Just a quick qn I always wanted to ask, and only you can answer this.

You live in a RV right. That is all ok and good. But how do you deal with your neighbors? I mean you are a well educated person and you sound decent, but generally people living in trailer parks are uneducated and not so nice. Is it safe living in a trailer park? When I saw some trailer parks, I did not get a good feeling. I saw sewer water running onto the roads and heard children cursing at each other while playing.

Reminded me of slums in Mexico and India.

The park we live in is very peaceful and quiet. We have some really nice neighbors, although there have been a few instances of questionable activity. The people causing the issues in our park usually don’t last there very long. It is very clean, they have been replacing the septic/water lines periodically as people come and go or as the City requires it. As for intellectual base, well, the neighbors run the spectrum, but they are all nice and welcoming (or keep to themselves). We did have some annoying neighbors, but luckily they moved out. So, I guess it is just the park you find, we did check out a few and were definitely scared off by some. Ours has a lot of contractors who live there while working and a lot of retirees. As for safety, I feel very safe in the park, even when Jacob is away, although we live in the industrial part of town (ranch town not big city industrial), so I usually won’t walk that far at night alone. Hope that helps a bit.

@lanjha – There are different parks just like there are different neighborhoods. Good ones and bad ones. Educationally our neighbors comprise a carpenter, a USDA admin, an airtraffic controller, and an electrician (who just moved south to find work). In general the nicest and most helpful guys also seem to be the least educated.

Occasionally some bad element moves in, but the neighborhood keeps such a close eye on them that they quickly move out again. You could say that “neighborhood watch” around here is spectacular. However I can also imagine parks where the bad elements have taken over.

It’s pretty easy to drive through a park a get a very good impression of how good or bad it is from the looks of it. Plant containers, works in progress, what the people are doing (loitering, talking, or working on stuff), …

@Rodent – In general I don’t tell people any amounts. This is as much a question of privacy as it is the inability to convey the concepts of financial independence and safe withdrawal rates in casual conversation. My “cover-story” for socialization purposes is that I’m a writer.

My “cover-story” for socialization purposes is that I’m a writer.

Why is that a cover story?

@Jacob–but you *are* a writer, so I don’t understand the distinction. If you had inherited all of your money, and then became a writer, would you consider “I’m a writer” to be a cover story? If you returned to academia, would you consider “I’m a physicist” to be a cover story? I’m not being argumentative–I’m actually curious.

My DH feels he’ll have to “justify” retiring early and not working even though he’s young and physically capable. (like “I won the lottery” or something) Is that what you mean? It’s not about where you get your money but explaining why you’re at home during the day?

Ah, thanks that helps. And I understand the 1040 thing. I have income from a couple of different sources but I just list “homemaker” under occupation. I’m always tempted to list Human.