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Coconut Creek, FL 11 feet above sea level High 83°F / Low 74°F |
Soon after we got married, Tricia and I began saving every penny we could in order to give ourselves the opportunity to retire early and start living our fulltime RV dream. We didn't take that once in a lifetime honeymoon trip, nor have we gone on any expensive vacations or purchased a new car in the last ten years. Our vacations usually included a trip to one of Florida's State Parks for a tent camping weekend with friends. For eight years we managed to save nearly 40% of our two paychecks and when it was time to start shopping for our truck and trailer we could pick pretty much anything we wanted. Our goal was to be able to pay cash and not incur any unnecessary payments that would take away from our resources to live on. My social security and Tricia's part time pay would not go far if part of it was wasted on interest. Then our savings got a big boost in December of 2013 when we sold my home, paid of all of our debt with the exception of Tricia's mortgage, and deposited everything that was left into our investment account.
After years of saving and shopping we finally decided on which truck and trailer we wanted to buy. We were then thrown the curve ball of the new Tommy Bahama Relax Edition Airstream. The next decision was how to stretch our money to be able to afford this sizeable upgrade. In 2017, Tricia's grandfather passed away at the age of 94. He lived a very caring and generous life, and as a final generous act, left Tricia a portion of his estate. This made it possible for us to consider purchasing the Tommy Bahama. So now the decision was not defined by money.
It wasn't decided until we were sitting at the sales desk during the 2018 Tampa RV Show just which trailer we were going to buy. All I can say is every time we are sitting in our new trailer, enjoying our new life, I will be remembering the short amount of time I was fortunate enough to spend with her grandfather.
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