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Old 03-25-2015, 03:34 AM   #1
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Life in the beautiful struggle..

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the site and to this idea of living and traveling. Basically, my girlfriend and I (long term) relationship, are thinking of buying a RV and telecommuting to our jobs from where ever the road takes us on our adventure. We don’t have a home and to be honest the idea of owning a home isn’t something we are really comfortable with as we would like to travel before we get older and can’t do the things we enjoy doing anymore i.e active stuff (snowboarding, hiking, kiteboarding) cultural stuff (Jazz fest, Mardi Gras, BBQ tasting, SXSW) etc..

DO any of you folks out in the wild tele-commute on a daily basis and what if any are the issues that you run into?

We are younger and in pretty great shape physically. We don’t have any pets or children. We are both actively down sizing the “stuff” in our lives together. We live in a very metropolitan city in the western United States. We are tired of the traffic, smog and general congestion of the city life.

We have the opportunity to both carry on our careers and not be attached to any particular desk in a building. The appeal of being able to travel around the US, whenever we want has a alluring appeal to both of us at this time. We typically spend 11 months out the year waiting & saving vacation time to go somewhere were we can absorb whatever peaks our fancy. We always say we will come back to the spots we visit but realistically that is on a 15 year cycle as it stands currently. Unless, we settle for visiting in three day increments and then retreating until the next three day adventure.

We recently rented an suv, that we were able to sleep in the back as a way to just decompress and we had a blast doing so traveling up the western coast together. We think, the epiphany we both incurred happened when we were in the process of filling up the tank to return the SUV to the rental establishment. It could have been sooner or later but that’s the sweet spot.

We both got back to the apartment and it was like a tropical depression that filled the our living space. That’s when the “research” started about telecommuting out of an RV started to take shape. We were both doing the research separately and a few weeks ago we were having breakfast and both basically asked each other if we could live out on the road and walk away from the city life we are currently apart of and accustomed too.

We ended up at a RV super center and started looking at some of the vehicles and figuring out the space and how we could integrate ourselves and our work life into such a smaller “than our normal” space. We have stuff and we have friends who can use the stuff we no longer want/need in our life.


We are both making list and trying to get a bit more educated with this type of life style. If anyone who has any tips or threads that I can share as we both make a significant lifestyle change, please do not hesitate to link them in this thread.

Thanks in advance Chris
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Old 03-25-2015, 05:36 AM   #2
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I've been telecommuting for about 7 years now, and the idea of working while traveling was something we discussed for a couple of years. At first, it was finding a place to rent and spend the summer out of the heat of the south for a few months in a place like CO, ID, etc.

Then we starting seriously considering RVs which put a bit of a different twist on the same thought. Once we decided to go ahead with our RV purchase I was going to try to do this in a limited fashion for maybe 2 weeks to start and see if I could do it longer. Long story and a lot of great timing, but I am retiring as of next Tuesday, so it has become a mute point .

In any case, a couple of thoughts:
Network access and bandwidth......... Campground wifi has bandwidth issues, and I am very uncomfortable with it from a security perspective as well. You'll probably need a hot spot type decide with a very high data use age plan. It may be expensive, and the main concern at that point would be any limitations in coverage.

Workspace; ran across an interesting answer to this on our maiden trip in our new coach a few weeks ago. A couple pulled into the site next to us in a new 5th wheel on their maden trip as well. It was a toy hauler, that they are going to use the "garage" as an office while they travel, which I thought was a great idea.

Work - life balance. In an RV you are mainly going to around people that are not working, and probably in a place that you would rather not be working too. So you are going to have to be very disiplined in your work habits.

I think it can be done, and a good test may be to rent a place for a month somewhere that would be representative of the type of place you would go,and see if you can work effectively from there.

Good luck!
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Old 03-25-2015, 05:52 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CeeeKhay View Post
DO any of you folks out in the wild tele-commute on a daily basis and what if any are the issues that you run into?
Welcome Chris!

I won't be a full-timer until this coming Saturday but I have been testing the concept for the last couple years. I have found that it is not a lot different than working from home (sticks and bricks). Everyone is different and "needs" vary. My big issues probably don't apply to someone that always stays in RV parks in populated areas. I like to be out and away from it all. The big issues that I have are Internet bandwidth, signal, and power.

I am in the southwest and, two years ago, I found that Verizon provides far better coverage that T-Mobile. It might be different now but at that time, it wasn't even a contest. I have learned to be very savvy with my data usage. Big uploads/downloads (critical updates, service packs, etc...) are done at a local hotspot (McDonalds, Starbucks). Email is set to retrieve headers only - too many people like to attach 10 Mb images of their favorite pet (or whatever) - I generally delete this stuff without ever downloading it. For me and the type of work I do, 50 Mb per day is my average - this is being very careful. Without being cautious, I found that I could easily use 200-300 Mb a day. For the signal problem, I use a Wilson Sleek amplifier which really works well for me. I can imagine a more permanent install and better antenna would make a positive difference but I have not needed it yet and I have spent weeks in some pretty out of the way places.

