This is not an attempt to write a book on how to manage your personal affairs as a full-timer. There have already been quite a few of those written that cover the subject quite well. This is only an attempt to answer the questions as to how we have chosen to do things. We hope that this will be helpful to some of you as an example of some of the possible solutions. Feel free to drop us an e-mail you wish to ask for more information.
The need for access to your money as we travel is one of the problems that all full-time Rvers must find a solution to. For us, the answer is found with a brokerage account with First Union Corp. Since the deregulation of the banking industry, brokerage firms are allowed to perform certain banking functions. Our account has our cash it and draws interest based upon the rate charged for margin loans in the firm. This one account also holds our IRAs and the bond fund that the funds from the sale of our house are invested in. The advantage of this is that we can check on any of it via the Internet, we can manage all of our assets with one e-mail or toll free call. It is also just a matter of one call to change the investments, move money from one place to another, or to withdraw funds from an account. Additionally, we have a debit/credit card that is issued by the bank that our firm goes through which works just like any other debit card. For cash, we just use "cash back" when making a purchase with our debit card. Most major stores now offer this service. All Wal-Marts do this, as does Home Depot, Lowe's, major grocery stores, and many more. This way we do not have ATM charges for getting cash.
For us, this is a vital issue as Pam has asthma and need medication for that and several other issues on a daily basis. We have solved this by having all prescriptions sent to Advance PCS, the mail order pharmacy that is used by our insurance carrier. For one-time prescriptions, we get those at a local pharmacy just as you would if you were living in a site built house.
We carry a complete copy of our medical histories with us in a fireproof box as we travel. When we need to see a doctor, we have found the emergency medical services to be excellent to fill our medical needs. On the occasions that we have sought medical help, the service has been excellent, and we then add the page of medical history that they give to us, to our histories that we carry. We return to Ft. Worth once each year for our annual physicals and at that time we give a copy of the new items to our doctor there. For dental care, we have annual checks when in Ft. Worth, and then go to a local dentist for cleanings as we travel. Prior to starting our travels, we took time to make an appointment with our doctor and explained to him what we were going to do. Now that he understands our lifestyle he is very cooperative in prescribing by phone when minor medications are needed. When we had a family emergency and were not able to return to Ft. Worth for our annual physicals when due, he worked with our son's family doctor to get the needed blood work and check-up in order to extend Pam's prescriptions for another six months.
For our mailing address, as well as our legal address for purposes of residency, we use the Escapees RV Club. The cost of mail forwarding is $85, $105, and $125 dollars, depending upon the level of service required. We chose the middle level, which meets our needs very well. It allows us to have our mail sent out to us once each week, or as needed. If we are traveling, we just call on a toll free line, or send an e-mail to let them know when we want our mail sent out and where to send it. We usually have it sent to general delivery to a postal office where we will be in a few days. If we are hosting at a park for a period, they will send it out automatically each week to our location, for however long that we wish. They will also accept packages from the delivery services as well as the postal service. And if we are looking for a particular important item of mail, we can call and if it is there, we can choose to either have it sent immediately or they will open and read it to us if we wish. The service over the past 18 months has been outstanding! And this address serves as our legal address for vehicle registration, insurance, and voting, as well as paying taxes.
We stay in touch primarily via the Internet. In January of 2005 we purchased a tripod mount, internet dish so we no longer have an ISP, but we have kept service by Pocketmail. We have found them to be reliable and easily accessible. If you are not familiar with the Pocketmail service, it is an e-mail service that gives you not only a mailbox, but also can retrieve e-mail from other mailboxes. We maintain e-mail addresses via the Internet web site so that, when we change ISP services, we will keep the same e-mail address. Escapees also offer this service for those who need it. Before we got our dish, we usually choose a local ISP when we found ourselves in a location where our national ISP does not have service. We then canceled our service when we went back on the road to sign up again at our next stop. If you look, you can find a local ISP who will wave the activation fee to get your business. We also carry a laptop computer (actually we each have one) to access mail when a phone line is available. We also keep a cell phone, to get calls when it is necessary. We have a "One Rate" plan from Cingular. We pay $35 per month for 350 day & 3,500 night/week-end minutes per month with no roaming or long distance charges. After taxes the actual cost is about $50. At some Host Sites we also have a "land line" phone. Since the purchase of our dish, we have been using Starband as our service provider. It takes about 1/2 hour to put up the dish and get the internet. We will drop the Pocketmail next year as we rarely use it. We have also added a "Bird on a Wire" for TV that mounts on the same dish that we use for internet. We have our dish modem connected to a wireless router so that we can now both be on the internet at the same time. That also allows us to provide service to our neighbor if they have a wireless ready computer, just by supplying them the pass code for our router.
We spend more than half of our time stopped at one location or another, volunteering in a public park, wildlife refuge or historic site in return for our site and utilities. It is very easy to find new places to spend some time as a park volunteer in nearly any location. And as you get experience it becomes even easier to do. Most sites provide a level pad with full hook-ups. Frequently there is a telephone line to the site, but you usually have to pay the bill. Occasionally, propane is provided. In some parks there is a small stipend for such service, or there may be some extra work available for a small additional pay. We have found that the best source of leads for new locations to be the magazine, "Workamper News." For us, these volunteer positions not only provide a cost free place to stay, but we also fulfill the need to have a place to belong, a feeling of contributing, and we gain an instant social contact with the local community as soon as we arrive. Because of this we find that there is no need to belong to any of the camping associations like "Coast to Coast." We typically spend an occasional night in a parking lot; others parked at the home of friends or at the free locations that are provided by other members of the Escapees RV Club. When we do pay for a site, first check Passport America (a half price group), the Escapees list of discount parks since they offer a 15% or more discount, then to Good Sam, as we are members of that. We typically pay for a campsite less than two months per year.