RPF0407-Motorhomes_RVs

00:00:00.000 | As a parent, you know it's not just baby talk.

00:00:05.000 | Somebody's hungry.

00:00:06.000 | So talk with your baby's doctor about invasive pneumococcal disease, or IPD,

00:00:10.000 | and ask how Prevnar 20 pneumococcal 20-valent conjugate vaccine can help protect them.

00:00:16.000 | Children under 2 are at increased risk,

00:00:18.000 | but Prevnar 20 can help them develop more immunity to 20 strains of bacteria that cause IPD.

00:00:24.000 | Prevnar 20 is approved for children 6 weeks and older

00:00:26.000 | to help prevent infections from 20 strains of bacteria that cause invasive pneumococcal disease.

00:00:31.000 | Do not get Prevnar 20 if your child has had a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine or its ingredients.

00:00:35.000 | Those with weakened immune systems may have a lower response to the vaccine.

00:00:38.000 | Talk to your health care provider before vaccination if your baby was born prematurely.

00:00:41.000 | Side effects may include irritability, pain, redness, swelling at the injection site,

00:00:45.000 | drowsiness, muscle pain, decreased appetite, headache, and fever.

00:00:48.000 | For full prescribing information, please call 1-855-213-2138 or visit Prevnar20.com.

00:00:55.000 | Ask about Prevnar 20 for your baby. Visit AskForPrevnar20.com.

00:01:01.000 | At the beginning of a new year, people often make financial New Year's resolutions as they should.

00:01:08.000 | The best way to get started is by starting a budget.

00:01:12.000 | Radical Personal Finance is sponsored by YNAB, aka You Need a Budget.

00:01:18.000 | Cute, eh?

00:01:20.000 | Well, it's the world's best budgeting software, and you should try it free for over a month.

00:01:25.000 | Go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/YNAB.

00:01:30.000 | Also, this is the time of year in which you should begin meeting with a financial advisor.

00:01:35.000 | If you don't have a financial advisor, find a pool of qualified candidates at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/PALADIN.

00:01:47.000 | On Tuesday this week, I did a show about how I'm changing the show.

00:01:54.000 | And one of the comments was that I'm going back to a daily format.

00:01:57.000 | Well, embarrassingly, I was traveling and my travel schedule did not permit me to keep to that this week.

00:02:03.000 | So today, we're going to talk about travel and specifically the type of travel that might allow you to keep your promises to do work and have fun at the same time.

00:02:18.000 | We're going to talk about RVs.

00:02:20.000 | [Music]

00:02:36.000 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight, and consistent encouragement that you need to live a rich and meaningful life now while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.

00:02:48.000 | My name is Joshua Sheets. I am your host. I am your guide. I am your fellow adventurer in this process.

00:02:56.000 | And today, we tackle the subject of adventure, especially the adventure of travel.

00:03:02.000 | [Music]

00:03:08.000 | Many people, when asked to list out the things that they want to do, the great things that they're looking forward to doing, they will list travel.

00:03:15.000 | And there are, of course, many types of travel.

00:03:17.000 | One of my personal favorite types of travel is vehicle-based travel.

00:03:22.000 | I personally love to just simply have my own vehicle with me when I travel.

00:03:28.000 | This is particularly poignant to me because, as I said, I've been traveling the last two days.

00:03:33.000 | I flew up to Chicago for two days.

00:03:34.000 | And then on the flight back from Chicago, I was passing – I was scheduled to fly from Chicago through Newark back to West Palm Beach.

00:03:42.000 | Well, we wind up sitting on the tarmac for three hours, and I wound up missing my connections.

00:03:48.000 | So what was going to be a quick and simple trip home turned into an overnight stay for me in New York City, which was fine.

00:03:55.000 | I was able to go into Manhattan and visit a friend of mine, which I very much enjoyed.

00:04:00.000 | And then I got back to West Palm Beach.

00:04:02.000 | And for those of you who are curious, I flew in about an hour before the shooting that just happened today in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

00:04:10.000 | So Fort Lauderdale is another airport that I do often fly out of.

00:04:12.000 | It's about an hour south of me.

00:04:14.000 | But I was not involved in those circumstances.

00:04:17.000 | But being involved in airplane travel constantly allows me to appreciate vehicle-based travel.

00:04:28.000 | If I had my choice, I probably would almost never use airplanes.

00:04:31.000 | I would almost always use a vehicle.

00:04:33.000 | Of course, for practicality, it's just not practical to always drive everywhere.

00:04:37.000 | I really do prefer to drive just because I can maintain control.

00:04:42.000 | And I can also have unique experiences.

00:04:44.000 | Air travel, again, has its place.

00:04:47.000 | I've just done it.

00:04:48.000 | I'll do it plenty more.

00:04:49.000 | If you need to cover a lot of ground quickly and be able to get there, get done, and get home, air travel is the way to go.

00:04:56.000 | But air travel has lost much of its romance.

00:04:59.000 | It's lost much of its fun.

00:05:01.000 | In many ways, I mean, maybe you fly first class, but I don't.

00:05:06.000 | And so you're just one of many.

00:05:10.000 | You got to deal with being groped and being scanned and having all your stuff invaded.

00:05:15.000 | And then you sit in a seat, and I'm 6'5", so sitting in the seat is not particularly comfortable.

00:05:21.000 | But that's life.

00:05:22.000 | Hey, I'm not complaining, just laughing.

00:05:25.000 | Now compare that and contrast that with vehicle-based travel.

00:05:32.000 | See, the thing with having your own vehicle is you leave when you want to, you drive as long as you want to,

00:05:39.000 | you get to see all kinds of interesting things along the way,

00:05:43.000 | and if you can have the comforts of home with you, it's radically better.

00:05:53.000 | If you have a bed that is your bed with your mattress, with your cushions on it,

00:05:58.000 | that you can go and sleep in anytime you want, it's way better.

00:06:02.000 | If you've got a bathroom that's clean, that you're the only one who uses, it's way better.

00:06:07.000 | If you've got a fully stocked refrigerator and a sink and a microwave and a stove, it's way better.

00:06:14.000 | It very much changes your experience of vehicle-based travel when you can travel with those amenities.

00:06:22.000 | I personally, I've always been fascinated with RVing,

00:06:26.000 | and I think RVing is something that, well, the data would prove that it's something that many people are fascinated with.

00:06:32.000 | My family and I, over the recent Christmas holidays, we took a couple weeks and we took our camper van and we took it on a trip.

00:06:40.000 | We wound up on about a 1,600, 1,700-mile trip.

00:06:43.000 | We made it as far north as Charlotte, South Carolina – not Charlotte, Charleston, South Carolina.

00:06:51.000 | Charlotte is North Carolina.

00:06:53.000 | We meandered our way up the coast. We call it the Great Lighthouse Tour of 2016.

00:06:58.000 | My son really likes lighthouses, and so we made it a point to go to as many of the lighthouses along the way as possible.

00:07:04.000 | We were able to go up to one in Tybee Island, Georgia. Really enjoyed it.

00:07:08.000 | We had a nice time, and we were out with our camper van.

00:07:10.000 | It was the first time that I have ever been able to actually accomplish the goal that I've had for a long time of taking my family on an extended RV trip

00:07:22.000 | with our own vehicle, and it was awesome.

00:07:27.000 | It was awesome because I was in control.

00:07:30.000 | My wife and I, we had no set schedule. We had no set agenda.

00:07:35.000 | We didn't even have a set destination.

00:07:37.000 | We had a date that we wanted to be back and a date that we chose to leave, but anywhere between those two points, we had no fixed plans, no fixed itinerary, no fixed agenda.

00:07:46.000 | And because we were traveling in an RV, it made it simple for us to accomplish that.

00:07:52.000 | The great thing about an RV, having an RV and using an RV to travel in, is you have all of those amenities, and so home can be just as comfortable no matter where you are.

00:08:02.000 | We spent the first night of our trip at a place up in middle to northern Florida called Tomoka Springs State Park.

00:08:09.000 | And then the next day, we went up to Fort Clinch State Park, which is a beautiful state park right on the Georgia-Florida border on the eastern seaboard, very nice park.

00:08:17.000 | They have a historic fort there from the Civil War era called Fort Clinch you can visit and a very nice park there as well.

00:08:23.000 | And we knew that we wanted to go to that Florida State Park, but we arrived on that day because we had stopped and visited some lighthouses and different things.

00:08:31.000 | We arrived late and the park was full, so we got kicked out.

00:08:35.000 | Well, no problem. Having an RV, they pointed us towards a nearby park where you could park overnight.

00:08:41.000 | It wound up just being a simple little county park right on the beach, and we drove about 10 minutes away and set up camp in the parking lot.

00:08:48.000 | It was great. We were just as comfortable camping in a parking lot as we would have been at the state park.

00:08:53.000 | That was one of the joys of RV travel.

00:08:56.000 | A few days later, something similar happened.

00:08:59.000 | We went up to Jekyll Island and we had planned to camp for the night on Jekyll Island, but when we got to the campground, well, put it this way.

00:09:09.000 | There were a lot of people who were engaged in very quiet activities, such as sitting gently in front of their RV, reading books under the trees.

00:09:21.000 | Although my children are not quite as loud as they will probably be in the next few years, I have, in addition to a three-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old, I have two dogs who love to chase squirrels.

00:09:33.000 | This campground was packed with squirrels.

00:09:38.000 | My wife and I drove through. We got a spot and we were about to set up, and I just looked at her and I said, "We don't fit here. This is not for us. You want to just go?"

00:09:48.000 | So we went back, got a refund on the campsite, went ahead and spent a little bit more time touring around Jekyll Island, Georgia, and then we hit the road.

00:09:56.000 | That night, we just pulled over into Cracker Barrel and spent the night in the Cracker Barrel parking lot.

00:10:00.000 | When you have an RV, one of the great things is there are places where you can park overnight.

00:10:04.000 | The most common one that many people know about is Walmart.

00:10:07.000 | Most Walmarts, not all, but most Walmarts have a policy that allows overnight sleeping in a vehicle in their parking lot.

00:10:13.000 | Another store that has this open policy is Cracker Barrel, and there are others as well.

00:10:19.000 | For example, I think the Cabela's, some of the big sportsman stores, Bass Pro Shops, some of the camping stores allow this as well as a matter of course.

00:10:27.000 | There are many, many places that you can just park overnight and nobody will bother you.

00:10:31.000 | But we chose Cracker Barrel. I like Cracker Barrel. It's the best deal that I know of for breakfast on the road.

00:10:36.000 | Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and it's a great deal.

00:10:39.000 | So we parked in their parking lot that night and camped out there, and it was great.

00:10:43.000 | It was just as comfortable as anywhere else.

00:10:45.000 | That was some of the benefits of RV travel, especially with children.

00:10:49.000 | This was a big one for me, a big motivation for me in getting an RV was that I have young children, and young children require some care on the road.

00:10:57.000 | Their bladders don't give quite the range that perhaps an adult's bladder might require.

00:11:03.000 | All of you who are parents are quite familiar with that.

00:11:06.000 | Their snacking schedule tends to be a little bit more frequent than perhaps an adult's snacking schedule will be.

00:11:13.000 | So I wanted to have the opportunity to be able to travel in more comfort where the kids' needs could be attended to.

00:11:19.000 | If they needed to go to the potty, they could get down out of the car seat, use the potty, and get back in it.

00:11:23.000 | We didn't have to stop every 10 minutes.

00:11:25.000 | So those are some of the benefits of RV travel, and it was really, really great.

00:11:30.000 | I really enjoyed it.

00:11:31.000 | I'm not the only one who likes the concept of RV travel.

00:11:35.000 | Many of you have that aspirational goal, and many people fit that into even their retirement plans.

00:11:43.000 | One thing I learned on this recent trip, in touring state parks, national parks, etc., you might have the perception that those are family-oriented activities.

