Playa Tecolote //
It is the chillest of chill days today. The weather is perfect. A toasty 85 degrees is eased by the soft breeze that comes off the turquoise water just a few steps from our door. I’m inclined to work but instead my body says rest, relax, nap, and so I do.
All week I’ve been thinking about how we afford to pursue a lifestyle based around travel. We’re not on vacation, though it may look like it, instead we’ve crafted a very untraditional life that’s not what people are used to seeing. How we make money and how we spend our time (a currency we value more than money) is something we’ve been extremely thoughtful about for the last twenty years. The decisions we’ve made over those two decades eventually led us here, to a place where we could be location independent for half the year.
How we afford to travel long-term:
• We chose a really affordable way of travel. We don’t pay for hotels, airfare, or rental cars. Our travel expenses are fuel, vehicle maintenance, and campsites. Our food expense is the same as it would be if we lived in a house as we prepare most of our meals ourselves.
• We live on the road full-time and don’t have the overhead of a mortgage, utilities, homeowner’s insurance and house maintenance.
• We have a 24 year old truck and 12 year old camper that is entirely paid for. Not having payments on these things keeps our expenses down. Further, insurance and annual registration fees are lower on an older vehicle.
• Mark does all the maintenance and repairs on our truck, camper, and solar system himself. His ingenuity has saved us tons of money over the years. If there’s a more economical way of doing something, he’ll figure out how.
• We spent over ten years molding our wedding photography business into a seasonal job so that we could pursue our love of travel during the winter months. We still tend to our business from the road but don’t offer any on-location services while we’re traveling.
• We’re debt-free. One of the motivators for moving onto the road was to pay off all our debt. We achieved that goal in 2020 and have been debt-free ever since. Since then we’ve made it a priority to live beneath our means so that we can stay out of debt.
• Our needs are minimal allowing us to comfortably live in a very basic and affordable truck camper. The truck camper and RV offerings on the market today are insane. There are options out there that cost several hundred thousand dollars and offer a long list of bells and whistles. The problem, however, is that the price tag on these luxury vehicles is most likely going to keep you tied to your desk job to afford it. For us, long-term vehicle-based travel is all about living with less so that we can afford ourselves freedom from the grind. We’re more than happy to give up many of the creature comforts that come with living in a house so that we can work less and enjoy life more.
• Lastly, we don’t have kids and realize this is a huge contributor to our overall low cost of living.
Equal parts luck and thoughtful decisions led us here. We don’t have a lot of money per se, we have just enough to live the life we love and I am beyond grateful for the experiences we get to have, the places we get to go, and the people we get to meet. I wouldn’t trade that fact for any amount of money in the bank.
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That was a great post! You’ve both come a long way to get where you are today. I’m so proud and happy for the two of you. Not very many people can say they are debt free! Love you both.
Your financial choices are almost identical to ours. My wife (of 45 years) and I are now in our late 70’s. Our entire married life we had a philosophy similar to yours. Having no children and no debt, we were able to quit our jobs twice and live in a tent for a full year while traveling. We traveled extensively, but we traveled on the cheap. Eventually bought and built a 4-Wheel Camper shell (we built the interior by ourselves and it is now 17 years old and in good shape). We traveling we slept on trains (Europe) or B&B’s, tents, and campers. We live in a house now, but we bought one we could own without borrowing money. Now that we are living mostly on social security, our simple lifestyle, and lack of any kind of debt has allowed us a lot of freedom and peace of mind. Your simple way of life will serve you well. Keep up the good work!
Thank you for sharing Chris. Stories like yours give us confidence in our choices. I hope your FWC is still treating you well (that’s great to hear it’s held up well over 17 years.)