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Budgeting for Full Time RV Travel


ramblingman

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I've been contemplating making the shift to full time RVing, however, I'm concerned about the budget of constant travel and if I can afford it. I came across this article (https://www.roverpass.com/blog/full-time-rving-resources-tips/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=blog+content) that has some good information about going full time. But I'm wondering if there are any full time freelance writers who are traveling full time and how much you're bringing in monthly if you don't mind sharing!

 

Thanks! B

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Most RVers find their expenses stay about the same. Instead of paying mortgage/rent/utilities you pay campground fees and fuel for vehicles and appliances. Instead of tickets for concerts/plays/etc. you pay admission fees to parks and tourist sites. But, the general cost of living stays about the same as it was when living in a house. Yes, you can boondock in the desert southwest for free but how much did you spend on a solar system to be comfortable doing that?

 

Linda Sand

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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As understand you are not actually asking about full time expenses but rather if there are full time free lance writers actually making money. Will bvr I interesting to see the replies.

Ron & Linda

Class of 2007
2000 Monaco Diplomat

2005 Honda Element

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are" Theodore Roosevelt

"We can't control the wind, but we can adjust our sail"

"When man gave up his freedom to roam the earth, he gave up his soul for a conditioned ego that is bound by time and the fear of losing its attachments."

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We have been full-time for 4 1/2 years. We have found that our budget is about 1/2 of what it was in our house. We were from the cold snowy north and winter gas bills could be as much as $350 per month. Add water & sewer, electricity,and the house payment, you were looking at well over $1,500 per month. Our average rental fee for an RV spot for full hookup are less than $400 per month including our electricity. During summer months we workamp and have free site and utilities. We have managed on a budget of less than $15,000 per year and have not boondocked other than an occasional stop at a Walmart, and that isn't often. If we chose to boondock often, we could be under $10,000 per year. The more you travel, the higher your expenses. Not only for fuel, but you will also pay a daily or weekly rate at the rv parks which are much more than monthly rates. It just depends on how often you want/need to move. We will definitely spend more time traveling and sitting less once we are both drawing our social security in a couple of years. You can live on less if you need or want to.

Pat DeJong

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I write for pay, but not nearly enough to pay all of our expenses. I'm mostly retired but do make a bit of extra money when I happento be inclined to work a bit. Are you thinking of making all of your travel expenses or just some extra funds? As to what it will cost you to live on the road, I suggest that you read this column written a number of years ago but which is still as true as it was back then.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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Nick Russell is a full time writer but he owns his own travel newspaper, The Gypsy Journal, plus writes mysteries and a daily blog. My understanding is you have to look at writing as a full-time job if you want to live off that income. Not something I would be willing to do. As much as I like to write I hate having deadlines. :)

 

Linda Sand

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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I'm an employed newspaper journalist about to hit the road full-time at the end of February. I'm still working on securing income sources, but if you can string together words into sentences there seems to be a lot of low-paying jobs that would cover your needs until you obtain more desirable freelance work--at least that's what I'm sure counting on! Or else our trip will be a lot shorter than planned, but that's part of the fun.

YoungFulltimers.com is dedicated to informing non-retired RVers who live on the road. This news-focused online publication should appeal to fulltimers of all ages.

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I am not a freelance writer, but I used to be a writer/editor of training materials. I was also involved with consulting companies that used freelance people, and I can tell you that it is MUCH easier to continue a job on the road and online than it is to start out getting work that way. In other words, it is extremely helpful to already have a client base of people who know you and your work. I teach college classes online as I travel the country, but I worked for the college for 22 years part-time, both in a classroom and online, before I hit the road. (The college, to my knowledge, has never hired anyone to specifically teach online, so I am an oddity for them.)

 

So, some preparation would be very useful in the last few years before retirement.

 

However, if you are talking about making money from writing blogs, there are quite a few people doing that. RVSue and her Canine Crew and Tioga George are examples of those who are/were very successful. (Tioga George is retired from traveling, so his blog is much smaller than it used to be.) They make money from ads on their blogs and have (or had) hundreds and thousands of people who visit their sites and post every day. They also make money by having a link to Amazon and having people buy things by accessing Amazon through their sites.

 

All of this means that you have to have a really, really, really exceptionally good blog and work very hard at it. RVSue, for example, answers almost every poster and has developed a big following. You only get that number of readers by being a very good writer of an informative and entertaining blog--not an easy task, I can tell you from experience. You need a lot of readers to make money, which is why I do not even try because I just do not have the time.

 

I also do know someone who writes romance novels while she travels, but she also has a home and did that before she started RVing.

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There are a lot of people with blogs that share expense information, us included. You can click on our link in the signature and see what we had to say about our last 3 years on the road, I think I did that update just a couple updates back so it will be easy to find if you so desire.

Dave & Diane

2020 New Horizon Majestic  5th wheel

2018 Ram 5500

2014 Tiffin Phaeton 42LH (SOLD)
2012 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited (SOLD)

http://daveanddiane.wordpress.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWqRmO1rO4cu3rFANF1iG6Q

 

http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/4;10752;80/st/20120701/e/Went+fulltime/dt/-2/k/271f/event.png
 

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I've been contemplating making the shift to full time RVing, however, I'm concerned about the budget of constant travel and if I can afford it.

