I have a full-time job it's the only way I could have afforded my van... it's the only way I can afford to put gas in my heavy van... the only way I can feed myself... and stay clean etc. I also can't leave my job because if I leave my job future employers will see that I was unemployed or see that I was jumping from job to job and won't want to hire me... So please help me to understand how is it that this sub is full of people who own a van, some of them really nice vans, and can afford to drive them around eating up food and consuming large amounts of time traveling the world, putting wear and tear on your home... I just don't see how this is sustainable. Maybe I am missing something?
My full time job is fully remote
My partner and I both work remote full time. Most people living in vans fall into three camps - remote jobs, remote gigs, and "not working" (which generally means doing random temporary things to earn money to get to the next stop/etc.
I couldn't imagine not working and not saving for the future, and vanlife allows us to save/invest like $75k+ per year.
I know a lot of outdoor gear shop employees in my mountain town who also sleep in the van, so that’s another category. 😂
Seasonal workers. I fall into that category
Um, retired is a thing too.
Fuck.
I hear you. If I could sit still for long periods I would try remote jobs. Im more of a skilled labor guy. Automotive etc.
Get jobs doing onsite security. Or sleep in your van at the shop. Or mobile mechanic.
Sold almost everything I own and rent out my house. I haven't worked in over 6 years.
You won the game lol
Thanks. I feel very lucky for how things turned out.
So your tenants fund your lifestyle?
That is correct.
Wake up at Detroit Medical Center missing half your skull. Go home to recover then get a phone call a janitor kicked the extension cord on your skull’s freezer. Get a scan then a plastic one thrown on ! 6 days later fall on it ! Have that taken off and put back on , then proceed to be denied SSI in your home state , move to CA the last year you can illegally grow Doje, wave hello to helicopters, move to Oakland get approved SSDI and have a gun pulled on you and end up homeless and get a 95 Astro off Hien’s Market for $300 bucks and get moving!
I’d like to buy the movie rights to your life.
I was gonna reply but this guy’s life is much more interesting
I bought a used Sienna and a used Sienna build on a budget I could afford, travel part-time and work remotely so just use starlink when in the middle of nowhere. I like to come home some times so I keep an apartment in Austin and leave for the summer for better weather.
I always thought remote jobs were just call center jobs but like is it pretty much anything nowadays? Like do you have to go to college?
Almost any job that primarily involves a computer can be done remotely, as long as you have good internet. So graphic design, freelance writing, accounting, even freelance photography.
It's always funny to me the things people will downvote. I ask an honest question about something I don't know anything about and I'm downvoted as if it's obvious LOL the only examples I have seen of people that work at home have been call center positions so it would make sense to think that.
I wouldn’t worry about random downvotes. People will downvote the most random things. You did not know, so you asked! All cool!😎
Don’t worry about downvotes especially on Reddit. They are contagious, one person can start an avalanche! Your statement seemed valid to me.
What do you do for a job and where do you live? I only ask because in so many places every third person works from home. And working from home is basically working from wherever you want.
I work in the automotive industry.
When you come home, where do you park the van?
I used to have a fully remote job and would sometimes travel that way.
Now I drive a semi truck so I’m basically doing van life 24x7, only I can’t choose where I go, and ironically cant afford to take trips with my family on my own time because I don’t get PTO
Keep your head up my great uncle has been retired since I can remember and he drove a truck.
Thanks, it’ll get better eventually.
Only a couple months in, but my wife and I work full-time “WFH” remote.
Lived a very frugal lifestyle for years and saved a bunch of money, most of which I put into tech stocks. So now I'm unemployed and enjoying myself, volunteering for non-profits working on stuff I'm interested in. The goal is to make a career out of it eventually but for now I'm working for free. Have enough funds to maintain this lifestyle for about 3 years without dipping into my retirement accounts, but I plan to do it for no more than 2.
A van is a LOT cheaper than a house or apartment, and we have jobs.
Granted my wife and I both work part time because we don't need as much money and working full time sucks. We can afford to work less because we have no housing costs, because we live in a van.
The stories you read online, do not include the struggles, fears, doubts, challenges and misfortunes that take place.
When I share my stories with friends and family I NEVER let them know my insecurities.
Isn’t that one of the main points of having friends?
Not when I know they have their own situations.
That is how I’m a friend.
That's strange to me. Part of friendship, in my experience, is sharing our hardships, challenges and insecurities, so that we can support one another through them.
You are right, but I’m ex military. I’m trained to be self sufficient, but if needed, I’m also prepared to be there for assistance.
We clearly read different stories, and have different ideas of what friends are.
If I wanted to give people the Instagram version of my life… I don’t know what I would do, that sounds awful. The few people I want around are honest with me, and I’m honest with them. Good and bad, amazing and awful.
To OP, I work 100+ hours a week when I work, then take time off. Large amounts of it. I had this month off and only a month feels like it’s waaaaay too soon to be starting another job. Maybe I’ll take mid February-May or June off to make up for it. I sure would hate to spend my entire life working.
This is how I was raised. Share the good, never the bad.
They may be retired with social security, pension, and savings.
We are forgotten.
Ive got a really good paying seasonal job near my parents place on the outskirts of town. I save up and work basically everyday for 3 months and use that savings to travel. Yeah gas is a big part of the budget but have been pretty easily kept total spending under 1k a month.
