When we meet people and they learn that we’re full time, inevitably one question always gets raised. It’s not about where we’ve been, our rig, or how we get Beezer enough exercise that she doesn’t chew the walls of the RV down to the bare frame. So, today we’re going to answer the big question everyone asks….
How do you get your mail?
The short answer: we’ve got a service for that.
The question actually involves a much bigger consideration though. No, not what’s for dinner (although to be fair, that is what we’re usually thinking). Nope, our mail service involves the legal concept of a domicile. A domicile is essentially the state you choose for your residence. Or at least the state where you’re going to register your vehicle, pay your income tax and cast your vote. There’s three states that are especially friendly to full time Rvers: South Dakota, Texas, and Florida. Considerations like not having to return for vehicle inspections and getting a raise by not having state income tax. Domicile is actually a legal concept that involves showing intent to reside in the state and requires filing paperwork with the court. Since we have family in FL and it the state we will stay in the most, we used that state to establish our domicile. Our mail service provides us with a mailing address and also assists with helping us domicile in FL by providing a physical address for voting, etc.
So, back to our mail…
We use a service called St Brendan’s Isle in Green Cove Springs, FL. Each day we get an email telling us how many pieces of mail we got that day. We log into their website and there’s an image of each envelope. We can then select to have St Brendan’s scan the contents to a pdf, destroy the letter or hold it to mail to us. When we have something we want shipped, we have them send all the mail they’ve been holding to whatever RV park we happen to be in.
Here’s the crazy part of domiciling in FL… since we have no physical address, the “address” on our drivers license is actually the license plate of the RV. The state of Florida seems to be used to it with all the snowbirds but I’ve gotten some serious confusion presenting it in other states.