What amazes me about life on the road is how unpredictable it is. One month can be completely different from the last, but that’s what makes it so exciting! At the same time, variety makes budgeting difficult. I’ll detail a post later on about how I budget in general (because that’s not really Airstream life…
Over the last 10 years, we’ve run into a lot of friends, relatives and acquaintances that were thinking about leaving the 9-5 hamster wheel and venturing off on their own. There are definitely a lot of perks. No set hours (unless you get a picky client), you can choose which clients or projects to take…
Traveling so far we have run into so many families that have sold everything for their life on the road. Whether out of necessity, or to just downsize and live simply, selling the house and everything in it is one way to fund and maintain a life on the road. Others we have run into…
Great post. So true, it’s hard to let go. Makes me glad that selling the house was the first (and so far, only) step we’ve taken towards making our dream come true. I’m not going to lie to you, it was hard. I still can’t think about it too much without getting sad, and even though we only live 10 mins away in a rental house, I haven’t had the courage to go back. It’s been since July. But it’s getting easier.ReplyCancel
We sold and it was a great decision, even being fairly sure we would return to Tampa. I can say that when we got home it was hard to drive by the old neighborhood and still is. We have even accidentally turned that way instead of proceeding up the Expressway to our new exit. In the end it was something that aided my faith and ability to trust God and place my sense of security in Him alone.ReplyCancel
We rent out homes and are thankful that we still have them both. We lived in one, then moved to the next while renting the first one out and now they are both rented. They have provided income, tax advantages and a sense of security (if we wanted to at some point, we could still move back to our own home). You have to get past the fact that sometimes things will break or you might get a bad tenant. Most of that is emotional and difficult because you’re not there. It will cost you more to handle things that come up when you can’t do it yourself, but if you’re prepared it’s really nice to know you still have your home. In the mean time, the mortgages keep whittling down and at some point they’ll be paid off and really be profitable.ReplyCancel
Another month gone by! Time seems to be flying. Another month means we re-evaluate the biggest questions: How much money is it going to take? Can we really make this work? Comparatively, January was better than December. I think. We definitely spent less money on camping fees (staying with friends, boondocking, and turns out New…
Although it may seem like we jumped into the decision to abandon our lifestyle and go mobile, it has actually been a long time in the making. We didn’t just wake up one day and decide to sell the minivan, buy an Airstream and a truck and drive into the sunset. So, what did we…
I love this! I have a 2008 DWR 16′ Bambi and travel with my dog. I’m seriously contemplating leaving my hubby at home (on our farm) during the winter next year and heading south to MS, AL, LA and TX. Your blog is giving me courage! I’m on the other end of the spectrum…kids all graduated from college and getting married. Only tied down by my business, which I can manage from the road. Your pictures are great and your blog is an inspiration. It’s not too late to teach this old dog some new tricks!
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Thank you for this post! I have been wondering how insurance works on the road for the self-employed, and we are kind of in the same boat as you guys. We have 2 kids, and don’t plan on having more. We have a HSA account, but the insurance is through my wife’s work (being that we are not on the road just yet). I am self-employed (I make YouTube videos), and we are almost at a point where she doesn’t have to work anymore with our business’s growth.
Good idea about the catastrophic accidental insurance. Thank you again for this post. I would love to read a follow up post after you guys talk with your agent!
You are welcome!! I’m glad it was helpful. You YouTuber’s… yikes. I checked out your feed and its great! I thought blogging everyday was hard, but I think that would be more difficult!
Creating a video everyday is a lot of work, but I love it! It’s a passion of mine. Thanks for checking out my channel! I hope you liked it! Hopefully one day ill be making videos from an airstream!
Lane! What I coincidental surprise to see you in the comments. Are you planning on doing the RV thing? We have thought about it several times.
Anyway, we do a high deductible HSA as well. I didn’t know about accident insurance and that does sound nice paired up with the HSA.
Our plan ends in May so we will be interested to see how Obamacare has changed things. We’re a little nervous the rates are going to be much higher.
Hi Micah! Thanks for the comment. I, to, am interested to see what our options are under Obamacare. I wish with the whole thing would be scrapped, but since that’s not currently an option we’ll just have to make do. 🙂
Hey Micah!! Big surprise seeing you here! How did you find this blog? Yes, we are still interested in the airstream lifestyle.
Would love to know where you are finding health insurance for a family of 5 for $258/month? My wife and I are are both self-employed (i’m a photographer too) and we currently pay $600+ for the same 10k deductible HSA plan. Would love to know what company you are using. Happy to trade a family photoshoot for a sit down conversation about life on the road (we are planning on a year around the country when my youngest turns 6). We are in Colorado near Boulder…www.jameschristianson.com Shoot me an email if you can.
James – Absolutely! I’ll email you….
Would love more info on what company you use also… hitting the road later this month and searching for coverage. 🙂
We are currently with HumanaOne. I have no experience on how vast their network is, etc, but we are fairly healthy and haven’t had to use it much so I like that it’s cheap. 🙂 We are grandfathered into a non-Obama care plan at least until December and then things might get a little more expensive after that. 🙁
Hello, I’m a full-timer wanna-be looking at a launch date early next spring. This article was helpful. We mostly want insurance to cover the catastrophic things since our medical choices aren’t usually covered by insurance anyway. Things like home birth, etc.
That’s where the high deductible is handy. We recently went to do a blood draw for my youngest (allergy tests) and the financial lady was a little shocked I just wanted to pay for it and that my insurance wouldn’t cover any of it even though we were “in network”. I will happily pay per instance instead of an extra $300 per month. Grateful we are (mostly) healthy!
Be aware that if you go to an ER “out-of-network” and you go beyond your “in-net-work” out of pocket max, that your insurance company MUST consider any Emergency visit as an in-network. Meaning, if you have an out of pocket max of 10k, and you end up with a 12k bill from an out of network ER visit/admission, you are only responsible for the in-network out of pocket max.
Also, read up about “balance billing” and if you end up with one of these bills, make sure it’s legal to do so in the state that you received care. Many states now have laws against it.
http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq-aca.html
I’ll be honest – that totally just went way over my head. LOL! I’m going to have to go do some research. Thanks for the heads up!