How do you?

[wal1809]

My wife and I were planning retirement.  I only intend to work for maybe 4 or 5 more years.  We came up with a plan to sell everthing here, rent houses, our house and properties.  We plan on full timing for a year and maybe buying a smaller place in the Midwest, maybe the panhandle, maybe northern New Mexico who knows where.

The question is for you full timers.  How do you retrieve mail?  Where do you register your bus if gone longer than a year?  Do you have to go back to the state it is registered in to get the registration sticker?  Do you have to go back to the state it was reistered in to get the inspection?

This might be a political rant, but I don't want the gov telling me I have to come back to Texas if I don't want to.  I want to be as free as possible and being told I have to come back will piss me off.

[Sean]

If you are already a Texan, I recommend you join the Escapees and just use their mail service in Livingston, TX.  They've already solved all the hard problems and it will be an easy "move" for an existing Texan.

For folks from most other states, some contemplation and decision-making is in order.  Most full-timers choose from among Texas, Florida, Wyoming, and South Dakota.  Those four states have no income tax and generally favorable treatment for RVs in regards to ad valorem taxes, registration, and the like.  The other three states with no income tax are Washington, Nevada, and Alaska.  Nevada has high ad-valorem personal property tax, Alaska is geographically inconvenient in regards to obtaining a license, and Washington has an unfavorable sales tax rate, which comes into play for purchases of vehicles.

We domicile in Washington and use a UPS store to forward our mail.  In Florida, Saint Brendan's Isle is the big player, and in South Dakota it is My South Dakota Address.  Escapees out of Livingston is the biggest of them all.

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[bobofthenorth]

Sean has covered the important stuff with first hand information.  A couple more points you may want to think about.  As an absentee landlord you will need to have backup plans for when one of your tenants calls and says something like "a plough wind just took half the shingles off the roof and knocked most of the trees in the yard over - what should I do?".  We manage property remotely but it takes some good local tradesmen and the quality of your tenants is more important than ever, not that it is ever unimportant.  Some fulltimers get rid of everything that they can't carry with them.  That didn't work for us as we had antiques and heirlooms that we couldn't bear to part with.  If you are in a similar situation you will have to figure out what to do with those items.  We had an interim solution but our long term solution now is that we have bought a house in an out of the way location that we will call our home base.  That also solves a problem that I had with regard to where I could easily do routine maintenance.  Its hard to beat dropping in on Mike Lutestanski or Clifford Allen and using their shops but sometimes they are just too far away when you need them.

[David Anderson]

Sean has the answer.  Everyone I've talked to that uses Escapees likes the service.  You become a Polk County Texas resident, vote there, etc.  There county court system is very accommodating if you get a jury summons, etc, because they know you are a full timer out on the road somewhere.  There forums are very informative and helpful.  I browse them often.

Go to their website and see their offers.  www.escapees.com

[wal1809]

When in doubt ask the ones who have been there and done it.  Thank you fellas I will check it out.  I beleive we are going to gear this where we will hit Alaska in the spring amd just poke around for a while.  No calendar no watch and the cellular telephone tucked away in a drawer.  No dogs to train no fingerprints no DNA.  Just the rubber on the road and something new at each bend.  Lord I can't believe it is close enough to talk about.  I feel like an airplane that is headed for a runway but it just tryin to clear the trees to get there.  I wouldn't trade the career for anything but I am ready to trade it in.

[robertglines1]

Have talked with a lot of fulltimers..older...their only regret is they didn't do it when they were younger..don't let life pass you by  I retired at 60..no regrets....Bob

[Eric]

We use your best address out of south dakota! great people and great rates for the bus/vehicles... Licensing is dirt cheap as are the vehicle taxes...no state tax... 

[billy6941]

If you should decide on Alaska, once you get it registered, you renew every 2 years via either snail mail, or via the internet. If you establish residence, then you qualify for the Permanent Fund Dividend and that can also be filed via internet. And if you are old enough, (65) or older, then you get a senior exemption on a vehicle. It cost me 5 dollars to register our 4104.....Bill

[eddiepotts]

The Escapees is five minutes from my lake house if you need me to get any info from them. I will be there this weekend.

[wal1809]

The Escapees is five minutes from my lake house if you need me to get any info from them. I will be there this weekend.

I still have 1.5 years here at the PD and 1 or 2 years in the sand box before I bite off on retirement.  I am going to look up the escapees.com and get my brain in that direction.
My step son was stationed in Alaska and changed to Fort Hood.  He grew up here and thought he wanted to be back.  It didn't take long and he was missing Alaska.  His 4th tour in the sand box is cooming and he can go back to Alaska after that.  If he does my wife will be more inclined to change residency to Alaska. 
I went out at 5:30 AM today to run the PT test for the PD and my goodness it was steamy and hot.  I am too fat old and tired for that crap.  When we went on vacation to Yellowstone last year we drove from Junction, Texas to Pagosa Springs, Colorado.  When we left Junction it was well over 100 degrees.  We got up the next morning in Pagosa and it was 43 degrees.  Cooland crisp and we felt alive.
We are ready for some of that.  You know Texas has a spot in my heart but I got to go.

[JohnEd]

Boy oh boy.  SD sounds really great but what if you actually had to go there for some reason?  Just kidding, I was treated very well during my short stay for repairs.  One time!

John