The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Living in a van down by the river

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,565
68,696
Ireland
Right... so from your OP you’re a coder and you find it very hard to code an extra 3 hours a day before or after coding all day in your job.

Why are you trying to code an extra 3 hours a day? Is that what you need to do to serve your current clients?

How many clients/customers do you currently have?

How much do you make a month from your side gig/hustle?

What’s your monthly *recurring* revenue (MRR)?

How many clients/customers do you need to get to 1x (of your monthly living expenses)?

If you were at 1x would you quit your job and focus on your business? Or would you feel more comfortable at 1.5x?

Could you quit earlier than 1x because you have some runway saved?


Don’t answer those questions here. Ask yourself those questions and start planning your great escape.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Roli

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
160%
Jun 3, 2015
2,061
3,301
I was going to say what a bad idea it was because of stuff like, comfort, hygiene and security, but apparently everyone seems to think it's great. So who am I to argue?
 

ChrisV

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
225%
May 10, 2015
3,141
7,055
Islands of Calleja
If you're only saving 1000/mo its probably not worth it. But then again it depends on your savings. Do you have the van already? Cuz you're gonna have to drop at least 5-10K on that plus registration, insurance on another vehicle.

My stance: if you have the van... F*ck it. If you don't, then hell no.

You can't find a room mate?
 

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
I’d say do it man. It will further remove the script telling you happiness is found in materialistic things. Happiness is found in the struggle onto the materialistic things

Hey appreciate that, maybe leaving material things behind for a while is something everyone should do at least once in their lives ?

Looking at your numbers I feel very lucky. I'm living in Brazil just 100km from Rio de Janeiro, paying just 300$ month for an apartment and i'm at 4 blocks from an amazing beach. the world is crazy. At the same time people pay 1500$ for one bedroom in new york wtf.

That's pretty good, don't think I haven't thought about moving to a cheap country for a while to make the money last :)


Okay, so based off your numbers you save 15k per year. But you say you are going to quit your job so you actually will be losing 12k per year (not including money used to start a business). How long can you sustain that? Whats the plan if you go broke? Why not just keep your place and quit your job? Do you really have to live in your car to do this?

I can definitely look for a cheaper apartment in a little secluded town but I would be stuck in there with a lease, not sure if that's better or not than being mobile.
The plan if I go broke while living in the car/van is to find another job. As a dev in my humble experience, it's much better to be mobile when you are looking for jobs.

I can keep the place and the car but then it's two expenses instead of one.
Thanks for making me think this through.

You’re talking about saving $1k/mth.

What can you do to earn an *extra* $1k/mth instead?

What if you put your ingenuity and energy into earning more money rather than saving money?

What do you need to do to get a client **this week** who will pay you $250/mth?

If you got an extra $250/mth client this week then what does that do to your runway?

Can you get a new $250/mth client each month? What would that do to your runway?

Can you get a new client each week? What would that look like in 3 months?


As much as I like the idea of the freedom (and cool factor) of having a mobile van office I could live in at a stretch, I think you’re asking yourself the wrong questions. Do it because you can, not because you need to.



The super computer between your ears is going to solve whatever questions you ask it.

What if you were to ask yourself better questions?

wow I'm getting the legendary guys to reply.
To be honest, and I know this might be a shock here in this amazing forum, I don't think I like having to deal with clients personally.

I used to work for a digital agency where I would manage a bunch of clients and I hated it, I just don't like having tons of meetings and spending all my time managing clients, explaining and trying to convince them to give me their money.

I know this will sound very immature but my ideal success is developing a product that people want to use because it's useful, cool or whatever where I just have to work to make it great.

I’m with @Kak on this.

The job of the business owner is not to answer questions, but to ask better questions.

What if you were to ask yourself better questions?

For sure, I'm open to ideas, trying to think this through before pulling the trigger.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
If you're only saving 1000/mo its probably not worth it. But then again it depends on your savings. Do you have the van already? Cuz you're gonna have to drop at least 5-10K on that plus registration, insurance on another vehicle.

My stance: if you have the van... F*ck it. If you don't, then hell no.

You can't find a room mate?

