October 2010
Tina is welcome to ride along in the truck.  * * * Now that it is October, and the weather is more to my liking, I started fooling around in the truck again. I had the weekend off, so I moved the bunkbeds into the truck. Wow. Now it's beginning to look like a place to live. The lower futon folds back in as a sofa. You can see the thin original black mattress that came with the unit. The plaid mattress on top was something I picked up - you guessed it! - on Craigslist, brand new, and free. You can also see the electrical wall outlets on the left wall, in between the two bunks. I still need to bring the top mattress out, but I'll probably use the top bunk as storage for my congas, electric basses, cello, etc. It looks like a great place to store and protect that kind of stuff...strap it down and keep it off the floor.  * * * So, let's get back to the question of money. I know you've all done your homework, and you are well on your way to ZERO, or at least you know where your ZERO is. So, once you get to zero, how much (really, how little...) will it take to survive? To be honest, my goal is $20 per day. And here's how I came up with that nice, round number:
I already know a few things - my truck insurance is $720/year, through Progressive. I'm happy with that price. I also purchased an "accident insurance" policy through AAA, which covers me against injury any time I am in any vehicle. Hello? At $120/year, what a great idea for a mobile homesteader! My truck registration is $180/year, and my cell phone plan with texting is about $60/month. Affordable health insurance is going to run me approximately $240/month (with a $2500 deductible), so that leaves $215/month for food/gas/propane/entertainment/incidentals. Property taxes for my various land holdings are running me about $300/year ($25/month), and these will be paid from a separate bucket which will hold 5 years' worth in advance - $1500. As for the unknown, I have a bucket going with a few thousand dollars for gasoline - every cent I've made through the hotel route job in 2010. I'll stop the bucket around $5,000 and that would be enough to criss-cross the U.S. coast to coast about four times before I drain it! This will also serve as the bucket for emergency health and insurance deductibles. So the minimum-dollar plan is to be on the road at 52, living off the money I am setting aside now, as well as the proceeds from the sale of the house. If that ran completely dry, I could tap into my 401k at 55, and could actually live off that until 60, at $20/day. If that all ran dry by 60, I could live off a $10,000 IRA and about $2500 in stocks I still have....at $20/day. And at 62, I become eligible for Social Security, and at that point, that would be quite a bit more than that $20/day, and I would be in hog heaven. So that's the bottom line on how all this might fall into place. That's the plan if I never worked another job, or made another cent, which is unlikely, because I'm sure I'll grab jobs here and there doing random work in random cities around the country. And there will be days when I won't use any gasoline at all. I might be parked for a month at a time on the Needles or Hartsel property. And there will be days when I eat out with friends, and days when I have nothing but a can of soup. But a plan must exist for the cheapest possible scenario, and now you have seen mine. "I don't want to work. I want to bang on the drum all day." - Todd Rundgren * * * Pouring buckets today, here in Portland, Maine. The kind of day I wish I was out on the road already. {sigh} I think my life of Bad Timing may be converting to something more manageable. I seem to have had some good timing lately, what with the truck and land purchases and all. In fact, my friend, Jose, comes up to me at the Y the other day and blurts out, "I need to find a way to live rent-free so I can save money up for a house of my own." The reason this is noteworthy is because I had been thinking about getting a roommate to be my caretaker/handyman on my house, allowing me to get it shaped up and ready for sale in Spring 2012. And Jose appears to be a good maintenance/handyman-type. So I suggested he move in, work around the house, painting the outside, fixing old boards, etc. and in return we could ignore all rent except utilities. I don't have time to do all this stuff - not even to dust the cobwebs out of the corners, and there was some damage done to the house when my old friend lived there, and more as he moved out. He had personal victim-issues, and one of the manifestations was that he was "going to show ME" a thing or two. So he did some damage to get even. So things like that, and things that have been ignored, the fence that got hit by a car....they are now going to get some attention, my house can be restored nicely, and Jose will get to save money for his own downpayment. Stay tuned. * * * So, here's how the floor went down. This is standing at the front as you walk in, looking at the bunk bed.  The compartment on the right is covered, and the bunk bed is on a freestanding triangle, which never needs lifted.  All pieces in place. Note the holes drilled in the hatches as finger-holes to be able to lift! muy importante!  Looking further through the truck......the jigsaw puzzle that is my floor.  * * * October 26, 2010. Fifty years old. My birthday tattoo. So there.  Fifty.  November 2010 Buying Property In Hardy, Arkansas The PVC Side Porch |