparently you can buy land and park on it a lot easier than here (not researched that yet though) but one things for sure we want travel in a motorhome and see as much as we can for as long as we want to.

So your thoughts on this subject have been and are very interesting to us as well.:thumb:

My husband was in a very precarious position health-wise 18 months ago, which was partly what made us realise we really need to get up and do 'stuff' rather than just letting life pass us by.

I'm one of those who voted 'definitely', but from this thread it looks certain we'd have to lie to get insurance and then risk them not paying up if something happened. This is something neither of us could live with and it's therefore a bit of a showstopper. (Bank accounts, driving licenses etc aren't so much of a problem because we have a family address we could use.) Our fall-back position is similar to wizzer's - a motorhome and something 'static'. Not ideal, but it will have to do unless the insurance situation changes. :Sad:

 

[wizzer59]

I simpathise with you becouse my situation is similar,the problem is,how long would your capital last if you had no benifits at all.??????

I'm sorry should have said, the aim is to base our selfs back down on the south coast where I have plenty of contacts and can get well paid work from say june till about christmas then travel the rest of the time so hopefully with a bit of shrewd investment we need not dig into our money two much

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[barryd]

I think its for us!

Sorry this goes on a bit!

Last night Michelle and I returned from a 3 month trip of Europe which we undertook to get an idea of if we could full time (and to have the trip of our lives of course). As soon as I logged on I came across this post. All I can say is that its been a life changing trip and I think we are both keen to find a way to continue. We are both only 43 and have been self employed in the IT industry for the last 8 years. Work has all but dried up in the recession and apart from little bits of consultancy (most of which I can do online) we are at the cross roads of either putting our noses to the grindstone and going back to working and creating more business in the UK or renting out the house (all paid for) and living off the rent and other investments and going back on the road for the foreseeable future. To me its a no brainer. We have had the adventure of a life time and feel so lucky that at our age we have been able to escape the rat race and see so many places. If there is a way to do it then we have to do it I think. Michelles still not over keen to rent her house out though but I think its the only way we could do it. I reckon with investments, rent and commissions that we earn each month we could have and income of around £1000-£1200. On our trip we were getting through between £1200-£1500 a month but the one thing we have realised is that we moved around far too much and did far too many miles. I think monthly costs could easily be lowered to £1000 per month if say you based yourself in one region each month rather than being in Brittany one week and then right across the other side of France the next. This would leave our capital and investments pretty much untouched so if we had to come back we would still have money and a house to come back to. I realise of course that stuff breaks (the list of things that need doing on the Kontiki is already a mile long after three months) and that there is always hidden expenditure but it seems to me we are so close to being able to do this that to give up the dream and go back to the hard slog of work in a recession would break my heart.

I appreciate that insurance, mail, MOT's and Tax etc may prove a pain to deal with but there are people out there doing it so clearly it can be done. I dont mind telling a few white lies if I have to. Im pretty sure our insurance with SafeGuard covers us all year overseas but there is probably some clause somewhere stating the maximum length of each visit. My sister has agreed to let us store stuff at her house and use her address for Mail etc.

We thought we would miss things about the UK. We have missed nothing and despite having a lovely home in the Yorkshire Dales I was sad to be back.

Given our circumstances I would be interested in views and advice particularly from those who have done it or are still doing it.

 

[6pm Cowboy]

Barryd

My wife and I first thought of doing this when we were about your age but finally decided against it simply due to fear of how we would manage ( that wasn't the excuse at the time but looking back that is what it was )

Now we are both 60+. The wife cannot walk long distances very well and I am fast going blind. We still intend to get a MH and get away where we can but by eck I wish I had bitten the bullet and made the most of it while we were younger. It is true what they say. You only have one life, get out and enjoy it.

 

[Snowbird]

Barryd

My wife and I first thought of doing this when we were about your age but finally decided against it simply due to fear of how we would manage ( that wasn't the excuse at the time but looking back that is what it was )

Now we are both 60+. The wife cannot walk long distances very well and I am fast going blind. We still intend to get a MH and get away where we can but by eck I wish I had bitten the bullet and made the most of it while we were younger. It is true what they say. You only have one life, get out and enjoy it.

This is the whole point I have been trying to make.Had you done it years ago,and gone fulltime,what situation would you both be in now with no home,and worse still, no benifits.simply becouse you wouldnt have a letterbox.???

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[scotjimland]

Given our circumstances I would be interested in views and advice particularly from those who have done it or are still doing it.

Given your circumstances I would say give it a go .. your budget sounds about right if carefully managed. ..


Before anyone takes the plunge have these in place..

1. A sound financial sustainable plan, do the sums.

2. An end plan.. your unlikely want to do it for ever.

3. A 'get out of jail card' if all goes wrong. A base to return to or how to get back into a house.

Most practicalities can be sorted out, but do it before you leave, don't wait till your on the road..

4. Homesickness.. don't laugh, it can strike at any time, you will miss family and friends.. have enough put away to come home early if you need to.

5. It may sound idyllic, but you can overdose on beaches and sight seeing .. at some point you will have had enough.. after that it will become mundane.. this is why many fulltimers have an other interest, part time working, volunteer work, research etc.. just doing nothing will get boring..

6. Don't depend on seasonal work to finance your lifestyle, many are looking for it and it's not guaranteed.. the pay is low and hardly enough to live on let alone save for the next trip, you may end up working more than you want to.

