This blog is about living cheap as a means of attaining financial freedom - that is, the ability to do what you love and to do it when and how you choose. I’m all about the nitty-gritty stuff that you have to do to get to that point. I’m not interested in idle dreaming. I have the utmost respect for people who walk their own path, who make the decision to buckle down and realize impossible dreams, who take the concrete steps necessary to achieve far-off goals.
Full-time RVers are a group of people who are really making it happen, and if you haven’t heard of this group of people before, I’d like to take a moment to tell you a little about their lifestyle. Even if you don’t ever plan to take up full-time residence in an RV - and I, for one, don’t - I think you’ll probably find the determination exhibited by this group of people to be inspiring.
The concept of the full-time RV lifestyle is very simple: live rent-free in your vehicle. There are all sorts of RVs you can choose from. There are luxury models costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; more modest ones can be purchased for well under $50k, or you can even rig up a pickup truck on your own. Once you’ve got a vehicle, you go where you please. You can sleep someplace different each night if you want to. Many full-time RVers park overnight at Wal-Mart, which unofficially welcomes the practice (referred to in the RV world as “wallydocking”). There are also RV parks offering water and electricity, and staying at one of these places will generally run you less than $25 a night.
One of the points about this lifestyle which I admire is the amount of determination exhibited by those who take off in their RVs and don’t come back. It takes a lot of planning to stay financially solvent on the road. This lifestyle has the potential to be very cheap, particularly when you consider that it has the advantage of being kind of like a perpetual vacation, but you do need to keep to a strict budget. For a sample RVer’s budget, check out MotorHome magazine’s article on the Dollars & Sense of Full-timing. Note that the article is nine years old, and I’m pretty certain that current gas prices are changing the economics of the RV lifestyle, but hey, when you live in your vehicle, you still live rent-free.
To get a sense of what the everyday life of a full-time RVer is like, check out the Agredano family’s Live Work Dream blog. They discuss both the joys and practicalities of the RV life. I personally found reading through the Full-Timing Tips section to be particularly interesting. These are practical, frugally minded tips on saving the cash you have and making more of it while still on the road.
The thing I respect most about the full-time RV lifestyle is the idea that these people are doing what they really, really want to do. They plan for it and reach out for it and get it. That’s pretty cool!
If you don’t love life on the road, then obviously this lifestyle isn’t for you. Personally, I like to travel, but I also like being in a fixed location and I think the need for some stability would get to me after a while, so I’m not going to take off in an RV anytime soon. But I do think that there is something to learn from this kind of creative thinking and this kind of determination.
If you want something - financial freedom, for instance - you’ve gotta pick up and make it happen, just like these people are picking up in their RVs and living out their dreams.
For some interesting reading on the RV life, check out:
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May 16th, 2008 - 11:56 am
That lifestyle is basically my wife’s dream (my nightmare). I like having a place to call home (not the local Denny’s). To each his own, I guess.
May 18th, 2008 - 6:39 pm
My grandmother did this for over 10 years. I plan on doing this but for only half the year. I think it is a great way to spend your retirement seeing the country.
May 19th, 2008 - 4:21 pm
This resource rocks - Thank you, I found a few that I didn’t know about.