Photo via Flickr Creative Commons
3 Things That Shouldn’t Stop You From Full-Time RVing
Full-time RVing is certainly not for everyone, but many people dream of hitting the road full-time if life was different. The good news is that this lifestyle is very doable, it just takes some effort, planning, and downsizing. If you think you can’t RV full-time because of these three reasons, think again.
1. Kids
Of course, full-time RVing with kids comes with challenges, but it also has its own benefits. Your little ones don’t always have to run around those pricey theme parks every day. Full-time RVing rather gives you a chance to roadschool and be closer with your children and give them hands-on experience at museums, historic sites, national parks, and state capitals, as opposed to sitting in a classroom all the time listening to lectures or reading about these places in books.
You can find educational books on the areas you’re visiting and teach them life lessons that are not always taught in public schools. In the evenings, they can often find other kids to play with at the RV park or campground, many of which have playgrounds. By night, they can fall asleep watching TV in the camper while the adults are outside around the campfire.
2. Work/money
Like at home, full-time RVing comes with plenty of money challenges. Things in the RV are always breaking and they’re almost always going to cost you. However, there are many ways to make and save money while you’re living and traveling full-time in an RV.
Some of your options include remote work online or even starting your own mobile business. Many full-timers also like to stay in one place for a few months for a seasonal workamping job. You could also search for local handyman projects or gigs at nearby events.
Work as you travel. Photo by Don Travel/Flickr
If you’re creative, sell prints of photography from your travels or get a booth at local fairs to sell artisan goods like jewelry. Set up an Etsy shop or your own website through WordPress or Wix. Other RVers have found great success in gaining a following on their blog, Youtube channel, or podcast.
It is also equally important to save money as you travel. Instead of camping in RV parks and resorts every night, you can save a lot of money by boondocking for free on public land, or for cheap in county or state parks. Once in a while, stay overnight at Walmart, rest areas that allow overnight parking, or if you’re lucky enough, a friend or family member’s driveway. Rather than spend money on overpriced tourist attractions, try seeking out local parks, hiking trails, and other free/cheap points of interest.
Sign up for clubs like Passport America, Escapees, and Thousand Trails to get a discount at the campgrounds they’re affiliated with across the country. If you’re a AAA member, make full use of all their great discounts on everything from prescriptions to campground rates.
Save money on food by cooking in your RV as often as possible (though it is nice to take a break from cooking sometimes to try the local restaurants). Always search for the lowest local gas prices on Gas Buddy’s website or free app before you fuel up. You can also plan your trip on RV LIFE Trip Wizard to track all of your trip expenses easily.
This Do It Yourself RV article shares how to live and travel on a budget of $2000 or less a month.
3. Going solo
Many people would love to travel full-time but do not want to go alone. While some aren’t comfortable with doing everything by themselves, others don’t mind as it gives them solitude and independence.
There are both men and women who RV solo and plenty of RV clubs and online forums where you can meet and chat with other like-minded travelers. Solo travel isn’t for everyone, but definitely something to consider if you would love to travel full-time and don’t want to wait on anyone else.
Still not sure if full-time RVing is right for you? Check out these articles to learn more about the lifestyle:
- The Dirty Truth Of Full-Time RVing
- If You Have These 10 Personality Traits, You’re Meant To Be A Full-Time RVer
- Is Full-Time RVing Right For You?
- How To Get Rid Of Your Stuff And Hit The Road Full-Time
Sad to say but it seems unlikely that a teen who has spent his/her life on the road with their parents would find it easy to get into further education or even regular work and the oppportunity to learn a trade. Home schooling is possible (with a lot of work) in a regular home but travelling would make it even more difficult.
Selling craft work at shows and festivals may make ‘pocket money’ or help to top up funds but a major repair bill could literally stop you in your tracks.
Loss of a driving licence due to eyesight problems, let alone accidents and serious health problems can put you off the road. If you have sold the ranch to buy the RV there might be no going back. Friends and relatives may well help you through a bad patch but few can sustain a long haul commitment.
Just the two of you and no family – surely its OK for us, yes, but when death doth us part, you might be leaving a non-driving widow, widower or partner stranded in some wilderness
RV’s a great hobby, but operate from a sure base and don’t be a hostage to fortune.
Singletons, you might take your chances, just like you might do a tightrope walk between two mountain peaks, but give a thought to those who may have to pick up the pieces
While you bring up good points, you could also just bring up those good points…….. without it appearing to discount what the article said. Both have good points.
While it may be more difficult for home schoolers to get into the status, elite and State U’s, they would have no difficulty getting into the Tech and Community colleges. Access to the placement tests are not exclusive to conventional schooling. For what it is worth, a lot of mainstream college learning is not worth the money that buys it, which is why these kids are homeschooled to start with. College training doesn’t preclude learning many trades that are needed. Many of the most successful people these days either dropped out or skipped over it.
Of my 4 homeschooled children, one is a marine electrician in the Navy, one is a medical lab assistant and two are presently in university. What they experienced through travell gave them a life-long desire to learn. My mother was a teacher and agreed that children learn more when they can actually see and/or touch whatever they are being taught. Culture, history, science… come to life. To each his/her own, for certain, but don’t dismiss the RV life classroom.
