Semi-Retirees: Our RV Life Is Far From 'Ghastly'

Essayist Candice Reed writes that it's also more common than you might think
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 2, 2018 5:46 PM CST
Semi-Retirees: Our RV Life More Common Than You Think
   (Getty/stellalevi)

Candice Reed is a semi-retiree who lives life with her husband in a 28-foot motor home, and she writes in the Los Angeles Times that they have plenty of company traveling the nation's highways. But she's not referring to hipster campers among the younger set. "The people who are usually our fellow travelers are in their 50s, 60s or beyond: retired or something close to it, but not exactly living a leisure life." For the Reeds, the decision to hit the road took shape in 2009 when they realized that their San Diego home was simply too expensive to keep. Now they live far more economically, traveling around, parking at camps for typically $500 a month, and picking up jobs where they can (Reed as a freelance writer, her husband as a handyman). But the essay is anything but a complaint.

"This sounds ghastly to a lot of people, but I don't know why," writes Reed. "On a small budget, I can drink my morning coffee beneath the red cliffs of Utah or on the beach at Santa Barbara. I can chat with travelers from all over the world. And from one week to the next, I can be hiking in the Colorado Rockies or strolling through a redwood grove." It is, in short, a lifestyle choice, and one that makes sense for them and seemingly for a growing number of people. The Reeds have a "small nest-egg" they don't touch because it's there "for whichever one of us goes into a nursing home first." And while their lifestyle may not be a traditional one for retirees, or semi-retirees, it has "given us an opportunity to wake up to something new every day." Click for the full piece. (More RVs stories.)

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