In my quest to maximise income and minimise ongoing expenses, and reach financial independence as soon as possible, we are considering the option of buying a large cargo van (eg. a long wheel base, high roof Mercedes-Benz Sprinter), converting it into a fully featured mobile home. The van would be built to be complete with kitchen, bed, toilet/shower, dinette, fridge and extra battery power to run a notebook PC and work from 'home'. We could then move out of our rental apartment and live in the van full time while we continue to work 9-5 office jobs in the city.
This has been something we've thought about doing for years, and we have previous experience traveling around with a campervan in the past, including 9 months around Australia and 4 months in South America. The main difference will be that this vehicle will essentially function as a studio apartment on wheels and we won't be on holidays - we plan to continue to live and work in the same city for another year, and then if we have employment opportunities in another city we can simply drive there and not have to go through the expense and hassle of relocating and finding a new apartment.
Just for my own mental process, and to help any readers understand (including any other potentially interested persons), there the main pros and cons we can think of:
Pro:
-No rent, no bills, no contracts, no leases; freedom and flexibility.
-No need to sub-let or share.
-Consolidate house and vehicle cost (both time and money) with a potential weekly savings of around $280 per week.
-Ability to take on short term (3-6-12 month) contract jobs in other areas or other cities as they are available.
-Also the ability to pursue our dream of being self-sufficient and being able to work on the road instead of being bound to an office job 9-5.
Con:
-High upfront cost for something large and livable enough for our needs (around AU $80k)
-Time and effort to find a suitable vehicle (either bare bones or pre-converted) in good condition
-Risk of theft/vandalism (although we've never heard of anyone having an issue in our area)
-The inevitable (but manageable) hassle of having to refill the water and empty the grey/black water tanks every week or two
-If there's a serious mechanical failure we might have to stay somewhere else for a few days while it gets fixed & towing a large vehicle will be expensive if we're somewhere remote
-That it'll be a large vehicle which costs more to run and is more difficult to park and maneuver
A little far off, but may be redundant in the next 5-10 years if electric vehicles do become commonplace as some are expecting
-Finding quiet overnight parking shouldn't be an issue in our area as we're quite far out from the city and the local authorities do not bother RV/van dwellers. Not escaping the long commute is the trade off to that.
In terms of expenses, our weekly house and vehicle costs work out to be around this at the moment (all prices are Australian dollars FYI):
Rent: 440 (even the cheapest, nastiest, smallest, poorest located apartments are minimum $300 per week)
Utilities (electricity): 25
Internet (unlimited home broadband): 15
Comprehensive insurance: 12.5
Car registration: 12.5
Fuel (about 150km on average per week): 20
Maintenance and repairs (small Toyota Corolla): 12
Total: ~$537 per week on average
VS estimated weekly expenses for the van (if we buy it outright in cash and always freecamp):
Interest not earned from savings (~3.4% variable): 52
Depreciation (assumption of ~$5k pa based on market prices): 95
Utilities (gas refills + laundromat): 15
Internet (4G wireless 15GB): 15
Comprehensive vehicle insurance (as a registered campervan/motorhome): 20
Registration and compulsory 3rd party insurance: 15
Fuel (assuming 150km travel each week on average): 35
Servicing and maintenance: 25
Total: ~$257 per week expected on average
So all up, there's about $280 per week that we could save if we go down the path of living in a van. Whilst it does seem somewhat counterproductive to spend $80k to save $280 a week, the savings will obviously add up over time, and we'll still have a vehicle worth quite a lot to sell in the future if we chose to buy or rent somewhere again.
Obviously this solution isn't for everyone. But since we're a couple with a love for the outdoors and with no children or pets, and are comfortable with living in small spaces and in mobile dwellings, it just seems to make sense when considering the potential to save money and have the freedom/flexibility of not having a rental lease or mortgage to worry about.
Has anyone else done this? Any ideas or suggestions? Any costs or things that we've missed?
If anyone is interested, here's a few example builds that we're looking to take inspiration from in terms of layout, designs and features (yes - we'll have our two bikes with us for local trips):
https://au.pinterest.com/search/pins/?rs=ac&len=2&q=sprinter%20van%20conversion&etslf=6204&eq=Sprint&term_meta[]=sprinter%7Cautocomplete%7C1&term_meta[]=van%7Cautocomplete%7C1&term_meta[]=conversion%7Cautocomplete%7C1