A recent article on NJ.com by Jeff Goldman caught my attention. The headline was “People are fleeing N.J. faster than any other state, moving company says” According to the article, United Van Lines tracked 4003 moves out of New Jersey in 2014, compared to 2,169 inbound. New Jersey had the greatest percentage of outbound moves of any state nationally last year with almost 65 percent departing, and has led the nation in outward migration four of the past five years. What an honor!
Since living in New Jersey most of my 50+ years I’m not surprised, according to a recent Monmouth University poll, “Half of all New Jersey residents say they want to eventually leave the state, and more than a quarter of them say their future departure is very likely”
The article tracked the moves out of New Jersey to homes in other states, with most of them being to Florida and California. I wonder how many Ex-Jerseyans left with their homes, either driven or towed, to non-perminant destinations?
For us the main reason for going full-time is for the lifestyle change, with a lot of little “issues” that make up the desire. One of those is property taxes. Our sticks and bricks is definitely not a McMansion, it’s a modest home built in the 1960’s that seems to constantly need work. We’re not connected to the town utilities, we have septic tanks, well water. We even pay for our garbage to be picked up. We don’t have any children enrolled in the school system and in the past ten years have only called once for an ambulance. The town’s public works department does pick up the leaves in the fall and plows the snow in the winter, although they seem to forget about our area of town and we’re always the last to have our streets cleared.
However, living in a state that is at the top of the list for the highest property taxes in the nation, we’re using this privilege to our advantage. We figure the money we now pay in taxes, roughly $24.48 a day, can be reallocated for the campground fees we expect to pay. It probably won’t cover 100% of the cost but it’s a starting point for when we prepare our budget prior to hitting the road.
It’s too early for us to begin preparing a budget now, but we’d like to hear from those of you full-timers. When did you prepare your first budget? And if you didn’t have a budget when you first started out, why not?
Let us know by leaving a comment.
Thanks!
Kevin and I hope to fulltime in mid 2015. We have been working on a budget for a few years. 🙂
Best of luck on your plan. Maybe we’ll see each other on the road one day. Safe travels.
We’re now in the process of preparing a budget after we did our end of the year analysis! We really thought we’d be spending less…but somehow we’ve spent more in this lifestyle. BUT granted we did buy a lot of “stuff” for our grandson and for his parents as they moved into a new home.
We read in another blog, you’ll probably spend the same amount as you do in your sticks and bricks!
Spoiling Grandchildren is definitely a mandatory budget line item! And, one that will probable increase every year!