Really and truthfully, is full-tme rv living possible? Would anybody in their right mind actually want to do this? I think the answer to this really depends on where you are at in your life. If you have a young family, and you have to be in a specific city to work, then it might not be for you.

If you are able to make yourself location independent then this becomes a very strong possibility. This is why you see a lot of retired folks pursuing this dream. They really don’t have a lot of obligations and in a lot of cases there totally location independent when it comes to income. I’m not there yet, and I’m trying to get there. I’m about to turn 50 years old this fall and I still have three kids in the house. One of them is in the 20s and the other one is in their late teens. My third child is just turning 12 this year.

So it’s still a little bit difficult. One thing that I have done is made my job location independent. I been offering my business with a voice over IP number for number of years and I’ve pretty much doing business with local clients. Unless of course the business can be done over the phone. Most my business is international in nature. Needless to say, my income is location independent.

Unfortunately my health took a bit of a turn the last 12 months and that is causing the main difficulties. I’m going to treatments right now hoping that by middle of next year we can embark upon a full-time RV living adventure at least in the part-time capacity. Something crazy, but I’ll take anything I get. The biggest problem is my children at this time.

We do have our coachman motorhome and it’s lovely to travel in. Even on the road gives us the ability to sit at the table and enjoy good card game and even a spot of lunch when we stop. So what we’re planning to do is possibly embark upon a two or three month journey down into the states enjoying the sights. I’ll have to hammer out some details such as access to the Internet for my business while in the United States but I don’t believe that to be a big holdback.

One of the biggest draws to full-time RV living is the fact that your backyard could be a whole country. You could wake up one day to the Grand Canyon and the next to the Rocky Mountains. It really is that awesome. My wife and I have already toured Europe and totally enjoyed it. We enjoyed it so much that a couple years back, we took all of her children for about six weeks. It was expensive, but it was one of the best vacations we ever have.

Not only that you get to see how other people literally tie their shoes. And that is really cool. You get a chance to step into the lives and see how they do things. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit it’s even better because you’ll see ideas that might not exist in one part of the country that are thriving in another part of the country. This could be a golden opportunity to partner up with somebody on the West Coast to take their product to the East Coast.

But just the wanderlust of it is really the biggest thing. You can have a really excellent time full-time RV living if you have the right resources, the right RV and the right attitude. If you are a family that is not really tight and have bouts of squabbling I can promise you living in close quarters for several months at a time will only make your problems rise to the surface. But if you can become a loving and close family, living in an RV full-time could be the best thing you ever did!

So I hope this article gives a bit of an idea of what it’s like enjoy full-time RV living. Now it’s time for you to start your adventure!

There will come a time when you are finally ready to hit the road! It’s a big decision, one that’s not taken lightly. But are you really ready or are you delaying because you don’t thing you are ready?

Let me offer you some advice when it comes to making the decision to become a full time rver. You know when you are ready when:

1. You’ve got the RV! And it’s in good mechanical order.
2. Your family is pretty much on board.
3. You know where your daily income will continue to come from to cover your expenses.
4. You’ve got all the insurances you need in place such as towing, health, etc.
5. You are mentally ready.

Let’s break each of these points down.

1. You’ve Got The RV!

Sounds like a weird thing to say, but what I’m getting at is you have the right RV for the job and everything is working perfectly. With this you need to be sure that you know how to use and maintain all of the systems in the RV.

I know from my own experience, I’ve needed a few seasons just to get the feeling of things. And I’m still learning. If you read my articles on batteries, you know that I ruined $300+ worth of batteries that were just 6 months old.

You want to be good to go when it comes to operating the RV too. Again, you don’t want to be 1,000 miles from home when you discovered you are in trouble. That just screams of spending money on something you don’t need too.

If you’ve got yourself and your RV in order, let’s look at point number 2.

2. Your Family Is On Board

You will have family that comes and family that says behind. You need to be sure that everyone is happy with this decision. It’s a big sacrifice for some as they will not see the benefits because they are morning the lost of someone or something.

