RPF0499-Living_in_Your_Car_and_Loving

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00:00:14.280 | - Welcome to Radical Personal Finance,

00:00:17.480 | the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge,

00:00:19.360 | skills, insight, and encouragement you need

00:00:21.640 | to live a rich and meaningful life now

00:00:24.160 | while building a plan for financial freedom

00:00:25.680 | in 10 years or less.

00:00:26.920 | My name is Joshua and I am your host,

00:00:28.400 | and today we're gonna talk about living in your car

00:00:31.680 | and loving it.

00:00:34.400 | Car living is interesting to me

00:00:37.160 | because it's one of those things that we often talk about,

00:00:39.560 | but we often talk about it in a very pejorative tone,

00:00:43.240 | a very kind of downright,

00:00:44.560 | "I can't believe that someone so-and-so

00:00:46.440 | is living in their car."

00:00:48.240 | Frankly, a lot of people get forced

00:00:49.800 | into living in their car.

00:00:51.140 | Over the past years,

00:00:52.680 | especially right in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis,

00:00:57.160 | there were a number of articles

00:00:58.440 | about increasing communities of people

00:01:01.880 | that were living in their cars to save money,

00:01:04.800 | people that were losing their houses,

00:01:06.160 | getting forced out, getting laid off, et cetera.

00:01:08.440 | I noticed a big uptick in news articles on the subject,

00:01:12.360 | and I haven't noticed those news articles

00:01:14.000 | continuing today in 2017,

00:01:17.520 | but I have noticed a fascinating growth

00:01:20.080 | of people who are living in their cars on purpose.

00:01:24.120 | There are many people who live in their vehicles on purpose,

00:01:26.940 | and with our modern democratization of communication

00:01:30.960 | where any individual can get their message out,

00:01:33.520 | I've found really interesting communities of people

00:01:36.480 | who are all engaged in living in their cars,

00:01:39.160 | and they're called van-dwelling communities

00:01:41.360 | 'cause many people will live in their van.

00:01:42.720 | Of course, there are many variations of this,

00:01:45.060 | and this is not an unknown thing.

00:01:48.060 | After all, there are thousands of very wealthy people

00:01:51.280 | who live in their cars.

00:01:52.240 | They just call their cars RVs,

00:01:53.960 | and they're very big and often have an expensive bus chassis

00:01:58.580 | and a big old diesel engine at the back,

00:02:00.080 | but there are lots of millionaires who live in their cars,

00:02:02.640 | and RV is just a glorified car,

00:02:04.760 | and then there are people who are flat-out broke,

00:02:07.560 | dirtbag rock climbers living in the back

00:02:09.680 | of their pickup truck out at the rock face

00:02:11.400 | so they can crawl up the rock face all day long.

00:02:14.620 | Now, for whatever reason,

00:02:15.460 | I've always been interested in car living,

00:02:17.760 | and it's something that I never did when I was younger

00:02:20.920 | when I probably could have done it,

00:02:22.880 | or at least I never did it the way

00:02:25.400 | that I'm gonna describe to you now.

00:02:28.780 | For a brief time in college,

00:02:30.640 | I was commuting from home, and I drove a van,

00:02:32.660 | and I would keep all my stuff in my van,

00:02:34.820 | but I would primarily just live on my friend's dorm couches

00:02:37.920 | and things like that,

00:02:39.160 | and I would go back home a couple times a week,

00:02:41.080 | but I never got to the point

00:02:43.240 | where I was actually sleeping in my car,

00:02:45.480 | and today I kinda regret it.

00:02:46.920 | I wish that I had spent time living in my car

00:02:49.480 | when I was in college

00:02:50.320 | 'cause that would've saved a lot of money,

00:02:51.640 | and I get a little sick when I think about

00:02:53.120 | how much money I spent on housing expenses

00:02:56.000 | during a time in my life

00:02:57.600 | at which it would have been very inexpensive

00:03:01.480 | to live in my car, but whatever, water under the bridge.