00:11:56.000 | You might have the expectation to see lots of parents with children.

00:12:00.000 | Well, you see some, but the people you see more than anybody else are older retirees.

00:12:08.000 | The state parks and the national parks are packed with people who are traveling in their retirement years, most of them in an RV to enjoy the comforts of home while on the road, many of them doing it on a full-time basis, living full-time in their RV.

00:12:25.000 | Now, I don't think that RVs should be reserved for older people.

00:12:29.000 | I think they are a tremendously helpful way of working with children.

00:12:33.000 | You don't even have to be a child.

00:12:34.000 | It could be a single person or a couple without children, and they're still useful.

00:12:37.000 | But for children, I think they're especially useful.

00:12:40.000 | I grew up camping with my family all across the country, and I treasure those memories.

00:12:47.000 | My dad bought a cheap little pop-up trailer, a cheap old junky thing when he bought it, and he kept it going for years.

00:12:54.000 | And we took that thing as a family from Florida up to Maine, out to Colorado, to the Grand Canyon.

00:13:00.000 | I mean we took it all over the country.

00:13:02.000 | And it provided a really great way to travel with children.

00:13:07.000 | I know that I was the youngest of seven children.

00:13:11.000 | So I had many children.

00:13:12.000 | You start buying Disney entrance tickets, let alone the fact that it's really not worth your time.

00:13:17.000 | But the $100 a pop, it starts to add up pretty quickly.

00:13:22.000 | But when you go camping, you can get a campsite today.

00:13:24.000 | The average rate is $30 to $40 a night.

00:13:27.000 | It's a great way to get out there.

00:13:29.000 | And the thing that I love about camping is that there's lots of work that is productive work for children to be engaged in.

00:13:37.000 | Hotel rooms have their place, but one of the challenges with children is what are you going to do when you get to a hotel room with your kids?

00:13:43.000 | There's almost nothing to do except watch TV, use the games and entertainment devices that you brought with you.

00:13:50.000 | Or if weather and facilities permit, swim in the pool.

00:13:55.000 | But when you're in your campground and you're outside, there's all kinds of things that the children can enjoy doing.

00:14:00.000 | There's all kinds of places to explore and to walk and to hike and all kinds of things to do and lots of work associated with camping as well, which is good to be able to keep children busy.

00:14:10.000 | So I have spent – because I treasure those experiences so much, as a child I've always wanted to have an RV.

00:14:16.000 | I have spent a ridiculously obsessive amount of time thinking about the perfect way to structure RVs and all of the different advantages and disadvantages of those things.

00:14:26.000 | Today, I'm going to walk you through some of those – some of my opinions and a little bit of background information.

00:14:32.000 | I'll have some beginner information for you and for those of you who aren't familiar with the subject, don't know anything about the types of RVs or how you would approach it.

00:14:41.000 | I'll have some information on the financial aspects of RVing and then I'll have just some information on the application.

00:14:47.000 | For those of you who are familiar with it, I'll give you a realistic viewpoint of what I have learned both from extensive study, thinking and also personal experience.

00:14:58.000 | The very first step in thinking about the question of getting an RV or of owning an RV is to get as clear as possible on what you want.

00:15:10.000 | Now, that's shocking, I know.

00:15:12.000 | I should just change the motto of Radical Personal Finance to something like know what you want and all your decisions are easy because frankly, that's – I feel like that's all I talk about.

00:15:24.000 | If you know what you want, it's easy.

00:15:26.000 | If you don't know what you want, it's all hard and the key is just knowing what you want.

00:15:29.000 | It's no different with RVing.

00:15:31.000 | You need to know what you want and you need to be realistic about what you actually want.

00:15:37.000 | Now, I want to be clear that by want, I'm referring to the experiences that you want to have, not what you want with regard to the type of RV that you want to own.

00:15:52.000 | If you go RV shopping without knowing what type of experience you want to have, you'll see all kinds of things that will just make your salivary glands start to fill up.

00:16:07.000 | It will make your palms sweaty and all of a sudden, you'll be plumping down a nice signature at the bottom of the paper for a monthly payment of $352 a month on this RV because you're going to be picturing all these experiences that the RV can provide.

00:16:21.000 | But you may not even need the RV to have the kind of experiences that you want to have.

00:16:28.000 | Now, when I described what I really value about the RV, I hope you noticed that – well, I'll just point out to you that what I like is traveling.

00:16:38.000 | I like to move.

00:16:40.000 | I like to travel.

00:16:42.000 | I like to spend time with my family.

00:16:44.000 | I like to spend time with my kids covering significant distance.

00:16:49.000 | That distance is significantly shortened with young children but covering significant distance and I like to move frequently.

00:16:58.000 | I have a bit of a restless soul in me.

00:17:00.000 | I don't want to just – some people want to pull up and find a beautiful spot on the beach and sit there and camp for a week.

00:17:06.000 | Well, I get the appeal of that.

00:17:08.000 | I get it to some degree but it's a little harder at the stage of life that I'm at and it's not something that's particularly – I like the adventure.

00:17:17.000 | I like to move.

00:17:18.000 | And so for me, simple example, I want something that's quick and easy to move from one place to another.

00:17:27.000 | If you're going to go and find a beautiful spot on the ocean, you can set up just as comfortable of a tent camping site as you can have in an RV.

00:17:38.000 | I think the people who do this the best are the elk hunters who set up winter – fall and winter elk camps out in the western United States.

00:17:47.000 | If you ever read outdoor magazines or outdoor catalogs like Cabela's or that type of brand, they sell these canvas wall tents.

00:17:56.000 | If you go on YouTube and look around and find some people who set up elk camp, but what they do is they set up these large canvas wall tents.

00:18:03.000 | So unlike perhaps a two-man pop tent that you've camped in in the past, we're not talking about something you got to stoop down and crawl in on your hands and knees.

00:18:10.000 | We're talking about a tent that you just simply walk into, large vertical walls, lots of interior space.

00:18:17.000 | They'll often set up a couple or three of these things.

00:18:19.000 | They set up one that's used as a bedroom area.

00:18:22.000 | Once you get into that bedroom area, you can put in cots that are very comfortable to sleep on, gets you up off of the ground.

00:18:28.000 | You can use air mattresses or mattresses instead of very comfortable bed.

00:18:33.000 | You can use one as a kitchen.

00:18:35.000 | Oftentimes, they'll put a wood stove because elk camps are usually in the fall or winter.

00:18:41.000 | So they set up a wood stove inside so it's nice and warm.

00:18:43.000 | You can have great cooking facilities, set up these large propane stoves.

00:18:47.000 | You can set up a shower facility and bathroom facilities and a place to hang out.

00:18:52.000 | You can create just this beautiful, comfortable camp environment.

00:18:56.000 | In many ways, it's much better than an RV in terms of having a place to be because you're not so closed.

00:19:03.000 | It's not so small.

00:19:04.000 | It's not so claustrophobic.

00:19:06.000 | You have much more space.

00:19:08.000 | You can carry those tents in the back of a large SUV, a small trailer, or a pickup bed.

00:19:12.000 | So if you're going to be in one place, you may not need an RV.

00:19:15.000 | You can set this up with children if you find a beautiful spot.

00:19:18.000 | You can do this with family in the summertime and the wintertime.

00:19:21.000 | You can take along a little portable window, air conditioning, and you can set that up if you're having a source of electricity.

00:19:26.000 | You can set that up in the side of your tent.

00:19:28.000 | You can be cool in the summer.

00:19:30.000 | You can take that wood stove, like I mentioned, and be warm in the winter.

00:19:32.000 | So you might choose to go camping, and it might be just as comfortable, if not more comfortable, to not have an RV if you're going to stay in one spot for a week.

00:19:43.000 | But if you want to move every day or move every two or three days, setting up that whole big giant camp is probably not going to be something you will anticipate and look forward to doing.

00:19:57.000 | So you've got to get clear on what type of travel are you actually going to do.

00:20:03.000 | What type of experience do you actually want to have?

00:20:10.000 | Here are some other examples to get you thinking.

00:20:17.000 | If you're going to cover a lot of miles, going from one side of the country to the other, you seriously need to consider fuel efficiency.

00:20:27.000 | You need to budget that in.

00:20:32.000 | For me, this is kind of me.

00:20:37.000 | I don't want to go on the road full time, but I like to travel a bit, so I need to cover some miles.

00:20:44.000 | So I need to consider fuel efficiency because – we'll get to fuel efficiency of RVs in a minute, but it's pretty atrocious.

00:20:51.000 | And fuel costs can take a big, big bite out of your traveling budget.

00:20:56.000 | The house I lived in before had a neighbor, and this neighbor, they were retired.

00:21:00.000 | He'd been retired for many years.

00:21:02.000 | He had this beautiful Type A diesel pusher motorhome, big, big giant one, and they'd taken it all over the country.

00:21:09.000 | But all the time I lived next to him, he never used it.

00:21:12.000 | I asked him, and he just said, "Well, I can't afford the fuel anymore."

00:21:15.000 | He was living on a fixed income, and he couldn't afford the fuel.

00:21:17.000 | So eventually he sold the RV because he couldn't afford the fuel.

00:21:22.000 | If you're going to cover a lot of miles, you've got to seriously consider that.

00:21:25.000 | Now, if you're going to cover a lot of miles slowly, it's less of a consideration.

00:21:31.000 | Let's say that you're going to be on the road for full time or for an extended period such as a year or a couple of years traveling around the country.

00:21:38.000 | Well, you'll be doing a lot of miles, but you're going to move slowly.

00:21:42.000 | So the impact of fuel is much less than if you were going quickly, constantly.

00:21:49.000 | Important to think about.

00:21:53.000 | You have to understand what types of places you want to go to.

00:21:56.000 | If you want to stay in large manicured state parks, large campgrounds, you can get away with a big giant rig because they've got pull-through campsites.

00:22:07.000 | You can park a big RV or a big old trailer in them pretty easily.

00:22:11.000 | But if you're one who wants to get out a little bit, wants to get out into the backcountry, wants to fit into small out-of-the-way places, or wants to really get out, you can't drive a big $250,000 RV into these little tiny parks.

00:22:25.000 | You need something much smaller.

00:22:27.000 | So ask yourself what type of experiences you want to have.

00:22:31.000 | What type of travel are you actually going to do?

00:22:34.000 | And then you need to compare these experiences, these things that you're imagining, to your options.

00:22:42.000 | And don't fool yourself into a bad decision.

00:22:45.000 | Don't think that you're the kind of... Don't be aspirational.

00:22:50.000 | I'm the kind of person who's going to go way out in the backcountry.

00:22:53.000 | Don't be aspirational if you know that you actually like your creature comforts.

00:22:57.000 | On the flip side, don't think that you're going to be happy if you have a big RV if you're the kind of person who just wants to really get away from it all.

00:23:06.000 | Backpacking and tent camping is probably for you.

00:23:09.000 | Next, what's your budget?

00:23:12.000 | How much money do you practically have?

00:23:15.000 | How much money do you actually... should you actually spend?

00:23:22.000 | Later in the show I'm going to talk about the finances of RVs, but basically it ain't cheap.

00:23:31.000 | No matter how you approach it, it's simply not cheap.

00:23:34.000 | Is it cheaper than traveling in a hotel? I'll cover that question later, but probably not.

00:23:39.000 | It's not cheap.

00:23:41.000 | And in the RV world, there's easy financing.

00:23:45.000 | That creates a large temptation.

00:23:49.000 | Just because you can go and get this thing doesn't mean that you should.

00:23:54.000 | How do you factor that into your other goals? How do you factor that into your other areas of focus?

00:24:01.000 | Now, it is possible to RV relatively frugally.

00:24:05.000 | You can do it, but get clear on your budget.

00:24:09.000 | If you're somebody like me, with similar goals and position in life to me, it's probably not reasonable for you to budget $150,000, $200,000 for a big giant rig.

