Escapees March/April 2016

“Keep dreaming. Anyone of any age can become a ful l-time RVer if they want it bad ly enough and are wil ling to plan and sacrifice.”

There are a number of sample RV budgets you can reference online as you create your own ( rv-dreams.com has one of the best we found). I’ve been asked whether we have a large nest egg to fall back on. The answer is no, but we do have a com- prehensive full-time insurance plan, two roadside assistance memberships and an emergency fund of $5,000, should anything happen unexpectedly. Repair costs can be high, especially for diesel RVs. We wouldn’t want an emergency to signal the end of our adventure. Keep dreaming. Anyone of any age can become a full-time RVer if they want it badly enough and are willing to plan and sacri ¿ ce. It took Eric and me two years to build up our online marketing business before we could travel, but our preparations have paid off. Like many other younger RVers we’ve met, there’s nothing extraor- dinary about us that enabled us to become full-time RVers other than our wanderlust and willingness to take risks. If you hear the road calling you, that is all you need to get started.

physical mail regularly? If so, make sure you understand what your mail forwarding service offers and budget accordingly. One of my greatest challenges is maintaining healthy communication with my clients and team members. Even though I may be connected via the Internet, it’s easy to feel discon- nected. Nothing is as effective as a face-to-face meeting, and I don’t have that luxury when I’m traveling. As a compromise, I utilize private Face- book groups. They allow for constant communication and even help foster a sense of camaraderie and common purpose because they’re part of a pop- ular social network. Whatever method of communication you choose, make sure you have a plan for staying up to date with your company and allowing your voice to be heard in the deci- sion-making process. Be Flexible You can plan your work routine, have À awless Internet connec- tivity and anticipate challenges like the world’s premiere military strategist, but you can’t plan for ev- erything. Traveling as a full-time RVer requires À exibility, so know there will be disruptions no matter what. There will be times you have to work from the lobby of an RV me- chanic’s shop. There will be times you have to drive to the entrance of the state park to call your client because you can’t get a phone signal. There

will be times when you have to secure everything in your RV as fast as you can because your gray water tank is over À owing into your bathtub, and you have to drive to the dump station. (Not that any of those things have ever happened to me!)

Budget Carefully One of the beautiful things about the RV lifestyle is how

À exible it is from a budgeting stand- point. Camping fees, fuel, food and entertainment costs are not set in stone. In fact, spending on these cat- egories can vary widely according to your needs. One line item that is not À exible is your RV loan payment, so be cautious as you purchase your new home. We paid cash for a 10-year-old diesel pusher. It required aesthetic updates that we’re still working through, but the bones were solid, and we knew it would last. Because we were willing to settle for an older rig, our ¿ nancial footing is more secure. How many people in their 20s can say they own their home outright?

Brittany and her husband, Eric, moved into a 2004 Tiffin Phaeton in February 2014 to begin traveling full-time with their bearded dragon. A rescue kitten joined the family in 2015. They provide social media management and other online marketing services for small businesses while remotely running one of the top-ranked blogs about the city of Austin, Texas. They chronicle their RV adventures on Facebook and their personal and quirky travel blog www.rvwanderlust.com

26 . ESCAPEES | March/April 2016 | www.escapees.com