Hope that helps and good luck. don't be put off by what I or anyone else says.. learn from others experiences and mistakes.
Jim

 

[vwalan]

think hard. you can drop the money to 5/6oo a month easy once on the road.you have to slow down thats the secret. seasonal work can be hard to find and it changes. caravan on site ok for ins. most use family address .try it before you make the big step. dont burn your bridges. remember its very hot on the continent in summer but very cold in winter more so living in a camper. try it first at both times of the year. i love being in a van also like coming home. best of both worlds.

 

[barryd]

All positive stuff I think, thanks for the advice. I did managed to do some bits of work in the last three months. I think I must hold the record for the most idylic temporary office. I sat on the shores of Lake Maggiore in Italy and spent two hours on my laptop on a wifi connection fixing a computer in Teesdale back home remotely. I fear however that whilst I have had bits of work if we leave permanently then this will dry up completely. Its a great way to top up your income though as it pays well (the two hour support call made us £120).

I fear though that the longer we are back home the more we will slip into routine and be sucked back into UK life. How long did you full timers spend preparing and planning before you left? If we were to plan our permanent life abroad I think realistically it may be the spring before we could rent the house out sell stuff like cars etc and tie up our lives here. I personally considered going away for the Winter but Michelle always the realist and sensible one thinks its out of the question to go that soon.

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[vwalan]

the winter is the time to try again .you will see all the places with different eyes. you will not want to do the same things its cold wet n miserable. so you go south. i travelled alot all my life so some things come natural. as a teenager i thought fulltiming was the way to go. as time passed i realised its only half what i thought it was . go this winter try it .3months you are still honey mooning,takes longer just to unwind. dont sell anything till you have tried all seasons believe me. you can sell things later . you will thank us for our experiances alot later.

 

[barryd]

the winter is the time to try again .you will see all the places with different eyes. you will not want to do the same things its cold wet n miserable. so you go south. i travelled alot all my life so some things come natural. as a teenager i thought fulltiming was the way to go. as time passed i realised its only half what i thought it was . go this winter try it .3months you are still honey mooning,takes longer just to unwind. dont sell anything till you have tried all seasons believe me. you can sell things later . you will thank us for our experiances alot later.

Very good point I think. I suspect we will go on a trip out of season this winter. We frequently spend time in the winter in the west coast of Scotland and the isle of Arran. We love solitude and to be honest would have peffered our recent trip to be out of season. It was great in June but finding spots on your own in July and August in Europe wasnt always easy! Im not bothered about being somewhere hot in the winter. We may travel to Greece or the south of France but we would be happy in Brittany in December! Its nice to see the seasons I think and if the crap weather becomes a problem then you always have the option to head south I guess. Your compeletely correct, 3 months is still a honey moon period but it has moved us one step closer to going for longer.

 

[johnsandywhite]

:Cool: Here is a thought for anyone considering selling the house and going full-timing?

From what I have picked up on various forums, the majority of those wanting to full-time have a house worth between 250,000 and 500,000 (lucky beggars). In our village you can buy an house for between 60,000 and 100,000. There are of course much more expensive ones. But a 3 bedroom semi detached house like our main one is valued at 100,000 and our second house which is an end of terrace 3 bed with parking right alongside the house is valued at around 80,000. We rent them to family for nominal rent. Lucky us? Not always, they don't always pay.
The point is, you could sell your expensive house and buy a much cheaper one as a base. Rent it out if you wish or just have it as a base. The residual capital can be invested to use as an income. We had MUCH less than this when we retired in October 1996.
Lastly, DO NOT think it is a Holiday, it is a different way of life. Hobbies can take up more time than you think. :thumb:

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[Bulletguy]

not to worry, I'm the illegal owner of an RV, passport, driving license, health card, and a dozen other things I've forgotten about .. prepare to join the real world of full timing

Interesting point Jim.

Not sure which point of entry you use to return back into the UK, but have you ever been interrogated by HMRC? Dover Port is the worst and their usual 'targets' are single men on day trips rather than those who have been away for two or three weeks or more.

I'm not talking about the usual couple of minute casual questions about "where have you been today sir etc", but when they take you out of the queue and park you up in a side bay. You are then taken off to a secure room for questioning which is highly intrusive (they want every single detail) and can take anything up to three hours. You don't get any legal advice or representation either as it works totally opposite to the Police.
With HMRC you are guilty first until you can prove your innoncence to them.

Are there any who fulltime (not "part time fulltimers") who have just simply been stopped and questioned (not interrogated) by HMRC? What did they ask you and what were your replies? And if there are any fulltimers who have been under interrogation.....i'd be interested to hear about how you handled it.

 

[Bulletguy]

From what I have picked up on various forums, the majority of those wanting to full-time have a house worth between 250,000 and 500,000 (lucky beggars).....

LOL.....thats what they like to think it's worth! The reality being a lot lot less!! Unless you are in London?

My house value has dropped by over £60k and it's nothing special either, just a small two bed bungalow. Took my neighbour two years to sell his house during which time he had just four people come to view it.

 

[scotjimland]

Interesting point Jim.

Not sure which point of entry you use to return back into the UK, but have you ever been interrogated by HMRC? .

Hi

No, thankfully, never had that pleasure but it's just another worry to stack up..

However, we were interrogated by the Gendarme, they paid us a visit while on the aire at Capbreton..
Very polite, checked our passports, had a good look around our RV and were particularly interested in Charlotte .. lots of questions.. where we were from , going , how long we we were staying etc .. the usual stuff..
I think their interest was more to do with Charlotte, perhaps someone reported a a little girl who looks a bit like the Madeline MaCann .. ? Who knows .. It wasn't a problem, they were doing their job, but it does make you realise you cannot simply disappear into the sunset, someone somewhere is taking an interest .. you cannot stay under the radar for long.

Jim

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