00:24:22.000 | You want to stay on the lower end of that.

00:24:24.000 | Now, on the flip side, if you are approaching retirement and you foresee that you're going to have 20 years on the road,

00:24:34.000 | and possibly you'll even be full-time on the road for a significant percentage of that,

00:24:38.000 | it only makes sense to go ahead and purchase a really nice setup that you want to be in,

00:24:43.000 | that'll give you the creature comforts that you're looking for.

00:24:47.000 | So get clear on your budget and try to do significant thinking about your budget before you expose yourself to the temptation of the options that are out there.

00:24:58.000 | While on the topic of budgeting, it's a convenient time to talk about sponsor of the day, YNAB.

00:25:03.000 | You need a budget.

00:25:04.000 | As I mentioned at the beginning of the show, the beginning of a year is the ideal time to sit down and start a new budget.

00:25:11.000 | And you can do that with YNAB.

00:25:13.000 | But it's not just about a budget in the sense of, "Oh, this month."

00:25:19.000 | One of the best things about YNAB is YNAB allows you to allocate all of the money that you have in your account towards specific goals.

00:25:28.000 | Simple example, an RV.

00:25:32.000 | In my YNAB budget over the last over a year, I've had a specific category in there called RV.

00:25:42.000 | And prior to the purchase of the RV that I chose, I was saving for it and specifically allocating and setting the money aside there.

00:25:51.000 | Since I purchased the RV, I continue to have that category called RV.

00:25:56.000 | Actually, I use two categories, what I do.

00:25:58.000 | I use a category in YNAB for any kind of asset expenditure.

00:26:02.000 | So I have a labeling in there called asset expenditure RV.

00:26:06.000 | So anything I do to the RV, upgrades, improvements, et cetera, I use that category to identify those things.

00:26:13.000 | And then I have a category in there that refers to the spending, the consumption, the use of the RV.

00:26:19.000 | That allows me to know those consumable things.

00:26:22.000 | So at the end of the recent trip, I came home and I'm able to look and see in 2016 how much I total I spent on the RV, things that weren't specific to any trip, repairs, maintenance, improvements.

00:26:34.000 | And then I can also look at the specific trips and I have all the trips tagged with their own specific thing.

00:26:41.000 | So I can look and simple example, I spent about $900 on the two-week trip that we took all around the southeast.

00:26:50.000 | It included the fuel, it included all the activities, the entertainment, the things that would – you know, the boat rides and all the sightseeing and tourist things that we chose to spend money on.

00:26:59.000 | So that's how I do it. I do it in YNAB.

00:27:02.000 | And you can specifically save for those categories and that's really helpful because you need to save for both of those categories.

00:27:07.000 | You need to save for the asset expenditure, the maintenance items that are going to need to be there.

00:27:11.000 | And then also you can save in YNAB.

00:27:14.000 | You can allocate the money for something like the family vacation.

00:27:17.000 | And then when going off in the family vacation at December, if you do something like what I did, you can look there at that category and you can see, does it have enough?

00:27:24.000 | You might adjust your budget a little bit as I did in December, adjusted the budget.

00:27:28.000 | So we're not going to be home.

00:27:29.000 | So what I'll do is I'll just change some of these other categories and then we throw a little extra money in there so that we have that category squared away.

00:27:35.000 | YNAB is the best budgeting tool that I have ever found.

00:27:39.000 | And the reason, the big reason it's the best is because it allows you to allocate the money that you're going to spend and track it easily.

00:27:50.000 | And it has parameters on it.

00:27:53.000 | Super, super powerful.

00:27:55.000 | If you're not using YNAB, I believe you should be.

00:28:01.000 | You can get a free, what is it, a free 34-day trial at radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab.

00:28:08.000 | Radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab.

00:28:10.000 | Go there now.

00:28:11.000 | Download the free software.

00:28:12.000 | It's January 6th.

00:28:13.000 | This is the time for you to get it started.

00:28:16.000 | It's a great time.

00:28:17.000 | Beginning of the month, beginning of the year.

00:28:19.000 | Radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab.

00:28:23.000 | Next question you need to ask yourself with regard to RVing is how many people do you need to accommodate and what type of people are they?

00:28:33.000 | Are they children?

00:28:34.000 | Are they adults?

00:28:35.000 | Are they teenagers?

00:28:36.000 | You're going to wind up with a different solution based upon that answer.

00:28:41.000 | How many people?

00:28:42.000 | That's a big question.

00:28:44.000 | What you will find is that the RV marketplace is excellent for one person, two people, up to about a total of four, two parents, two children.

00:28:55.000 | Beyond two parents, two children, it starts to get flaky.

00:28:58.000 | But you're pretty safe up to a total of six, two parents, four children.

00:29:04.000 | Beyond six, it's very difficult to find something that will meet your goals and meet your needs.

00:29:09.000 | Now, you might have five children or you might want to travel with other family.

00:29:13.000 | One of the things that I think is great and it's very important to me to always have accommodations for more people so that I can invite friends and family and parents and extended relatives along.

00:29:24.000 | Some people don't like that.

00:29:25.000 | But to me, that adds significantly to the fun of the whole event.

00:29:32.000 | The number of people will make a big difference for you.

00:29:36.000 | Now, if you're one person, you may not even need an RV.

00:29:40.000 | I'm not going to spend a lot of time on options if you're one person.

00:29:44.000 | But if I were one person traveling, I would not choose to buy an RV.

00:29:52.000 | Even if I were to do extended extensive road – let's just say road tripping around the US, staying in national parks, state parks, just touring the United States.

00:30:01.000 | For that type of trip, me, I would choose a Toyota Prius to drive and I would camp and live in the Toyota Prius.

00:30:09.000 | I've done this myself on various occasions.

00:30:12.000 | I've seen plenty of people who do it online.

00:30:14.000 | But the Toyota Prius is a great traveling vehicle.

00:30:17.000 | One of the most obvious benefits would be the cost of fuel.

00:30:20.000 | Fifty miles per gallon significantly increases the range that your budget will take you and you can get 50 miles per gallon.

00:30:27.000 | It allows you to travel a lot.

00:30:29.000 | For someone like me who tends to be restless, I don't mind long days.

00:30:34.000 | I like to me driving is half the fun of it.

00:30:36.000 | That's a big, big benefit.

00:30:39.000 | For one person, the Toyota Prius works great to have a great place to sleep.

00:30:43.000 | If you've never done this or if you have someone who has a Prius, take the passenger side seat, slide it forward as far as it will go on the front back sliders.

00:30:54.000 | Take the rear seat, pop the back of the rear seat forward.

00:30:58.000 | Then take the headrest out of the front passenger seat and slide the back of the front passenger seat down flat.

00:31:07.000 | What you can do is you can create a flat sleeping platform from the back of the car to basically the front.

00:31:15.000 | I've spent many nights camping in a Toyota Prius in this format.

00:31:21.000 | I'm 6'5", 300-something pounds.

00:31:25.000 | I can stretch out very comfortably there.

00:31:27.000 | If you're going to be in it full-time, I would consider laying down some sort of flat surface.

00:31:33.000 | You can consider that.

00:31:34.000 | I never needed to do that.

00:31:35.000 | Then lay down a comfortable pad, a hiker's pad, something that's comfortable, a mattress.

00:31:41.000 | Lay that down, put some bedding on it, and you've got a very comfortable sleeping platform with enough room on the left side of the car for you to keep the driver's seat clear.

00:31:51.000 | Also, for you to put a cooler there or a stove, a place for your clothes, some bags.

00:31:56.000 | You can create all kinds of interesting things.

00:31:58.000 | The big reason for the Prius is you can have great control over your climate just simply due to the fact that it's a hybrid.

00:32:05.000 | I live in Florida, and so one major concern is being able to sleep comfortably during the hot summer.

00:32:12.000 | The Prius with the hybrid system, you can leave the air conditioning on, and it's a true hybrid, so the air conditioning will run off of the battery system.

00:32:22.000 | Then the car, from time to time, when it needs to charge the batteries during the night, will cycle on and off automatically.

00:32:27.000 | You can leave the Prius on without any major problem, and it'll just keep you cool all night.

00:32:36.000 | It's fantastic.

00:32:37.000 | If you're one person, I think that's a great option.

00:32:40.000 | Now, for two people, I don't think I would do that.

00:32:43.000 | I really wouldn't, but I would consider some other options.

00:32:46.000 | Here are some very cool ideas that I have seen and that I have tested out.

00:32:50.000 | One is minivans.

00:32:52.000 | You can turn a minivan into a really, really neat camper for two people.

00:32:57.000 | Take all the seats out on the interior and build a little kitchen type of thing at the back.

00:33:02.000 | The back hatch on a minivan will flip up.

00:33:04.000 | It gives you a place where you can be out of the rain, a little bit out of the weather, and you can build a little kitchen.

00:33:09.000 | You could put a dish bucket back there, build a little sink.

00:33:12.000 | You can use a 12-volt pump if you want, have some water back there so you have running water.

00:33:16.000 | Install a simple little propane stove in the back on a shelf.

00:33:20.000 | Maybe put it on a slide-out shelf if you want.

00:33:23.000 | Put a good cooler or a 12-volt refrigerator in the back so you can keep your food cold.

00:33:28.000 | You've got a great facility there at the back.

00:33:30.000 | On the interior of the van, put down a mattress.

00:33:32.000 | If you're two people, you probably might want to create something custom like a foam mattress and cut it to fit the contours of the floor.

00:33:39.000 | Put down a foam mattress and give yourself good bedding.

00:33:42.000 | You can have a full-size bed there that's easy to sleep in in the back of a minivan.

00:33:46.000 | You can use a minivan or use any vehicle for the purpose of air conditioning if you want to camp in it on the road as well.

00:33:54.000 | Install a carbon monoxide detector in the vehicle so you can be safe.

00:33:58.000 | You don't want to accidentally kill yourself due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

00:34:01.000 | Most modern vehicles, I don't think it's a big concern as long as you're not in an enclosed environment, but better safe than sorry.

00:34:07.000 | Go down to Home Depot, pick up a carbon monoxide detector, and install that in the back.

00:34:12.000 | But then just run the air conditioning.

00:34:14.000 | You might burn a few gallons of gas during the night, but so what?

00:34:17.000 | It'll cost you $10 for the fuel that you burned by running the car all night.

00:34:21.000 | That is way cheaper than many of your other options, and it's way cheaper than an RV.

00:34:28.000 | It's much more maneuverable.

00:34:30.000 | You can go anywhere. You can do anything.

00:34:32.000 | There are other neat options.

00:34:33.000 | You can camp in an SUV.

00:34:34.000 | My wife and I used to have a Ford Escape.

00:34:37.000 | I didn't quite fit in the back of it, but we camped a couple nights in the back of that.

00:34:41.000 | Again, put down mattresses.

00:34:42.000 | I took out the back seats in that case and then put down something where the back seats were, and it worked fine.

00:34:49.000 | Put down some sleeping bags.

00:34:50.000 | That worked out well.

00:34:51.000 | If you have one thing that is really neat, if vehicles like the Honda Element, there is a company that manufactures something.

00:35:00.000 | The company goes by the name of eCamper for the Honda Element, and they create this neat little pop top that screws onto the top of a Honda Element.

00:35:08.000 | It works similar to how the old Volkswagen vans worked.

00:35:12.000 | The new Volkswagen still makes vans with a pop top.

00:35:15.000 | You just can't really get them in the U.S. market, but they have this little pop top, and it creates a rooftop tent on the top of a Honda Element.

00:35:22.000 | You can get at it from the vehicle.

00:35:25.000 | On the Elements, there's a sunroof that's in the back of the vehicle.

00:35:29.000 | So that's the entry point up into the top, the tent on the top.

00:35:33.000 | But it gives you just a neat enclosed tent, easy to get into and out of, really great option.

00:35:40.000 | You should consider rooftop tents.

