In 2016, when I was 35, and my partner Courtney was 32, we offered our residence, a 4 bed, 2 bathroom 1,600-square-foot Arizona home, relocated right into a 200-square-foot Airstream motor home with our 2 pets, and established our brand-new home in a KOA camping site inTucson
It was the very first of numerous large modifications for us.
By that factor, I had actually conserved concerning $900,000, sufficient to offer myself some breathing space, and stop a task that I disliked in software program advancement. Courtney, a rocket researcher, joined me in shaking off the bonds of a 9-to-5 in 2017, and we hit the trail.
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Over the training course of the following 3 years, we took a trip throughout the nation full time, recording video clips for YouTube and discussing our experience.
At 42, I’m a self-made millionaire. Looking back, that choice to scale down was just one of the vital reasons I had the ability to develop riches.
The ‘releasing’ fact of living little
One of the largest obstacles was eliminating the majority of our things prior to relocating right into theAirstream We were impressed at just how much scrap we gathered.
We unloaded some points on loved ones participants. We contributed a whole lot to Goodwill, most likely sufficient to load a whole shop. We held yard sales over numerous weekend breaks and digitized countless images onto CDs as opposed to maintaining physical pictures. That aided a load.
Our Dodge Ram 2500 and Airstream beyond Bryce National Park in Utah
Photo: Steve Adcock
We located that we really did not miss what we did away with to seek this life. Maintaining less points was in fact fairly releasing.
Me reading my Kindle on the couch in the Airstream with our two dogs, Patti and Penny.
Photo: Steve Adcock
The joys and challenges of RVing
We were able to keep our travel expenses low by staying as much as we could on Bureau of Land Management land. RVers can camp for 14 days on most Bureau land free of charge. It was beautiful.
The only catch was that there were no electricity, water and sewer hookups. Instead, we used roof-mounted solar panels to charge our batteries.
Courtney using a hammock and catching some sun in a campground near Truckee, CA in 2017.
Photo: Steve Adcock
Our 72 gallons of freshwater storage on the Airstream provided about two weeks worth of fresh water, if we were careful. Our solar system made it easier for us to remain off-grid. We carried a 2,000-watt generator in case we needed extra power due to clouds or if trees blocked our panel’s view of the sun.
We genuinely loved traveling and getting to learn so much about the country. We camped in about half of the 50 states, from New York to California.
Some of our favorite experiences were parking right on the water at Lake Powell, Arizona, camping along the ragged mountains by California’s Alabama Hills, and driving around the grassy hillsides in New York’s wine region.
When you’re camping out in nature, though, you get to experience less-pleasant weather firsthand.
Taking a walk in one of the few snowstorms that we couldn’t avoid in Montana, in 2017.
Photo: Steve Adcock
I vividly remember staying at a campsite in Leavenworth, Washington, in the summer of 2018. It was so hot that the electrical breakers kept malfunctioning because of all the ACs blasting.
Every week or two, we had to pack everything up and move. This routine included securing items inside the Airstream like toiletries on our small bathroom counter and virtually anything lying out that could move or break while driving. We used a bungee cord to bind my external computer monitor to my small desk so it wouldn’t fall.
Me working at my computer inside the Airstream. We removed the dining room table and installed a desk to make blogging/computer work easier on the road.
Photo: Steve Adcock
Our expenses on the road
For the first year of travel, we spent about $35,000. This included all of our expenses, including food, gasoline, insurance and camping fees.
Most of our expenses went down considerably after we moved into the Airstream, except for one. Our grocery bill increased by about 25% because we weren’t always in a big metropolitan area where Costco or Safeway locations were plentiful. Instead, we often had to shop at more expensive local grocery stores in smaller communities.
Steve relaxing around a campfire outside of Bend, Oregon in 2017.
Photo: Steve Adcock
We typically spent about $3,500 per month, which included:
- Propane: $40
- Pet care: $75
- Health insurance: $350
- Auto maintenance: $400
- Fun money: $1,000
- Groceries: $600
- Camping fees: $500
- Fuel: $500
Better equipped campgrounds in prime locations charged upwards of $100 per night. These pristine sites were level and well-maintained, and offered hookups to power, water and sewer.
Two weeks on Bureau land cost us nothing in camping fees. A $40/night camp spot with amenities would have cost us $560 for those 14 days. That difference adds up quickly!
The RV was one the best decisions I’ve ever made
Over that three year period, living cheaply in our Airstream allowed our net worth to climb while we drove, even though we no longer worked full-time jobs.
We made a few hundred bucks a month on YouTube as we filmed our lifestyle. I maintained a blog about early retirement that I’ve since sold, which brought in about $1,000 a month.
A night shot of our Airstream in a small campground just west of Tucson, AZ in 2016.
Photo: Steve Adcock
We lived primarily on what we made from these smaller sources of income. We hardly touched our stocks. Instead, we let our capital gains continue to grow for those three years of full-time travel.
We started with about $900,000, and our net worth increased by about $150,000 by the end of our travels. That foundation set me on a path to become a millionaire today. Not bad for never setting foot in an office!
Steve Adcock is an economist that blogs concerning exactly how to accomplish economic self-reliance. A previous software program designer, Steve retired early at the age of 35. He periodically blogs about cash for MarketWatch, Forbes and Business Insider.
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