Green Retirement

Is your RV your retirement home?  I’m ignorant when it comes to RV’s, but to me, it seems to make a lot of financial sense to sell your house and use an RV as your retirement home.  Owning an RV is much cheaper than owning a house and more flexible.  No longer like where you live? Simply drive away.

I would imagine that in this recession, as RV sales have plummeted, so have the prices on used RV’s, and you may be able to buy a very nice RV for not very much money.  And owning an RV may be one way of boosting your retirement income.  Say for instance you sell your $300,000 house and buy a $50,000 RV.  If you invest the $250,000 difference, you could spend almost $1,000 per month more in retirement, $937.50 to be exact using the free Green Retirement calculator.

I’m not sure what the annual costs of maintaining an RV are, but if you only drive it 3 or 4 times a year between beautiful locations, I don’t think they could be very high.  And, for a couple of thousands of dollars, you could make your RV eco-friendly, by converting your engine to bio-diesel.  Filling up your RV at truck stop diners, instead of the pump, while you are on the road.   Heck, who knows?  If you buy a meal at the diner, they may give you their sludge for free, and you won’t have to pay to drive your RV!

The only financial negative I can think of, why owning a house might be better than owning an RV, is that houses appreciate while RV’s depreciate in value.  But again, I’m completely ignorant when it comes to RV’s, so please help me and everyone else out.  If your RV is your retirement home - would you recommend it to others?  What are the positives and negatives to using an RV as your retirement home?  And, what advice would you give others, who might be considering using an RV as their retirement home?  Leave a comment below, and feel free to include any RV links and resources, that you think might be helpful.