00:35:42.000 | The rooftop tents, you might be able to picture this.

00:35:45.000 | If not, go online and just search rooftop tent.

00:35:48.000 | But kind of the African safari tent, classic option that people would choose when traveling in the bush in Africa.

00:35:56.000 | Throw a rooftop tent on the top of the Land Rover.

00:35:59.000 | When you get to your destination, they're quick to set up, quick to take down, but it gives you the ability to sleep up above the vehicle.

00:36:05.000 | So for one or two people, these are really, really great options.

00:36:08.000 | There are many, many more that you should consider.

00:36:12.000 | That's different than my situation.

00:36:14.000 | When I travel, I got me and my wife.

00:36:16.000 | I've got two children, a third on the way.

00:36:19.000 | I've got two dogs, and I like to bring friends.

00:36:22.000 | So little rooftop tent camping on the -- or an e-camper system with a Honda Element is not going to work so well for me.

00:36:31.000 | So I need to choose something else.

00:36:33.000 | So consider how many people and make provision for that.

00:36:37.000 | Another thing to consider, consider seriously where do you live and where will you travel because that will make a huge difference in the type of vehicle you choose.

00:36:46.000 | If you live in the mountains and you're going to travel during the summer, you don't need all that much weather protection.

00:36:54.000 | You're probably going to be outside hiking, et cetera.

00:36:57.000 | I don't live in the mountains.

00:36:58.000 | I live in Florida.

00:36:59.000 | So any vehicle that I use, I want to make sure that it has air conditioning.

00:37:02.000 | Otherwise, I'm limited to just the cooler parts of the year for using it, at least to use it comfortably.

00:37:07.000 | I have camped in the Florida Keys in a tent in summer.

00:37:10.000 | It's not all that fun, and I wouldn't do that to my wife and children.

00:37:14.000 | But if you live in the mountains, you can be much simpler.

00:37:17.000 | Are you going to be traveling in the United States or are you going to be traveling abroad?

00:37:21.000 | In the United States, you can drive a very large vehicle with ease.

00:37:24.000 | If you're going to overland down through Central America, you do not want to be in a big rig.

00:37:31.000 | I remember one time I was traveling through Guatemala and we were with a group of students and in this bus.

00:37:40.000 | Where was I?

00:37:41.000 | Chichicastanaga, Guatemala, and I got our bus stuck in the--it wasn't even a huge bus.

00:37:46.000 | It was just a normal school bus.

00:37:47.000 | We got it stuck in the streets because it couldn't make the corner.

00:37:50.000 | So you don't want to buy some big RV and then go down and be traveling through Chichicastanaga or Antigua, Guatemala,

00:37:57.000 | and not be able to get your vehicle through the streets.

00:38:01.000 | Also consider how long you're going to be on the road.

00:38:04.000 | It's easy to go for a weekend and put up with--you can go and camp in a tent for the weekend and be fine.

00:38:11.000 | You can make do in a very small vehicle for a weekend.

00:38:16.000 | That's very different than if you're going to be on the road full time.

00:38:20.000 | If you're going to be on the road full time, you're going to want some space.

00:38:25.000 | Unless you're--I don't need to give you all of the times you wouldn't, but you're going to want some space.

00:38:32.000 | Also consider how long are you going to be on the road.

00:38:35.000 | Very important question.

00:38:37.000 | Many of you would love to retire to full time living on the road.

00:38:42.000 | I think that's awesome.

00:38:43.000 | I think you should seriously consider it.

00:38:45.000 | It's a great lifestyle.

00:38:46.000 | I spoke with a bunch of people who are doing it.

00:38:48.000 | Many of them thoroughly enjoy it.

00:38:50.000 | There's a thing if you're not familiar with it or haven't heard of it,

00:38:55.000 | but many of the people--many retired people will buy a large camper and they will go on the road and they will do--it's called work camping.

00:39:07.000 | But they'll serve as a campground host at various campgrounds.

00:39:10.000 | Basically, their responsibilities are to clean the bathrooms at the various campgrounds, the different parks, state parks, et cetera.

00:39:18.000 | Clean the bathrooms and sometimes they have more additional tasks that help campers, help with registration, and do some simple campground cleanup.

00:39:27.000 | But it's not a full time job.

00:39:28.000 | It's a few hours a day, anywhere from two to four hours a day.

00:39:32.000 | And in exchange for that, they get a free campsite to stay at.

00:39:35.000 | And it gives them a place where they get a free campsite.

00:39:38.000 | The campsite gives them a place to park their vehicle.

00:39:40.000 | The campsite also provides their electricity, their water, their cable TV, sometimes the internet.

00:39:47.000 | Something like that allows someone to get on the road and retire much more quickly.

00:39:55.000 | You could do that today.

00:39:57.000 | Usually, the people who are working as campground hosts will have a very large and expensive rig because they're living in it full time.

00:40:04.000 | On this trip, I stumbled across somebody who had just a small little travel trailer, about a 15-foot travel trailer.

00:40:12.000 | Just a small little thing, pretty old, hooked up behind their car, and they were the campground host.

00:40:18.000 | It was very unusual to see somebody like that, but they were on the road, worked a few hours a day.

00:40:23.000 | Some of you could use that.

00:40:27.000 | You don't have to be old to do it.

00:40:28.000 | You just got to get a job.

00:40:29.000 | You just got to apply for one of the positions.

00:40:32.000 | There's a whole system that is set up to be able to do that.

00:40:35.000 | That can be really, really useful.

00:40:38.000 | You can change every few weeks.

00:40:39.000 | You can change every couple of months.

00:40:41.000 | There's some beautiful campgrounds.

00:40:42.000 | We stayed at two campgrounds that were just very small, but just really, really neat, where working as a campground host would be just a great experience.

00:40:51.000 | We stayed at a campground called Bulk Hall Recreation Area up in Charleston, South Carolina.

00:40:57.000 | A listener of the show that I met up with up there pointed us towards it.

00:41:01.000 | It was just this neat, quiet little thing.

00:41:04.000 | There wasn't even a park ranger at it, just this quiet little campground, a dozen sites right on the intercoastal waterway up just north of Charleston.

00:41:10.000 | It was beautiful, but there was one bathroom to clean.

00:41:15.000 | The campground host had one bathroom to clean and a few campers to check in and out, and that was it, in exchange for having water and electricity, et cetera.

00:41:26.000 | I'd perfectly find a cell phone, I think a great cell phone connection.

00:41:31.000 | You could sit out there.

00:41:32.000 | I could run my business from there.

00:41:33.000 | As long as your rig is paid for, your living expenses drop to almost minimal, minimal.

00:41:40.000 | Maintenance, a little bit of fuel to get around.

00:41:42.000 | Another one we stayed at, Magnolia Springs State Park in the middle of Georgia.

00:41:46.000 | Beautiful park, right on a little lake, a dozen or so sites, one bathroom to have cleaned up.

00:41:54.000 | Very, very simple.

00:41:55.000 | So, they're great, not much work.

00:41:57.000 | My point is not much work in exchange for having your utilities and your rent covered.

00:42:01.000 | That's a great lifestyle for somebody who wants to do that type of thing.

00:42:06.000 | So, you should give some serious thought to that and think about how long you're going to be on the road when making your choices.

00:42:13.000 | Sponsor that in number two is Paladin Registry.

00:42:17.000 | What I just described in terms of that type of lifestyle, you don't have to be old and rich to enter into it.

00:42:25.000 | That's one of the things that obviously is a major theme of this show.

00:42:27.000 | You don't have to be old and rich to be able to do that.

00:42:30.000 | But there are benefits to being rich and old.

00:42:35.000 | There are benefits to it.

00:42:37.000 | If you're going to go and do that type of thing, you're going to go and live as a – work as a campground host.

00:42:43.000 | Travel the country with your husband, with your wife.

00:42:46.000 | It is a lot nicer I think to do it in a cool rig, to do it in a big old motorhome or to have a great big travel trailer.

00:42:56.000 | Those things are just comfortable.

00:42:57.000 | Some of the campground hosts that I saw have these just beautiful, beautiful, very comfortable living areas.

00:43:04.000 | I have family who has one and they own one of these fifth wheels that they bought it when they were retiring.

00:43:10.000 | They own one of these fifth wheels and they – it's the type that's tailored for a couple and it's huge but only for two people.

00:43:19.000 | So they've got the big bedroom up front.

00:43:21.000 | It's got a washer and a dryer in it.

00:43:23.000 | It's got a kitchen with an island and these slides, big recliners.

00:43:27.000 | It's even got a fireplace in it and for them, it's awesome.

00:43:30.000 | They love to take it out and drive it all over the country.

00:43:34.000 | They keep it parked in their airplane hangar.

00:43:37.000 | They park it right in the hangar so when they go out and fly their airplane, they have the RV right there.

00:43:41.000 | It's a cool, cool lifestyle.

00:43:43.000 | So the point of all that is to say that money and having some of it does lead to some much bigger experiences.

00:43:51.000 | If you're going to need some money, you got to plan for that which is where the services of a financial advisor can come in.

00:44:00.000 | If one of your New Year's resolutions is to save money and to build wealth, you're in the right place because that's what I'm here working with you every day.

00:44:11.000 | I'm here to talk to you and to share with you the ideas and the strategies and the education to help you to be able to save money.

00:44:17.000 | You got to start with the fundamentals which is why we talked about budgeting with the you need a budget, why not budgeting software.

00:44:25.000 | But you're also going to need the services of a financial advisor.

00:44:28.000 | I personally am convinced that about 98.5% of the population needs a good financial advisor.

00:44:35.000 | I think there's about 1.5% of you and it's probably not you who can do without one.

00:44:41.000 | Now, I can't promise you that you're going to find a great financial advisor or your next great financial advisor at Paladin Registry.

00:44:49.000 | But I can promise you that you'll at least start the process on a stronger footing than wandering down the street and tapping on the door of whatever office says investments on the side of it.

00:45:00.000 | Paladin Registry is a registry service where they go through and they do extensive research and background checks on financial advisors.

00:45:07.000 | They check their disciplinary records. They check their business practices. They check their credentials.

00:45:12.000 | They vet them thoroughly before they permit them to come into the registry service.

00:45:18.000 | The way it works is you go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:45:22.000 | Paladin is spelled P-A-L-A-D-I-N.

00:45:24.000 | Please use – please always use my links because I get commissions when you use my links and I don't if you don't go through them.

00:45:30.000 | So go to RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:45:33.000 | That will auto-forward you through to a landing page.

00:45:36.000 | The landing page is where you put in your name, your email, your address, and how much money you have.

00:45:42.000 | Paladin will take that information and they will use that to select a couple or three financial advisors that they think will be a good fit for you.

00:45:51.000 | If you have a little bit of money, they'll choose financial advisors who will work with you.

00:45:54.000 | When you have a little bit of money, if you have a lot of money, they'll choose financial advisors who will work with you to have a lot of money.

00:45:58.000 | They'll try to get them in your geographic area, et cetera, and they'll connect you with those advisors.

00:46:02.000 | Now you've got to take it from there.

00:46:04.000 | You've got to interview them.

00:46:06.000 | You've got to make sure that you check them out yourself, make sure that you're comfortable with them, make sure they understand you.

00:46:11.000 | Make sure they're giving you good financial advice.

00:46:13.000 | But I've heard from many of you who've been able to use that registry service to find a great financial advisor.

00:46:18.000 | Start off to your right and start your interview process to hire a financial advisor at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/Paladin.

00:46:28.000 | Let's talk about types of RVs.

00:46:31.000 | Big question you're going to answer is a towable RV or an engine-driven RV.

00:46:40.000 | Basically, do you want to use the vehicle you currently have and drag a trailer around with you?

00:46:46.000 | Or do you want to buy a vehicle that has an engine built in so you don't need to drag a trailer?

00:46:52.000 | Now this brings us to one of the challenges that you're probably going to want the RV disconnected from another vehicle.

