Anyone in their 30s or 40s full-timing?

[burnsdl]

Hi everyone,
My wife and I are in our late 30's and plan on working many years into the future. That said, we both have the ability to telecommute and are seriously contemplating exchanging our home for an airstream and hitting the road.

Much of my full-timing research has been frustrating as I've found very little information aimed at couples like us, a couple that is not retired but looking to balance our corporate gigs with RV life. What I'd really like to find are planning resources which might be helpful for us and our situation ... resources targeting mid-career workers who simply want to travel and see the country while working remotely.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thank you.

_dave

[Minnie's Mate]

I will be 49 next month and my wife will be ... let's just say she is younger than I am.

Anyway, the link below is about a family that toured the U.S. for a year. I haven't been to the web site in nearly a year so I was surprised to find out that the family is now serving as missionaries in Africa. I didn't go through the entire site to see if it had any of the history of their year long odyssey.

Driven to Educate - assignment Africa

There are other web sites that you might find by googling "full time RV living" or working while full timing. There are many sites to visit just with this Google alone.

[overlander63]

Welcome to the forums. We fulltimed in our Airstream for well over a year, and are currently living in it again. While not in our 30's any more, we are far from retirement age. Here's a link to our trials and tribulations here in the forums:http://www.airforums.com/forums/f314...ins-32395.html
Our day to day lives that usually "didn't make it into the blog" were deceptively normal. The biggest challenge is making sure there is a place for everything, and everything has to be put in its place. You will also have to be ruthless about what you take with you. If you have friends or relatives that can store your excess stuff it would be better than having to deep-six it. Rich Luhr, the publisher of Airstream Life magazine, and his family lived for several years in their Airstream as they toured around the country, and his blog is still available on his website. Here's a link to that:Tour of America

[Aviator]

Check out; Aluminum Bliss, and NuRVers.com. Aluminum Bliss is a 30's (maybe younger) couple full timing, and NuRVers is a website dedicated to younger RV owners.

[JohnE]

www.ramonacreel.com

[Minnie's Mate]

Also check out www.thelonghoneymoon.com for a couple that semi-full-times or maybe that would be part times.

[rluhr]

Hi Dave

It's really not that hard. If you've figured out the "camping" part, the "work" part is pretty straightforward. While everyone gets obsessed with figuring out reliable connectivity to the Internet, that problem gets easier to solve every day. Plan on having at least two different ways to get online (such as cellular data card, and Wifi hot spots) and you'll be fine. Don't trust campground wifi -- it often doesn't work.

The real job is to figure out your working style, space, and schedule. It's a small space and there are two egos in there who have to cooperate. You also have to find ways to deal with co-workers who will be jealous that you are "on vacation", because they will tend to believe that you don't really work. You'll also find yourself standing on a picnic table to try to get a cell phone signal while mosquitoes chew on you, someday. Things are a little different than the nice safe cubicle downtown.

Mobile tech is another thing people obsess about, but it's easy. There are no "perfect" solutions, so you'll have to just have fun figuring out what works for you. Here are a few articles I've written on the subject:

Mobile printer
Off-site backups
General mobile office tech
Mobile office

Most of it is up to you. There's no single "best" way to work and travel. You have to try it out and see what fits your particular situation. Go on a few two-week trips and keep lists of what worked and didn't work for you, then come home and make adjustments.

You'll make a lot more mistakes trying to figure out how to be full-timer travelers, than you will trying to figure out how to be full-time mobile workers. The work part is actually easier than the transition to full-time life. See this essay "Top 12 Mistakes of Full-Timers". Almost every full-timer I've talked to made at least two of these mistakes in their first year.

Best of luck. We'll hope to see you on the road someday.

[Lily&Me]

What a wonderful world we live in, where telecommuting has become so commonplace and accessible!

If you have the interest in and means to do this----go for it, we say! Most everything you need to know you can learn here, and anything else you will learn as you go from experience----and those savvy fellow-travelers you will meet along the way.

