First off, this will probably read more like a journey entry and less of an informative post, but it will give you an insight into the thought process I went through when deciding this lifestyle was for me in this season of my life.
I know that this lifestyle is not for everyone. The initial questions I have gotten from people have strangely been around showers and bathroom usage, more so than where I park. But, all of the questions have been surrounding someone who couldn’t imagine not having a full bathroom, electric all the time, or not fully understanding someones mindset who lives in such a small space. Most of my family may think I’ve gone off the deep end and are about to become a motivational speaker. Which by the way, if anyone reading this would like to hire me as a motivational speaker, feel free to send me a personal message. I will even wear my blue plaid sport coat.
Anyways, there are several reasons to why I personally chose to embark on this journey. Some of the main reasons are financial stability, mental and physical health, and overall happiness with life. I wanted to focus more attention on what I wanted my life to represent, meaning when I am in the final moments of my life, what regrets will I have, what memories will I recall, and what will make me smile as I look back? Put simply, what will be a life I can be proud of?
So with all those thoughts stirring up. This is a list of the reasons I chose to take the dive into full time #Vanlife.
1 . FINANCIAL FREEDOM – BECOMING DEBT FREE
I put this as number one because at the end of the day, this has been one of the main reasons why I haven’t been able to do the things I want to do. Why I don’t go to concerts, sporting events, buy a mountain bike, or try out new things. Sometimes certain fun activities take money and I haven’t always had a lot of it. I have over $30,000 in student debt remaining, as well as over $10,000 in personal loan debt from a business I tried to start up back in 2011. All of which have created very tight finances. I have even had to get short term paycheck loans to make ends meet and sell possessions at times to get to the next paycheck. I know my family would have ALWAYS been willing to help me through these tough times but I am a very proud person and hate asking for help due to my own poor choices.
When you mix this with being underpaid in various professional jobs, this creates tons of stress and the feeling I can’t do anything but stay at home and watch TV. On the other end, I will say it has created a very frugal mindset (outside of splurging on technology purchases), which will serve me well in the future, but it hasn’t been worth the stress that it created.
Vanlife living definitely frees up money to be able to both do what you want adventure wise, while allowing you to put away money into savings. I will touch on this in other reasons, but not wanting to spend $1,500 a month on rent in Colorado for a 600 sq. ft studio will allow me to instead save that money to pay off all of my debt in under 2 years.
2 . LIVING RENT FREE
Notice I did not say cost free. The way I am looking at this is the money I am paying towards the cost of the van, $10,000, and the remodeling expenses $3,000, are costs that can be recouped if at some point I sell the van. I did secure a personal loan of $8,500 to help cover this cost and will pay roughly $220 a month. I do not consider this rent, rent is money that you cannot recoup. If I pay $1,500 a month in rent, I do not get a portion of that back at the end of my stay there, no most times I end up owing them more money for stupid reasons, even though I returned the apartment in the same condition or better (that is a whole blog post in itself). Anyways, this adventure will save me that monthly cost, minus $220 a month, but I make that back up by selling my vehicle and eliminating some of the costs associated with apartment living.
Bigger picture: This move will also set up an even longer term goal of never paying rent again and even being mortgage free. Let me quickly run you through the master plan (still finalizing). Every three years I will slowly upgrade to a slightly bigger space. Three years from now, I will use 1 years worth of savings ($20,000 – $24,000) and money from selling the camper van ($15,000) to secure a nice used tiny home. To me, this will be a mansion with the additional space. Three years after that, after still not paying rent, I will use my savings ($60,000) and proceeds from selling the tiny home ($30,000) to buy a nicer tiny home. Again, as the cycle continues I keep paying myself “rent” and using it towards an upgrade. At the end of 12 years I plan to have two homes, one as a small rental property, and the second a basic custom built, 1,000 sq ft home in the mountains. Thus setting me up to no longer have rent or mortgage for the remaining time in my life, but in-fact have property I am being paid rent.