00:47:01.000 | If you drive down the highway and you see people with big motorhomes driving their motorhomes, you'll always see they have a car hooked up behind or vice versa.

00:47:09.000 | So in many ways, you kind of need both of these.

00:47:12.000 | There are some options where you don't need both.

00:47:15.000 | We'll talk about that.

00:47:16.000 | For example, I have a Type B motorhome and you don't need both.

00:47:19.000 | Although you could drag around a car, but you don't need it.

00:47:23.000 | But the idea is you need something to stay in and you need something to drive around when you get where you're going.

00:47:30.000 | When you're deciding about whether to get a trailer or whether to get something that you drive, there's a big difference in price and you've got to think about, again, how you're going to use it.

00:47:41.000 | Getting a motorhome that you drive where there is a steering wheel and a driver's seat and that's right next to the galley with a sink and a refrigerator and right next to the restroom, those things are probably the most comfortable way to travel.

00:47:57.000 | It's just a really comfortable way to travel.

00:48:01.000 | But the problem is, A, there are a bunch of money to buy, also a bunch of money to keep because now you've got to maintain another engine.

00:48:13.000 | You've got to maintain the engine on your car that you're probably going to be towing behind you or you've got to maintain the engine on the motorhome.

00:48:18.000 | You've got to maintain another vehicle, more insurance, another tag.

00:48:24.000 | It starts to add up quickly.

00:48:26.000 | So, generally, your more expensive option is going to be when you buy something that has an engine in it.

00:48:32.000 | But it's going to give you that luxury.

00:48:38.000 | Benefits of a trailer is that they're simpler.

00:48:41.000 | You don't need to maintain another engine, another drivetrain.

00:48:44.000 | Oftentimes, you can just use what you have.

00:48:47.000 | You don't have to buy another vehicle to pull it with.

00:48:50.000 | You can just simply use the vehicle that you currently use and hook up a trailer.

00:48:53.000 | At least if you have an SUV or a van or a pickup truck or something that can tow.

00:48:58.000 | There are trailers of all sizes.

00:49:00.000 | You can tow trailers.

00:49:02.000 | You can tow small trailers.

00:49:04.000 | One of the coolest things is there's been a massive resurgence in what are called teardrop trailers, these little tiny trailers.

00:49:10.000 | Many people build them.

00:49:12.000 | There's a listener in the audience who's been telling us in the Radical Personal Finance Facebook group, which, by the way, go on Facebook and join our Radical Personal Finance community page.

00:49:20.000 | But he's right now in the process of building his own teardrop trailer.

00:49:25.000 | And he's using this little 4x6 trailer you buy from Harbor Freight, $150, $200 from memory, cheap little trailer.

00:49:32.000 | And then he's building it with wood, 4x8 trailer, excuse me, 4x8 trailer.

00:49:35.000 | And he's building it with wood.

00:49:37.000 | And you create this little teardrop trailer.

00:49:39.000 | And the idea of a teardrop trailer is you have a place to sleep that's inside.

00:49:43.000 | You can build it with an air conditioning if you have a way to run that or if you want that.

00:49:47.000 | But it's inside. It's got hard walls.

00:49:50.000 | You don't have tent walls that are going to seep moisture through in the rain.

00:49:54.000 | You're going to have better insulation, which gives you greater seasonal use possibilities.

00:49:59.000 | But it's very small.

00:50:00.000 | It's very low.

00:50:01.000 | And you can tow it with a small car.

00:50:03.000 | Then usually there's no bathroom inside of it.

00:50:07.000 | And usually on the back of the trailer, you build a little galley to cook with.

00:50:11.000 | Put a stove there.

00:50:12.000 | You build it with a flip-up hatch.

00:50:13.000 | You build a stove and a little sink.

00:50:15.000 | Just go online and do a web search for teardrop trailers and you'll get the idea.

00:50:20.000 | But you can build these things and you can use them with a very small vehicle.

00:50:24.000 | A year ago, my family and I were camping at Highlands Hammock State Park in central Florida.

00:50:29.000 | And a fellow camper came by.

00:50:31.000 | And it was this man and his wife and their two children.

00:50:34.000 | They were driving a four-door Honda Civic.

00:50:38.000 | They had a canoe strapped to the roof of the Civic.

00:50:41.000 | And they were towing this tiny little teardrop trailer that he had built.

00:50:45.000 | It wasn't quite the teardrop shape, but it was basically that same concept.

00:50:49.000 | Inside the trailer, he had built -- he had done the whole thing himself.

00:50:54.000 | He had built four little bunks inside the trailer.

00:50:58.000 | So he could take his wife and his two children in this little itty-bitty trailer and they could sleep up off the ground, didn't need a tent.

00:51:04.000 | And they were doing it all with their Honda Civic as their tow vehicle.

00:51:08.000 | So you don't necessarily need a big tow vehicle.

00:51:11.000 | You can -- if you're in -- if you have some ingenuity, you can use the vehicle that you have.

00:51:17.000 | So trailers are great.

00:51:19.000 | And usually trailers are going to be much less expensive.

00:51:22.000 | So there are various types of trailers.

00:51:25.000 | Generally, the type of trailer that you tow behind a vehicle that looks like an RV, that has that -- you know, the windows and the door and all that, you call that a travel trailer.

00:51:34.000 | And usually the nomenclature that's used is to refer to a bumper pull trailer as a travel trailer.

00:51:41.000 | Bumper pull meaning the hitch is at the back of the vehicle down low near the bumper.

00:51:46.000 | That's what you call a bumper pull trailer.

00:51:49.000 | So those are called travel trailers.

00:51:51.000 | Those would be distinct from a fifth wheel or fifth wheel travel trailer.

00:51:56.000 | Those are the type of trailers that go -- where they have the hitch that goes into the bed of a pickup truck.

00:52:03.000 | Incidentally, if you're not familiar with that type of trailer, there are often two of them.

00:52:09.000 | There's what are called gooseneck trailers.

00:52:11.000 | Usually RVs are not goosenecks.

00:52:13.000 | But that has a different connection to the vehicle.

00:52:16.000 | Basically, it's like a trailer ball in the bed of the vehicle, in the bed of the pickup.

00:52:21.000 | That's different than a fifth wheel.

00:52:23.000 | And fifth wheel usually has an attachment that looks more like the round plate that's on the back of a semi truck, that the semi truck and trailer connect.

00:52:31.000 | So all of these are trailers.

00:52:33.000 | Now, the cheapest option for you to get space to live in, space to be in is going to be a travel trailer.

00:52:41.000 | You can find on the new market there are tons of options out there.

00:52:45.000 | And on the used market there are tons of options.

00:52:47.000 | And these are going to be your cheapest options is a travel trailer.

00:52:51.000 | You can buy them anywhere from small or you can get them with the slide outs.

00:52:55.000 | The slide outs where the more space comes out makes a dramatic difference in the interior space of the vehicle to have a slide out.

00:53:02.000 | It also makes a dramatic difference in the weight and the cost of the trailer.

00:53:07.000 | But the travel trailers are super, super useful.

00:53:10.000 | And they can be towed by many vehicles.

00:53:12.000 | There is a whole type of trailer where they refer to them as ultralights where they're built to be towed by much smaller vehicles, small enough to be towed by a minivan, small enough to be towed by small SUVs or small pickup trucks.

00:53:28.000 | So you don't necessarily need a big one if you can get one of the ultralight trailers.

00:53:32.000 | If you want a lot of space for the cheapest money, that's going to come in the form of a fifth wheel travel trailer.

00:53:39.000 | Fifth wheels are much bigger and they're going to give you more interior space.

00:53:43.000 | You're going to need a pickup truck to pull them with or there is – what's the name of it?

00:53:49.000 | There are a couple of competitors.

00:53:50.000 | One that I've spent the most time looking at is something called the automated safety hitch.

00:53:54.000 | And this is a contraption that has a separate axle and it hooks up to the back of your vehicle, hooks up to the bumper trailer hitch, the trailer hitch receiver.

00:54:05.000 | And then you also install a couple of other receivers on the back of your vehicle.

00:54:08.000 | And it allows you to pull a gooseneck or a fifth wheel trailer without having the trailer connection point be inside of your pickup truck.

00:54:18.000 | Now, the inventor of the thing focused – when he built it, he built it primarily with the focus on safety.

00:54:26.000 | It's a weird-looking contraption.

00:54:27.000 | But it is a much safer way to tow a large trailer because of the way the physics of the trailer weight work on the tow vehicle.

00:54:37.000 | It allows the – it's just much safer.

00:54:40.000 | I won't go into the explanation of the physics.

00:54:41.000 | You can look at his website.

00:54:43.000 | It's called an automated safety hitch.

00:54:44.000 | It's also helpful because it can be very maneuverable and you can use it and it looks weird but it's useful.

00:54:51.000 | The best thing that I like about it is that you can use this with a large SUV.

00:54:58.000 | For example, you could use it with a Chevy Suburban or a Ford Excursion or you could use it with a large, say, a one-ton van.

00:55:06.000 | This would allow you to tow a fifth wheel trailer or a gooseneck trailer with a van or an SUV.

00:55:14.000 | So that's something you should be aware of.

00:55:16.000 | The problem is the thing costs a ton of money.

00:55:18.000 | When you start spending that much money on it, you have to seriously question, "Is this really something that I need?"

00:55:25.000 | But there are competitors as well.

00:55:26.000 | Fifth wheel travel trailers, if you want big space, interior space to live in for the least amount of money, you're going to want a fifth wheel.

00:55:38.000 | The fifth wheels give you a lot of space because it makes it easy to have extra bedrooms.

00:55:43.000 | Basically, they usually will put the master bedroom in that big high portion that goes above the pickup bed.

00:55:50.000 | That allows you to have a master bedroom up front, living space in the middle, and then depending on the design, an additional bedroom in the back or a bunkhouse in the back.

00:55:58.000 | It just gives you the most usable space.

00:56:00.000 | Travel trailers, due to the weight restrictions, you can tow a lot more with a fifth wheel trailer design than you can with a bumper pull trailer design in general.

00:56:14.000 | So the travel trailers are generally going to be smaller.

00:56:17.000 | Now, there are some many variations of these.

00:56:20.000 | Again, there's small ones, there's ultralights, there's short.

00:56:23.000 | There are as many different flavors of these as you can imagine.

00:56:28.000 | But there's also a hybrid approach.

00:56:31.000 | There's something they call an expandable travel trailer or a hybrid travel trailer.

00:56:36.000 | These trailers take the concept of a travel trailer but add an expandable or flip-down system for beds.

00:56:44.000 | They work in some ways similar if you're familiar with pop-up campers, which I'll get to in a moment.

00:56:49.000 | They have a system where you pull the beds out from the travel trailer.

00:56:53.000 | They either flip down or they pull out.

00:56:56.000 | So these are fantastic because they give you a ton of interior space.

00:57:02.000 | They're also lighter, much lighter than slide outs, and they're cheaper than buying trailers with slide outs.

00:57:07.000 | So if you purchase one of these hybrid or expandable travel trailers, this gives you space.

00:57:12.000 | The downside to these is you have to deal with a combination of canvas and fiberglass.

00:57:19.000 | Perhaps it was because I'm particularly sensitive to this because when I was younger, we had this old pop-up camper and it was often leaky.

00:57:26.000 | And sometimes you'd be camping in the rain and we would wind up with leaky corners at the corner of the canvas.

00:57:33.000 | So I have this phobia about canvas-sided beds even though I shouldn't have it.

00:57:39.000 | And so I personally am not a huge fan of these.

00:57:42.000 | But in terms of practicality, if you want to have a lot of beds and a lot of interior space when camped with a light and inexpensive travel trailer, I can't beat them.

00:57:52.000 | And if I can get over – I could probably be persuaded to get over my canvas phobia if I needed to, if I wanted to have those options.

