Author Topic: Mobile Life Ideas?  (Read 2997 times)

StetsTerhune

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Mobile Life Ideas?
« on: February 19, 2015, 05:07:37 AM »
My wife and I both work remotely for our jobs and recently gave up our apartment and most of our stuff (basically everything that wouldn't fit in our car).

We've been slow traveling around the U.S. for a few months now. Renting houses for a few weeks at at time or just pricelining cheap hotel rooms while on the move. Certainly not the most "mustachian" lifestyle. We're spending plenty on gas, accommodation, airfare, can't always cook, etc. But since we gave up our fairly expensive big city apartment, it's come out almost exactly even spending-wise. And way, way ahead fun-wise.

We obviously have some of places we'd like to spend some time, but I'd love to hear everyone's suggestions of places we could live for a couple weeks (or a couple months, for that matter).

Here's the requirements -- I have an ~9-5 (eastern time) job, monday-friday. I need reliable internet and phone service during that time. My wife has almost no requirements other than sporadic internet and phone, but she does have to travel internationally, sometimes without much warning, so good airport access is a plus.

I'm a fairly outdoorsy person and have done a good amount of skiing and surfing since we started this. Hoping to do a lot of hiking when summer rolls around.

We've been mostly east coast since we started this, but  thinking about moving west for a while once it starts to warm up. Ideas?

mwulff

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Re: Mobile Life Ideas?
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2015, 05:45:12 AM »
Wouldn't an RV be the obvious choice here?

StetsTerhune

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Re: Mobile Life Ideas?
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2015, 06:11:50 AM »
Wouldn't an RV be the obvious choice here?

Maybe?

Here's my logic on why we haven't gotten an RV, and please tell me if I'm mistaken on anything. I haven't done a ton of research on the notion, so please enlighten me if I'm wrong on any of this
1. Given my requirements -- reliable phone and internet 9-5 m-f -- I'd miss out on the biggest benefits of owning an RV (which to me is being able to boondock out west, which may or may not have good enough cell signal to work.
2. It's not that cheap, unless you're boondocking, paying 40-50 a night for a full hook up is not enough cheaper than the 50-60 we've been averaging renting houses off season. And then you have to add the cost of depreciation of the RV and the added gas expense.
3. We're not sure how long we're going to be doing this, and we're not sure we want to stay in the U.S. It's a big expense and there are large transaction costs that it'd take a while to justify. Plus, if we, for instance, travel to mexico for a while the RV would just be sitting there, probably costing money to store.
4. My wife and I both work from home. When home is a 3 bedroom rental house, it can still feel cramped when we're both there working all day. Can't imagine what that'd be like in an RV.

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of an RV, and when I'm fully retired, I hope I can get one and spend a few years wandering around BLM/National Forest land in the West. But until I can do that, I think what we're doing makes more sense.

StetsTerhune

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Re: Mobile Life Ideas?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2015, 06:12:23 AM »
Off season is definitely the way to go. Even slightly off season (e.g. week after labor day for summer places) is incredibly cheap.  Unfortunately it's not always possible -- I like skiing and there's no real way to ski "off season." I do really like the idea of  ski and college towns in summer. Not sure I'd want to do hot places in the summer no matter how cheap they are though!

We've been pretty hectic since we started, so we've only done one full month rental. It did definitely save money, even though we ended up leaving a week early because I had to travel for work.

Any one have specific ideas of places that would be really nice off-season?