You only live once. Have a great time and travel safe.

Maggie

[bredlo]

I recall a few good blogs to keep up with as far as "young full-timers" go.

Jen and Eli really jumped in with both feet, and seem to have concluded their full-timing for now:
Tin Can Travels

The story of Lauren and Deb's adventure is here, they may be done for a bit as well:
Young Airstreamers: This time we are serious...seriously

And Ranger Doug is neither a full-timer or in his 40's anymore, but he's just too cool not to keep track of. He uses his Bambi to sell vintage style posters when not at his cabin in Alaska:
View from the Narrows

[seeroxyrun]

Hi! My husband and I are in the process of transitioning to full-timing and he's 31, I'm 25. I work in a corporate hq and currently support a site in a across the country from the office i work out of. So, all of my work is done by phone/email anyway and will be an easy transition to the work from home program. There's a big "generation" gap tech wise even between my husband and i though, and he'd agree it seems far more normal to me to work that way. He's a bartender, so that's our fallback if we need to stop and make some extra cash for a few months.

We're also not planning on kids anytime soon , if ever, so that makes it easier.

So hopefully soon we can get on the road and add our own blog to this list!

[ldomela]

We didn't plan to start full-timing, but since we traded in our 22' International CCD for a 27'FB International CCD, we haven't slept at home once. It's only been just over a month, but I think we could do this full-time thing very easily. We're in our 40s...I'm a photographer and we have a publishing business that just needs internet to go....we're thinking a P.O. Box would be a little cheaper than our house at this point. We've started a blog here: Riveted. Solar happening next.

[whacksplat]

Hey there! I'm 40 and my bride is much younger (not very polite to give out a woman's age) and we will be full timing starting this August and ending pretty much when we feel like it. I work for a virtual company, and everyone in my company works from home. I'm just taking “virtual company” to the next level. My wife has her own design company (www.misspicklespress.com) doing custom design work.

She likes the full time idea because of the constant change. I like it for the challenge. We did 3 weeks in feb/march to check out logistics, and it appears we are good to go.
While we were out, we ran into Aluminum Bliss. Cool couple, looking forward to running into them this summer while we're out an about.

Check us out online! SHINY ALUMINUM LOVE

[Stefrobrts]

That's awesome that so many people are able to get out and enjoy life instead of being chained to a desk. We'd like to do it (We're both 41) but we're chained to our retail store. We both started out in software engineering, hoping to have a telecommuting lifestyle someday, but that just didn't pan out. As soon as we can figure out how to make a living without having to physically handle merchandise, we would love to hit the road.

I don't know about giving up our 'home base' though. We have a place we really like and have been here a while, we have lots of friends here, it would be hard to give it up permanently. But we sure would like to get away for more than a weekend here and there!

[janiemerle]

My husband and I are both in our 30s. He travels quite a bit for work, and in theory, I could go with him. Now that the Airstream is almost complete, we have discussed doing just that, especially in the summer when the kids are out of school. For us full-time would not be practical, but long stretches at a time would be.

I have also noticed there doesn't seem to be a lot of younger RV-ers, but we are out here.

[Catman6]

I fulltimed when I was 40 for 5 months. I think the hardest part was figuring out exactly what I needed. My 33' Argosy had more than ample room. The bad part was constantly learning how to deal with the moisture in temps in the teens 'F. I had learned to appreciate having a utility body truck full of tools since I was constantly fixing things (the ole girl isn't new ). I would suggest getting a long coach, possibly with a slideout in the living room area (the only thing I would change with mine). As mentioned, egos & 'tudes need a little space now and then. Plus, you will want something with a permanent bed as making up and taking down the bed every day is a major pain from what I've read here. Life changed and took me out of the camper, otherwise I'd still possibly be there

[HowieE]

I sent you a PM with information of someone to contact.