00:58:01.000 | So those are expandable travel trailers.

00:58:03.000 | They also have – I mean there's – the industry calls them sport utility RVs.

00:58:10.000 | You can call them toy haulers.

00:58:12.000 | There are different varieties.

00:58:14.000 | There are travel trailers and toy haulers.

00:58:17.000 | They call them toy haulers where they have a ramp in the back and you can pull inside your ATVs, your golf carts.

00:58:23.000 | Some of them will go ahead and take a small car in the back of them.

00:58:26.000 | And that allows you to use the space interior to tow your – excuse me, to haul your vehicle, again, your ATVs with you.

00:58:35.000 | And then once you get to your campsite, you back the ATVs out and they turn that garage space into living space or you carry motorcycles with you, that type of thing.

00:58:44.000 | These are very cool.

00:58:45.000 | I think these are tremendous because they're so flexible and allows you to bring many of the things that – the outdoor toys that you want to bring with you.

00:58:53.000 | Not even only limited to motorized vehicles.

00:58:56.000 | You can bring your bicycles, et cetera.

00:58:59.000 | So I really like the toy hauler or sport utility RV approach.

00:59:03.000 | The industry calls the next classification folding camper trailers.

00:59:08.000 | Most people talk about pop-ups but they don't all pop up.

00:59:12.000 | There are a few different designs.

00:59:13.000 | The most classic design is the pop-up where you have a small, short trailer and then there's a crank system.

00:59:21.000 | And then the roof cranks up, the beds pull out.

00:59:24.000 | Pop-ups are fantastic choices if you want a lot of interior space and something that can be towed behind almost any vehicle at a much lower cost than many other travel trailers.

00:59:37.000 | Pop-ups are very, very useful.

00:59:39.000 | You get big beds.

00:59:40.000 | You get many beds.

00:59:41.000 | You can get a pop-up.

00:59:42.000 | Usually, they'll have a king-size bed at one end which, of course, can work for two adults or perhaps three or four children without a lot of trouble.

00:59:50.000 | Often, you'll have a queen or a full-size bed at the other end.

00:59:53.000 | In addition, usually, a pop-up will have a dinette system and the dinette system will fold down into another bed.

01:00:00.000 | Those are often the size of a double bed where you can fit two adults if you are cozy or a couple of children easily.

01:00:08.000 | There were times when I was traveling, we had one of these when we were younger where we would go ahead and put one more.

01:00:14.000 | I slept on the floor and the aisle way when it was particularly cold.

01:00:19.000 | Usually, when we traveled when I was younger, we would carry a pop-up, tow a pop-up camper, and then also we had a tent.

01:00:26.000 | So, mom and dad and the girls would stay inside the pop-up and then the boys would camp inside of the tent.

01:00:31.000 | But I distinctly remember one time in Yellowstone Park, it was freezing.

01:00:36.000 | So, we got everyone in.

01:00:38.000 | So, that time, mom and dad slept at one end.

01:00:41.000 | The girls slept in the bed at the other end.

01:00:43.000 | Two of my brothers slept in the dinette bed and I slept on the floor.

01:00:49.000 | So, we were traveling with five children at that time and it worked out fine.

01:00:54.000 | So, pop-ups are fantastic for that purpose and they're easy to tow.

01:01:00.000 | You get much better gas mileage towing a pop-up than you do with a travel trailer.

01:01:04.000 | You've got to seriously think about the cost of gas mileage.

01:01:07.000 | With any of these travel trailers and motorhomes, you're going to be most likely in the-- if you have a pickup in the 10 to 12 miles per gallon range.

01:01:15.000 | If you've got a pickup in a big fifth wheel, you're going to be under 10 miles per gallon.

01:01:19.000 | They're significant.

01:01:21.000 | Pop-up camper, you do much better because they're low, they're light, you have much better aerodynamic efficiency.

01:01:27.000 | And so, they're a really great option and they're inexpensive.

01:01:30.000 | Huge benefit to the pop-up camper is once it's set up, lots of interior space, sink, fridge, et cetera, really well designed.

01:01:38.000 | Problem, my major problem for me, maybe not for you, but for me, my major problem with a pop-up camper is number one, if you're going to be traveling a lot, there is some set up time and take down time every day.

01:01:52.000 | Or every time you set up and take down, it's going to take you some time.

01:01:55.000 | When I was younger, when we were traveling, we had it down to a science. We were very fast.

01:02:00.000 | But then again, we also had many helpers, many teenage boys who could help.

01:02:05.000 | And so, we could get in and out in about 15-- get things set up in about 15 minutes.

01:02:09.000 | But if you're one person, for example, right now, if it were just me and I were setting up camp or my wife took care of our children and kept them from jumping in a lake or something, it would take much more time.

01:02:21.000 | So, pop-up campers require that time. And if you're going to be traveling, for me, I would find it very annoying to take up, set down, take up, set down, take up, set down if I were moving and not staying two nights in a single place.

01:02:32.000 | On our recent Christmas trip, we didn't stay two nights in a single place. We moved every day.

01:02:36.000 | We planned to, but we wound up just deciding to move every day.

01:02:40.000 | Other major problem for me with a pop-up camper is you're limited on where you can-- what they call boondock, meaning with an RV or a travel trailer, motorhome or a travel trailer, if you're driving down the highway and it's late at night, you don't have a park or something that you are in, and there's a rest area, you can just pull into the rest area and you can climb in your bed and go to sleep.

01:03:02.000 | Or if there's a cracker barrel, you can pull into the cracker barrel and climb into your bed and go to sleep.

01:03:06.000 | With a pop-up, you can't use those facilities. You can't take a pop-up and set it up in the parking lot of a rest area. You can't set up a pop-up and pull the beds out and put your jack stands down and disconnect your vehicle and do that in a cracker barrel.

01:03:21.000 | That's not going to work. They're going to ask you to leave, I would imagine.

01:03:24.000 | So to me, that's a significant limitation of pop-ups.

01:03:28.000 | They work great if you're going to be in a campground, but for me, with a higher priority on traveling, they're not so great.

01:03:35.000 | But for you, let's say that you want to use it, have a place that's up out of the dirt, you're going to be somewhere for a few days at a time, you're going to use it during holidays, be out for two, three, four, five days a week.

01:03:45.000 | Pop-ups will tow easy. They're cheap. It's a really, really good option to be very comfortable.

01:03:51.000 | Now let's transfer quickly to motorhomes.

01:03:54.000 | There are three major types of motorhomes that are used, and I want to give you the industry classifications if you are unfamiliar with them.

01:04:04.000 | They're called type A, type B, and type C.

01:04:06.000 | They used to call them class A, class B, and class C, but I guess the motorhome industry thought that was discriminatory, and so they switched to calling them type A, B, and C.

01:04:12.000 | So I'm going to be current and hip and use the proper nomenclature.

01:04:16.000 | Type A motorhomes are the big square buses that you see.

01:04:21.000 | Just think of a big coach bus. That's what a type A motorhome is.

01:04:24.000 | Now they can range in size, but the idea is they look like a bus.

01:04:29.000 | These are going to be the most comfortable, the most interior space. They're just awesome.

01:04:35.000 | There are really cool little small ones that are designed.

01:04:38.000 | There are medium-sized ones, and there are huge ones, and the huge ones that the rock stars tour in or the bands tour in.

01:04:47.000 | These things are awesome.

01:04:49.000 | Big money. Big money and bad gas mileage.

01:04:55.000 | My guess based upon talking with people, you get about six to eight miles per gallon with one of these.

01:05:00.000 | So very cool, big money, bad gas mileage.

01:05:05.000 | Most comfortable, big money.

01:05:08.000 | I want to have one someday, but I'm not getting one now.

01:05:12.000 | Type B motorhomes are van-based motorhomes.

01:05:16.000 | Type B motorhomes are -- so imagine this. Take a large van, like a 15-passenger van or maybe one of these large sprinter vans.

01:05:25.000 | Type B motorhomes are van conversions.

01:05:29.000 | So if the entire body of the vehicle is the original metal van body that you can go out and buy in a passenger version, that's called a type B motorhome.

01:05:38.000 | That's what I have. I have a 1994 road trek, Dodge road trek, and it is awesome.

01:05:43.000 | It's built on a one-ton Dodge van chassis, and it has everything that a big motorhome has in it.

01:05:51.000 | It's got seats for four.

01:05:54.000 | You can actually seat eight people in it.

01:05:57.000 | It's just that the back dinette is not seat-belted.

01:06:00.000 | But if I had to carry people without seat belts in the back, I could have seats for eight.

01:06:06.000 | It sleeps four.

01:06:07.000 | It's got a dinette booth in the back that folds down flat.

01:06:10.000 | My wife and I sleep back there, and it's got two smaller beds up front for the children.

01:06:15.000 | It's got a refrigerator.

01:06:17.000 | It's got a sink.

01:06:18.000 | It's got a stove.

01:06:19.000 | It's got a microwave.

01:06:20.000 | It has a toilet.

01:06:22.000 | It has every -- it's got a generator, air conditioning.

01:06:25.000 | It's got the full thing, but it's really, really compactly built, and it is awesome.

01:06:31.000 | The design is fantastic.

01:06:33.000 | The newer type Bs -- mine is obviously 23 years old.

01:06:38.000 | The newer type Bs are so well-designed, and I think for two people, a type B is probably

01:06:47.000 | the ideal option in terms of this.

01:06:53.000 | Type Bs are small.

01:06:54.000 | They're small enough, which means you can park in any standard parking space.

01:06:59.000 | Our van fits in any standard parking space.

01:07:01.000 | You don't have to park across six spaces.

01:07:04.000 | You can go down any city street that you want to go down.

01:07:07.000 | It's just very comfortable and easy to drive.

01:07:09.000 | If you buy a type B, you can easily use it as a second vehicle.

01:07:12.000 | Let's say you have a primary car that you drive most of the time, but every now and

01:07:15.000 | then, you want to have that second vehicle.

01:07:17.000 | You don't mind having a large van, which you drive occasionally.

01:07:20.000 | A type B can work for that, and they're just really, really nice.

01:07:25.000 | Another benefit of the type B is that they are much more fuel-efficient because they're

01:07:30.000 | smaller.

01:07:31.000 | They don't have as big roofs that go up.

01:07:34.000 | They don't have giant things that jet out from the sides.

01:07:37.000 | They're much more fuel-efficient.

01:07:39.000 | You can purchase a modern type B.

01:07:41.000 | You can get them with a diesel engine, and a modern type B will get 25 miles per gallon

01:07:45.000 | with one of the newer, smaller, sprinter-based versions, or now they're switching.

01:07:49.000 | The Ford is coming out.

01:07:50.000 | Dodge is coming out as well.

01:07:52.000 | But you can get these, and they're much more efficient.

01:07:54.000 | So if you want to cover a lot of miles and have the luxury of a live-in motorhome, you

01:07:59.000 | can use this.

01:08:00.000 | Because they're very maneuverable and versatile, you can use it without towing a vehicle along

01:08:06.000 | behind you.

01:08:07.000 | So I think type Bs are awesome.

01:08:09.000 | I really, really love them.

01:08:11.000 | But problems is you can't fit a ton of people just due to the simple physical constraints,

01:08:18.000 | and they're more expensive.

01:08:21.000 | You'll generally pay more for a type B because everything has to be built so compactly, and

01:08:26.000 | it's built on an entire van chassis, and everything has to be built very carefully in order to

01:08:32.000 | fit.

01:08:33.000 | Now, it's a work of art once they're built, but everything has to be built very carefully.

01:08:37.000 | But that's a type B. So difference, type A is the bus, the big square thing.

01:08:42.000 | Type B is a van.

01:08:43.000 | And then a type C is a cross between those two.

01:08:47.000 | So the type C is where you have either a full-size van front.

01:08:52.000 | You'll usually see the Ford or the Chevy vans, or where you have a pickup front.

