How do you financially support your nomadic lifestyle? šŸ’ø

Greetings!

Oh yeah, I have a friend that supports himself doing lawn/yard care in the summer, and shoveling snow in the winter. Whatever works!

Cheers!

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Iā€™m a musician,
so my plan when I take off in my van next year (up the East Coast of Australia) is to travel between gigs, and also busk when gigs are low.
Amie

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Hi! Itā€™s new for us to live on the road(since may 2018), but for now Itā€™s hard. We have a caravan (familly of 3 and our 2 dogs) and started an Etsy shop. My husband works on different kind of job (cleaning, Windows cleaning, commercial or for house owner). But the caravan we bought wasnā€™t new, lot of repairs appears to be done on last weeks. We used our time and budget to work on repairs and not on saving money.
But even with these hards times, we opened our Etsy shop and blog (hope to monetize it). It takes time, but we hope to succed.
My husband will work next 4 months at a standard job to give us time for saving money and developp our online shop. We live in QuĆ©bec, Canadaā€¦
Happy to have found this topic, more ideas to work on!
Hope my english is ok, my phone settings are in french, so it corrects me every words šŸ¤¦

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It does take time. And I respect the hustle. Let me know if you guys need any tips/advice about growing on social media! Would love to help out.

Oh! Thanks! For sure weā€™ll appreciate tips, advices, help. If we could give back to, would be nice!
One day at a time we will succed! And reading the topics here help us already, other people with same challenges!
Thanks again! :slight_smile:ļø

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Greetings!

Too many people go into this under the illusion that they can work less and play more. Then reality sets inā€¦

The simple truth is that any decent kind of life requires money, and unless youā€™re somehow independently wealthy, that requires working, and the more you can work and save the better.

I would look into making money online, but not with physical products or services, but rather eproducts or services. Like an ebook, you make it once, but you sell it to xxxx people, and they can download it so you donā€™t need to worry about shipping. Same for services, if itā€™s all online, you can do it from anywhere you have internet connection.

Cheers!


"I can live like a king because I work like a dog." ~ An anonymous vandweller


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Hi! Thanks for the suggestions! We need to finish the repairs, so it will be the right time to work on something online, but just online. As you said with no shipping.
We will brainstorm :smile:
Thanks again!

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Hi everybody,
Very interesting to read all your exchanges ! For my part I am a painter, I have the chance to be exposed in galleries and I also have a web site. I also receive remunerations through social networks (Instagram and most recently TikTok). it is not regular but it is more and more frequent. I also get equipment and clothes for free.
More recently I started to make wooden kitchen utensils, I love to do that, itā€™s very long but very plaisant !
People are often asked if I sell them, so obviously I will think about it :wink:

Have a nice week !

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Doing whatever it takes to keep the adventure going!!

Our journey has been a very interesting one, which started with me terrified to leave because we ā€œsimply didnā€™t have the skills to make money while travelingā€. So, we did it the old fashioned wayā€¦ by saving up enough money for a few years on the road before quitting.

Oddly, somewhere in the middle we realized we were ā€œbrokenā€ and refuse to go back to normalcy and a job/lifestyle we hated, so we started to do whatever it took to ensure that wouldnā€™t have to happen.

  • We renovated our garage into a home base for when we need it (or when we no longer wanted to live in a van).
  • We developed skill sets and learned new things (the same as you do when building out your first van).
  • We started businesses simply by doing the things we love and then sharing them with or offering them to others.
  • We worked our asses off!

Oddly, now the ways to make money while living nomadically seem practically endless, but we still make our decisions based on happiness rather than making money (hasnā€™t failed us yet).

Weā€™ve turned down paid ads, sponsorships, TV shows, business deals, buyout offers, you name it- because at the end of the day if you make this lifestyle about the money youā€™ll be just as miserable as you were working a 9-5 with a boss (or worse).

This lifestyle works like everything else in lifeā€¦ if you sit back and expect there to be some golden ticket or one-size-fits-all answer for how to make money while traveling, youā€™ll never leave (or wonā€™t make it very long). If you try to follow someone elseā€™s footprints exactly youā€™ll probably get there just in time to find out youā€™re too late.