I used to live in my van full time but had a fixed job in a cafe. I would sleep near work and then at the weekends I could go wherever I wanted. Now I work on campsites and live full time in a caravan but move every season.
We did it with saved money and now we do it with a well paid part time remote job and passive income.
From our experience: Vanlife is a lot cheaper without a job and without the need for stable internet.
Slowly, working a job for whatever town am currently in. The a while to get places, and working mostly entry level. Looking at high laying seasonal jobs like tube canning or tree planting to try to make enough seasonal money for some freedom
Saved for 20+ years for a house, wife, kids and none of that happened now I work fully remote and just spent two years taking care of my parents through multiple surgeries significantly cutting down my expenses accelerating my ability to build my cash reserves in a high yield savings account. I head out on the road full time this week and I will be saving $1500 (vs rent and utilities) a month which brings me to saving 60ish percent of my monthly income which I equate to one month of cash retirement funds. Now that I have my parents set up to be independent again I will be able to head out and will now have time back to myself to commit to projects I have been working on to be able to get them to the point where I don't have to care if I get laid off or if I burn out in my "9-5" and I can walk away.
For me its combination of time, sacrifice, necessity, actively changing my circumstances, and working at it to be able to buy one of the "really nice vans" as you put it, and factory built was the right choice for me and my circumstances and needs.
I build custom metal and wood staircases for my ducks and my Instinct leads me when I’m in need of gas/beer moneys. The bigger stair companies have real trouble finding help that can do math, follow Building codes and show up consistently. So I have been able to get a grateful and generous amount of customers wherever they are building their customs.
SW work pays my travel bills ✨
Mostly they seem to do highly paid remote work in IT or marketting.
What do you want to do for work? You might not need to worry about the jumping job to job thing as much as you think. I’ve been a raft guide my whole adult life, so I have never worked one job for a whole year before. But I don’t have much difficulty finding employment the other months. I usually pick seasonal jobs, but when I apply for other jobs, if I get an interview, I just say that I’m tired of the seasonal life and looking to settle down. If you’re a strong, valuable worker they usually give you the benefit of a doubt. Because so have been living in a van for so long I have considerable savings and could just coast to next season without a job of if I really had to.
My wife and I have remote jobs. AI analysts and content reviewers. Yes…a college degree is required. We were both working on our masters when we decided to travel. We had such a difficult time buying a house. We decided to build our own using a transit bus from San Diego. A well maintained public transit bus with new linkage and a new engine. We have solar and a large drinking water tank. I built a four foot deck extension on the back where we keep our propane tanks, mini split and Vespa 300cc escape pod.
We’ve been stuck in the N MI winter the past two years (in our bus) because of cancer. This should be the last one as I have to stay close to the University of Michigan after my recent liver transplant. No more cancer.
You need a better paying job.
I’m able to work for my van if I choose to I have my own business.
Work for lets say an online warehouse that sells everything from a to z. Full time work, good time off options, transfer twice a year for good weather, works pretty good so far.
I did it in my 20’s and would buy a pound or 2 of weed and sell when I needed money. Did that a couple summers in 1990/91. In my 50’s now and made a whole lot of money over time and work for myself remotely with passive income.
Bottom line… don’t do it if you can’t afford it. You can do it cheap but not for nothing. It was a blast in my 20’s but stressful when my VW bus would break down and I’d be peddling weed around town. It’s a blast in my 50’s but I bought a sprinter 170 high roof 4x4 off the lot new and built it out myself over a few years. Not ‘more’ fun but less stressful as I can drop $1.5K tune up and not bat an eye.
I do wonder myself about people I see and how they afford it. I had hate in my heart when I’d see trust fund kids when I was 20 just out of envy. But… here I am letting my kids take my van to no end to festivals, burning man, living in it for stints…. No trust funds but I’m sure others might be in their parents rigs too?
I know people who follow Renaissance Faires around the country living in their van. It leaves gaps of time between festivals they work at. Also seasonal work with tourism can earn you enough to just wander around part of the year. That can be anything from street performing to taking care of horses in a National Park, being a mechanic at a ski resort working on the equipment, being a snow plow operator, running a KOA in the summer, helping a Mobile RV repair company in the busy season…there’s a lot of work that only needs people half the year. I know people who have done a lot of the things I listed and more!
I work for amazon, i currently do parttime and i pick up shifts based on my needs. It gives me the flexibility to go places because i have 5 days off, they automatically hire if u can pass a basic preassesment which is super simple
Elite people shit. VanLifers make 100k a year on their laptops. Back in the day these people scoffed at us "rubber tramps". We dumpstered food played gigs and music on the street for a living and could hustle 5 gals of fuel off the dinosaur itself. You sound working class like us. Welcome, dont try to keep up with these jones's like you should try to keep up with the other ones.
These are upper middle class people, they gentrified living in a car.
This is 2025. Employeers that actually wouldn't hire because a possible employee has jumped from job to job have now realized they have to pay well to keep good employees from moving on to another job that pays more. If you good at what you do you should feel comfortable with always looking for something better.
Now if your average or below then all the above does not apply.
Can your job be done remotely/do you have skills that could go into a job that can be done remotely? That's how most people do it.
However, when we first started we basically worked full time for 3 months (usually in hospitality jobs) then travelled full time for 3 months and found jobs wherever we happened to be when funds started running low - it was a high risk high reward way of living but we never had an issue finding work even with big gaps between employment.
Now we run our own online businesses so it's a bit more secure.