If you return and read the responses given, it would be good to let us know if we have helped or make a comment to indicate how we could narrow the responses to be more helpful.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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If you return and read the responses given, it would be good to let us know if we have helped or make a comment to indicate how we could narrow the responses to be more helpful.

Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful responses!! Our internet was out over the weekend here at the park and it finally popped back on!

 

 

I am not a freelance writer, but I used to be a writer/editor of training materials. I was also involved with consulting companies that used freelance people, and I can tell you that it is MUCH easier to continue a job on the road and online than it is to start out getting work that way. In other words, it is extremely helpful to already have a client base of people who know you and your work. I teach college classes online as I travel the country, but I worked for the college for 22 years part-time, both in a classroom and online, before I hit the road. (The college, to my knowledge, has never hired anyone to specifically teach online, so I am an oddity for them.)

 

So, some preparation would be very useful in the last few years before retirement.

 

However, if you are talking about making money from writing blogs, there are quite a few people doing that. RVSue and her Canine Crew and Tioga George are examples of those who are/were very successful. (Tioga George is retired from traveling, so his blog is much smaller than it used to be.) They make money from ads on their blogs and have (or had) hundreds and thousands of people who visit their sites and post every day. They also make money by having a link to Amazon and having people buy things by accessing Amazon through their sites.

 

All of this means that you have to have a really, really, really exceptionally good blog and work very hard at it. RVSue, for example, answers almost every poster and has developed a big following. You only get that number of readers by being a very good writer of an informative and entertaining blog--not an easy task, I can tell you from experience. You need a lot of readers to make money, which is why I do not even try because I just do not have the time.

 

I also do know someone who writes romance novels while she travels, but she also has a home and did that before she started RVing.

This is extremely helpful information. I've heard of full time bloggers and the same techniques applied to their blogs as a source of income, but you're right, this is very time consuming and the content has to be exceptional. I'm 25 years old, I've never had a career job so to speak but my significant other travels for their job, relocating once or twice a year, and if I could bring in an equal amount with my writing we've discussed just traveling full time for a year or so with the fifth wheel. My entire client base was found online through a freelancing website, I'm not quite sure how I could go about finding those sorts of jobs any other way. However, I think the idea here is to gather a core group of clients that continually need my writing at a decent pay, and once I have that stable source of income, we make the shift to traveling.

 

 

 

youngfulltimers, when you speak of low-paying jobs, are you referring to writing jobs. If its writing jobs, any info on how to find them?

 

Thanks

I found all of my freelancing jobs through a site called UpWork.com they have listings for content writing, web design, graphic design, transcription, etc. Go check it out!

 

 

We have been full-time for 4 1/2 years. We have found that our budget is about 1/2 of what it was in our house. We were from the cold snowy north and winter gas bills could be as much as $350 per month. Add water & sewer, electricity,and the house payment, you were looking at well over $1,500 per month. Our average rental fee for an RV spot for full hookup are less than $400 per month including our electricity. During summer months we workamp and have free site and utilities. We have managed on a budget of less than $15,000 per year and have not boondocked other than an occasional stop at a Walmart, and that isn't often. If we chose to boondock often, we could be under $10,000 per year. The more you travel, the higher your expenses. Not only for fuel, but you will also pay a daily or weekly rate at the rv parks which are much more than monthly rates. It just depends on how often you want/need to move. We will definitely spend more time traveling and sitting less once we are both drawing our social security in a couple of years. You can live on less if you need or want to.

 

 

This is so helpful to have it put into actual terms. You're right, the more you move around the more costly it'll get. All of the parks we've ever lived in it cost us about $650-$700 for the month, electricity not included. What part of the country are you generally in? I'm usually in the South West. So, do you think a $20,000/year income is livable for two people, as far as all expenses like food, park fees, gas, insurance- at the rate of moving say once a month?

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Thanks for letting us know what happened. We get so involved in the challenges of finding answers for other folks that we may sometimes be more intense that the person whose problems we are trying to fix! :P

 

One thing to consider in your planning that is just as important as extra income is the different ways that one can cut expenses, since that has the very same impact as would extra money. We happen to prefer sites with full hookups but we also look for places to keep busy and that leads us to volunteer for site locations at public parks, national & state wildlife refuges, historic sites, and other such places. We seek locations where we can take part in things that satisfy our need for feeling useful and also provide opportunities for us to learn new skills or new facts of history or nature. There are also commercial RV parks that you work for your site or site and some pay, there are dry camping ares that cost little or nothing, and there are the "Stoppin Spots" from Escapees where you stay on property of members for a small contribution to the cost of utilities or sometimes free. (We used to use those a lot and made a lot of friends doing so.) By doing this we would spend a month or longer at a location and usually never return but find a new location with a different interest and in a place where we have not spent time before. We came to love this lifestyle and many others here do so also, but it does mean a slower way of travel. Of course, sitting in one location also cuts expenses for fuel and other travel associated costs.

 

I believe that there as many ways to lower your costs as there are to make money to cover them. The $20K/year is lower than the average in this community, based upon a poll that was taken a while back, but it is clearly possible. It is less than we spent in any one year, but no two of us have the same desires on needs. Are you thinking of making all of your income on the road, or only supplementing it?

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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