Thinking About Where I Want To Live Or Take Hometime.

If you have friends and/or family in different parts of the country, why not just take your home time in those places? You can treat them to dinner or shows when you’re there and it’s less expensive than buying AND maintaining a home.

I did this a little for the first two years OTR. It was a great way to visit without being a nuisance. Also, this would allow you to save your money to eventually buy the home you can stay in when you do leave the road for good.

If you buy now, who will shut off the water if a pipe breaks while you’re gone. Who will care for the yard? Will you spend your entire home time getting the house in order before heading back out? Will you really be able to relax and enjoy the home time?

Good luck.

If you read my first entry on this thread I said that I was a lone wolf so I have no friends or family. As I have stated in previous posts on here too many people have screwed me over in my life for me to trust anyone to ever live with me again plus why should I burn money on a hotel when I can own a home if I decide to? Home ownership is cheaper in the long run because after payments are done, you OWN the house. Also hotels won’t let you use there places for residence purposes. They overcharge for the nightly and weekly rates and if I stay in the truck while I am saving up then I’ll get to my goals quicker instead of burning all that cash in something TEMPORARY. That’s also why I will never rent either. Yard maintenance I can take care of by hiring a lawn care service to come by and mow the lawn and then they can call me and I will send them a check for their service. If I find out a pipe breaks, I would call the city and have the water shut off. With what I am looking for I wouldn’t want a big yard anyway so I may just get a cheap lawn mower and mow the lawn myself. It wouldn’t take more than an hour tops. Right now all of this is still in the consideration stages so now the really extensive research on my new chosen city can begin.

MM, I answered your question about my nickname in Tyrone's Jim Palmer thread...just an fyi

MM, I answered your question about my nickname in Tyrone's Jim Palmer thread...just an fyi

I replied back to it with my own insight also. 😁

Just an FYI about Kentucky.. automobile insurance in Kentucky is sky high, but the area does have a lower cost of living. I live just south of Louisville by Fort Knox. You might want to check with your insurance to see what it would run in the Louisville area. Mine is more than 5 times higher than it is in Tennessee.. and that's with a perfect driving record, no tickets or accidents.

Just an FYI about Kentucky.. automobile insurance in Kentucky is sky high, but the area does have a lower cost of living. I live just south of Louisville by Fort Knox. You might want to check with your insurance to see what it would run in the Louisville area. Mine is more than 5 times higher than it is in Tennessee.. and that's with a perfect driving record, no tickets or accidents.

Thanks for that Susan. I will sure look into that.

I have no complaints about Iowa. If you're just looking for a place to take hometime a few times a month or the occasional week here and there, I'd definitely suggest Iowa.

I live in Ottumwa, IA; about 1.5-2h away from Des Moines and Iowa City. I bought my 3 bed 1 bath house in a good neighborhood for $55,000 and was able to afford the monthly bills while taking home about $850 every 2 weeks with my wife making about half that for groceries and her splurge stuffs. There's also a small truck stop in town as well as a walmart that allows long term parking.

I’m also questioning the need for home ownership while driving OTR due to the continual expenses of home ownership. You’ll have to hire a landscaper to mow & maintain your lawn, you’ll have to pay you utilities cause even though your not there, you’ll have to keep the home reasonably warm or cool in whatever climate, property taxes, etc.

I chose Florida as my home state because they don’t collect state or city taxes, I believe TX & TN are the same. I have a UPS store post box because they give you a physical address with a box number that I refer to as unit number. My daughter swings by once a week & opens my mail.

We all have our reasons for our needs & desires but that’s an huge expense for something you’d only use a few times a year. Now if you plan on Airbnb’ing it while you’re away then that’s an option you can look into. Good luck with whatever you chose.

I’m also questioning the need for home ownership while driving OTR due to the continual expenses of home ownership.

I wholeheartedly agree. I drove for 15 years and for the overwhelming majority of those years I didn't have a residence at all. I used a Florida address for the lack of state income tax. I saved up a lot of money over the years.

Home ownership is cheaper in the long run because after payments are done, you OWN the house

First of all, think about that. It takes 30 years to pay off a house. Use a mortgage calculator and look at home much interest you'll throw in the garbage over the course of a 30 year fixed loan. It's astronomical. By the time you pay off the home your property and school taxes will have risen to the point that they'll be equal to what your mortgage was. Then add up all of the maintenance costs

I've been a homeowner for 12 years now and I'm in the process of buying a new one as we speak. I can assure you that buying a home while you're OTR is a complete waste of money. Owning a home costs more than you expect and maintaining it when you're not around is a nightmare. You're going to get home, stay in it a few days, and when you leave you're going to curse yourself for spending all of your hard earned money on something so expensive and time consuming just to sleep in it a few days a month.

Save your money! It's one of the toughest and most important things you can do for yourself. Once you buy a home that chance is pretty much shot.

Besides, you don't know where you want to live at this point. Keep travelling, keep learning all you can about the different cultures, landscapes, and opportunities in different parts of the country, and save up your money. Someday you'll probably decide to move on from trucking, not necessarily because you're tired of trucking, but because you'd like to do all the things you can't do as an OTR driver. At that point you'll have a much better idea about where you'd like to live to pursue those interests.

In the meantime, bask in the glory of being single, living lightly, having no responsibilities other than your job, and having so much freedom without anything tying you down. You're in a dream position. Consider everything, but don't make any moves unless you're 100% certain you can't live without it.

If you want to feel like you're making an effort towards purchasing your first home, then I'd suggest you estimate how much your monthly mortgage would be, and deposit that amount each month into an interest-bearing savings account. So if/when you decide where you want to live, you'll be way ahead of the game with a down payment towards your purchase. All the while gaining interest instead of paying it.

If you have friends and/or family in different parts of the country, why not just take your home time in those places? You can treat them to dinner or shows when you’re there and it’s less expensive than buying AND maintaining a home.

I did this a little for the first two years OTR. It was a great way to visit without being a nuisance. Also, this would allow you to save your money to eventually buy the home you can stay in when you do leave the road for good.

If you buy now, who will shut off the water if a pipe breaks while you’re gone. Who will care for the yard? Will you spend your entire home time getting the house in order before heading back out? Will you really be able to relax and enjoy the home time?

Good luck.

If you read my first entry on this thread I said that I was a lone wolf so I have no friends or family. As I have stated in previous posts on here too many people have screwed me over in my life for me to trust anyone to ever live with me again plus why should I burn money on a hotel when I can own a home if I decide to? Home ownership is cheaper in the long run because after payments are done, you OWN the house. Also hotels won’t let you use there places for residence purposes. They overcharge for the nightly and weekly rates and if I stay in the truck while I am saving up then I’ll get to my goals quicker instead of burning all that cash in something TEMPORARY. That’s also why I will never rent either. Yard maintenance I can take care of by hiring a lawn care service to come by and mow the lawn and then they can call me and I will send them a check for their service. If I find out a pipe breaks, I would call the city and have the water shut off. With what I am looking for I wouldn’t want a big yard anyway so I may just get a cheap lawn mower and mow the lawn myself. It wouldn’t take more than an hour tops. Right now all of this is still in the consideration stages so now the really extensive research on my new chosen city can begin.

I guess I didn’t realize “lone wolf” meant zero friends and family. Sorry.

I understand the desire to have your own place. I own my home, but my family lives in it.

Just remember; you’ll be paying property taxes and insurance on a place you only get to stay a couple of times a month. There are lots of things to consider, but I won’t waste your time.

Nobody to screw you over also means nobody to share your joys and successes. Good luck with your search.