Take a leap forward, figure it out as you go and donā€™t be afraid to work your ass off for what you want and what you believe in along the way!!
Oh, and enjoy the journey!!

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I see the van life has thought you guys a lot which is amazing!

I completely agree with what you said about money. Itā€™s more so about providing value to both your lifestyle and others. Money does not buy happiness, and you guys are a great example of that.

Keep it up :blush::sparkling_heart:

Ohhh ! So nice ! Iā€™m also a personal trainer on the verge of quitting my job and go on a big adventure. You manage to get new clients while on the road ? Cheers !

heh oops i donā€™t really have an online thing to earn money. was hoping to learn along the way but got very lazy :frowning:

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Greetings!

Best to get the income angle figured out before hitting the roadā€¦

Cheers!


"Smiles are contagious, pass it on!" ~ Van_Dweller


best to build more passive incomes! buy shares for dividends or bonds for coupon incomes.
can buy those government saving bonds too

How can you make 100k part time repairing someones computer remotely?!! For a start what do you consider ā€˜part timeā€™ - say 25 hrs per week? OK, so thatā€™s say 1200 hrs a year of actual work, allowing for 4 weeks off. So to make 100k you would need to charge c. 83 dollars an hour!! Nobody is going to pay that for computer repairs, it would be cheaper just to buy a new computer. And every computer guy Iā€™ve had look at my gear has wanted to come and look at my setup, as very rarely is a problem so simple that it can be fixed remotely, in my experience.
If what you say is true though, I take my hat off to you!! You hit gold with your customersā€¦well done!

Greetings!

I charge $100/hr, $50 cheaper than most techs. A simple ad on Craigslist gets me more business than I actually want. Unless it is local, I only do software type repairs, not hardware. With proper software, you can work remotely just as well as you can on site, and without the travel time and expenses. Many people prefer remote repairs to taking their computer to a shop, or having a stranger come into their home or business. I can also handle emergencies much quicker by doing it remotely. I have over a terabyte of repair software on my computer, ready to go, so I donā€™t have to hunt for and test what I need. I already have, and have tested the best of the best. I could actually make more per year, but my life is pretty full at present.

With much of my work is ā€œhurry up and waitā€ while some piece of software finishes doing itā€™s job, I can also do multiple jobs simultaneously.

Previously, I made even more money selling ebooks, but it got kind of boring, not challenging enough for me. Now I am branching out into hands free money making websites. My goal is to also build that into a $100k/year income stream. I try to learn and succeed at stuff that I can then pass on the knowledge to others. Itā€™s also a good money making hobby.

We live in an amazing time. I worked my butt off for over 30 years in construction, then AFTER retirement I learned how to make more money online, with less effort, than I ever made before. I got lucky and had good teachers. If I had known what I know today, 40 years ago, I would probably be a billionaire today, but they donā€™t teach the good stuff in schools. With a few simple strategies, poverty around the world could be eliminated, but I guess the greater question is whether or not that would actually be a good thingā€¦ The success of society relies on the working classā€¦

Cheers!


"If you prepare for the worst, every thing else is easier." ~ Off Grid


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Well, you clearly know what you are doing. Iā€™m afraid I would never pay anywhere near $100/hr for computer repair, let alone $150 (my local guy charges Ā£45/hr in the UK) but you must attract a certain sort of customer who is willing to part with that amount to get their precious stuff fixed or working better. I still canā€™t understand how you can do it all remotely - sometimes you just have to be there to look at the set up physically, to load stuff via the DVD drive etc. but again, maybe you have ultra special repair software that nobody else knows about (certainly not in the UK) that allows you to do it! Two questions - do you pay for the repair software you have and is it only available to professional repairers?
I have a full time job (my own small company) that does fine but its labour intensive and Iā€™m looking to start something else that makes money without me needing to be there all the time. I guess this is partly along those lines but you still need to be around to liaise with the customer and actually go onto Team Viewer etc. to find out what the problem is, then check everything once you have finished etc.? I guess for you its still quite labour intensive but you like that aspect of itā€¦?

Greetings!

Yes, I enjoy the interaction with my customers, and with teamviewer I can see whatā€™s going on with their computer or smartphone just as well as if I was there in person.

