Top Five Questions to Ask Yourself Before

Transitioning to Full Time RV Travel Life

Is everyone who's moving with you ready, willing, and excited to try out this lifestyle?

In my opinion, this is the number one most important question there is.

If the answer is yes, then in reality, none of the other questions really even matter. There will be positives and negatives. But if you're all in, the rest is just background noise.

For us, we wanted this life. We craved this life. We were excited about this life. So, even the negatives weren't reasons for us to not pursue it.

If the answer is no, then you have some more thinking, researching, and exploring to do before taking the next step. Maybe one person is all for it and the other person is hesitant. It really does take a good, strong "team" to make it work. The initial transition is tough, but if you want it bad enough, it's worth it. But I'm not talking about hesitation or questioning about HOW you could live this lifestyle. What I'm saying is that everyone has to want it bad enough to put in the work to make it happen.

Do you have the means and a way to financially make it happen?

A lot of people think the answer to this is an automatic no. Yes, there are expenses with RV life that you don't have with house life. But there are also expenses that you eliminate when you live this life.

I would encourage you to really explore this before automatically saying, "We can't afford it." The biggest thing that helped us realize we could afford it is knowing we were downsizing. We sold a 3,300 home and used the profits to pay for our RV and truck in full. And I understand a lot of people may not be in that situation. But what can you do to afford it? Most people only have one vehicle with this life. Can you eliminate one of your car payments? Get creative. Where there's a will, there's a way.

And you don't have to buy a new rig. There are some super affordable options out there. Start small and save for something bigger!

If you really want to do this, there are so many changes you can make to help you find a way. I would encourage you to find some full time RV groups on social media and ask all the questions. Some people have created full RV life budgets and they're more than happy to share them.

We haven't created anything this fancy, but that's an idea for the future.

Do you have a plan for income or already have a mobile job?

Once you've figured out your budget and whether you think you can afford to live this way, you'll have to figure out whether you can take your job on the road.

This is another place people need to get creative. There are so many options for this kind of work now.

Is your job something you can do remotely? If not, is there something in your field that can be done online that you could transition to? Is there something brand new you could do? What about work-camping? Google it if you haven't heard of it!

For us, I was already teaching online. His job isn't that easy though. He's a collision technician and that's definitely not something he can do from a computer. But, there are things he may be able to eventually do, like mobile estimating.

We decided to take the leap into this lifestyle, fully understanding that we may not be able to travel full time right away. We are hunting for a second mobile job, but we are also taking the money saved from downsizing and heavily investing in passive income opportunities. We have a company we work with for these. If you'd like the info, send me a message. But, be warned...this is NOT a get rich quick situation. They are INVESTMENTS, which require money up front to bring in passive income once the investments are going.

My suggestion is to start working on this step before you transition. Ideally, it would be great to have a mobile job before you make the switch. But it's not completely necessary.

Can you get used to the idea of getting rid of many of your material possessions?

Full-time RV life is the definition of small living. When you make the transition from a typical, house life, to living full-time in an RV, you can’t take very much with you. While it may seem like getting rid of things would be easy, it was extremely mentally and physically difficult for us.

You have to put a lot of thought into it. You have to go through literally every single item you own and decide if you will store it, sell it, trash it, or take it with you. This may not seem like a big deal, but you don’t realize how much you really own until you start trying to get rid of most of it. This was one of the most stressful things I went through during our transition.

It was emotionally draining. I realized how attached I was to many of the things that we had. But, I will tell you, if you can stick with it, it’s extremely freeing and liberating! Minimalizing is therapeutic. Now that it’s over and done with, I can’t imagine ever owning that much stuff again!

But be prepared, because it’s not an easy task.

You've decided to go for it. You're mentally ready. You've gotten rid of most of your things. You have a mobile job lined up and you have a budget. Now, are you ready for even more work!?

You have everything in the first four questions taken care of. You've found and purchased the perfect RV and you're ready to travel!

BUT WAIT!!!! The work isn't over!

RV life is fun. RV life is worth it. But RV life still requires a lot of work. First of all, you better have a good budget to pay someone to fix issues or you better learn quickly how to fix them yourselves, because things are inevitably going to happen.

If you're ok with that and ready for the next step, there's still work to do. But if you're like me, it's fun work! You need to do lots and lots of research.

- Where will you travel?

- Are you planning ahead to make sure parks aren't full?

- Can the park accommodate an RV your size?

- Have you mapped out your travel plans?

-Have you researched the parks to make sure they're places worth traveling to?

So.

Many.

Things.

To.

Research.

And.

Consider.

But, like I said, if you're like me, this is the fun part! This is the work that doesn't seem like work. But I will be honest and tell you, it's never ending. So, if this isn't something you want to constantly think about, maybe full time RV life isn't for you.

But if you're still reading and thinking it all sounds dreamy, like I did, get ready for one heck of a ride!

If you're ready to start preparing for full time RV Life, check our products page to see some of the things we recommend. Click here.