RV Life On FIRE

Even though we have been on the road for over a year now, a week hasn’t gone by without someone asking us, “What do you do all day” or “Don’t you get bored?” The questions don’t bother us, but it’s interesting that the perception, even among some friends and family, is that we just sit in our “RV down by the river” like hobos watching life pass us by.

We understand that how we choose to live doesn’t conform to conventional societal norms. And we get that this lifestyle is not for everyone, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It certainly doesn’t mean that we have thrown in the towel in order to live a self-imposed life of misery. As a matter of fact, it’s just the opposite.

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One Year On The Road

Towards the end of February we passed the anniversary date marking one year full-time on the road. We didn’t get a chance to celebrate this milestone. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even know it happened. The date came and went as we were busy preparing to hit the road once again and failed to recognize our accomplishment.

Reflecting on the last year we have come a long way and yet it seems as though we are just getting started. Perhaps this is because we began our adventures in February, but it took another seven months before we actually started living life on our own terms.

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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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January 2022 Financial Update

Anyone else happy to move on from January? Perhaps this update should be titled “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” as it might be more fitting? January was busy, expensive, and at times, frustrating. I don’t mind rough months in the markets as they are needed in order to facilitate long term progress. I would prefer large market drops happen in months where we are not already committed to shelling out a lot of cash. As the Rolling Stones song goes “You can’t always get what you want.” Hopefully we got it all out of our system and can move forward to greener pastures. Let’s stick with our theme for a little levity.

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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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May 2021 Financial Update

May was a relatively quiet month which was a nice change of pace from what we have experienced over the last few months. It feels like we are settling into a new routine and we have been able to enjoy more time in the outdoors. We did a few hiking trips this month, two of which were in Bryce Canyon National Park, and I have been going up to our favorite lake a couple of days a week to fish with our son and my dad. At this point the most difficult thing to deal with is helping family understand we are not on vacation and we can’t go out to dinner every night or stay up late and play cards. Mrs. RVF still insists on continuing to work so we still have a schedule to keep for the time being.

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April 2021 Financial Update

The month of April came and went in what seemed to be a flash and we are happy it is over. The month began with us still being stuck camping in a bodyshop parking lot as repairs continued on our RV. Once the wonderful folks at M&M Coach completed the work it was time for us to head to South Dakota so we could complete the process of becoming residents.

Of course everything we hoped to avoid on our journey to and from South Dakota ended up happening. And why not since Murphy’s Law seems to be our copilot and trial by fire is the gauntlet we apparently have to run through in order to live this amazing life.

We hit below freezing temps, snow and heavy winds pretty much every single day in Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota. Just the week before these same places were enjoying sunny 80 degree days but now it’s snowing in the middle of April. We made sure to fill our water tanks every chance we got because several campgrounds were unable to turn on their water due to the risk of the pipes freezing. This also meant we had to ration water because getting more would require breaking down camp and driving the RV somewhere in snowing conditions to refill the tank. No thank you!

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