Let me give you an example. My two oldest children are teenagers and shutter the thought that we decide to pack up and leave on an extended trip! What about my friends? What about my boyfriend/girlfriend? This is unfair!!

Yes as you’ve guessed, I’ve heard the drama. I have to tell you travelling with younger children is so much easier! And that brings up a valid point too. Is it better to wait until children are on their own and go with just your spouse? Again big decisions.

Next, you need to be sure that all who stay behind are in a good place too. Especially if you decide to not sell you primary residence and your kids or relatives are staying behind. Make sure that they can handle things while you are gone, so you don’t get an emergency help call when you are thousands of miles away.

3. Your Daily Income

We’d all love to live in a bubble, but money is highly important and all the things that come with that. You need to be sure that you can live on what you have coming in regardless of the source. It could be retirement funds, working on the road or a combination of things.

Also you need to be sure that you can deal with things like taxation. Just because you are in a foreign country when tax time comes doesn’t give you a get out of jail free card. Your friendly government still wants a return every year.

Also be sure that you have a slush fund. Consider it an engine replacement fund. Figure out how much it would cost in total to have your truck or RV engine completely replaced. Then makes sure you have it available and in reserve. When you have it stashed away for emergencies, when an emergency occurs, it’s not the end of the dream. Just a bump in the road you planned for.

4. Insurance

I’ll be honest but I’m unsure why insurance is a dirty word for some people. It’s something that you are never forced to have but it’s a great idea to have. Always thing of insurance as saving up for a rainy day. It’s going to rain, just plan for it.

A few types of insurance that should never be skipped include:

• RV towing insurance – when you see how much it costs to tow a bus or a truck and a 5th wheel, you understand how cheap it is to get RV towing insurance
• Health insurance – don’t leave home without it. You don’t know what tomorrow will deal out to you and to think that you don’t need this, you are nuts! Let me give you an example. I had a lump start forming in my throat and I discovered that it was cancer!! If I didn’t have health insurance, I’d have been truly screwed. And just so you know, I’m not even 50 yet. Don’t believe that youth and health are one in the same.
• Life Insurance – Yes, this really goes without saying. The need for life insurance never ends. Get life insurance while you are insurable. In my example, I cannot get any more life insurance. What I have is good but I’m considered uninsurable now.
• Vehicle and content insurance – You want to cover things like theft or damage that can occur. Let’s face it you are on the road and not every place is a friendly place. Again, cover this and you can rest well at night.

There may be other types of insurance to consider but to me the four above are the big four. Get them before you leave home!

5. You Are Mentally Ready

This is the last point and it’s really a personal check too. If it’s you and your spouse that is hitting the road, are you really ready for the challenge? Will you be able to hold out in a smaller space with each other?

Consider all of these points. My recommendation is to take short runs as vacations to get the feel of things. Extend the short runs into longer vacations. Before long, you’ll be gone for two months, loving it or hating it and you’ll know where or not you and your family really are ready. Also, think of the good times and practice you can get when the day comes!

I hope that this article makes you think about the big move to the RV. Full time RV living is a big jump and it has it’s good and bad attached to it. The trick is to minimize the bad and increase the good!

Probably the number one question I get asked all the time is how do I finance my dreams of RVing full-time? This is a difficult question to answer. If you aren’t in the United States and you are a citizen there, this is actually pretty easy. Citizens of the United States have a very wide demographic that they can live within. There’s no work restrictions for somebody who is born and raised in USA.

If you have dreams of RVing full-time, and you are going to to with the United States, you can literally work as you roll. You don’t have to have high-paying jobs to live very well when RVing full-time. If you’ve gotten rid of all the debt that you have, your living expenses should be very very low. For example, it costs me about $7000 of gross income every month to make ends meet. But when RVing, this number drops below $4000 per month. And that is living very well. Read the rest of this entry