Almost two years ago my husband and I began the full time RV life. We rented out our house, sold two cars and a bunch of other stuff we didn’t need, and hit the road to become digital nomads while living in a fifth wheel and traveling the US full time.
One of the most common questions we are often asked is how we’re able to travel full time. I’ll be honest, this one dumbfounded me for years. I saw plenty of gorgeous Instagram photos of people traveling all over the world and wishing I had that kind of life, but it seemed like a pipe-dream, or something only possible for established travel photographers and journalists.
Granted, we were no strangers to camping and exploring. We owned a nice-enough house in a nice-enough town and yet we constantly wanted to travel and road trip to new areas. Almost every weekend you’d find us camping, backpacking, overlanding, or flying to a new city. You could call it Adventure Endeavor 1.0. These short trips were nice, don’t get me wrong, but we yearned for more.
So back to the Instagrammers… How could these people possibly afford to travel full time? How do they make money to support their lifestyle? I thought of the concept of RVing fulltime was for retired people who had saved for years and finally left the workforce. We thought we’d be no different.
Most people my age (33) and older were raised believing a job is a place you go to work. To many working-aged individuals, the concept of working from home seemed an idealized dream provided only to a few fortunate individuals. I didn’t believe that traveling full time was “real” for most people in traditional office jobs like me.
Then in the summer of 2017, I came across Jason and Rae Miller’s announcement about hitting the road full time. My perspective slowly began to change. I went to high school with Jason and Rae, and was acquainted with them personally. There it was, living proof that REAL people I actually knew, real people LIKE ME, had found a way to travel full time. What a game-changer. 🤯
Then a few months later a crazy event made us realize life can be cut short at any moment and the luxury of having time to do things “one day” went out the window. Tomorrow is never promised and we knew we had to make a change.
A 2-Week Cross Country Road Trip
Fast forward to a year later when we spent two weeks on a road trip exploring parts of the Pacific Northwest, Canada, Montana, and more. Rather than satiate our thirst for travel, it fueled a desire for more.
The wheels began turning when my husband Jesse and began serious discussions about RVing full-time. We crunched a few numbers and figured he could quit doing his production assistant jobs if I kept my income by transitioning my existing job as a Project Coordinator into a remote role. I wasn’t yet ready to leave a career I loved for something totally unknown so I figured I could make it work. We were already decent at finding creative ways to save money and figured a minimalistic lifestyle would only improve those habits.
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</script>Becoming Modern Nomads
After several months of negotiations, I was able to transition my existing job to work remotely on a 6-month trial basis. After only 5 total months of preparation, we bought our first fifth wheel, took a leap of faith, and set out to see the country. Working remotely for the first time while traveling and adjusting to life on the road was a challenging process to say the least. Through it all, I discovered my priorities changed and the limitations of that company were too extreme to be compatible with the lifestyle I was falling in love with.
Two years later, I still work full time as a Project Coordinator. After searching for more than a year, I recently changed jobs which created more flexibility in my workday. Jesse worked in the film studios before we hit the road, but he never found it fulfilling. Now, in addition to managing most route planning and rig upkeep, he edits and manages the videos for our YouTube channel and other social media content. We both work together on the filming, editing, and photography for Adventure Endeavor. I also do freelance writing on the side. All of this is done working remotely from our RV home office.
Not all modern nomads live the same way. Some keep the same job where they were an established employee like I did in the beginning. We’ve also met plenty of travel nurses on the road. Others work seasonally or part time at places like Christmas tree lots, pumpkin patches, events, running tours for tourists, work camping, or camp hosting, etc. Many are travel writers and photographers like I always imagined. Some sell their house and live off savings for a few years. Others are entrepreneurial like us and start their own businesses.
There are many ways to live the RV lifestyle and become a digital nomad and everyone is different. Maybe the RV lifestyle was once only for the retired but the world is quite different now. The internet has changed the world of work significantly and opportunities for digital nomads are everywhere.
If you’re thinking full time RV travel could be for you but seems intimidating, we encourage you to give it a shot. You never know what you might learn about yourself!