I got a car that I can sell to buy the van. Just so you know, before my current lease I lived for around 6 months in an airbnb. It was not that bad but I was paying around 750 bucks for a room per month in addition to the car expenses.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,565
68,696
Ireland
To be honest, and I know this might be a shock here in this amazing forum, I don't think I like having to deal with clients personally.

I used to work for a digital agency where I would manage a bunch of clients and I hated it, I just don't like having tons of meetings and spending all my time managing clients, explaining and trying to convince them to give me money.
I don’t mind dealing with clients, but I’d much prefer just building stuff and having money get deposited in my bank account. I’m not saying you can’t just do the later, it’s just that I suspect you’ll do better engaging the market and actually speaking to people.

Listen to Rob Walling’s “Start Small, Stay Small”.

Also... don’t have pointless meetings, and only deal with people you like dealing with? Don’t build the agency/business that you didn’t like working in?

At some point you’re going to have to persuade someone to give you money.
 

reedracer

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
172%
Jun 2, 2019
371
638
63
Kansas City
The lifestyle is getting huge. There are the full time RV retirees doing it because they broke.
But, there are also affluent people doing it for all the above reasons.
I know Ashley in the below video. They home school which I think is the greatest gift you can give your child. They just added a camper to the pickup to be Ashley's office and their oldest's art studio.
The kids mostly watch Documentaries and are seeing the country in a very real way.
As for the upcoming entrepreneur/professional I see it as a much better choice than disparate roommates and all the distractions that entails. Live like Kung Fu's Kwai Chang Caine a few years, set injustices right and make more than a few bucks then move on to a more traditional setting if that is your desire.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjED-iHYGzQ
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ChrisV

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
225%
May 10, 2015
3,141
7,055
Islands of Calleja
I don’t mind dealing with clients, but I’d much prefer just building stuff and having money get deposited in my bank account. I’m not saying you can’t just do the later, it’s just that I suspect you’ll do better engaging the market and actually speaking to people.

Listen to Rob Walling’s “Start Small, Stay Small”.

Also... don’t have pointless meetings, and only deal with people you like dealing with? Don’t build the agency/business that you didn’t like working in?

At some point you’re going to have to persuade someone to give you money.
I don't know if everyone has to deal directly with clients. I mean you love people, which is definitely an asset, but if you look at some of the OPs posts he talks about being involved in ventures like building apps. He's a programmer. I think it also depends on the people. Some of my clients I love literally like my family, and some of them make me ant to strangle myself with a mouse cord. I have come up with a pretty good system of weeding out the frustrating ones though.
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,565
68,696
Ireland
I don't know if everyone has to deal directly with clients. I mean you love people, which is definitely an asset, but if you look at some of the OPs posts he talks about being involved in ventures like building apps. He's a programmer. I think it also depends on the people. Some of my clients I love literally like my family, and some of them make me ant to strangle myself with a mouse cord. I have come up with a pretty good system of weeding out the frustrating ones though.
Agreed. There are some types of businesses where we don’t have to deal with clients as much as others.

Each to their own (of course)... it’s just that even guys who build SaaS products often say they engage the market in conversation at the beginning - lest they build something people don’t want.
 

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
Agreed. There are some types of businesses where we don’t have to deal with clients as much as others.

Each to their own (of course)... it’s just that even guys who build SaaS products often say they engage the market in conversation at the beginning - lest they build something people don’t want.

You guys have agencies correct? I don't think I could do the agency thing and have a bunch of clients to manage, it's almost as having a normal job.

For example there are many great people in this forum creating companies and a lot of their time is spent cold calling clients and such. I admire those guys but I couldn't do that every day because I don't enjoy it.

Also you said, I can look for ways to increase my monthly income instead of reducing my expenses. I fully agree but I have already tried many things, all of them related to development (mobile apps, web apps, etc) none of them gave me a reliable income in order to quit the slowlane job. In fact I worked on so many spare projects that I got job offers due to those, granted all of them were small due to time constraints.

Finally I have never tried doing ecommerce as you need a sizable starting capital and invest tons of time into learning what sells and what doesn't, etc. That's why I stick to development and art as that is what I know and have been doing for years. I think I have higher chances of making it there.

