Hi to you all, My wife (Carol) and I have agonized over the decision to sell the house and buy a van to our specifications and head off into the wild blue yonder and become "Not so Grey Nomads". The house goes on the market this weekend so the decision has been made. I would like to draw on your knowledge and experience and ask a few questions.
We currently live in Adelaide SA. When we sell the house obviously we will not have a residential address however we have arranged a postal address (Daughter living in Canberra)
I intend to make my own enquiries re: the following but would like so advice please.
What do we do about the following:
1) Vehicle and caravan registration when up for renewal - currenrtl registered in SA. 2) Vehicle and caravan insurance (should not be a problem I expect) 3) Centrelink (currently receiving DSP) I have been told that we may be entitled to rent reliefe payment. 4) Aust. Tax Office 5) Electoral roll - where do you vote if you have no fixed address ? 6) Ongoing doctors prescriptions for medication. 7) Drivers licence.
Looking forward to any advice Cheers Doug & Carol
PS We have discussed at length whether we can live in such close proximity to one another as we will in a caravan. We perhaps have been fortunate as we have only had one argument during our whole married llfe - It started on our wedding night and still has not been resolved !!!
-- Edited by DKay on Friday 8th of January 2010 10:29:38 PM
Stick with SA same with Licence can all be renewed over the net , but you will need a SA address for that . I moved over here from NSW and just cant believe how easy it is as for rego and licence compared to NSW . Needed to renew my SA licence this year and was working long hours had a look at EziReg and you can renew your licencve for up to 9 years using the old photo .
-- Edited by Mick themungrel on Friday 8th of January 2010 10:02:57 PM
It started on our wedding night and still has not been resolved !!!
I can relate to that!
Seriously, I look forward to the replies you get because we are going through the same soul searching that you have completed. Sell house? Don't sell, what to do?
How did you come to your decision? Are you keeping furniture 'just in case?" or totally stepping into a new life, cutting all ties?
We have looked at several possibilities which I wont go into here publicly but would be happy to talk about if you like to pm me a phone number. (landline cos it is cheap on MyNetFone).
Cheers Neil
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Neil & Lynne
Pinjarra
Western Australia
MY23.5 Ford Wildtrak V6 Dual Cab / 21' Silverline 21-65.3
We have been toying with the idea for a while now (12 months or so) I guess the decisionm was helped along by our daughters. Our youngest is now living in Canberra. The two older daughters have just informed us that they are moving to Brisbane to live. So - no kids & grandkids in Adelaide now so we decided there was little to keep us in SA. We started doing small trips in a 16.5ft van - 4-5 days, then extending the length of time until our most recent trip (14 weeks in Vic , NSW & Q'land). This convinced us that we could live in close proximity but needed a bigger van. We were convinced that you both need time out from each other and as I love fishing and "she who must be obeyed" is a keen artist. We are both very active volunteers with the local council and during our travels we enquired at several councils who were more than willing to use our experisnce and knowledge. Hope this helps a little. Cheers Doug
We're greying nomads ourselves & from NSW, I keep license, rego & insurance at the same friends address that we have our mail delivered to, same with voting & just vote absentee.
Before leaving get your doctor to print out your medical history and any medication needed so you can show doctors on the way.
Being on a disability pension I also get rent relief from Centrelink, every time we change address we notify them on line on the Centrelink site. To receive rent relief I have to hand in a form for every change of address I pay rent at(site fees etc). I keep a pile of blank forms with me & hand them in every fortnight filled in just before my pension is due, One hassle is when I hand them in they make me sit down till someone can interview me each time as the counter staff never know what to do Good luck Jon & Hylda
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Home is where we hang our hats - Home now in Yamba NSW
we travelled a fair bit with no home address when we were younger, what we did was use our freinds address just as a "home base"
you could use say a son or daughters residence or a good freinds addy to have a point of mail, he/she could sort ou the wheat from the chaff and let you know what needs doing, it works for us when we choof off for 6 month periods
as the mongrel has said stay with s.a. for license and rego and home address, way easier
centrelink and govvy agencies dont like the idea of post boxes or "no fixed abode" so use a rellys addy and it is much simpler
one other thing Doug, dont take offence but please dont put your private details up here for all to see, such as email address, too many dropkicks have access to this site as it is an open forum, never know whos looking in
way better to have it as a private message or in your personal page
Spot on Daveo can'thave Dubbos having our personal details,so keep them sacred.oops sorry secret, and follow Daves advice re message to personal page etc.Cheers.Ibbo.
The big decision! whether to work a bit or sell your house and tour for ever. As I live on a tropical island and have a reasonable lifestyle, if I can force myself to put up with the public,I don,t do so bad. its a big decision.After 16 years of taking people fishing, I must admit , I have thought about it.I spent 15 weeks on the road , last year.I like my little house, but I also like being on the road.bugga!decisions , decisions.off again in 3 weeks. Bill
Hi DKay we went through all the same dramas but its not that difficult. We left Mackay just over 3 years ago, we have a friends address there where our rego and licence go to, both can be paid on line or bpay,We have kids in Perth, Adelaide and Mackay so depending where we are our mail goes to who is the closest to where we are and they ring us and forward on. I am on dsp and my hubby is my carer and C'link is not a drama when you book into a park the office can sign the rent assist form and that is only updated 6 monthly so we move and put a new form in when the time is up. C'link have our mobile nimber and they will text you or email you if they need to contact you. We are leaving Adelaide in 5 weeks looking forward to getting on the road again especially after the warm weather we've had here the last few days, happy and safe travelling. Colsa.
Hi DKay forgot to tell what we do with voting we contacted the elect office and they wrote us a letter saying we are itinerant voters [with no fixed address] and we only have to vote on federal elections and we did that in Perth no dramas, also got a letter from the doc saying what our problems and medications are makes life easier when you need a doc. Colsa
G'day Doug, We are in a similar position as yourself, will be heading off sometime next month for no set time. SWMBO decided that the house was to be kept as a base for the moment and reasses after 12 months. Rego and licence keep in SA, as Mick stated can be renewed over the net and use a family members address. Our postal address will be changed to sons house and we will provide him with pre paid postal bags and he will send to a PO in a town nominated by us. Mail can also be scanned and emailed to you if you trust the person handling your mail. We spoke with a centrelink financial planner who was very helpful and provided a good insight into what our entitlements would be. As we are both still working we can't get a "face to face" appointment until we are unemployed. Hope this helps