HOW I MADE THE TRANSITION FROM CORPORATE LIFE TO VAN LIFE.
"How do you fund your travels?"
This is, by far, the question I get asked the most. Many assume this easy life comes easy. I can't even tell you how many people have accused me of being a "trustafarian" but I can tell you that I am certainly not privy to a trust fund, nor have I met a person with a massive trust living in their vehicle.
I blame social media, and the way #vanlife has glamorized living in a van or camper. The fact of the matter is, I and pretty much ever other vanner I know, live in poverty or pretty darn close to it. It's a rich life, for sure, but you trade quite a bit to go into what I call "early retirement" and spend very little time working a traditional job, in order to travel a lot.
How I've lived on the road for more than 1.5 years and never camped at a Walmart.
In September of 2015, with no road life experience other than weekend camping trips, I packed up my newly purchased 1985 Toyota Bandit Camper and left my native born home state of Florida for a cross country road trip with no end date in the foreseeable future. My first night on the road, I camped at a Savannah area RV park, to get my road feet dirty, and since that night, the Willie Rose, save for the occasional RV park day use for shower and/or wifi, has not parked at an RV park or even a Walmart in over one and a half years on the road.
That's not to say there hasn't been some really crappy (both figuratively & literally) camp spots & urban camping in parking lots in my life but there never being a night spent in a Walmart parking lot is one of my minuscule claims to even more minuscule fame and I'm keeping it!
HOW I MADE THE TRANSITION FROM CORPORATE LIFE TO VAN LIFE.
This is, by far, the question I get asked the most. Many assume this easy life comes easy. I can't even tell you how many people have accused me of being a "trustafarian" but I can tell you that I am certainly not privy to a trust fund, nor have I met a person with a massive trust living in their vehicle.
I blame social media, and the way #vanlife has glamorized living in a van or camper. The fact of the matter is, I and pretty much ever other vanner I know, live in poverty or pretty darn close to it. It's a rich life, for sure, but you trade quite a bit to go into what I call "early retirement" and spend very little time working a traditional job, in order to travel a lot.