01:08:57.000 | And then behind, you have the cab where the driver and the passenger sit.

01:09:01.000 | But then behind the driver and passenger, all of that is built out into a coach.

01:09:07.000 | It has square fiberglass sides.

01:09:10.000 | Usually, they have a big, tall roof.

01:09:11.000 | Often, you'll see this where they have a bed over the cab, that big, giant bulbous thing

01:09:15.000 | that sticks out over the cab.

01:09:17.000 | That's called a type C motorhome.

01:09:18.000 | And a type C motorhome is a really great option.

01:09:23.000 | They're cheaper than the type A because they're built off of the van chassis or the pickup

01:09:29.000 | chassis.

01:09:30.000 | But they have a lot more space than many of the other options.

01:09:32.000 | You can get these very small or very big.

01:09:34.000 | Type Cs are really good.

01:09:36.000 | If you're going to rent, go out and rent one.

01:09:38.000 | You're probably going to be renting a type C motorhome.

01:09:41.000 | But they're going to get very bad gas mileage.

01:09:44.000 | So just like with anything, the aerodynamics are poor, the weight is high, and the engines

01:09:49.000 | are small.

01:09:50.000 | So they're not going to get a great gas mileage.

01:09:54.000 | Again, you're going to be in the 6, 8, 9, 10 miles per gallon.

01:09:59.000 | Type B is going to be your best gas mileage.

01:10:02.000 | Mine, hard to say because problem is my generator runs off of the same tank and traveling with

01:10:08.000 | dogs and children and whatnot, I run the generator a lot.

01:10:11.000 | But it should get 13 to 15 miles per gallon.

01:10:14.000 | I have gotten that.

01:10:15.000 | I got 15 to 16 miles per gallon when I bought it.

01:10:18.000 | I bought it in Atlanta and drove it home, and I got 15 miles per gallon.

01:10:21.000 | You fill up the tanks, though, the MPGs go down, et cetera.

01:10:25.000 | So you got to watch out for that.

01:10:26.000 | But the gas mileage is something you've got to calculate.

01:10:30.000 | Finally, truck campers.

01:10:31.000 | Truck campers are also super, super cool options.

01:10:35.000 | A truck camper is where you have a pickup truck, and then that thing that sits down

01:10:39.000 | in the bed of the pickup truck, and it gets strapped down and ratcheted down to the pickup

01:10:42.000 | truck.

01:10:43.000 | You can get these that are very small up to very big.

01:10:46.000 | You can get very small, very light pop-up campers.

01:10:50.000 | For example, there's a well-known company called 4 Wheel Campers that makes this little

01:10:54.000 | pop-up camper that goes -- you can put it in the back of a Ford Ranger or in the back

01:10:58.000 | of a Toyota Tacoma.

01:11:00.000 | Many of the four-wheel drive enthusiasts like these because they're very light.

01:11:04.000 | It allows them to go far off-road.

01:11:07.000 | And because they're light, it allows their vehicle to maintain its four-wheel drive performance.

01:11:12.000 | Very, very useful for them.

01:11:14.000 | And they can go far off-road, but when they get there, they don't have to sleep on the

01:11:16.000 | ground.

01:11:17.000 | Again, all of the amenities inside.

01:11:19.000 | Or you can get these big, massive monster ones.

01:11:22.000 | Lance is a big truck camper manufacturer, also make travel trailers.

01:11:26.000 | And they make a truck camper with a triple slide on it.

01:11:29.000 | I mean, the thing is huge.

01:11:30.000 | It's got a slide that comes out the back, a slide that goes out both sides.

01:11:33.000 | You need a one-ton F-350 is too small.

01:11:38.000 | You need an F-450 or 550.

01:11:40.000 | I saw one guy on truckcampermagazine.com.

01:11:43.000 | It was a great website for truck campers.

01:11:45.000 | And I saw one guy.

01:11:46.000 | He had taken, I think it was an F-550.

01:11:48.000 | He converted it with a utility bed, the one where they got the toolboxes going down the

01:11:52.000 | side, popped one of these huge truck campers in the back of it, and he tows a trailer.

01:11:56.000 | And he's retired, lives in it full-time.

01:11:58.000 | And awesome rig.

01:11:59.000 | Massive.

01:12:00.000 | So, the options are huge.

01:12:04.000 | And, of course, there are other minor options as well and plenty of vehicle-based options.

01:12:08.000 | You can buy little vans.

01:12:10.000 | You can still get a Volkswagen, especially if you're not in the U.S. market.

01:12:13.000 | Volkswagen, what do they call it?

01:12:15.000 | They make a -- I can't remember the name of it.

01:12:18.000 | They still make a little camper van.

01:12:19.000 | There are various hybrid versions.

01:12:21.000 | You can buy a sportsmobile if you want a van-based, four-wheel-drive, pop-up camper.

01:12:26.000 | You can buy anything you want.

01:12:29.000 | But these are just the basic classifications.

01:12:33.000 | I think RVs are really, really neat.

01:12:36.000 | But let's talk about finances, and then we'll kind of wrap up for the day.

01:12:40.000 | RVs are really cool.

01:12:43.000 | And I think that some of you can use them as a money-saving option, a money-saving device.

01:12:49.000 | But I don't think that you should first approach them as a money-saving option.

01:12:54.000 | Because I really don't think most people are going to -- I don't think they're going to be inexpensive for most people.

01:13:00.000 | You could live in an RV full-time, and I think that's something that has a lot of merit to it.

01:13:06.000 | My wife and I could live full-time in our little Type B road-trek RV with comfort, and just -- it would be awesome.

01:13:16.000 | We could do that.

01:13:17.000 | If it were just us, we could do that and be totally happy with it.

01:13:21.000 | I could live in it full-time.

01:13:23.000 | I wish all college students just had a cheap little RV to live in and use it as their vehicle and use it as their car.

01:13:31.000 | I think, in hindsight, I kind of wish I had done that.

01:13:34.000 | I didn't have the vision at that time.

01:13:36.000 | But I think it's a great option.

01:13:39.000 | That would be inexpensive.

01:13:41.000 | That's where you can really get the benefit from it.

01:13:43.000 | And if you're going to live full-time or take extended travel time in an RV, then it can work out.

01:13:51.000 | If you want to be a campground host or just travel.

01:13:55.000 | But recognize that it's not inexpensive to travel with an RV.

01:13:59.000 | Fuel costs can be substantial.

01:14:01.000 | Campground fees can be substantial.

01:14:04.000 | It can cost quite a bit.

01:14:08.000 | It really can.

01:14:09.000 | And then simply the acquisition cost of the RV is substantial.

01:14:13.000 | And the maintenance cost of the RV is substantial.

01:14:18.000 | So, I don't think you should first approach them as a frugal option.

01:14:23.000 | But if you like the lifestyle or the travel style, I think they can be done frugally.

01:14:31.000 | Obviously, you have all of the decisions that accompany the purchase of anything else.

01:14:36.000 | For example, used versus new.

01:14:37.000 | With RVs, I think you can actually make a really strong argument for purchasing new.

01:14:45.000 | Especially if your usage cycle is going to be long.

01:14:50.000 | If I were approaching it, for example, a retiree, buying something at retirement to fulfill the dream of traveling around the country and perhaps full-timing, I would seriously, seriously consider buying new.

01:15:06.000 | A few reasons.

01:15:07.000 | Number one, RVs, many of them are very poorly made.

01:15:10.000 | And there are problems with them.

01:15:12.000 | The construction, interior construction can often be cheap.

01:15:16.000 | It can be very weak sometimes.

01:15:18.000 | Choose carefully.

01:15:19.000 | But often, they're very poorly made.

01:15:21.000 | And so, warranty service can have much more value.

01:15:26.000 | If you have some unique considerations, the used market for certain types of configurations can be very, very thin.

01:15:33.000 | You may not be able to find the configuration that you need.

01:15:36.000 | If you need to sleep a certain number of people or you need a certain trailer weight, for example.

01:15:40.000 | It's very easy to find a light trailer in the new market, one of these ultralights.

01:15:46.000 | But these ultralights have not been around for very long.

01:15:49.000 | So, it's harder to find in the used market.

01:15:52.000 | Another major benefit of buying new is there have been substantial improvements in technology.

01:15:59.000 | I find the new road-trek type BRVs fascinating.

01:16:04.000 | I have an interest in that brand just because I own one.

01:16:07.000 | And as far as I know, I think they're the biggest type B provider made up in Canada.

01:16:12.000 | But the technology is fantastic.

01:16:15.000 | They have lithium-ion batteries, which the battery systems are just so powerful.

01:16:20.000 | You can set one up to the point where you can actually run an AC all night on a battery.

01:16:25.000 | All the solar integration, they have this really neat underhood generator system that's more efficient than any other external generator.

01:16:32.000 | So, the technology is fantastic.

01:16:35.000 | They're super comfortable.

01:16:37.000 | But it's also six figures.

01:16:39.000 | But if you're going to own it for a long period of time or if you're going to live in it full-time, I think you can really – or you're going to travel extensively.

01:16:45.000 | You can really justify the purchase.

01:16:50.000 | You really can, especially if you're replacing another second car.

01:16:55.000 | There's a couple called the Wendlands, Mike and Judy, I think is her wife's name, is they have a podcast, the Road Trekking Podcast.

01:17:02.000 | And they have a website, Roadtrekking.com.

01:17:06.000 | And their website, they travel.

01:17:09.000 | This is a retired couple, Mike Wendland.

01:17:11.000 | And I mean they put 100,000 miles on their things.

01:17:15.000 | They're traveling constantly.

01:17:16.000 | Well, if you're going to put 100,000 miles on a vehicle, you want to buy new in that context, an RV vehicle.

01:17:22.000 | You want to buy new, have it all running just so.

01:17:25.000 | That's different than the person who's just once a year is going to drag out a travel trailer for a once-a-year camping trip at Christmastime.

01:17:33.000 | In that case, I think you can find some really great used options.

01:17:37.000 | You can find very inexpensive travel trailers.

01:17:39.000 | You can find very inexpensive RVs.

01:17:42.000 | You do need to be very careful.

01:17:44.000 | And here's the problem.

01:17:45.000 | Many people go into RVing with the best of hopes.

01:17:51.000 | Thinking they're going to buy it and use it all the time.

01:17:56.000 | I've experienced this myself.

01:17:58.000 | I don't think there's anybody who, if you could tell from the show, anybody who likes RVing more than I do.

01:18:04.000 | I don't think there's anybody who is more excited to buy an RV than I do, than I was.

01:18:09.000 | And yet even I, in the short time that I've owned the Roadtrek van that I own, I haven't used it as much as I thought I would.

01:18:17.000 | And this, I would say, is probably the perennial admission of most RV owners.

01:18:22.000 | Most of us who own them just don't use them as much as we thought.

01:18:26.000 | And especially the type of person who thinks they're going to use them for vacations.

01:18:31.000 | Now, I've bought mine to travel in and to integrate and to use in business travel, et cetera.

01:18:36.000 | But the type of person who thinks that they're going to be using them for vacations, think about it.

01:18:43.000 | You get all excited.

01:18:44.000 | We're going to do a big family trip.

01:18:45.000 | So you buy an RV and you're going to use it on a two-week vacation and super excited.

01:18:50.000 | Take two weeks, travel all across the country during the summer.

01:18:53.000 | And then at Christmas time, you got another week.

01:18:55.000 | And so you take a week and you take another trip.

01:18:57.000 | It's super exciting.

01:18:58.000 | And then the next year, you take another big summer trip.

01:19:00.000 | And then perhaps even that next Christmas, use it for a week.

01:19:02.000 | Now, think about this for a moment.

01:19:04.000 | How much have you used this thing?

01:19:06.000 | About six weeks.

01:19:09.000 | Oh, maybe you put Aunt Sally in it when she came to visit for a couple of days.

