Advice on doing a Lap

Hi Andrea

Good on you - find a way to do it. Lots already are.

I would not rent out my own home, other than to trusted close family. If i was selling to finance the rig, i would buy a 'rental property' first, but never rely on rent to make loan payments, and allow for the fact that the occasional tenant can trash the house. That would however, give you some real estate security to sell and set up again after the trip.

On the road living may be a bit dearer due to higher costs of fuel and food in remote areas, and the fact that you can't bulk buy to make savings like you can when at home. Otherwise it will be similar or sometimes cheaper (eg no electricity bills).

Costs are what you make them. How far you travel in a day, how long you stay in one place, whether you free camp a lot, whether you go to a lot of places with entrance fees or take cruises and flights for sight seeing.

Try and set aside an emergency fund so you are not stranded with a major breakdown, or you can fly 'home' in case of a health or family emergency.

Ask Centrelink again and again. You just may get different answers.

Enjoy this wonderful land.

Motherhen

Plan for shorter way points ... Fuel is the biggest cost, everything else stays pretty much the same...

If you don't need to eat a thousand kilometers of tar a day you may be able to afford it without the need to rent your home....

as i am in a similar situation. ie we own our own house and i am on a disability pension i would be very interested to hear the outcome. i fear though that centrelink will take the rent as income and adjust your pension accordingly. could be wrong though. hope i am. cheers. and as for renting houses out - we lived overseas for about 13 years at four different times. rented out house out and never missed a rental payment. worse was one time the lawns were let go. still must have been lucky knew plenty who were not so lucky.

So am I right in saying you want to go on a tax payer funded trip around Australia?

[This response is not a personal attack, not meant to be offensive, nor do I have any information on your personal circumstances, not that your circumstances(disability/race/age/sex and so on) should make any difference to the reasoning behind this decision]