Having said that, I am not closing any door, currently open to anything but I've already tried a few things in the past.

Appreciate all replies guys.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
The lifestyle is getting huge. There are the full time RV retirees doing it because they broke.
But, there are also affluent people doing it for all the above reasons.
I know Ashley in the below video. They home school which I think is the greatest gift you can give your child. They just added a camper to the pickup to be Ashley's office and their oldest's art studio.
The kids mostly watch Documentaries and are seeing the country in a very real way.
As for the upcoming entrepreneur/professional I see it as a much better choice than disparate roommates and all the distractions that entails. Live like Kung Fu's Kwai Chang Caine a few years, set injustices right and make more than a few bucks then move on to a more traditional setting if that is your desire.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjED-iHYGzQ

I think people are getting tired of paying mortgages and in general being stuck in the same place for years. A lot of this has to do with recessions, many people lost their homes and jobs in the last one and a lot don't want to go back to that.

I think it makes much sense to buy a house using cash than to get into a 15-30 year mortgage and pay 2x your original price. Living on the road kind of makes it easy to just go where the money is if shit hits the fan.

Having said that, many people are fine with their million dollar houses and their 300k worth of equity but you never know when the next crash is going to happen and it's usually those who are in debt who suffer the most.
 

Thinh

Bronze Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
213%
Aug 11, 2018
134
286
I considered doing this too not so long ago. If you can get a reliable internet connection, this can be a fun experience.

I tried waking up earlier but again 3 hours a day (max I could do efficiently without it affecting my slowlane job) is not enough time to get some of these development projects to a MVP state

What project are you working on that needs 3+ hours a day right from the start?
Usually an MVP shouldn't take more than few days @ 3 hours a day.
 

Runum

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
101%
Aug 8, 2007
6,221
6,298
DFW, Texas
IMHO, the YouTube channels, especially with the hot girls, glamorize this lifestyle. They absolutely do not show the crappy stuff.

I am looking at being more mobile and self sufficient myself. My wife and I have taken 6 week trips during the summer to test some of this stuff out.

My experience so far:

I did consider a van, but, as has been stated vanning is hot now and I don't like to follow the crowd. Within vanning there are different lifestyles. There are urban vanners that sleep in parking lots, on the streets, in parks, trying to be stealthy. They try to use public restrooms and scarf free wifi. I know it's hot but to me it's a little like squatting and stealing. They seem to always try to get something for nothing.

There are rural vanners that stay in the national forests. You are allowed to stay for up to 14 days in most locations and it's cheap or free. There may be a pit toilet and fresh water. Usually no wifi or cell and no other facilities.

There are vanners that stay in RV parks. Some parks are fairly cheap for no frills and the price goes up with amenities. Some parks are amazing resort type parks. Vanners in RV parks always get lots of questions.

For us, I already had a 6x12 cargo trailer and a pickup truck. I decided to put a bed and kitchen in the trailer and we are traveling in it this summer for 6 weeks. We have tanks, porta potty, solar, and batteries. It weighs 3000 pounds loaded and we can put the trailer in some small spaces.

We have met some awesome people and some asswipes. Walmart parking lots in Colorado are shady places. Some national forests are amazing and some have crazy people in them. We have boondocked(camped with no facilities, off grid) in some fantastic BLM sites. We do not do the city stealth thing at all.

Now some of the negatives. Space is at a premium. Everything has to be organized. The inside will start to stink so you have to clean it and air it out often. You can't pack a lot of clothes so you are always having to do laundry or wear clothes multiple times. If your van does not have holding tanks and a functioning toilet you will learn to pee in a bottle and poop in a bag. Then you have to properly/legally dispose of your waste. If you do have tanks you will have to dump those often.

If your van breaks down you are homeless. Your van is in the shop and you can't be in it. Gasoline will be a huge expense and the price of gas in some states is around $3.50/gallon. You have to maintain your van mechanically and no one wants you to do it in their space, not the city, not the parks. Just popping the hood raises eyebrows.