Our eldest girl was home schooled for mid- and high school (at home, not in an RV). She had no problem getting into the capstone state university where in 4 years she picked up two degrees, both summa, got into one of the best Ph.D. programs in the country and, before defending her dissertation in chemistry, got a great job on only one interview! I think full time RV’ing would provide excellent opportunities for home schooling.
Mr Hughes
Is your glass always half empty? What a Debbie Downer.. Full time RVing is very possible and hundreds of thousands of people of all ages are doing it successfully everyday. Obviously it’s not for you but why so negative? I thought it was a good article that might spark someone’s emagination and get them out of a rut. Maybe someone will read this and decide to finally see this great country. That’s what I got out of this article.
“emagination”
Home schooled?
Bravo Brent. My sentiments exactly. I’ve met many RVer’s these past five years and everyone, to a person, has exhibited an enthusiasm for life, travel, adventure with an attitude of ‘carp diem’. We can’t live our lives always looking behind us for the Grim Reaper else we would not leave home. One can’t begin to explain the exhilaration you get when you travel the open road in the greatest country on the planet. The feeling of FREEDOM is overwhelming for us at least. We’ve met the greatest people everywhere we travelled, USA and Canada.
Very good answer, my wife and I are looking forward to living on the road for six to eight months starting next year.
How did I know, Mr. Hughes, you would pick up on that and use it against the writer.
Brent – I viewed Mr Hughes as offering some reality checks for those who might keep their rose-colored glasses on 24/7. No need to call names or get personal.
I have wanted to full-time for over 50 years, but have faced being the sole provider more than once and caring for disabled husbands. That part is past me now, but the financial barriers are in place. I need high-speed internet service for my freelancing work, a connection that is solid and available round the clock. I’ve studied available resources, which are getting better all the time, but the cost of the service or the cost of wired services are still difficult to nail down.
As NY Dutch shows, full-timing is something to take very seriously, which means making decisions and choices that will fit you and your needs fully for the foreseeable future. This poster has all his bases covered — has left nothing to chance — and that’s the mindset that should be embraced. Maybe everyone can’t be that thoroughly prepared, but it’s good to try.
I’m certain my life would have been different if I would have jumped into the RV life way back when, and I still don’t accumulate ‘stuff’, but I also recognize my dream is my dream and though well-worn, my rose-colored glasses always sit on my head, ready to be flipped to my nose to keep my dream alive and kicking.
Hope everyone reaches their dream!
I agree and I know of at least two families were Dad works both on the medical field and Mom home schools while they live in a fifth wheel. The children of these families are smarter, friendlier, more outgoing, more inquisitive, and more polite than any others I know.
I’m going to be retiring from nursing soon, I’m an RN and manage a dialysis facility, my husband had retired and he drove a semi for 30 years. I’ve been researching work camping positions for the 2021 season. I’ve sent several resume’s but because we have no experience in this field, I don’t think we’ll get selected. Do you have any suggestions on how to get started? Thanks Barb
Going full time in an RV may be a dream come true for some, but what would I do with the 35 years of collected “stuff” in my non-mobile abode? None that I wish throw out or sell, and many very irreplaceable. treasures.. Yeah, yeah, I know, I should not have had all this stuff I had collected and enjoy almost as much as my travel trailer vacation trips.. Thinking back to when I discharged from the service, all my worldly possessions fit in the trunk and back seat of my Dodge Dart,!
It will remain a dream for me to full-time. to wander far and wide…
I was much like you a couple of years ago- stuff everywhere that represented a lifetime of accumulation. I finally determined to ‘lighten my load’ & get rid of the vast majority. After all, most people are just going to pass on & leave it for someone else to dispose of- why not do it yourself? I gave family heirlooms & sentimental items to my children, set aside a few (very few) important things to keep & sold or gave away all the rest. Can’t tell you what a relief it is to be unburdened with a bunch of stuff I never used and rarely looked at. Take the plunge- you’ll be glad you did!
We have a home full of memories aka stuff! With planning, hubby and I have managed to spend 6 months on the road and the other 6 doing short trips.
Dont give up the dream. Find a way to enjoy RV life and your home base. It’s worth the effort.
PS: we are not wealthy, just careful.
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Matt 19:21
It’s an age old dilemma. Don’t put your “stuff” first. We are in the process of selling all our “stuff” – like you, 35 years of collection. We will be full-timing come this spring. Can’t wait to be rid of it all!
Jim
I am with you. My wife and I have been talking about full time RVing around the country for a long time now. We are at the point now ,that it’s now or never. We had gone to some RV shows and found a size and style we liked. When one came on the market that was too good to pass up we bought it. We are not ready yet , but we have a plan to be full time. To start with my wife finally gave in and just had her second knee replaced. . We have no ETOD yet.. We have not even had time to fit in a shake down cruise yet. We have a adventure to plan and look forward to.
