Thank you to those of you who wrote expressing concern after I got sick from eating food with onions in it Sunday evening, which I am very allergic to. After an uncomfortable night, I woke up feeling somewhat better yesterday morning. Not great, but better.
After doing my morning mile on the treadmill, I plopped down in my recliner and watched TV for an hour or so, then decided I really should do something to earn my keep. So I logged onto my email account, deleted the junk and forwards that managed to make it through my spam filter, and then answered several legitimate ones.
I had to smile at one email, from a fellow named James Lamson, who wrote that he and his wife took a sabbatical from their jobs to spend a year on the road fulltiming. That year is up June 1, and it’s almost time to go back to work. He said that yesterday morning over breakfast he looked at his wife and said, “I don’t want to do that, do you?” Her reply was, “Not even a little bit. We can take early retirement right now, and even though we will get less money, we’ve got enough put away to make up the difference and tide us over for a few years until Social Security kicks in. Let’s live for today.”
I love that attitude. Some people may call it irresponsible and say you should work as long as you can to maximize your retirement benefits, Not me. We all come with an expiration date, and none of us knows when it is. Nobody on their deathbed ever said, “I wish I had worked more overtime.”
In all of our years on the road, talking to fulltimers all over the country, whenever I asked them if they had any regrets, the one they most often shared was that they wished they had started sooner. Terry and I began fulltiming when we were both in our mid-40s, which was pretty much unheard of back then. And even though we’ve gotten off the road for part of the year, you couldn’t buy those 17 years of fulltiming we had for any amount of money.
After I was done with the email, I got to work in my new book, and it turned into a productive day. Once I got into it, things started coming together for me. By the time I knocked off about 7 PM I had another 4,500 words under my belt, bringing the total up to close to 9,000 words in four days. Not fantastic, but it’s a good start. I hope to do as well today.
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Thought For The Day – Singing has always seemed to me the most perfect means of expression. Since I cannot sing, I paint. – Georgia O’Keefe
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Nick Russell
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One time when we returned from a trip (before actually full timing, which we did for 10 years), a funeral director asked where we had been and we were able to say Florida. He said how glad we were doing fun things because he often heard–we were gonna do….As you say we have an expiration date.
Started fulltiming when I was 55. At 60 I had a stroke. Can’t emphasize enough how thankful my husband and I are that we had 5 years of fulltiming. He has made a book of each year using shutterfly. No one can take away our memories!
Kathy and I have the same regret of not starting it sooner.
On my deathbed i’ll be saying “I wish I’d worked less overtime”.
You say to yourself you are doing it so your family will be more comfortable but unfortunately they didn’t appreciate it.
Kathy wants me Home not working.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It’s about time.
We bought a used 5th wheel to live in while we built 4 houses (1 at a time) on 10 acres of land we optioned. We started using the 5th wheel for vacations and long weekends. Oops. We found we loved it and didn’t want to go home. It took 7 months to give up the option on the land, sell the house, quit our jobs and hit the road. It was not the best financial decision but we have no regrets. We’ve made it work by volunteering at state parks or Hubby working outside the park. 11 years later we have no plans to settle down.
“Some people may call it irresponsible and say you should work as long as you can to maximize your retirement benefits, Not me. We all come with an expiration date, and none of us knows when it is. Nobody on their deathbed ever said, “I wish I had worked more overtime.” AMEN and HELLZ YEAH! Only wish my hubs felt that way::::sigh::::
“Wish I had done it sooner” was the #1 answer I got when I was thinking about quitting my old job (which was already traveling full time but with an ITINERARY!!)
so I quit that itinerary at 48 yrs old and started traveling to the same areas but now I was able to stop everywhere I had to pass by before.
Since then I have gone to so many great places and have a bucket list that grows way faster than it gets checked off! ZERO regrets..
James and his wife seem like they will have no regrets either..