It can be very cold in the van in the winter and very hot in the summer. I have seen a lot of van dwellers this summer in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana where the high temps are low 80's. I don't think they hang around when the snow starts piling up. Most are not 4wd vans.

Sleeping in a van in a storm keeps me awake, not sure about others.

East coast, west coast, forest, and city dweller's experiences are different. Watch their youtube channels for the differences. We are not stealth, we are efficient. We can't camp under trees off grid. We can plug in at RV parks and are right now. Wifi and cell signal is always a hassle.

Everything, every task, requires more time, thought, and energy than you would expend in a stick and brick house.

We have met many couples in their 30's living mobile lifestyles in RV's. Some got wiped out in Houston(Hurricane Harvey) and never rebuilt.

This is my experience so far. We are enjoying it but not for any money savings. We are enjoying moving to where the weather and climate is not working against us. We will be finished late July. To me, there is a right way to do it. Stealth and being subversive is not the right way. Walmart parking lots is definitely not the right way.

To each his own, good luck.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Last edited:

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
I considered doing this too not so long ago. If you can get a reliable internet connection, this can be a fun experience.



What project are you working on that needs 3+ hours a day right from the start?
Usually an MVP shouldn't take more than few days @ 3 hours a day.

I got multiple projects going on (mobile apps and SAAS ). I don't think I have ever worked for any company where we were able to do an MVP in a few days, maybe we were just lazy. :)

Just to put some concrete data, I worked as a mobile developer and we needed 5 months of full-time development to reach MVP with a team of 4 people in addition to myself. In development usually everything takes longer than you expect it to unless it's something really straightforward like an informational or ecommerce site or app.

By the way it seems like MVP has a slightly different meaning for different crowds. For some people an MVP is the simplest thing you throw together in order to validate the idea then go around trying to raise money from investors to hire people and do real development.

For others it's doing actual development and getting the project to a state where people are willing to pay for it or use it because it gives them some kind of value. This kind of MVP is the one that takes time.

Though if you got something that can be done in a few days I am open to ideas :)

Cheers.
 

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
IMHO, the YouTube channels, especially with the hot girls, glamorize this lifestyle. They absolutely do not show the crappy stuff.

I am looking at being more mobile and self sufficient myself. My wife and I have taken 6 week trips during the summer to test some of this stuff out.

My experience so far:

I did consider a van, but, as has been stated vanning is hot now and I don't like to follow the crowd. Within vanning there is different lifestyles. There are urban vanners that sleep in parking lots, on the streets, in parks, trying to be stealthy. They try to use public restrooms and scarf free wifi. I know it's hot but to me it's a little like squatting and stealing. They seem to always try to get something for nothing.

There are rural vanners that stay in the national forests. You are allowed to stay for up to 14 days in most locations and it's cheap or free. There may be a pit toilet and fresh water. Usually no wifi or cell and no other facilities.

There are vanners that stay in RV parks. Some parks are fairly cheap for no frills and the price goes up with amenities. Some parks are amazing resort type parks. Vanners in RV parks always get lots of questions.

For us, I already had a 6x12 cargo trailer and a pickup truck. I decided to put a bed and kitchen in the trailer and we are traveling in it this summer for 7 weeks. We have tanks, porta potty, solar, and batteries. It weighs 3000 pounds loaded and we can put the trailer in some small spaces.

We have met some awesome people and some asswipes. Walmart parking lots in Colorado are shady places. Some national forests are amazing and some have crazy people in them. We have boondocked(camped with no facilities, off grid) in some fantastic BLM sites. We do not do the city stealth thing at all.

Now some of the negatives. Space is at a premium. Everything has to be organized. The inside will start to stink so you have to clean it and air it out often. You can't pack a lot of clothes so you are always having to do laundry or wear clothes multiple times. If your van does not have holding tanks and a functioning toilet you will learn to pee in a bottle and poop in a bag. Then you have to properly/legally dispose of your waste. If you do have tanks you will have to dump those often.

If your van breaks down you are homeless. Your van is in the shop and you can't be in it. Gasoline will be a huge expense and the price of gas in some states is around $3.50/gallon. you have to maintain your van mechanically and no one wants you to do it in their space, not the city, not the parks. Just popping the hood raises eyebrows.