01:19:12.000 | I mean you can use them.

01:19:13.000 | But most people don't use them all that much.

01:19:15.000 | But the third year, you get to summertime and everyone is like, "Maybe we don't want to go RVing this time.

01:19:22.000 | Maybe we want to go to a theme park or maybe we want to go travel abroad."

01:19:28.000 | And all of a sudden, you start to use it less and less.

01:19:31.000 | Then it becomes annoying and then stuff starts breaking.

01:19:34.000 | The batteries go bad.

01:19:36.000 | The seals on the plumbing go bad.

01:19:39.000 | You got to change this.

01:19:40.000 | You got to fix that.

01:19:41.000 | And so most people don't use them as much as they thought.

01:19:44.000 | So this contributes to the fact that you can get good deals on used ones.

01:19:48.000 | But you need to be careful because an unused RV is probably a bad purchase.

01:19:55.000 | It's better to buy an RV that's been constantly used than one that is practically brand new but that's been sitting.

01:20:04.000 | Because if RVs sit, everything goes bad and you'll spend a ton of money fixing it all.

01:20:11.000 | If you're going to buy an RV, make sure that you get it inspected by -- especially if it's your first one.

01:20:16.000 | Make sure that you get it inspected, a used one.

01:20:18.000 | Make sure you get it inspected by a qualified RV mechanic, an inspector.

01:20:25.000 | They will point out options, things that you need to know.

01:20:28.000 | When I was buying my road trek, I looked at -- I had done my research.

01:20:34.000 | I knew it was the type that I wanted.

01:20:36.000 | First one I had inspected, the inspector said this.

01:20:39.000 | He said, "If it were a gift, I'd give it back."

01:20:45.000 | I was this close to buying that deal.

01:20:48.000 | He said, "If it were a gift, I'd give it back."

01:20:50.000 | So thankfully, he saved me at the cost of his inspection fee.

01:20:53.000 | He saved me from a major mistake.

01:20:55.000 | The second one, the one that I actually did buy that I had inspected, flew up to Atlanta, found it on Craigslist,

01:21:01.000 | flew up to Atlanta, had it completely inspected, and it had problems with it.

01:21:06.000 | But I felt very confident because I knew what those problems were, and the inspector was great.

01:21:10.000 | Went through it from stem to stern and just everything fixed up.

01:21:14.000 | Super, super best money I spent was having the inspection.

01:21:17.000 | So I could go in with my eyes wide open.

01:21:19.000 | I didn't go in with starry eyes thinking, "Oh, this is going to be great.

01:21:23.000 | It's not going to cost me anything. Everything works. Let's hit the road."

01:21:25.000 | I knew everything that needed to be done, and that was super, super valuable.

01:21:30.000 | If you were going to buy an RV, I think you should seriously consider simply renting,

01:21:36.000 | especially if you're going to do it for the vacation model.

01:21:38.000 | I think you should seriously consider renting.

01:21:41.000 | Now, if you price the rental RVs, they're not inexpensive.

01:21:44.000 | But if you own an RV, the repairs can stack up very quickly.

01:21:50.000 | So in the United States and in many countries, there are lots of rental options available.

01:21:54.000 | Rent for a while before you buy.

01:21:58.000 | Don't go down to the motorhome show and get all excited about -- get starry-eyed.

01:22:03.000 | Rent if you're just going to use it for vacation.

01:22:06.000 | I think that's something you should do.

01:22:12.000 | I love having mine. I think it has been -- it's been awesome.

01:22:16.000 | My wife and I, we had so much fun on this past trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

01:22:22.000 | I tried to find the sweet spot of an inexpensive RV that would be --

01:22:27.000 | I needed to buy one that was comfortable to go over the road and that was reliable.

01:22:32.000 | So I did a ton of research, done a ton of thinking.

01:22:35.000 | I was really, really happy with the choice.

01:22:37.000 | I chose that Type B because it was fit for traveling.

01:22:39.000 | It's much more comfortable to drive. It's not so big.

01:22:42.000 | It's a lot easier to drive. It gets better gas mileage.

01:22:44.000 | It's been fantastic. I've really enjoyed it. I've used it a bunch.

01:22:48.000 | We use it sometimes going around locally, put the paddle boards in it, go down to the beach.

01:22:52.000 | It gives you a place to put the kids for a nap and in addition to just traveling.

01:22:55.000 | So we can use it locally.

01:22:57.000 | We have after this trip with a third child on the way, unfortunately, we're going to sell it.

01:23:04.000 | I'll tell you why.

01:23:05.000 | Because in all of the research and everything that I have done, I'll tell you what I didn't count on,

01:23:10.000 | which I learned on this last trip, car seats.

01:23:17.000 | In all of my reading and research on RVs, no one had talked about car seats.

01:23:21.000 | Now, in the way that I have the problem, people talk about car seats where to strap them.

01:23:26.000 | This is a significant challenge for parents of young children.

01:23:30.000 | Where do you put your car seats?

01:23:31.000 | Because RVs are not really made for traveling.

01:23:33.000 | They're made for living in and especially the Type A and Type C motor homes,

01:23:39.000 | it's very hard to figure out how and where to strap down car seats.

01:23:43.000 | You do need to seriously consider safety considerations in the RVs.

01:23:47.000 | Obviously, you have to -- the safety considerations of potentially being out of seats,

01:23:52.000 | which is in and of itself not safe to be traveling and have people out of seats.

01:23:58.000 | But even in seats, there are no safety regulations or safety standards for RVs and for their structural integrity.

01:24:05.000 | There is very little structural integrity in terms of collision or in rollover, things like that.

01:24:11.000 | If an RV gets in an accident, I'm talking about a motor home.

01:24:15.000 | If a motor home gets in an accident, it doesn't have any mechanical integrity to it.

01:24:20.000 | Some of them do more and more, but most of them don't have -- there's no significant standard.

01:24:27.000 | If you're buying cheap ones, they probably don't.

01:24:29.000 | That's one thing that attracted me to a Type B motor home because it has the mechanical integrity of the van body.

01:24:34.000 | So it's much safer, much safer for the children.

01:24:37.000 | So car seats are a challenge. Where do you strap them?

01:24:40.000 | But the biggest challenge that I learned, especially because of the way that ours is designed,

01:24:44.000 | when you strap the seats in and then you convert those seats into beds, where do you put them at night?

01:24:50.000 | And so with us traveling in our little motor home with two kids and two dogs, which we were not small,

01:24:56.000 | the car seats -- it's like, where do I put them?

01:24:58.000 | So I figured it out, but I don't know where to put a third one.

01:25:01.000 | And that's the reason. So now that we have a third child on the way,

01:25:04.000 | I don't know where to strap one in a way that it'll work for traveling,

01:25:07.000 | and I don't know where to put one while we're on the road.

01:25:09.000 | So we're actually going to sell ours, and we're going to move.

01:25:12.000 | When I bought ours, I had decided there were two ideal setups.

01:25:17.000 | One was a van, like a full-size van and a travel trailer, just a simple bumper-pull travel trailer.

01:25:24.000 | The benefits of a full-size van over a pickup truck is you have, of course,

01:25:28.000 | better superior storage that's covered, more space inside,

01:25:33.000 | and you have space for more people to come with you.

01:25:36.000 | So you're not limited to the number of people, and especially with me with dogs,

01:25:41.000 | you put dogs and kids inside of a pickup cab and you don't have any space for anybody to come with you.

01:25:46.000 | So a full-size van, and then the benefits of the van, you can take some of the seats out.

01:25:49.000 | So you do have a little bit of interior space if you need to use that working with children.

01:25:54.000 | And then a travel trailer, that was an option that I thought would be really good,

01:25:58.000 | and/or a Type B motorhome to be able to have the comfort over the road.

01:26:02.000 | So I chose the Type B motorhome knowing that it might not last very long.

01:26:06.000 | In this case, it's not, so we're actually going to sell ours.

01:26:08.000 | If you're interested, send me an email, joshua@radicalpersonalfinance.com.

01:26:11.000 | I'm selling it actively.

01:26:13.000 | I have a few people who are interested in it now, but if you're interested in it, I'll make you a fair deal.

01:26:17.000 | I won't give the thing away, but I'll make you a fair deal,

01:26:19.000 | and I'll tell you everything that's great with it and everything that's not great with it.

01:26:23.000 | Watch my Facebook page, just my personal Facebook.

01:26:27.000 | I'll put up some info on that pretty soon and list it out with a little bit of an ad.

01:26:32.000 | But car seats, car seats, who would have thunk it, huh?

01:26:38.000 | We've loved having ours.

01:26:39.000 | If you're interested in RVs, I hope this has been useful to you.

01:26:42.000 | I think there are a bunch of ways to integrate RVs into a radical lifestyle.

01:26:46.000 | Living them in full time, super cool.

01:26:49.000 | Retiring in them, again, work camping in them.

01:26:52.000 | Just even beyond that, they're just fun to have.

01:26:56.000 | They give you some cool lifestyle benefits to be able to go to places that you wouldn't otherwise go

01:27:02.000 | and to be very comfortable doing them.

01:27:05.000 | I think they're awesome.

01:27:06.000 | I hope that you've enjoyed this, and I hope that you found some interesting ideas and tidbits.

01:27:13.000 | If you have any questions on RVs, put them in the comments for today's show.

01:27:16.000 | As we go forward, I'm going to be trying to answer many more Q&A.

01:27:20.000 | So I'll take questions that are put in the comments.

01:27:23.000 | So come by RadicalPersonalFinance.com, put your question or your comment on the show page there.

01:27:27.000 | I will take those questions, and I'll incorporate them into all of my lists of questions,

01:27:31.000 | and I'll be doing more Q&A in the future.

01:27:34.000 | Remember, if you'd like to talk more about this subject also with other people,

01:27:37.000 | if you have questions on your choice or you're trying to figure out,

01:27:40.000 | that's a perfect use for our Radical Personal Finance Facebook community.

01:27:44.000 | Join us.

01:27:45.000 | Go to Facebook.com/group/radicalpersonalfinance and join our Facebook community group.

01:27:49.000 | Don't forget our sponsors of the day, YNAB and Paladin Registry, radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab and/paladin.

01:27:58.000 | If you need a budgeting software, try the YNAB software if you've never done it.

01:28:01.000 | Seriously, it's January 6th. Try it. Download it for free and try it, radicalpersonalfinance.com/ynab.

01:28:08.000 | And then also Paladin, if you're looking for a financial advisor,

01:28:10.000 | make this be the year that you actually sit down with a financial advisor and get things tested.

01:28:17.000 | Have them stress test your portfolio. Have them check these things out for you.

01:28:21.000 | I think that's really, really valuable.

01:28:23.000 | Thank you to those of you who are supporting the show on Patreon.

01:28:26.000 | I deeply value your contributions. It makes a huge deal to me.

01:28:29.000 | If you'd like to support the show directly, in addition to supporting our advertisers, radicalpersonalfinance.com/patreon,

01:28:35.000 | and I am still offering phone consultations.

01:28:39.000 | If you'd like to book a personal phone call with me, radicalpersonalfinance.com/phonecall.

01:28:44.000 | Thank you all for listening.

01:28:46.000 | Have a fantastic weekend.

01:28:48.000 | [music]

01:28:59.000 | Are you ready to make your next pro basketball, football, hockey, concert, or live event unforgettable?

01:29:04.000 | Let Sweet Hop take your game to the next level.

01:29:07.000 | Sweet Hop is an online marketplace curating the best premium tickets at stadiums, arenas, and amphitheaters nationwide.

01:29:14.000 | Sweet Hop's online marketplace makes it easy to browse and book the best seats.

01:29:18.000 | With no hidden fees and a 100% purchase guarantee, you can feel confident when you book your premium LA tickets with Sweet Hop.

01:29:25.000 | Visit suitehop.com today.

RPF0407-Motorhomes_RVs_etc.