Our New Odyssey: Full-Time RVing

Our goal is to live full-time in our 32ft Keystone Travel Trailer by the summer of 2020. Many people are intrigued by this, but also want to know why. Why would you want to give up your beautiful house? Why would you want to live in such a small space? Why are you giving up your career?

In our minds, there are a lot of reasons to do this, but the most important one is simple, “because we want to”. So much of what we do needs to be justified to others. We almost need to convince them that our decision is good and sound. I’m not trying to convince you of anything, just sharing my thoughts to maybe help you out. Whether it is downsizing, living on one income, raising chickens for eggs, growing some of our your food, or deciding to quit your job, sell your house, and take off across the country in an RV, discussions with family and friends always have this air of a sales pitch.

At first it was tough trying to articulate our “why”. People would react with a sort of “but you’re a teacher” look on their face. As if being a teacher is all I (we) were. Others thought we ought to do it when we retire – which at this rate will be in a billion years! Being stuck somewhere, be it a job or a stage in life, just isn’t cutting it for us.

Some parts of our “why” are easy to share. For example, wanting to see the country is something that people can understand and likely relate to. Most people have daydreamed about traveling to places, but leave it in a daydream. Other parts of our “why” were more difficult to explain, like wanting to be happy. I know, I know, how millenial of us!

In the end, our reasons have to satisfy us and the needs of our family. If they do, then they’re good enough for us, but maybe not you. So, here’s why we’re committed to making this dream come true.

1. Be Happy

This one is sort of a catch all, so I won’t belabor it too much, even though it is número uno. Everyone has their own idea of being happy. But to be clear, this isn’t short lived happiness like one feels listening to a great song (Dead & Company’s 2019 Playing in the Sand for me right now!) or spending a few hours with an old friend. But rather an overall contentedness with their world.

Can we be happy living our lives so closely and intertwined? That’s yet to be seen. We have a more long-term goal of operating a small homestead farm. Getting enough land to grow and raise what we want might mean a small house. This is sort of the ultimate test for the question, “how small can we go?” The rest of these should flush out this one.

2. Family Time

This one is as much about time together as it is mental health. Studies have shown how beneficial it is for a family to eat dinner together. For parents to talk to their children about their day. Well, if spending dinners together is good, then spending all day together must be good too, right?! For real, we enjoy being together. We feel like we are better parents together than we are apart – maybe it is one of those “one hand washes the other” scenarios, or maybe I’ve totally missed the meaning of that phrase.

We love being parents, but neither of us were looking to quickly charge through adulthood to parenthood. We were both 31 and married for 6 years when our daughter was born. With all of that considered, parenting is tough! I had a coworker describe it once as a club. You can spend as much time with nieces, nephews, kids of your friends, etc. and you will never really know what it is like to parent. Boy, was he right. Doing it together is better for all of us (mother, father, daughter). You can expect more on this subject in the future.

3. Live for Today, Not Retirement

This is a biggie. Not to be too morbid, but you just don’t know what the future holds. You gotta carpe that diem. I mean, waiting until you’re at retirement age to start doing what you really want to or love doesn’t sound like good decision making, but it is what we’re taught we’re supposed to do. Go to work, earn a paycheck, take a vacation for a few days every year, wake up and go to work again. All the while save money for college tuition, retirement, and pay your mortgage. Do all of that for a really long time, and then pursue your passions. Nope, not what we’re interested in doing.

Another trope of millenial-dom is doing something that your feel is meaningful. This is meaningful to us. We want to investigate this lifestyle first hand. Find out if it is better for us, and the environment, than living in a sticks and bricks house. If your travel is intentional, can dragging your house behind you create a smaller carbon footprint than a typical house in a subdivision? There’s some information out there about this, but we intend to investigate ourselves.  

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not going to forget about our future. We both have retirement funds through our jobs and our own personal IRA funds. We also have a college fund for our daughter. We plan on continuing to contribute to these funds as much as possible while pursuing our new lifestyle.

4. Fulfill Our Wanderlust

There are just too many places we want to see and we want to do it as a family. We’d been going on larger trips every few years before our daughter was born. Costa Rica then California & Oregon then the Grand Canyon and southern Utah. That cycle of trip, then save for a few years, then trip, then save, is a lot harder on one income with an extra person too! Many people may be content to just squander away what they could until they have enough for that dream vacation to Disney World, but that’s not us. Moving into an RV will lead us on the road we want.

5. Because We Think it’s Fun!

Fun! Maybe not, maybe it’ll suck. Maybe we’ll hate everything about it. Maybe it’ll be the worst decision we ever made. Maybe it’ll be awesome. Maybe we’ll never want to stop. Maybe it’ll be the best decision we ever made! Either way, we’re going for it.

Again, all of these are very personal reasons. None of this is meant to sway a naysayer that they should do this too; it is a big change that needs to be something you’re fully committed to. We are.

Finally, I’d like to leave you with this video. It is by comedian Michael Jr. He does an absolutely incredible job demonstrating this idea of your why. I won’t say anymore but that I was shown this at a training for work earlier this year. What is your why?