The Economics of Full-time RV Living

“I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.” – Maya Angelou

I agree with Maya, but since we have yet to win the lottery and we don’t have a rich aunt that left us millions, I still have to generate an income. Beyond the basic needs (clothing, food, shelter) I have two kids that may want to go to college, experiences to be had, and other needs (and wants) to fund.

I’ll write about work/life balance and being a “digital nomad” in a future post.

“Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” – Detective Carter, Rush Hour

So, what do I do for a living?

The dreaded C word. Yes, I’m a…wait for it…consultant. In a nutshell, companies engage me to perform risk assessments of their IT environments against industry accepted frameworks to satisfy laws and/or standards required to operate.

A view from one of my many offices

Blah blah blah. I’ll stop now or you’ll stop reading. I’m self-employed and basically companies pay me to make sure they are doing what they say they are doing. Sometimes companies pay me to fix things. Other times they pay me to coordinate the installation of new toys such as applications, computer hardware, and/or services to support aforementioned applications and/or hardware.  It’s a good “career”…primarily because it’s nomad-friendly and the compensation is not bad.

“It’s easy to underestimate the real cost of home ownership” – Suzie Orman

What does it cost to live in an RV?

We built our house in 1999. The first few years the upkeep was insignificant then an AC would fail. Then the next AC would fail. Then the pool pump. Then the washing machine. On and on the money pit deepened. We really never seemed to catch a break.

Living in an RV is WAY more cost effective than living in a sticks and bricks. No surprise here. We spent approximately $94 a day to live in our house (taxes, utilities, insurance, etc.). We had a few years left on our mortgage so that’s included as well. Not included is the constant upkeep. New A/Cs, pool repairs, fence repairs, appliances failing, etc. It was something every time we turned around. Are there repairs and upkeep for an RV? Absolutely. However, the upkeep is relatively simple and inexpensive compared to a house. Over the first 11 months of RV living, we spent less than $30 a day. This daily cost typically, but not always, includes full hookups (electric, water, sewer). It may also include cable and WIFI. It does not include the propane used for our stoves and furnace. I estimate our annual cost of propane will be less than $450.

We also take advantage of free or very nominally priced memberships with KOA, Escapees, and Good Sam. The memberships can be used for discounted stays (with KOA we earn points, in addition to the discount, that we can apply to future stays) and the payback is very quick. We also purchased a membership to Thousand Trails and have used it for 27 nights so far. For Thousand Trails we paid a very reasonable fee for the membership, around $450 for the Southeast and Northeast zones, then our nightly rate is $0. Some Thousand Trails charge a $3 nightly fee for 50AMP electrical service and the Thousand Trails that we are staying in now charges $5.99 for acceptable WiFi (we’re in the middle of nowhere Kentucky and don’t have a choice as I need the bandwidth for work and the kids need it for school). I’ll do a review of Thousand Trails once our sample size is a little larger.

A sample of daily/nightly RV costs

The table above is a sample of the cost tracking spreadsheet I use. We’ve tracked the cost of each stay including any upgrades or additional fees.

This table below shows our total nights staying in an RV since we sold our house and the total savings as a result. Note: The total savings don’t all go to savings. Some of it goes to experiences such as our month-long trip to the UK and Ireland.

Summary and Savings

Will we or won’t we?

At some point in the future, we will almost certainly build a small domicile to use as a base camp. Reim and I will never stop wandering, but since we spend so much time in Utah…

Our “room” with a view