For power, I installed 650 watts of solar panels this is enough that I never need to run my generator (I really love silence).

As far as picking an RV goes, I suspect you won't know what you really want until you live the life for awhile. What appears to be great on the lot is sometimes not so great after living with it for several weeks. I'd suggest getting something that you like and be willing to trade it for something else after living the life for a while.

Best of luck!
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Old 03-25-2015, 01:06 PM   #4
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Getting your head around this lifestyle in itself is an adventure .... When my wife first suggested we sell out and by a Bus, I had a really difficult time not having the ole S&B ... so we agreed on an exercise that included; Every function we do in the house every both together and individually, we identified how much space we were actually using for this function/activity .... over time (a month or so) we were ready to admit the majority of space in our house we were not using ... hardly at all. We then took this mental picture with us as we began shopping for a Bus. What made it all come together was finding the floor plan that would work for us .... Once we knew what we were looking for ... it was just a matter of finding the right one ...
Re internet ... we use our cell phones as hot spots ... and CG when avbl ... banking & business stuff on the hot spot always ....
Just some thoughts from our camp to yours .... enjoy the adventure ... and we look forward to hearing about your progress ...
By the way ...... we love our new home and this lifestyle .....
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Old 03-25-2015, 05:08 PM   #5
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check out gonewiththewynns.com they will pretty much cover all of your questions. its a great repository of information and it's been very helpful for me. they are a younger working couple that have been traveling and working the whole time.
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Old 03-26-2015, 12:42 AM   #6
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This has the makings of an epic adventure.....
I just came home to 20 bins that will be used for donating "stuff".....
I just also was the bearer of moderate news.
(My News)
A. We have 26 months left on the lease to our apt
B. We also have 20 months left on the lease on both of our vehicles.

(Her News)
C. I may be the recipient of a paid for, all inclusive truck driving school course.
Exact conversation went like this " If you crash my house, I will strangle you in front of the tow truck driver"
D. My girlfriend is also going to maybe attending to the same school to learn how to drive a large vehicle. Because I believe in all things being equal.
E. All vacations are hereby cancelled until we purchase an RV.
F. Got asked what I thought about a 5th wheel
G. Was told we can't both live and work in a class B M.H at the same time. So class C
H. Was told that "we" need to be able to spend time in the colder region of the country.
I. I need to figure out a realistic budget calculator.
J. I am not really a drinker, but I may have just chugged a rather large glass of wine. Pretty sure that was "unbecoming" in terms of wine drinking.
K. Got a free to me e-book on crock potting
L. My girlfriend is moving as fast as a Tasmanian devil.
M. I think she may have found a buyer for most of her shoes and bags.
N. I think she sold all of my books.... This is beginning to trend in me having a sad, sad face..
O. I need to use the restroom..
P. Is it possible to just get asthma????

At the rate this is going by the weekend I will own a mattress and a phone book...
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Old 03-26-2015, 09:13 AM   #7
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.... I can totally relate .... but hang on ... it gets better !!!
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Old 03-27-2015, 08:43 AM   #8
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We've been full time for 2 1/2 years now. Our biggest regret is that we didn't start ten years sooner.
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Old 03-29-2015, 02:58 PM   #9
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Chris and Cherie at technomadia.com have been traveling and working fulltime since 2006. They list their budget breakdowns monthly and have a lot of information on their site that you would find helpful. They also do video chats every so often that are helpful in making those basic decisions that must be made before you embark on this lifestyle. They have links to previous chats as well
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Old 03-29-2015, 04:28 PM   #10
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Another huge vote for Technomadia Technomadia | Adventures in Nomadic Serendipity. Their blog is great, but watch their videos, too. They have a great (long) vid on the realities of full-timing, especially when trying to earn a living. It's a couple of years old, but still very pertinent.

Reliable connectivity is one of the biggest issues for technomads. I'd do my research. As another poster said, you're going to have to spend a good bit more in order to always have a good internet connection, including several redundant systems (Mifi, camp Wifi, etc.).

That said, huge kudos for clearing out stuff and getting started on your dream!
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Old 04-02-2015, 07:08 AM   #11
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Dittos on the issues of Internet connectivity and bandwidth. Full-timers lost a great asset when Millenicom went away, and there just aren't any GOOD substitutes for what you've been used to in the stixnbrix.

The prettiest places will have the worst cellular signals, naturally, and although you can help this with boosters you can't create a signal out of nothing. Satellite may be your option here, with a signal always possible but again with issues of bandwidth and the pain of setting up and acquiring a signal each time you move.

Its going to cost you a fair amount of money, both in equipment and data plans. Accept that up front; there is no cheap way to do this and unreliability of the signal is always going to be a possibility.

It is a great life. Carpe the hell out of that diem.
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