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My Year In Travels – Where I Went in 2017 – Hiking, Biking, RVing, Sailing, and More

January 5, 2018 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 51 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

2017 was an amazing year. We traveled to many new areas in the RV, went on a 10-day sailing trip, climbed several mountains, went on many bike rides, saw killer whales in their natural habitat, rode the third longest tram in the world, went on a brewery trail (yep, it exists!), and more.

We traveled to 18 states, too many cities to even keep track of, stayed in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and sailed in the British Virgin Islands. We saw beautiful mountains, oceans, beaches, deserts, and everything in between.

We visited several new places, and we revisited many of our favorites as well. Some people think we’re crazy for visiting the same place more than once, but we are always doing new things, and I think it’s impossible to see and do everything if you only visit a place once. Plus, if you enjoyed your visit once, why not enjoy it some more?

2017 was an amazing year, full of great travel, building friendships and relationships, and more. I couldn’t have asked for a better year.

Here’s where we RVed in 2017. Credit: https://visitedstatesmap.com

Quick list of my favorite things from 2017: [Read more…]

Why would you make $100,000+ a month and live in an RV?

October 30, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 91 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

My name is Michelle and I live in an RV. And, yes, I regularly earn over $100,000 a month.

A common question I receive is “Why would you make $100,000+ and live in an RV?”

I am asked this question so often that it deserved to be its own article. And, if you want to get to the point quickly, it’s simple – we do it because we LOVE RVing.

There are a lot of assumptions that people make about why we live in an RV, like we’re hippies or even homeless. On the other end of the spectrum, some people assume that we’ve inherited a ton of money and don’t actually work, ha!

Other people assume that if we just bought a real house we would love it and quit RVing. Well, we did own a “real” house for six years, and we still love RVing more.

Whenever people make these comments, though, I think what they should be asking is, “Why wouldn’t a person live in an RV if they could?”

To us, full-time RVing is freedom. We can chase good weather, we can visit friends and families all over the country, we can wake up one morning by the ocean, and spend the night next to a snow capped mountain. It also means that we understand how little we actually need to live, and that is true freedom. [Read more…]

How This Couple Does Van Life with A Baby (and a dog!)

October 25, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 21 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Next up in my Extraordinary Series is Giddi and Jace from Our Home On Wheels. They live in a van and travel full-time with their baby (yes, a baby!) named Juniper, and their dog, Lotus. They are outdoor enthusiasts who purchased and converted a Sprinter van in March of 2016.

When they first started full-time travel, they had no more than $40 to their names.

Before they moved into their van, they were feeling stuck and unhappy in their full-time jobs.

Now, they fund full-time travel by selling their handmade jewelry, and they also collaborate with brands on social media.

Their Instagram account is one of my favorites, and it’s how I first found out about them.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

How they live in a van with three people and a dog
How they are raising their beautiful baby in a van
How they earn a living traveling full-time
And more!

[Read more…]

How To Make Extra Money By Renting Out Your RV

September 27, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 23 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you looking for a way to make extra income, maybe by providing an RV rental? According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, over 8.9 million households own an RV, and this number only continues to increase.

Many RVs sit unused in storage lots, driveways, and backyards, so why not try to make a little money while you’re not using your RV?

And, who doesn’t want to earn a little extra money?

As you know, I talk a lot about how to make extra money here on Making Sense of Cents because I believe that earning extra income can completely change your life. By learning about different ways to make extra money, you can stop living paycheck to paycheck, you can pay off your debt, and more.

Due to the fact that I learned how to make extra money, I was able to pay off $38,000 in student loans within 7 months, I was able to leave my day job in order to pursue my passion, travel full-time, and more! [Read more…]

Common Full Time RVing Questions Part 2 – Don’t You Hate Each Other Yet?

August 7, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 47 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Ever since we started full time RVing, we’ve been asked some funny and interesting questions. And, over a year ago, I published Common RV Questions – Yes, I Even Talk About What We Do With #2. Some of the questions I answered in that article included:

Do you shower?
What do you do when you have to use the bathroom?
How/what do you eat?
What do you do for internet?
Do you ever do laundry?
What do you do for a living, so that you can RV full time?
How do you receive mail?

While they seem funny to us now, I know that we asked some of these same questions before we started full time RVing. Due to that, I knew I had to write that first post to answer some of the most common questions we’ve been asked about full time RVing.

Some of the questions are from people who think we are crazy to RV full time. Whereas, others are from people who are interested in RVing but are unsure about certain things. Either way, I hope to clear up even more of the common RV questions we receive. [Read more…]

How This Couple Bought an $11,500 RV, Traveled To All 50 States, and Built A Thriving Business

May 24, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 53 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Heath and Alyssa Padgett. They are currently living in an RV full-time, making a living, and documenting it all.

They blog over at HeathandAlyssa.com, and I’m a huge fan! Not only have I been on their podcast (How Michelle Makes Six Figures from a Blog While Full-Time RVing), we’re also friends.

In 2014, they quit their jobs, purchased a motorhome, and went on a year-long road trip across America. They worked jobs in all 50 states for a documentary they filmed called Hourly America.

After a year of living in an RV full-time, they realized RV life was for them. They worked to pay off a bunch of debt, built up their video production business, and they still love RV life.

This amazing couple has been featured on CNN, CBS, People Magazine, Business Insider, Forbes, and more!

Related articles on living in an RV full-time:

[Read more…]

How I Saved $45,000 In Three Years To Create A Life Of Travel

May 19, 2017 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 55 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Quick note from Michelle: Today, I have a great post from Brendan. Brendan is a former Chartered Accountant from Auckland, New Zealand but now is a full-time traveler (since 2011!). I absolutely love full-time traveling and I really enjoyed reading this. Here’s how he saved $45,000 in three years to create a life of travel. Below is Brendan’s post:

Whenever I meet people out on the road, we tend to ask the same questions.

“Where are you from?”

“How long are you staying?”

“Where are you going next?”

And then somewhere in the mix, the question I dread eventually comes out.

“How long have you been travelling?”

Most people expect to hear something like three or four weeks, maybe a couple of months, so naturally I cringe a little when I tell them the real answer.

“Six years.”

Of course, this leads to all sorts of questions like; How do I do it? What do I do for money? Do I suffer from permanent jet lag? What’s Colombia like? Are park benches in Sweden really made by IKEA? Until we finally get all the way back to the beginning. That’s actually what I’m here to talk to you about today. [Read more…]

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