One of the most common questions we get as full time travelers is: how do you do it? As interest in full time travel grows, people want to know if it’s really possible to live full time in an RV.
Our family of 4 is proof that living in an RV full time is definitely possible. It requires sacrifice, hard work, and a willingness to do things differently than most people. And it can definitely be done.
But before I dive any deeper, let me start by saying this:
It’s not easy for every family (or even most families) to choose this lifestyle.
It’s a myth that living in a tiny camper full time must be more affordable than paying rent or a mortgage.
In our experience, full time travel isn’t a big money saver. There’s ways to reduce your spending (like boondocking or staying in one spot for a while to save on gas). But still: full time travel costs money.
So for many families, especially those whose jobs require them to be on-site, it’s a challenge. Economic and racial injustice have created systems that make it a lot easier for people like me to say full time travel is possible. I think we should change that.
Still, with remote work opportunities growing in the wake of Covid-19 and mobile WiFi solutions becoming more reliable, choosing to travel full time is achievable for more families than it’s ever been in modern times.
Have the right mindset.
You just have to believe it with me. If you don’t believe that you can live the full time travel lifestyle, then you’re not going to make it happen.
And if you haven’t already stopped caring what other people think about you, now is the time to kick that habit for good.
Traveling full time is an alternative lifestyle. A lot of people won’t understand it. And that’s okay.
The key is allowing people to have their feelings while simultaneously remembering that it’s your life – nobody else’s.
Be willing to let go of material things.
You can’t bring all your stuff with you.
Of course, everyone’s situation is different. Maybe you can afford to buy a massive RV that can hold all your stuff. I don’t know your situation.
But if your situation is anything like me, moving into an RV to travel full time is going to require downsizing.
That’s right. I’m saying that you’re going to have to:
- Get rid of all those clothes in the closet you’ve been saving for someday.
- Make some tough choices in the kitchen.
- Potentially start using a laundromat.
- And let’s just not talk about the bathroom.
In all seriousness, though, the hardest part about selling our home to travel full time was telling the kids we couldn’t bring all their toys.
But you learn to live without stuff. And kids learn faster. Experiences are greater than things.
Get buy-in from your travel companions.
This one should be obvious, but in case it isn’t: you’ve got to get buy-in from the people who will be traveling with you (unless, of course, you’re traveling solo!).
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We hear a lot of people say: “I’d love to do that, but my partner is totally not on board.”
I’m not discouraging you from advocating for this lifestyle if it really speaks to you. But I am warning you not to push it if you’re partner isn’t ready.
This lifestyle isn’t for everyone. It’s a lot of work. There’s not a lot of room to hide when you start getting on each other’s nerves.
You’ll be glad you’re both in it to win it.
Fund the lifestyle with remote work.
You probably won’t save much money if you travel full time (compared to the costs of a more traditional lifestyle). Especially with 8.6% inflation, $4.90 national average per gallon of gas, and a tough truck market (at the time of this writing).
There are definitely things you can do to bring costs down and make the lifestyle more affordable, so don’t let me scare you off. Just know you’re going to need some income for this.
My job was already remote before traveling full time was even on our radar. And I’ve worked off and on with my current manager for 10 years. There’s a lot of trust there that made landing a job as a nomad a bit easier for me than it might be for you.
So I’ll refer you to a post I like about how to make money while you travel full time, rather than try to offer advice of my own in this section.
Invest in reliable mobile internet.
You have to invest in reliable mobile Internet, especially if it’s needed to support the type of remote work you do. Campground WiFi is almost always not good enough.
Starlink was a big investment upfront at $600 for the hardware and $125/month for the mobile internet service. But it really does work! And people who travel full time are eligible to use it officially now!
And that price really isn’t so bad when you consider that the Mobile Must Haves Ultimate Road Warrior bundle we purchased when we started out was even more expensive ($1,300 for the hardware and another $200/month for a 500gb AT&T mobile internet plan – ouch!).
So, be thankful that Starlink is available for travelers now and save up for it! It’s so worth it and definitely its critical to us being able to travel full time.
Choose the right tiny home on wheels.
If you want to successfully travel full time in an RV, you need to make sure you choose the right one. Remember: it’s going to be your home.
The right rig for our family is probably not the right rig for you.
Go to an RV lot and walk around inside models of various sizes. Do the math on your vehicle’s towing capacity (if you’re planning to use a tow vehicle). Look at your budget.
Decide which features you can and can’t live without. For us, we needed our rig to have double-sized bunks for the kids, a slide-out dinette, a Murphy bed sofa, and plenty of natural light. It also needed to weigh less than 4300 pounds.
We didn’t stop looking until we found one that had all 5 of these features. Don’t be too picky, of course. But be stubborn about finding something you’ll be happy to live with in the long run.
Insure your rig for full time travel.
From where I sit, insuring your RV before full time travel is absolutely critical.
You don’t want the first time your insurance company finds out you’re living in your rig full time to be right after you get in an accident.
It’s your home! Protect it.
We chose Progressive’s policy specifically designed for people who travel full time. We haven’t had to use it yet (thankfully), but we’ve heard great things from other traveling families.
Figure out what to do with your mail.
Before we decided to travel full time, I had no idea how hard it would be to figure out what to do with our mail.
We didn’t want to burden family or friends with having it delivered to their house. And we weren’t crazy about any of the services designed for full time travelers.
We made a quick decision to do a year-long contract for a box and mail-forwarding service through UPS. It’s really not the best solution because our UPS store rarely answers the phone, so getting them to forward our mail is a big challenge.
We probably should have just had our mail forwarded to family.
Make sure you like planning road trips.
When you live a stationary lifestyle, you probably know where you’re going to sleep at the end of the day (let’s help the ones that don’t).
But when you travel full time, you have to actively plan where you’re going to be from week to week.
Even if you don’t believe in making campground reservations in advance, there’s still something about having to think about where you’re going to be living next month that takes some getting used to.
I personally find planning our road trip routes super fun. Mitch doesn’t. So, if it’s not your thing, try to make sure it’s your partner’s thing.
Stay connected to your community.
Traveling full time can be a little lonely. You’re away from family and friends. And your neighbors change more times than you can count.
The full time travel community is great and I’m getting to know lots of cool people on Instagram, but I miss our local community in Winston-Salem and it’s always hard to say goodbye to family.
But you can totally stay connected while you travel full time. And we highly recommend it!
We spend more time with extended family now than we did when we were stationary across the country because we don’t have to rush back home to take care of things. Our house comes with us.
And even something as simple as weekly Zoom chats or sharing your daily Wordle score over text messages is a great way to keep in touch.
So to wrap it up, it’s totally possible to travel full time. With the right mindset, persistance, and just a bit of luck, you can live the dream too.
We want to hear from you! What is your biggest roadblock to full time travel? Tell us in the comments!
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