A few years ago, Shelly and I considered moving to California. We had just visited Los Angeles and drove up to Napa Valley and fell in love with the climate, scenery, trails, and people. After serious deliberation, we scrapped the plans due to the crazy cost of living.
at the time, we were planning on building a house. Our dream house in Michigan would have cost approximately $150,000. The same house in Napa Valley would have cost just north of $650,000 (this was a few months before the housing crash).
Fast forward a few years.
We’ve spent the last two weeks just east of San Diego, and will be in the area for another three weeks. The cost of this visit is about 25% less than the cost of maintaining our old duplex in Michigan. Here’s a comparison:
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West Michigan |
Southern California |
|
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Weather |
Cold and blowing snow, cloudy 95% of the time |
Warm and sunny all day every day |
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Food |
No fresh fruit or veggies, lots of processed foods |
Endless supply of cheap fresh fruit, veggies, and seafood |
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Running Situation |
Snowy roads or even snowier short, flat trails |
Hundreds of miles of beach, thousands of miles of mountainous trails |
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Prevailing attitudes |
Religious conservatism |
Laid-back liberalism |
For us, it’s a no-brainer. Of course, I’m not suggesting everyone move to Southern California. I AM suggesting, however, that “cost” is a poor excuse not to move if given the opportunity.
The Hidden Lifestyle
Our decision to live in an RV was done for a practical reason- we needed the ability to move frequently to conduct our clinics. In our travels, we’ve learned a few valuable lessons:
- Living in a travel trailer is far better than expected. The area is small, it moves a bit when you walk, and the fridge and bathroom are tiny. We quickly adjusted to all those “problems.” We’ve come to realize the idea of a “house to call your home” is silly. It’s a place to protect you from the elements. You get over the emotional attachment quickly.
- Living in an RV can be ridiculously cheap. Like I said, our cost here in San Diego is less than it was in Michigan. If needed, we could whittle our total costs down to about $1,000 per month (for three adults and three kids). That gives us unbelievable freedom.
- The ability to move at will is awesome. Since our jobs aren’t tied to a geographic location, we can move about at will. If we weren’t traveling to do clinics, we’d likely stay in one area for a month or two, then move on. Even if you have a “regular job”, having the ability to quit and move pretty much in one day is a freedom few ever experience.
But Everyone Tells Me I Should Own a House…
Home ownership is one of the biggest scams in American society… especially for those that finance said house. It’s often touted as an investment, but that’s a fallacy. Here’s a scenario:
You buy a $200,000 house with $20,000 down for 15 years at 3% interest. You end up paying over $260,000 to pay off the mortgage. If your house happens to increase in value over those 15 years, you may come out ahead. If not, you just wasted 80 grand.
Let’s say you decide on a 30 year mortgage instead. Now you’re paying close to $350,000 for the house.
Finances aside, there’s a few other reasons buying a house is a bad idea:
- Stuff breaks a lot. You either have to fix it yourself or pay someone to fix it.
- Maintaining the house is expensive and time-consuming. Instead of mowing the lawn for six hours a week, put that time toward learning a language, writing a book, or exercising.
- If you want to move, selling a house can range from “pain in the ass” to “damn near impossible.” Home ownership shackles you to the area.
- Houses promote collecting useless material possessions. The more empty space you have, the greater the drive to fill it with useless crap. This also goes for remodeling endlessly. Both result in high costs with no discernible benefit.
- You have no control over the value of the house. What if the housing market crashes or the neighborhood goes to crap?
- You have no control over your neighbors. What if a jerk moves in next door? Or a child molester?
Conclusion
The RV lifestyle isn’t for everyone, but most people never consider it as an option. Shelly and I didn’t even know the option existed. We assumed RVs were for vacations only. It took months on the road to see the true benefits, and we feel like suckers for not discovering this sooner.
What do you think?
