Old man creepy shimmy voice?!?! That's an incredible visual.
We're actually looking to get a van and fit it out for travels and living... we came to the US to explore, but as you say, housing costs and jobs and life have kept us in one spot a lot. So we'll slowly get a van together so that at some point we can travel around the country and do/see all the things. It comes at a huge cost though... it's cramped, it's inconvenient, it's potentially unsafe, it's exciting as well.. but it's not for everyone. It's a shame Tiny Homes are pretty much illegal is so many areas, it would get so many people out of the huge debt-cycle.
I really like the FIRE concept, and it honestly doesn't seem all that hard... but my partner just isn't into it at all. She basically doesn't want to stop living at any point in order to build it up... there's too many things she's excited about that she wants to experience, and her friends are always inviting her to exciting and expensive things... and, it's just not something you can really force someone else into... but we've compromised and made some okayish headway into paying off our homeloan.
Um, Mary was super mega hilarious at the end of the show... so much gold right there... and speaking of... very excited about the @goldmatters answer... it's all so interactive!
yeah... sorry for putting you and everyone else through that... not sure where that came from. 😂
There are so many pros and cons to the whole van life thing! More pros in my opinion though. Josh and I are actually starting to look at small, lightweight RV's because in a few years we may just jet out and go around the country! It's pretty amazing how much "house" they can fit into a small amount of space when you have push-outs etc.
We've talked about buying a small, cheap lot of land here in Bellingham, and then maybe one down south somewhere. So we could still spend big chunks of time in certain places, but then jet off whenever we want.
I've thought about the whole tiny home thing , but there are so many more laws and restrictions around it now. I think i'd rather have an RV so that it can be both my "tiny home" but also my home on the road. I love the idea of saving up and paying cash for a little RV, a used truck and some cheap land and getting out of the regular "rat race" and just living.
I think I can get used to "tiny living" but honestly my biggest hangup would be giving up my baths! 😭 I know that sounds trivial...but it would take some adjustment! haha
I guess i'm lucky that both Josh and I are on the same page about FIRE stuff... it definitely makes things easier. I do think Cara has a point too though that you never know how long you have and so enjoying every day is super important too. I imagine some kind of balance is the sweet spot.
Thanks again for the great question on this episode!! In case you haven't seen it yet... @goldmatters gave a helluvah response above!
Hmm, I hadn't really thought about small lightweight RVs. I had immediately dismissed them because they seem hard to find parking for... you often see them towing a car which isn't really what I wanted... and a van you could stop anywhere and it's less obvious than an RV... but Cara really wants to be able to stand up... she's not into #crouchedlyfe
Haha, Cara's hangup is that she needs the bathroom right before bed, so that has to factor in to our designs as well. Mine is the fitness side... I do love having a gym space in my shed. I so love the idea of paying cash and just living somewhere so super cheaply, really getting out of the rat race, and I do hope Steem is a big part of that... if I can get to a point where daily Steem funness is paying the bills (because my bills are so tiny) then I'll be very happy.
Maybe one day the SSS should do a show called "If Steem was $100..."
oooh I 1000% feel her on the crouchedlyfe. haha I couldn't do that for long either without getting stir crazy. The nice thing about getting a Truck + RV combo instead of something that is all combined is that you can drop the trailer off at the campspot and then go cruise around town and explore.
The model we are currently looking at is the Lance 1685 - https://www.lancecamper.com/travel-trailers/1685/
We think in a few years we can get a used model and probably keep the total cost of a used truck and trailer to about $40-45k. Seems like a lot and one could definitely do it cheaper - but to me a trailer like this actually feels live-able for a long period of time! Plus... there is a bathroom. haha
That cost is about two years of rent for us - and so what we may do is save up for part of it, and then buy a cheap 10-15k piece of land here in Bellingham and actually live in it for at least another year while working our regular jobs. This should help us pay down even more and so by the time we hit the road, our expenses should be pretty cheap. And after living in it for 2-2.5 years.... we should have the entire thing paid off, including the land and can park there and live totally rent free anytime we want.
It's all hypothetical at this point and there are a lot of different ways this could go... but it sure is fun to dream about it!
As for the gym thing... i hear ya. That is actually something I'm a little worried about. I'm a YMCA member (which is fairly cheap) and so i'd probably try to find their locations around the country and workout when I can, but will probably pack some heavier dumbells and figure out a workout routine I like that i can do on the road. But yeah... that's a trickier piece of things.
$10-15k plot of land?!? That's so amazing to me... even the crappiest bit of land in Australia was like $150k easy.
That's an amazing plan! There would definitely be hardships along the way (weather, etc) but the financial independence would be so worth it. You'll definitely have to check out zoning laws though... we were looking for a bit of land to build on, and there are so many things like the installation of wells, septic tanks, electricity, phone before you're allowed to reside there... wells can be like $75,000 to install... so it might be worth getting your head around all that stuff sooner rather than later so that if a magical bit of land pops up you can grab it and sit on it until you're ready to work on the rest of the plan.
It's all so intelligent and not part of the general life-script that everyone else follows. I love it so much! You are the smarts!
There are definitely cheap little lots of land to be had! They are just either pretty small - or out in the county a little more. We wouldn’t be looking to develop the land and get power/water/sewer etc. We would just do solar for power and fill the water tanks when needed etc. Basically treat it like we are on the road - but be tucked into the woods on a piece of land.
Lots more to research, but I think it should all work out fairly easily! We may get a small metal shed to put on the land for extra storage. We would just have to keep it small enough to not trigger any laws or codes about it being a building.