[Wisco]

Our journey begins today. We are excited to meet all of you on the road. This will be our second time giving the full-time gig a try. Oh yeah, I am 33 as of tomorrow and my wife turns 30 this year. Points for the younguns. What we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm and stupidity.

[janiemerle]

Originally Posted by Wisco

Points for the younguns. What we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm and stupidity.

Love it! Good luck!

[MrBeast]

I full timed in a 24' trailer from March of 2007 through march of 2010, The whole time I had a 100lb German Shepherd living with me, and I was eventually joined by my girlfriend the last year when we got together.

My trailer was not an AS, but it was livable, I made it work, the worst part of it was when my roof started leaking because the trailer I had was a cheap POS. But it got the job done for what I needed it to do.

I am 28 years old now, I was able to save a lot of money living in my trailer, and it was nice knowing at any time I needed to I could hook up the truck and go.

Towards the end it got to where I couldnt wait to get out of there, but it was because my El-Cheapo trailer was over 10 years old, and was rapidly falling apart. Had I had an airstream I could have easily stuck it out a lot longer.

I know next spring I am going to be purchasing an airstream and I am going to start to refurb it to get it ready to go out on the road.

I will also mention that I spent the better part of the prior 3 years to living in the camper, living in the sleeper of my Kenworth when I was trucking over the road, I think in 2005 I saw my house about 25 days, and in 2006 I sold my house and just went to full timing in the truck.

In 2007 when I sold my truck and trailer that is when I moved into my camper and moved to Texas.

One thing I will say is there is a ton out there to see, I have been to 47 states, 3 Canadian Provence and Mexico, I have literally seen over 1,000,000 miles pass under the hood of what ever I was driving, and I am still ready for more. In 2012 I am planning on driving all the way from Texas to Alaska and back, seeing everything I can along the way, hopefully being able to take 2 1/2 - 3 Months off of work to take the trip.

I am taking the experience of having full timed before, and I will be using that experience as I refurb my airstream to make it a really positive experience. Having the right setup will go a long ways towards allowing you to enjoy your travels. Done right you will be just as comfortable if not more comfortable in your trailer than you would be at home.

The thing I will warn you about is that the road can be a very cruel mistress, planning ahead goes a long ways, if you just get out there and wing it, you are setting yourself up for disaster and if the worst happens it will put you through hell.

Keeping up on top of your equipment is essential, and making sure you have money in the bank should an emergency arise is absolutely necessary. If your tow vehicle quits you in a bad area, you may not be able to get any towing service, and you may find yourself really getting raped by some less than honorable towing company to get your rig back to some place it can be fixed.

I can say this for a fact because I am in the towing business, I deal with it all the time where people do not do proper maintenance on their trailers, then they wonder why their wheels come off going down the road after the wheel bearings completely burn out.

I don't know how many times I have written some one a 500.00 tow bill over something that could have been prevented by less than a dollars worth of grease. As well if you lose a tire off your rig and it hits some one, you are liable.

Thus I say do it right, or not at all! Being a seasoned full timer if you have any questions, feel free to bounce them off of me and I will do my best to answer - Nick

[MrBeast]

Oh one more quick thing, I strongly recommend using the Verizon Wireless internet, I have had thier service since 2004, and it rocks, I have used it in 47 states, and they have by far superior coverage to anyone else. The biggest areas of no coverage are west Texas from the area about 40 miles west of Weatherford all the way to El Paso, and Kansas used to have no coverage, but I think since Verizon took over Alltel that has changed because they were huge in Kansas. The only other area that was bad for coverage was from Bismark ND to Billings Mt.And from Billings to spearfish SD both through Wyoming, or if you take Highway 212 through Broadus.

Oh and when you get your wireless modem, get the one that an external antenna can be plugged in to, it will make a huge difference because the metal skin on your Air Stream will cause interference with the signal, a roof mounted antenna will do wonders for your reception. I used an external in my KW and it made a huge difference in my ability to connect.