Pretty much everything I use is freeware, so I can leave it on the customers computer, and teach them how to use it, so hopefully they wonā€™t need me the next time. The hard part is me sifting through all the bogus freeware to find the stuff that actually works, and keeping up with it. All it takes is one update to screw up a previously great program, and turn it into junk.

I frequently run a $99 special, to make any computer or phone run better and faster than a new one would. So Iā€™m saving people the cost of a new computer or phone. A customer from last week, sent me a thank you email today for saving $1100, because he was going to buy an $1199 laptop, but thought heā€™d gamble $99 with me first. Heā€™s extremely happy, he didnā€™t lose anything, and doesnā€™t need to learn a new computer and new OS.

For passive income, money making websites are hard to beat. Iā€™m just starting to dabble in that, but am already clearing $3k a month with it. I used to sell ebooks before I got bored with it, so I had a massive collection of free ebooks I collected from all over. So I put them on a website, and charge people to access them, which reminds me that I got a notice that the site was down, so I need to look into that. On another site, I offer free classifieds, with paid options. That made me about ~$2k last month, (I started it a few months back) and thatā€™s for only one mid size city. For another city I started a similar project last month, with different payment options. It made ~$1k in itā€™s first month.

Iā€™m trying to experiment with which different software & payment options are the best, most trouble free, etc. Once I get that figured out, then I can just duplicate it for multiple cities, to reach my income goals. Thatā€™s my retirement plan. Free classifieds really draw the people in, and I only advertise them on other peopleā€™s free classifieds sites. So the software costs me $200-600 up front, and then each website costs me $20-$40 per month, after that itā€™s mostly profit. Iā€™m still working on finding the best software though, and probably invested in excess of $20k on duds, and another $20k trying to get software written just for me, which also turned out full of bugs and unstable.

Itā€™s been spendy, but once I get the right software, I should be able to retire in style any time I want. Iā€™m not sure I ever want to actually retire, but having my retirement plan up, running, and making money is a great backup plan. If I had started years ago, I might have had an account with millions in it by now, imagine that. Live & Learn! In the end my goal is a hands free, reliable income.

Cheers!


"Opportunities are everywhere, but only action makes it happen." ~ Van_Dweller


Interesting post. I am looking to see what I can do online, but struggle to come up with good ideas. (I donā€™t recognise my own skillset). Have tried learning web development but am not very good at designing stylish things. Lol. And I donā€™t feel ready to offer services that I donā€™t feel are adequate.

Greetings!

The internet is probably the greatest & easiest wealth builder of all times. You donā€™t necessarily need education, skills, training, or even much money to get started, and everything you need to get started can be found online for free or very cheap.

I had the good fortune to attend some classes at van rallies, where they could teach you how to make a very decent living on the internet within an hour or two. I started out selling ebooks, very big money in that. Then I switched to a service business doing both online remotely, and in person computer tune-ups & repairs, which I still do. Itā€™s pretty easy to make $100k+ a year doing that, part time.

Now, Iā€™m transitioning into mostly hands free money making websites. Iā€™m selling advertising and web hosting. The hosting is called ā€œreseller hostingā€. Iā€™m currently paying $59/mo for it, and it includes everything you need including a website. All you have to do is set your prices and advertise your site to attract customers. I originally did all the advertising myself for free, but now I pay others $20/mo to do it for me. Iā€™m currently making almost $5k/mo selling hosting, and everything I needed to get started was provided by the company.

Iā€™m making another $5k+/mo offering free/paid advertising. The free ads usually last about 24 hours, and draw in tons of traffic, or you can pay to have have your ads remain up 24/7 for $20/mo. Each of 6 sites are making just under $1k a month, and if you need more money, you could add additional sites. Each of those sites costs me $20/mo, and I pay an additional $20/mo for each site to advertise them.

There are many affiliate, reseller, & joint venture opportunities available. The key to being successful at any of them is the ability to drive traffic to your website(s). You can do it yourself for free, but I get better results paying professionals to do it for me.

Cheers!


"Old school, cheap, simple, reliable, and easily replaceable for the win!" ~ Traveler@Heart


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