As the article said, fulltime RV life is not for everyone. But for those of us that were willing to make the transition so we could live the dream, it’s been well worth it. The one thing that all fulltime RV’ers must do when starting out is have an exit plan for when that day comes you need to hang up the keys. We didn’t sell our house and spend all the money on our RV, instead we invested it for our future needs and have a more modest RV than we might have otherwise. When we downsized, those things that were important to us but couldn’t go with us were given to the kids that would have gotten them eventually anyway, so they’re still available to us to visit and enjoy when ever we wish to. Those items that no one wanted were either sold or donated.
I can’t personally speak to road schooling, since our “kids” are well beyond school age, but I do know of quite a few parents that manage quite well, turning out well educated and well adjusted young adults. Last spring we attended a celebration for one couple’s road schooled daughter that had been accepted at MIT with a large scholarship from General Motors.
My wife is quite capable of driving our Class A motorhome and does at times, although we also have travel assist insurance that includes a professional driver service if one of us is taken down by injury, illness, or death and the motorhome needs be delivered to one of our kid’s homes. Maintenance and potential breakdowns are a fact of RV life, so we also have an emergency roadside service plan that provides towing, lockout, fuel delivery, etc., services when needed.
Money isn’t a significant problem for us due to good retirement planning, but for those that need or want it, there are a number of mobile options available. I know of fulltime folks that work full time telecommuting jobs from their RV’s as well as some that accept temporary onsite assignments in specialized fields such as traveling nurses, etc. There are also work camping positions at various parks that include a free campsite and sometimes a modest wage, while state and national parks offer free sites in exchange for some number of volunteer work hours in various positions in the park.
The reality is that it all comes down to how much you want it and are willing to put forth the effort to make it work. For us, it’s been a great nearly 10 year ride that we’ll always have to look back on when we face our own “Hang up the keys” decision as we move into our late 70’s. And yes, our own “Exit plan” is firmly in place, just as it has been from the start…
I am a retired health care professional. I served special needs children and help develop educational plans for them in a variety of settings…including home school.. Though they generally claimed it was about giving their children a quality education, the majority of home schoolers I met did so for religious beliefs or rejection of some sort of societal norms. Nearly all of them were woefully undereducated and could not possibly provide either the knowledge or experience to provide for a successful educational environment for their children.
I am not claiming this is true of all but it was certainly true of most.
The next home school parent I meet who is qualified to teach an upper level math or science course will be the first.
yes, almost anyone seeking more personal freedom with a great love for living outdoors in natural surroundings and craving for some adventure can (and maybe should) go for full-time RV-ing …
i’ve been planning for that for decades now but at the current age of 61 and still unable to go visit even the nearest national park and stay there for only a weekend due to financial problems, i’m not sure if i’d ever be able to experience the full-time RV-ing dream come true in reality EVER simply because even if win the lottery today, i’m a little bit too old for doing what i’ve loved to do since i was 16 years of age! 🙁
so, let’s face it: doing full-time RV-ing is NOT CHEAP really!
yes, you can work in RV parks for a minimal pay as most articles like this keep reminding us … or if you’re Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates or somebody, you can also work online on-the-road … (neither of the two guys have ever done that btw! not to the best of my knowledge at least! and on-line working is also yet another one of those ‘dream jobs’ available to only a few people!)
at its *lowest costs*, you need vehicle insurance for example, and such insurance for an RV going out of cities and on the road is way higher than a regular $50/month car insurance you pay in the city for just commuting to work and back home!
if you’re a true full-time RV-er going around most of the time, you need all-tiers replacment at least once a year!
that also means you go beyond your vehicle’s 100K full-warranty in less than 3 years at the most, which means now you’d need a new RV car of some kind quite soon … and buying a used vehicle, unlike what we read in articles like this all the time, won’t help much really because that also means you’ll have to get another ‘new’ RV much sooner than you’d expect!
ok, you’re a good handy man, maybe even a retired professional mechanic and can tackle any problem with your RV, even do it on the road whenever it happens!? then when do you get the time to enjoy your RV-ing just sitting on a portable recliner chair by the camp fire and listen to the silence? besides, repairing also means you have to pay for parts too!
and these are only the obviously major items i just referred to here … there are surely many other small yet costly expenses as well, just as it applies to living in the city and inside an apartment or a home …
for example, did you know there are RV parks that cost you up to $2000 a month for just a parking spot and electricity plus water and sewage and stuff? (and they are not very desirable places to live in really if you’re going to stay for more than a few days!)
“you can go boon docking” did you say? well, yes, but does that work all the time? isn’t that costly in its own way too?
no, i’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer here but if you’re going to truly enjoy full-time RV-ing as best as possible and without having to ‘work hard for it’ then a limited / low budget is not going to work, period!
and i’m talking about some solo RV-er or a couple with no small children or young teenagers doing the full-time RV thing here … of course, if you can afford it financially to stay on the road for long periods of times, then why not, bring the kids too! i’d even say don’t worry about their education much either because if you’re truly rich, then all they just have to learn about is how to spend the inheritance money wisely later after you leave this beautiful world and leave them on their own …
long story short, i’m sure a really nice and enjoyable full-time RV-ing (and not spending a lot on it) can cost the average person or family something between $1000 to $3000 a month, depending … yes, not much for the one who CAN afford it but what about those who can’t do even that much?!