It can be very cold in the van in the winter and very hot in the summer. I have seen a lot of van dwellers this summer in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana where the high temps are low 80's. I don't think they hand around when the snow starts piling up. Most are not 4wd vans.

Sleeping in a van in a storm keeps me awake, not sure about others.

East coast, west coast, forest, and city dweller's experiences are different. Watch their youtube channels for the differences. We are not stealth, we are efficient. We can't camp under trees off grid. We can plug in at RV parks and are right now. Wifi and cell signal is always a hassle.

Everything, every task, requires more time, thought, and energy than you would expend in a stick and brick house.

We have met many couples in their 30's living mobile lifestyles in RV's. Some got wiped out in Houston(Hurricane Harvey) and never rebuilt.

This is my experience so far. We are enjoying it but not for any money savings. We are enjoying moving to where the weather and climate is not working against us. We will be finished late July. To me, there is a right way to do it. Stealth and being subversive is not the right way. Walmart parking lots is definitely not the right way.

To each his own, good luck.

Hey thanks for the input.

Got a few questions,

Do you absolutely need 4wd if you want to spend winters in the northern states? (idaho, wyoming, colorado etc)

Also maybe getting a smaller more gas efficient van will allow you to save gas ?

Finally, regarding BLM sites. From the little I've read it says that you can stay for free as long as you move around every 14 days or so. What is the internet / mobile phone signal like in those places ?
 

Runum

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
101%
Aug 8, 2007
6,221
6,298
DFW, Texas
Hey thanks for the input.

Got a few questions,

Do you absolutely need 4wd if you want to spend winters in the northern states? (idaho, wyoming, colorado etc)

Also maybe getting a smaller more gas efficient van will allow you to save gas ?

Finally, regarding BLM sites. From the little I've read it says that you can stay for free as long as you move around every 14 days or so. What is the internet / mobile phone signal like in those places ?

I have not been in these areas in the winter, no first hand experience. Most trucks here are 4wd. It would be tough to be living in the van and get iced/snowed in with no food or water.

Smaller van = smaller space. My truck gets 12 mpg towing at 60 mph. It gets 13-14 unhooked.

BLM is variable. None that I know of will have wifi, some will have cell signal.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
445%
Jul 23, 2007
38,082
169,503
Utah

Sheens

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
240%
Jan 13, 2018
299
717
USA
Do you absolutely need 4wd if you want to spend winters in the northern states? (idaho, wyoming, colorado etc)


Yes, for the majority of drivers and landscape. Many people purchase winter tires as well and you could consider chains if parking off road. Avoiding the ditch and not getting stuck or losing control are all worth their weight in gold.

BLM in the mountains is not reliable for cell service and no wifi.

Spending winters in these states can be breathtakingly beautiful if you enjoy the season but I do not see full-time van living on BLM as an easy way to save money here.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

ChrisV

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
225%
May 10, 2015
3,141
7,055
Islands of Calleja
Listen... I think you have to realize that most instagram feeds are bullshit. Anyone can selectively post pics that look nice. Social Media is notorious for zooming in on the good and ignoring the bad.

I think this stuff has more of the appeal of going camping and having an adventure and building confidence then being all luxurious.
 

Sheens

Silver Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
240%
Jan 13, 2018
299
717
USA
There are some success stories.

Yes, some!

Keeping in mind the sun and warm weather in an RV is an entirely different beast to the midwest or mountain winters on BLM in a small van.

I have lived by choice in an RV in a mountain winter.

This is how we prepared: monster toy-hauler version with a full-size washer, dryer, fridge, and freezer. Heated couches, two bathrooms, space heaters, and designed exterior protection covers of foam, underlayment, and EPDM rubber.