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{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a departure from your usual 2 sides to every coin posts. I don’t even know why I feel like responding…. but to your points:
Money: In your argument you have spent 80K, but in return you have a place to lay your head. What are the costs of owning and maintaining an RV. They aren’t 0. And over 15 years? (And there is a tax break on the mortgage interest, but I’ll allow you to keep it simple.)
- Stuff breaks a lot on motor vehicles too. That’s at least even on the argument and even if something major fails I don’t have to move out of my house.
- Lawn is a bad example. That’s a solid workout, and there’s farming and other stuff that you can do with your acre that are good and wholesome
- I enjoy being shackled to the area. I understand there is a different opinion here, and I appreciate it, but it allows you to contribute to your area, policies, etc… Town Hall, Governments, PTO, some of it sucks, but if you just pack up and leave you
- Stuff, you win. I have too much. It’s EVERYWHERE!
- The value is an arguable position, to a degree. You get what you give to a point. You can keep up your house, and you can be a part of the community and work to improve it.
Of course, I can admire your freedom, it’s fun, you make it work, but I think you are dissing home ownership too much.
p.s. CSAs are taking off, at least out where I am (Acton, MA) and we get fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, fish, all year.
Keep in mind Fitz, I’m pretty biased.
Fitz says: “In your argument you have spent 80K, but in return you have a place to lay your head.”
Well, if you’re only interested in paying for a place to lay your head, why not rent and get rid of all the other problems associated with owning?
For 80K I could rent a home for over five years.
Robbillard isn’t making the Rent vs Own Argument. That’s a different animal, altogether, and I’ve been reading the “discussion” (it’s getting a bit heated) on your FB page. I agree with both of the camps on that one. Times are/have changed, you get less for more now, I won’t argue that with you. But there are benefits to owning. I like mowing my lawn, and doing the fixes, and the remodels. And having a garage and a playset for the kids. And I’m spoiled silly living in a great town with great neighbors, so while I like it, I recognize that my situation is uncommonly good.
To me, that’s what I want to spend my money on. And race entries.
Wait wait. 1) it’s not 80K, it’s 60. 220K is the principle and 60K is the interest. The 20K you put down is not part you pay interest on. The 60K is the “wasted” amount, assuming the house value stays flat. But I realize that’s not really the point.
2) If you rent 5 years for any amount you have nothing in the end, you’ve spent your money and you are walking away from it. Housing market be damned. If you own for 15 years, and pay the mortgage in question, you have spent your interest but you own the house. You have something for your money, equity. You can keep living there for free (taxes depending). And if your house appreciates then you start reducing that wasted money above.
Pretty sure that RV living is not for me, haha.
But, I may never buy a house again. With this unstable job market, you stand to lose a lot if you need to relocate for work. How long are you going to pay double for mortgage waiting for your old house to sell? You can get chained down pretty tight by buying.
That’s one of the main points of my argument, Josh. Home ownership isn’t the guaranteed investment many believe, and it can tie you down to an area in the event you want to move.
I am curious about living on $1000 a month for a family of 6….is that just food, gas, and camping fees? Seems like those three things alone would be more than $1000 a month? Plus that’s a pretty bare bones budget. I ask because (as you know) RV living is something that interest us. I have lots of questions about it…especially related to the finances.
For 1k, we’d be boondocking almost every day, have minimal travel (not using much gas), and eating low-cost food. It would be a very bare-bones, but we could do it if we were forced to.
Our current lifestyle, which includes always staying at a campground, frequent moving and a robust diet, costs around 3-4k per month. Of that, gas is the greatest expenditure.
okay, that is helpful info. I was wondering how the heck you feed a family of six so cheaply? But I guess it’s possble if eating low-quality foods? Although because you are an althete for a living, I would imagine eating well is really important?
me again…sorry for all the comments but I am thinking about this a lot this morning as Buzz and I just had a discussion about this last night. Not RV living specifically but as we are here enjoying CA without him, we’re wondering how we can make changes so all members of our family are afforded the same scheduling freedoms
Anyway have you looked into or considered a veggie oil conversion?
