When did Cliff decide to work on the road?

We stumbled onto the idea of traveling with the kids by way of assocation and out of financial neccesity. We've had the great opportunity of meeting and being inspired by several out-of-the-box type thinking parents over the past few years. They are living their dreams now and don't want to wait until retirement to travel and explore. They want to see the U.S. National Parks, gorgeous horizons at sunset, walk barefoot by the ocean(s), and thousands of other moving and exciting places, events, and experiences on this awesome planet.

There are so many reasons we are leaning toward living on the road. Such as, Cliff and I both have lost several loved ones over the past few years. And we realize life is going by so quickly now that we are parents. Life is not a dress rehearsal. And we want to live it BIG! Plus we want to be able to spend more time with family, friends, and eachother. A few more reasons we agree with can be seen HERE.

Financially, we also see the chance to get out from under our student loans by giving up our mortgage payments, property taxes, home maintenance expenses, and utilities. We have researched the expenses of living on the road and the main expense is gas for the RV. We figure if we spend half of what we're spending now on living in a house to pay off student loans, we'll still have a lot of money for other expenses. Plus we have equity in our house to put toward an RV. And our travel expenses are a tax write off since they will be work related. All in all it seems like a financially sound decision for our family.

There are many jobs Cliff can do and make a decent paycheck. These jobs pay extra for housing/hotel/food expenses, too. If you would like more information about traveling and working, please let me know. Also, there are several Yahoo! groups I find very helpful, as well as websites, and magazines. I would be happy to give you some links.

For now our amazingly versatile Cliff will continue to work on the road while we dream and research moving castles (aka RVs). We are at peace with our decision, as we have been talking about it for months now.

One last thing--We also realize nothing is permanent. If at some point after living on the road for a few years the kids want to join the Boy Scouts, organized sports, or school we will find a way to make it work by staying in one spot for an extended period or moving into a house again. We aren't so rigid and closed-minded that we don't see other options. Yet, we're still learning to think outside-the-box, so we don't see all our options. We don't want to get stuck in a rut with close mindedness again. That's cost us enough heartache and money already!

Happy days all,
Heather