April 2023 Financial Update

April went by in a flash and it feels like May is shaping up to do the same. It’s hard to believe we are already publishing another financial update! Ever since we left Mesa we have been busy trying to get caught up on projects and hobbies while at the same time getting back to enjoying the things we love like hiking and sightseeing. And since we have family that lives close by we have to make sure we find time to visit and catch up while we can.

Over the last month it has been great to be out in the open air and enjoying nature again and we have tried to get out for a nice size hike at least once a week. The great part about being full-time in our RV is we get to enjoy things while everyone else is busy working and the kids are in school. Often times when we go on hike we are the only people around which allows us to enjoy the views and our surroundings undisturbed. That will begin to change over the next few months so we are trying to take advantage of it while we can. We are hoping to hit Zion National Park before it gets too crowded and we have to leave. It’s been awhile since we have been there and it has some of the best hiking!

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10 Essentials For Your New RV

Before you know it spring will be upon us and thus begins RV and camping season. With the huge increase in popularity for RV’s it seems like a good time to put out an updated list of 10 essentials for your new RV, all of which we use.

We have some items that are standard must-haves and part of owning an RV. Then there are some items that are essential because they make life a little easier and traveling a little more efficient and safer. There is something to be said for practical use and being full-time on the road that has given us a lot of experience in necessities of RV life.

You can find our original list from 2019 here. It’s a good list and while we are including items that are essential, we also strive to include some items that are not typically included on the standard lists people post.

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Full-Time Travel Planning

How do you decide where to go? How do you decide where to stay? Isn’t it stressful to have to make plans all the time? Isn’t it expensive?

These are some popular questions we get asked so we thought it would be a good idea to give some insight into our current planning process similar to what we did with full-time budgeting. I say “current planning process” because I feel the process will evolve over time as our circumstances change and as we gain experience with a higher level of comfort on the road.

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2021 Year In Review

What a difference a year makes! As a matter of fact, we never published our 2020 year in review for a few reasons. Mostly because 2020 just plain sucked! The pandemic ruined everything from our son’s senior year of high school, large parts of our college road trip, his freshman year in college and our plans to start our full-time RV life. And who can forget the financial rollercoaster from the top of the world down to the pit of despair and back again? Publishing a blog post and reliving it all over again was the last thing on our minds.

Here we are at the end of another year and still dealing with the continued fallout from the pandemic. Some things have remained the same. Everything else in our lives has changed for the better.

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Campground Review – Distant Drums RV Resort

In this edition of our campground review series we will be reviewing Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, Arizona.

This was our first ever visit to Distant Drums RV Resort and we stayed for 3 months after leaving Utah. The resort came highly recommended in several of the RV groups and it didn’t disappoint.

Distant Drums RV Resort is located on the North side of Camp Verde right off of Interstate 17. The location is great because you are centrally located between Sedona and Cottonwood/Jerome and you can enjoy the entire area without living in the traffic that comes with these great places.

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Full-Time RV Budgeting

One of the most asked questions by people looking to go full-time RVing is “How much does it cost?” The problem with answering this question is it is very subjective as the variables for full-time RV living seem to be unlimited and there is no uniform cookie cutter option when it comes to this lifestyle.

Just asking a few questions will make you quickly realize how much a full-time RV budget can vary between families:

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September 2021 Financial Update

Well it finally happened, we had a negative return month. This is our first month in the red since January, which is pretty remarkable, and even in January we were barely negative. In fact we would have to look back to October 2020 for the last significant negative month which shows that a correction was probably long over due. Of course everyone, including us, loves to see their portfolio go up month after month but in reality that is not healthy or sustainable. While it’s never fun to see your portfolio decrease, sometimes dramatically, these pullbacks create the opportunity to take up new positions, add to existing positions or to dollar cost average. Plus they are a healthy aspect of a long term investment strategy.

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