How do we get our mail?

Last week I celebrated my 59th birthday! My first retired birthday. My first birthday as a full-time RVer. In other words, it was a fantastic birthday! We spent the day in Bisbee, Arizona, an old copper mining town southeast of Tucson. The highlight was eating some of the best homemade food I have ever tasted! Cafe Cornucopia is run by three women who have run the cafe for eight years. The green chile quiche and lentil soup were perfect for a cool windy day. And, to top it off, Mark and I shared a banana cream pie that was to die for! After lunch, we strolled through the unique antique shops and art galleries. On the drive home, I even saw a double rainbow. I wonder what that means for me and the next year?

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A question we often get is, “How do you get your mail on the road?” That’s the question I had when we first started researching the RV lifestyle. Since our “house on wheels” moves often, we need to have our mail forwarded to us. When we moved from our Lakeville home last spring, we had our mail forwarded to our daughter’s address until we were able to switch to a new domicile. So, what the heck is a “domicile”? A domicile, in general, is the place which an individual intends to have his or her fixed address or legal address or permanent residence (home), and to which he or she intends to return whenever absent. We met with our financial advisor, did a lot of research and in the end, we chose South Dakota as our new domicile.

Things to consider when choosing a domicile:

• What financial interests do you have in your current state: a home, property, business, rental income? If you have these, then, you may want to keep your domicile in your current state.
• Your domicile should be the state you spend most of your time in. For example, if you spend at least six months or more in Florida, you may want to consider Florida as your domicile.
• Be prepared to change all legal documents to the domicile state to show your residency. This includes your driver’s license, vehicle(s) registration, vehicle(s) insurance and voter registration. It is also recommended you join a church or a club of some kind in the state. By doing this, it proves to your previous state you took the steps to move away from that state.
• Seek out financial/legal counsel to ensure you are making the right decision for your situation. Residency rules can be very complicated and states can be aggressive in taxing former residents. Keep good records to accurately document the timing of a move and income.

South Dakota Domicile

We chose South Dakota as our domicile for several reasons: it’s close to our previous state of Minnesota, no annual vehicle inspections, they do not have any income tax and they have taken an extra step and created an “exception” clause for non-traditional residents (full-time RVers).

“People who travel full-time – If you are using a South Dakota mail forwarding address, you will need to complete the Residency Affidavit. You will also need to provide one document proving your temporary South Dakota address (a hotel/motel, campground or RV park receipt no more than one year old) and ONE DOCUMENT no more than ONE year old proving your personal mailbox (PMB) service address (receipt from the PMB business or a piece of mail with your PMB address on it).”

Excerpt – South Dakota Department of Public Safety website

Escapee’s RV Club Mail Service

We are members of the Escapees RV Club and took advantage of their mail forwarding service. Since South Dakota, Florida and Texas are friendly to RVers, they make arrangements with each of these states to provide a unique mailing address usable for your legal domicile. We submitted our request for a South Dakota domicile and within a week, we had our new address.

Next, we drove our motorhome to Rapid City on a shake-out trip and to transfer our domicile to South Dakota. After providing a receipt for an overnight stay and the residency affidavit with our new address, the attendant gave us our new South Dakota driver’s licenses and signed us to receive voter registration cards. This all took only 10 minutes to do! In Minnesota, there is currently a delay of up to four months to receive your driver’s license! In addition, we went to the Pennington County offices to get new vehicle registrations and license plates. Both of these processes were easy and fast!

The Escapees mail service facility is in Livingston, Texas and it is recommended to use the Texas mailing address to receive mail and then get the mail forwarded to wherever you are in the U.S. The next step of letting everyone know your new address is the hardest part! We updated our new address at the post office and then proceeded to change our address on literally everything. This included financial/retirement institutions, credit cards, cellular provider, medical/vehicle insurance, retirement accounts, medical centers, online services/subscriptions (Amazon, PayPal, Netflix, Delta, etc.), magazines, and don’t forget the annual Christmas cards! We still seem to find things that need our address changed!

First-Class Mail is Forwarded

The mailing service forwards our first-class mail to us. We made a decision to only forward first-class mail. It sure is nice not getting any junk mail! We call them about twice a month and give them a forwarding address to where we will be in about three days. They can forward mail via FedEx or USPS Priority Mail. Examples of forwarding addresses include a friend’s house (thanks Joe and Carla in Scottsdale), an RV park you are staying at or to general delivery at a local post office. If using the general delivery option, make sure you call the post office to ensure they take general delivery.

So, that’s a long explanation of how we get mail! If you would like to send us mail, just email me and we can provide our Texas mailing address to you. Just realize it may take awhile for us to receive it.

In the comments below, let us know what other questions you would like us to cover.

Find Joy in the Journey – Heidi of Loving the RV Life