For our part, we are firmly established at the Big O RV Resort in Okeechobee and our new satellite internet business seems to be taking off along the route envisioned.  We certainly miss rolling the Rolling Home, but we are going up to Orlando in early February for the Orlando Hamfest and it appears that our plans to handle RV products is coming along and we hope to hit the rally trail this summer with the business.  (Look for the link to our commercial website in the next week or two)  We already have the entire Winegard Satellite TV line and we are looking to pick up KingDome and maybe TracStar as products also.  We carry a couple of neat mounts for satellite TV, one that can be filled with water to keep the dish from falling over and another that is chest high with a dish, the tripod and 50 feet of coax.  These items will be on our website and can be shipped anywhere in the country.

Why, you ask (or maybe not) are you two getting tied down with a business?  We certainly didn't think when we retired that we would wind up with a business to manage.  However, we always thought we would need to workamp in the summers or even in the winter to keep from depleting our savings nest egg.  The first year with 20-25% returns in the stock market spoiled us.  However the second year of our adventure, we found our income dropping with the market.  Last year, we bottomed out and my income settled in at about 25% of the 2000 figure.

We took a workamping job in Wisconsin last summer and while we really enjoyed what we were doing and loved meeting most of the campers, a minimum wage job and a free campsite gave us the ability to stay even, but didn't really allow us to make up for those market losses.  We did install satellite systems for a business out of Arizona most of last year and picked up a few dollars there, but still not enough to make up for our stock market losses.  We mulled over our options, including coming off the road for a while, but we just love our lifestyle and really don't want to give it up.  The best option, in our opinion is to have a business that we can take with us and still enjoy our lifestyle.  Our company, Advanced Satellite Internet Inc. is built around fixed internet satellite dishes.  Our plans include picking up one of the mobile internet systems and handling an array of satellite TV accessories for RVs.  We have applications in with the satellite TV providers and hope to have tv receivers and programming in our  product line in the next few weeks.  We have already spent a lot of time repairing and installing tv jacks for folks in the local rv parks for their satellite systems.

At ages, 54 and 55, we are still a ways off from social security and think that our business venture will give us the income we want in order to continue to travel and do the things we really enjoy.   However, we need to spend some time here in Okeechobee getting the fixed dish part of the business going.  We have four systems installed this month and expect several more before the end of the January.

Here is some advice to you early retirees.  Have lots of cash.  We started out with what we thought was a nice tidy lump sum of cash.  We had about 50k. Its gone!  Our income has dropped so drastically over the last 18 months that we simply have to replenish our cash reserve.  Are we broke. No we still have plenty of money, but it needs to last a long time hopefully and we do not want to dip in to our core accounts to get living expenses.   So, here we are.  Sitting still for a few months, saving money by not traveling and also bringing in extra income with our new business.   Are we off the road?  No way.  We have all the same desire to travel and see new places that we always had.  I keep having to remind some of our other fulltime friends that we are not off the road.  We still live in a motorhome, we still have short trips planned for the next few months and we hope to make an extended trip late this summer and fall.  Our itinerary may include Branson, the Fall Escapade and Blairsville, Ga again before returning to our new nest in Okeechobee.  We may also go to some rallies to sell our RV related products.  Our long term plans include Alaska again in 2004.  We will likely return to Okeechobee each winter for the next few years to make sure we are in warm weather and can keep our expenses down for the winter months.

We didn't sit still for all of December.  In the middle of the month, we drove the Tracker over to St Pete and took our grandchildren their Christmas presents.  It is such fun being a grandparent.  We also took them Dunkin Donut Munchkins.  Its a great trick to play on your kids.  Feed the grandkids sugar and then go home!

Here are the Nathan, Spencer and Julia enjoying their gifts.

During the month of December, we also had our new lot at the Big O redone.  We had them remove the old concrete pad and had a new pad poured.  The new pad came during January, so here is what it looked like before the new concrete.

Here is a bonus pic of one of our new neighbors here next to Lake Okeechobee!
 

Camping for December   $0
Diesel Fuel for December $0
LP for December             $0
 

Year End expenses

Camping for 2002                $2,517.25 or $6.90 per day.

Diesel Fuel for 2002              $1,045.34 or $87.11 per month.

LP for 2002                          $47.38  or $3.95 per month.

We boondocked for 16 days in 2002.

As you can see, we have greatly reduced our living expenses in 2002.  We didn't travel as much, we workamped all summer and we stayed in one spot in Florida for over two months.  We are moving in the right direction for this down economic cycle!