My Wife and I are about to hit the road for about 2-3 years.

To enable us to do this and also ensure that we are completely debt free we will have to sell our house, which doesn't really perturb us a great deal as we are hoping to have enough left over to buy anothe property on a smaller scale.

Other than welcoming any information/tips/suggestions, my one concern on the moment is where do we stand as citizens/residents of Australia who will have no fixed address.
- Where could our mail be re-directed to (I have a daughter living in Melbourne and we could use her addres for any mail), but what about the car / caravan registration - do they need a fixed abode? Even being on the electoral roll what happens there etc.etc

Any feedback would be gratefully appreciated.
Looking forward to meeting on the road.
Lou

Hi Lou and welcome to the forum, tough questions that a lot of us will face, me in the next two years, I suggest using your daughters place as your main contact by the relevant authorities and then having whatever you can automatically deducted from your account you will have to return to your daughters when rego is due and perhaps other things but I guess you would return once a year any way having no fixed address is not really an issue as long as you use your daughters address you arrange your daughter to send the mail onto wherever you are going to be staying for a length of time, for instance camped at Hobart then ask your daughter to send the mail c/o Hobart post office your daughter will become very important to you (if not already) keep her sweet as it can become tedious going through all your stuff and sending on the relevant gear so lots of goodies for her will be in the offing most of all DONT WORRY ABOUT IT I have met a lot of full timers that are doing this, it has a way of working out we took off for 5 years back a while ago, we just overcame each hurdle as it presented itself, mostly by phone, rego, phone a Friend, ask him to pay it, place the money back in to his account, it really is that easy. leave an amount of money in an account accessible by your daughter and let her do it. just enjoy your break!!!

Hi Dave, thanks for your prompt reply, I will certainly keep on the right side of my daughter - in fact I often tell her that she's my favourite, the fact that she's my only daughter probably has something to do with it, but don't tell her that. Lou

ah!! we all have favorites, only having the one makes the decision a lot easier. just enjoy your break, life has a way of making things right, worrying about them never solved anything!!!!!!!!!

Hello Lou, Welcome the grey nomads, or the wondering wanderers, Notice your home is Geelong, My last home was in Bendigo, and was talked into becoming a nomad by my son, who lives in Yarra Junction, it seems he knew me better than I did, as I have been a wanderer for most of my life and I have been on the road now for 8 years with a base in Sapphire Qld, unlike you i have no intent to buy another house and have never been as happy and contented as I am now, To answer your problems, it would be safe to say that all my bills are paid by phone, eithrr by direct debit to Visa, or a payment made to the post office whereever I may be, I use my sons address for all correspondence and he reads it all, and sends me a sms I keep a record of payments on the last paper bill I got, which also has my barcode for that particular company, this identifys you to the local post office, I supply my son with my forwarding address so if there is anything that has to be sent to me he does so, another alternative is to pay over the internet, so it pays to hang to the last paper bill for identity reasons All my rego, car, bus, caravan and trailer, d/licence, phone , rentals, incoming, rates, etc are all taken care of the same way, in fact with most of them they can probably assume I am living at my sons address, hope this helps

Thanks for your comments Mike & Judy, all information is welcome and helps guide me to what I need to do, if I use my daughters address I may have to pay higher insurance and rego fees etc. as she lives in inner Melbourne, I also have family in Ballarat so that might be a cheaper way to do it, as we will be totally dependent on Mr. Kruds generosity.

Hi Lou, welcome to the forum. I read your post and got all ready to give you the answers and all the other buggers beat me to it. I use my brother's address in Brisbane for all my mail and he opens it and e-mails me if there are any bills which need paying and I pay them by electronic banking. If anything looks important, he scans it and sends it to me. Incidentally, wireless broadband is worth its weight in gold. (I use pre-paid) Happy travels

well I got nothing better to do, I'm at work, papers come in papers go out, papers come in papers go out, papers come in, papers go out, I can even make them go in circles, if I take one directly from the inbox and put it in the outbox without processing it, I find the office runner brings it back again, and around it goes, HAH!!! HAH!!! drives them mad, but I can only do this a couple of times before they get grumpy, ahhhhh!! simple pleasures in life!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to the road. I've been on the road since Aug 07. My vehicles are registered in WA, my postal address is a box number in SA managed by my daughter. I send her a pack of express post bags, which means no cost to her. She then fills them periodically and sends them to wherever I instruct her to send the mail eg, my next destination caravan park or postal collection in the town. As my vehicles are not garaged in WA I needed to find a national insurer for comprehensive insurance, which I found through The National Seniors. More info on web site. I have retained my RAC membership in WA, and have had to use it twice in Qld, with no problems. I originally had comprehensive insurance with them as well, but had to change because of the garaging issue. My van is insured with CIL. As a nomad you are not required to vote in any states, but you are required to vote in Federal elections, which we shouldn't have for a while. I receive most bills by internet, and pay by B/Pay or credit card, on line. Technology is a wonderful thing, when it works. Phone payments are also handy. Drivers licence is "supposed" to be changed if you spend more than 3 months in a state other than the one your current licence is now, but there seems to be some flexibility with that. Depending on the Police Officer and what your offence might be. Ha ha ha. We nomads have presented officialdom with some administrative problems, but they're catching up with us very slowly. We keep setting precedents and if you have a logical sollution to their problem, it's usually accepted and circumstances and records are changed accordingly. Safe and happy travels. Cheers Granny

Hi Barb,
 Thanks for your input, every little bit of info is helpfull
All the best
Lou

Hi Mike,
That appears to be the beauty about this website everybody is willing to help/guide you with relevant info.
All the best
Lou

Hi Granny,
Once again more usefull info, this site is giving me information from a variety of sources this will allow me to select situations to suit my personal situation.
Look forward to seeing you on the road.
Lou

Xtrail51 wrote:

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Hi Lou,
The other guys seem to have answered your questions, except electoral roll.  Call the electoral commission in your area, and ask them for the papers so you can be itinerant. ( no fixed address) and you will be exempt from  voting in any elections, but can voluntarily do so.

Hope this helps.    Barb.

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That is interesting, I had to get my shrink to write a letter stating that I was not mentally capable of compuslory voting but could do so should I not be stressed by the situation.

Lets get this right mate, if you aint stressed youre a person like all of us, but if you are stressed, we talk to Gracie -----------------------roflmhol

According to the electoral commission it is still compulsory to vote in Fed elections, if you are on the electoral roll. But hey, they have to find you first. They don't care who you are at Innamincka.' Once again, valuable info shared on this site. I just love it! Oh Lou, it might be a while before I'm back on the road. I've been hog-tied by the medical profession of Cairns, just because I had a little ol' blood test and they found an anomoly. I'm not really crook, the doctors just keep finding stuff, but it's stuff which will have to be resolved by surgery, so I've been grounded for a while. The feet are very itchy though, and I don't think there's a medical treatment for that. So I'll keep writing the books. For a change today I polished Rosy, my trusty 80 Series Cruiser. Have to look after her, because she looks after me. We're a team. Safe and happy travels. Granny

Hi Granny,
 Thanks for your reply, I wish you all the best for whatever medical research they may do to you.
I was in and out of hospital 8 times last year before they finally decided to install a kickstarter (pacemaker), I guess they had to pay for their Porsche somehow, seriously they have been good and i feel the best I have felt for a long time - in fact I could almost be considered dangerous - well not really.
All the Best
Lou