Yes, it was one of my original goals. Our very specific situation made the veggie route unrealistic. We needed a vehicle that could carry six people comfortably. We could have gotten a class A or C motorhome and towed a vehicle, but there were limited options for tow vehicles that can carry six people. We considered a diesel tow vehicle, but didn’t want a pickup (would have to travel with a kid between us in the front). Diesel Suburbans were impossible to find, as were the other brands that had the towing capacity needed to pull the trailer through mountains.
At some point in the future, I’d like to get a diesel and experiment with veggie oil. It would be a HUGE savings. As of right now, gas is our greatest expense.
Different areas are better than others. San Diego has been the cheapest area we’ve found thus far, which was a complete surprise. New England was the most expensive. A big part of it is knowing where to find cheap food (farmer’s markets, roadside stands, ethnic grocery stores, shopping in the “bad” part of town, etc.) and buying lots of stuff on sale. If grapes are on sale, we eat a lot of grapes that week.
Okay one more question…this $1000 budget assumes you own your RV and car to tow it in full otherwise I would imagne those two payments being as much as a (or perhaps even more than in some states) house payment/rent?
I just recalculated our expenses, our current minimum would be about $1400. We own the Suburban and pay about $100/month for the trailer. We pay approximately $400 for land we own in MI, and about $500/month for health, car, and life insurance. Food and gas would be about $400 per month depending on where we stayed (So. Cal. has a ton of dirt-cheap produce). This would also require boondocking full time, likely out in the desert.
Keep in mind, this would be like a worst-case “need to survive” situation. Increasing the budget to 3-4k/month dramatically increases the comfort level (campgrounds, regional travel, much better food selection, etc.)
Okay, a few questions since I’m somewhat interested in this.
1) Do you own or rent or lease the RV? Is it your vehicle or is that another thing you own/rent/lease?
2) So how much did you spend to get the basics of housing and transport that you now have?
3) Where on friggin’ earth do you get health, car & life insurance for 6 people for $500? I know you’re younger than me, but as a very healthy 50-yr old non-smoking woman, my health insurance alone would be near $500, I think.
4) What is “boondocking”?
Thanks.
Tracy,
1) We own the travel trailer and the Suburban we use to pull it.
2) The trailer and Suburban costs around $30,000. We could have saved money with a smaller and/or used trailer, but we opted for the added comfort of what we have.
3) VERY high deductible ($6k). Over the last few years, we’ve tried to limit our trips to the doctor. For example, if the kids have the sniffles, it’s probably viral and no need to go to the doctor. We decided health insurance was more important as a “medical emergency” sort of thing.
4) “Boondocking” is camping without electricity, water, or sewer hookups. People boondock in rest areas, parking lots, rustic campgrounds, or government land. This is a pretty extreme example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slab_City
Ah, so this is really “live anywhere regardless of the cost as long as you have $20-30,000 for startup costs”.
This discussion seems wholly centered on the adults and their money and who gets to win the “I’m smarter than you” contest. What about the children? A grand adventure and time with family 24/7. Both very important. But do they get to have friends– friends who last more than a couple of weeks? What if they want to be a part of a community? Do they get to have their own lives or are they just pulled behind to Mom & Dad’s events like the Suburban? What if they want to play on a basketball team? Or they meet the love of their life? Will they ever learn to attach, and to love and care for another human being outside their immediate family because what’s the point? You’ll likely be leaving in a few days in order to escape the shackles of home ownership.
I’ve been following this site for a while.Why is it that some respondants
seem so defensive about their life style.Life is about making choices .This
may not be the life you choose but some of us do choose this.Remember
old saying never say never.The Robillard family story is their experiences and challenges.We’re all on borrowed time, how you chose to spend it is entirely up to you.
Mowing 6 days a week? You planned to buy a prairie?! Plus its a built in “job”for the kids!