Stayed on our own acreage with water, septic, electrical, internet, cell service, and no visions of luxury dancing in my head : )

It's worked out well. This is also why I caution on how to take the weather and conditions seriously.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Runum

Legendary Contributor
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
101%
Aug 8, 2007
6,221
6,298
DFW, Texas
There are some success stories. This lady has been tooling around the SouthWest in her RV for several years, mostly staying on BLM land. She works online, so she can live anywhere.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISk1RmcxcHU

That can't be a success story. There are no images of hot girls in micro bikinis, taking outdoor showers, and eating vegan, in front of a stunning sunset. LOL
 

Jakeeck

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
198%
Jun 24, 2014
370
731
33
Phoenix, Arizona
Similar related story, although this more so involves vagabonding.


Idk what that lady was expecting, but she clearly didn't do much of any research/planning for living in a van. You can't just go anywhere for free and have a wonderful time.

And yeah, solar power is critical. It's mandatory. The fact that this surprised her shows she bought the van without looking into anything.

Weapon? Sure, knuckle taser or mace is fine. Chances of having anything happen are still very low but yes be prepared.

You can really only do van life on the west coast where there are tons of free campsites/BLM land. The east coast and middle of the country has almost nothing. It's all in ND, MT, ID, CO, AZ, CA, OR for the most part.

And yeah the weather thing. You are very limited in where you can go during the summer without A/C because it's low 80s just about everywhere, too hot to cook in a van.

I had to search the highest elevation cities in the country for lower temps and find free campsites out there, and I did find beautiful places.

This was my office view for a while:
2deuopa.png


Behind me is another lake that I would walk around 4x a day. It was very stress relieving and peaceful out there. Sometimes I was the only person there, especially on the weekdays. On the weekends about 5-10 people/groups would be there. I met some really cool people. It was fun.

I would never try to do it with a family or even a significant other (not a van anyway).

I think people have this idea that you can just find cheap/free campgrounds anywhere, and you can't, especially not in or near national parks, but that doesn't mean there aren't some beautiful places you can find, and all the ones I found had cell phone signal for internet because you can look that up before you go too.
 

loop101

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Mar 3, 2013
1,557
2,505
For the OP's original question, you could rent a room from someone, and then avoid being it. You could work out of your car, and you would still have a real bed and shower to go back to. If the car thing worked, you could just pay the home owner $50 a month to let you continue to use their home address, and he could rent the room to someone else. I lived in a house once where the closet under a stairwell was being rented out to some short guy who paid $40 a month in rent.

I don't think anyone here can really tell you if you will save enough by living in your vehicle to make it worth doing.

I've lived off-grid for years, and you end up spending all your time taking care of basic stuff, like where to get water, warm or cold food, where to dump poop, etc. You basically become a scavenger. If you take a crap in your car, you will be dealing with that before you work on any websites.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

bdb

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
73%
Nov 24, 2018
51
37
Similar related story, although this more so involves vagabonding.


the man himself, thanks for the link boss.

Yes, for the majority of drivers and landscape. Many people purchase winter tires as well and you could consider chains if parking off road. Avoiding the ditch and not getting stuck or losing control are all worth their weight in gold.

BLM in the mountains is not reliable for cell service and no wifi.

Spending winters in these states can be breathtakingly beautiful if you enjoy the season but I do not see full-time van living on BLM as an easy way to save money here.

Appreciate the info.

Regarding cell service, have you heard about cell phone signal boosters ?

check this

I've never used those but it seems like they could work?
I'd love to be during winter out there in the wilderness working all cozy inside a van/rv just focused on my work for days :)

There are some success stories. This lady has been tooling around the SouthWest in her RV for several years, mostly staying on BLM land. She works online, so she can live anywhere.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISk1RmcxcHU

Thanks for the link.

Yes, some!

Keeping in mind the sun and warm weather in an RV is an entirely different beast to the midwest or mountain winters on BLM in a small van.

I have lived by choice in an RV in a mountain winter.

This is how we prepared: monster toy-hauler version with a full-size washer, dryer, fridge, and freezer. Heated couches, two bathrooms, space heaters, and designed exterior protection covers of foam, underlayment, and EPDM rubber.

Stayed on our own acreage with water, septic, electrical, internet, cell service, and no visions of luxury dancing in my head : )

It's worked out well. This is also why I caution on how to take the weather and conditions seriously.

Hey thats not a bad idea, buying a piece of cheap land, sort of like a base camp, and work from there while avoiding rent and property taxes.

