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Millions of people the world over are becoming savvy to their abilities in travel. All you need is an RV and an internet connection, and you’ve basically got a mobile apartment. Think about this critically for a moment. If you $500 a month on an apartment, $550 after utilities are factored in, you’re paying $6,600 a year for a room that you don’t own which you will one day leave behind. That’s if you’re getting a deal.
Meanwhile, a quick trip through Craigslist reveals full-sized recreational vehicles available for almost half the yearly cost on a $550/month apartment. You can get one from the seventies with less than 85,000 miles on it for three grand. Sure, you’ll probably spend two thousand dollars chasing down little piddly things, but if you maintain that RV, you can be the owner of your own property–and be mobile!–for the same price, or less, than you’d pay every year on a crappy, dirt-cheap apartment. Now imagine if you’re paying $1000 a month, or $12,000 a year for an apartment. Shoot, in that case, you could buy two RVs, live in one, and make a hobby out of selling other models to buyers at a markup.
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But what’s it like to live on the road?
Well, you’ll have gas, maintenance expenses, and repairs. If you’re getting 10 miles a gallon, you’re going to get between 40 and 50 miles per $10, or 200 to 400 miles per $50. So you could, conceivably, spend $10 a day on fuel, travel to the next town continuously, and by doing that make a circuit around the entire continental United States in a couple years. If you budget $100 a month for internet, $200 a month for maintenance/unforeseen contingencies, and $300 a month for fuel, you’re looking at your original rent. So basically, if you can get an RV to work for you at least two years, you end up saving on the cost of an apartment, being entirely mobile, and owning the property you’ve purchased besides. Maybe you can’t sell it to someone else for $6000, but you can certainly flog it off for $2000. How many reading this has ever gotten $2000 back on a rent deposit when they moved out? Plus, there’s no lease.
Endless Possibilities
For those who earn their living on the internet, or just have twenty grand they can afford to drop on travel, RV life is extremely ideal, profitable, and exciting. But there are problems you’ll have when you’re traveling, and one of the biggest ones is medical assistance. When you’re circumnavigating the country, you want to be sure of your health. If you’re on the east coast and catch a head cold, you may need an ear, nose and throat doctor (ENT). You’re going to want to find a doctor who provides top-tier service at rates you can afford, and in a dependable way. Oftentimes medical solutions offered by drop-in clinics are more than adequate to serve your traveling needs. Strangely, if you can maintain your health as you travel, medical expenses won’t be much higher than living in an apartment. If you do decide to go mobile, live through the internet and make the whole US your backyard, you’re going to want to stock up on casual medical supplies; things like gauze, band-aids, hydrogen peroxide and the like. What you’d keep in your apartment for emergencies, basically. While there are remote medical packages, you can usually find what you need anywhere with a quick search. Just be careful to only use established, vetted services.
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