Think you can’t afford to retire?

A small apartment and a stack of jigsaw puzzles didn’t appeal to this retiree

I operated a home-based IT business for about 20 years. The business made us a modest living, but there was never enough to save for retirement. So when the time came to quit work, our options were limited. Staying in our 2000-square-foot home on an acreage was not a choice for us, as its overhead costs would not work on our limited retirement income. I was not looking forward to a small apartment and a stack of jigsaw puzzles.

We put the home up for sale with the hope of using the equity we had in it as our retirement nest egg. Of course we did this just as the real estate market was crashing, then watched it drop in value more than 50 per cent over the next year. When it did sell 18 months later, we ended up with much less than we thought we might. Oh well, at least we had a little and we were now debt free.

One asset we did have was the small lake cabin we purchased several years ago. Over the years we have enjoyed many weekends there. One day while we were at the cabin, we met a couple who had been retired for many years. They explained how they live out of their fifth wheel trailer at the lake for the summer, then take it to the American southwest for the winters.

This got Gail and me talking and we thought we should first take a winter RV trip to Arizona before making any big decisions. We had not owned an RV in years and decided we should look for a class A motorhome. Our budget of $20,000 to $30,000 would put us into an older unit, but if it had low mileage and was well maintained it would do the job.

I soon found myself at an auction sale. We did not have a letter from the bank in place yet, but I wanted to see what they were selling for. There were three coaches that went for less than half of what they were worth. My experience at car auctions told me that they probably went for fake bids. This is when the auctioneer has a reserve that is not being met, so he picks a fake bidder out of the crowd and calls it sold. You will then see the same unit at the next auction.

About a week later I found the same coach I saw at the auction in a local RV trader. We negotiated a price and I soon had a 35-foot 1999 Georgetown sitting in my driveway. There was lots of tread on the tires and everything worked as it should.

It was late fall and the weather suddenly turned very cold. Now all I could do is stand at the window and look  longingly at my new snow-covered toy and think about our planned February trip to Arizona.

The cold winter months dragged by, but soon it was departure day. Of course everything that could go wrong did and we ended up heading out late in the afternoon.

The trip south proved to be quite an adventure including many surprises.

But that is my next story.