That can't be a success story. There are no images of hot girls in micro bikinis, taking outdoor showers, and eating vegan, in front of a stunning sunset. LOL

lol everyone for sure has their own definition of success.

Idk what that lady was expecting, but she clearly didn't do much of any research/planning for living in a van. You can't just go anywhere for free and have a wonderful time.

And yeah, solar power is critical. It's mandatory. The fact that this surprised her shows she bought the van without looking into anything.

Weapon? Sure, knuckle taser or mace is fine. Chances of having anything happen are still very low but yes be prepared.

You can really only do van life on the west coast where there are tons of free campsites/BLM land. The east coast and middle of the country has almost nothing. It's all in ND, MT, ID, CO, AZ, CA, OR for the most part.

And yeah the weather thing. You are very limited in where you can go during the summer without A/C because it's low 80s just about everywhere, too hot to cook in a van.

I had to search the highest elevation cities in the country for lower temps and find free campsites out there, and I did find beautiful places.

This was my office view for a while:
2deuopa.png


Behind me is another lake that I would walk around 4x a day. It was very stress relieving and peaceful out there. Sometimes I was the only person there, especially on the weekdays. On the weekends about 5-10 people/groups would be there. I met some really cool people. It was fun.

I would never try to do it with a family or even a significant other (not a van anyway).

I think people have this idea that you can just find cheap/free campgrounds anywhere, and you can't, especially not in or near national parks, but that doesn't mean there aren't some beautiful places you can find, and all the ones I found had cell phone signal for internet because you can look that up before you go too.

That is an amazing view and being in a stress free environment is a big plus for me, it makes me focus very easily. And yeah I agree that the lady from the video didn't research enough before taking the plunge.

Having said that there are a huge amount of young couples doing the van thing.

Finally I definitely need to research more as there a lot of youtubers claiming that you can indeed live on BLM land land for 14 days. You just have to move a few miles after those 14 days.

For the OP's original question, you could rent a room from someone, and then avoid being it. You could work out of your car, and you would still have a real bed and shower to go back to. If the car thing worked, you could just pay the home owner $50 a month to let you continue to use their home address, and he could rent the room to someone else. I lived in a house once where the closet under a stairwell was being rented out to some short guy who paid $40 a month in rent.

I don't think anyone here can really tell you if you will save enough by living in your vehicle to make it worth doing.

I've lived off-grid for years, and you end up spending all your time taking care of basic stuff, like where to get water, warm or cold food, where to dump poop, etc. You basically become a scavenger. If you take a crap in your car, you will be dealing with that before you work on any websites.

Thanks for the info. That is not a bad idea at all, is there a rent my parking lot app out there:).

Regarding off grid he more I research the more it seems like some of those things are not that much of a problem if you prepare well.

For example, there are composting toilets

According to comments, it should be emptied after 80 uses. If you do #2 twice a day then that is more than a whole month before you need to empty the compost! if you are with a lady then yeah that will last about 2 weeks before you need to empty.

For water a lot of people install 14-20 gallon containers in their RVs or vans, that is about 5 days of water, it depends on your needs though. You could refill all your tanks every weekend lol


Despite the amount of time that I have spent researching, I haven't decided yet if I'm adopting this lifestyle. I think it's good when you spend time learning new things that you aren't familiar with though, it opens your mind and maybe you start getting business ideas. Keep the feedback coming guys :rofl:.
 
Last edited:

MattR82

Gold Contributor
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
178%
Oct 4, 2015
1,394
2,480
41
Brisbane

loop101

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Mar 3, 2013
1,557
2,505
I saw this story, and thought of this thread, lol


"Morgan, who is living in his van..."
 

loop101

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
161%
Mar 3, 2013
1,557
2,505
There are people who get annual state park passes, and rotate through the parks. For example:

NM has a $225 annual pass for non-residents:


Where you can stay in one park for up to 14 days per month:


And you will have plenty of solitude:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BiTv3kdP5w


But probably not very good, if any, internet.

So you could rotate through 3 campgrounds each month. Might be good if you were working on a book, and didn't want disctractions.
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top