3. FLEXIBILITY ON WHERE I CAN GO
I wanted to start with a conversion van mainly for the flexibility in getting around, parking, and not having to haul a bunch of stuff around. I can go anywhere on a whim. At the very start, I was thinking about building a home, but didn’t have the money or financial standing to pull that one off. So I downsized my vision to a custom tiny home that would fit what I wanted. After researching this more, parking it would have to more thought out, researched, and secured for each stop I wanted to make. That would be less ideal if I was forced to park my home 1 hr from downtown Chicago if the whole point was to be near downtown Chicago. So I took one more step down to a Camper Van. Initially I was hesitant because it is quite, how do you say, SMALL. But the more and more I thought about how much space I ACTUALLY use in an apartment it became more plausible. Standing in front of a sink or stove, sitting on the same couch watching TV, or on my bed lying down watching Netflix or scrolling Pinterest and Instagram. I could fit all those activities into a van! That, mixed with parking it downtown Chicago (in theory), not having to buy an F-350 to haul my home around (which defeated the point since I would have a car payment $500 more than what I do now, let alone the gas), and not having to hitch up every time I wanted to go somewhere else began to make the Mercedes Sprinter Van the option for me.
I also chose to go with the larger van cause the size of the smaller one worried me about feeling claustrophobic. In hindsight that would have been a little more free with fitting in parking spaces and not having to worry about having to back up in traffic due to not cutting the turn well enough. However, with full time living in it, I imagine I will enjoy the extra space.
4 . ALL THE STORIES I WILL GET TO TELL AT GRANDMA’S DINNER TABLE
To give all of you an insight to our family, we love our family gatherings in the Perkins family. The biggest of course were the Thanksgiving weekends and the Christmas’ where all the Perkins clan would travel back home and get together at Grandma’s. Some of the most memorable moments were staying up late at night around Grandma’s dinner table hearing stories from everyones past, some told countless times with maybe an additional piece of information that was left out the last time it was told. It was an amazing time with family and made us all feel closer to each other. As many of you can relate, the stories that get told the most were about the long road trips where cars broke down or how a group of us ate frozen Twizzlers together in Wisconsin picking up a U-haul in Antigo because they were all out in Green Bay.
So as I embark on this journey I feel a torch passed were now I get to create and share a ton of stories on my grand adventures, mistakes, breakdowns, nights at a truck stop, waking up to the sound of a bear outside (let’s hope its just an old guy snoring), etc. I’m now realizing in life that money comes and goes, love comes and goes, possessions come and go but a great adventure lasts. Those memories are the ones that make you smile and laugh as you look back on what you did in life.
5 . BECOMING LESS DEPENDENT ON “THINGS” TO MAKE ME HAPPY
We all want possessions to make us happy, people to make us happy, more money to make us happy, but at the end of the day it doesn’t work, at least not in the long term. Downsizing to a van to live out of will re-condition my thinking to know that a big house is not necessary to be happy, the latest iPhone wont bring me inner-peace, having the biggest TV or a 20 piece dining set isn’t a “must have”. Living in this tiny space will force me to prioritize the things I need to get through the day, and the things that will just take up space I do not have.
6 . FEEDING MY WANDERING AND CURIOUS SPIRIT
My parents always called me the missionary of the family. I was always willing to try new international foods, or try something daring that no one else would try (within reason). Deep down I have never known where I want to establish roots, I have always felt antsy to get to the next adventure or place. Maybe that comes from my Romanian Gypsy heritage. I always knew where I didn’t want to stay for the rest of my life, but that ended up being every where I ever lived. I’ve never seen myself as a person that wants to live in one place forever, work one job for the rest of my life, so crazy enough this adventure will feed the desire to live anywhere, for however long I want.
If I am curious as to what its like to live in Seattle or San Diego, I can be there in 2 days or less. If I want to catch the Indy 500, the hot air balloons in New Mexico, get a cuban sandwich in Miami or hot wings in Buffalo, DONE. All is now possible to do.
Ok, lets take a small step back for just a second. I know that this is a very optimistic way to look at this ongoing adventure, a dreamers perspective of everything being perfect and going to plan. I realize that not all of these reasons listed above may come to fruition as I have them mapped out in my head, but that’s ok. I am positioning myself to better roll with changes and adapt with them. If I don’t pay off all my debt, I know that the adventure will still create stories I am proud of. If I can’t go to New York because I can’t find a parking spot overnight I feel comfortable with, that is ok, I will still do something I enjoy. All in all, there is a freedom that I am feeling and I feel way more in control of life than what I had felt prior to this.
This post is not meant to convince anyone to do this full time. It may not be for everyone, but for some of us it’s a great alternative to what we find as a stressful, unhappy life. Life is full of curveballs and changes we cannot predict. All I know is that I needed a change in my life to better handle those drastic changes, while putting a greater importance on parts of my life that will bring me a more stable feeling of happiness.
If you made it this far THANK YOU! This has been my longest post to this point and I am a novice blogger. Feel free to reach out with any questions, and be sure to follow me on instagram: @thrillgeeker
Nice post Brad!