00:03:05.860 | What I do have extensive personal experience with

00:03:10.180 | is traveling in my car

00:03:12.260 | and living in my car while traveling.

00:03:14.720 | I don't have extensive experience

00:03:16.520 | with doing it for months and months and months at a time,

00:03:18.600 | but I've done it four weeks at a time,

00:03:20.800 | and in that process, I've learned some lessons,

00:03:23.280 | and I thought I'd pass them along to you today

00:03:26.720 | because, frankly, there's a big, big benefit

00:03:30.080 | for many people, especially many people

00:03:32.360 | who are in really tough living situations

00:03:35.600 | to be able to live comfortably in their car,

00:03:37.600 | and there can be major opportunity

00:03:40.520 | for you to have a breakout financially

00:03:44.080 | if you use a strategy of living in your car.

00:03:47.800 | I've interviewed in past episodes

00:03:49.240 | of Radical Personal Finance

00:03:50.160 | people who've lived in their car in college

00:03:52.240 | to save money, to graduate debt-free.

00:03:54.440 | I know many people who've done it.

00:03:55.760 | I've talked to many people who've done it,

00:03:57.280 | and I think I have some ideas that are helpful for you,

00:04:02.000 | that could be helpful for you to consider

00:04:05.800 | about how to do it and live well

00:04:08.040 | because, to me, the big thing is

00:04:09.760 | how to live in your car and love it is a key.

00:04:13.200 | We all have a different threshold for pain.

00:04:14.920 | We all have a different threshold

00:04:15.920 | for things that we don't wanna do,

00:04:17.640 | but I want you, if you're gonna live in your car,

00:04:19.040 | I want you to love it,

00:04:19.880 | so let me give you some strategies and ideas,

00:04:22.080 | but first, let's talk about the value

00:04:23.840 | of why this would be helpful for you.

00:04:26.440 | In most major cities around the United States,

00:04:28.440 | I think what you'll find is

00:04:30.000 | about the cheapest you could live,

00:04:32.000 | just renting a place to live on your own,

00:04:34.480 | about the cheapest would be something like $500 a month.

00:04:38.200 | I've seen a few places cheaper.

00:04:40.880 | If you're out in a rural area

00:04:42.480 | or a very low-cost-of-living place,

00:04:44.980 | you may be able to get it lower,

00:04:46.200 | but if you're gonna rent an apartment,

00:04:47.360 | an efficiency apartment or some kind of room,

00:04:50.040 | basically about $500 a month

00:04:52.680 | is gonna be the lowest that you can get.

00:04:55.320 | Now, that, for many people, will be appropriate,

00:04:58.260 | but $500 a month still adds up quickly,

00:05:02.040 | and if you compare that today,

00:05:04.600 | left and right on Craigslist, right in your town,

00:05:07.360 | you could buy a really good, high-quality minivan

00:05:11.480 | for about 3,000 bucks,

00:05:14.720 | and if you chose to buy a good, high-quality minivan,

00:05:18.040 | which I'm showing my hand here

00:05:20.260 | as to what I think is the ideal solution

00:05:21.800 | for a single person,

00:05:23.000 | if you buy a $3,000 minivan,

00:05:24.900 | you live in it for a year,

00:05:27.000 | you could turn around and sell that thing all day long

00:05:28.820 | for $2,500.

00:05:30.440 | So let's say that it costs you $500 per year

00:05:34.120 | of straight cost for living in the minivan

00:05:36.440 | versus $500 a month for rent.

00:05:38.600 | There's a $5,000-plus savings there for you,

00:05:43.200 | and for somebody who is living in extreme poverty

00:05:46.200 | or for somebody who's trying to break out

00:05:48.720 | to accumulate the investment capital

00:05:50.800 | to make a significant investment of some kind

00:05:53.160 | or just for somebody who wants to travel

00:05:55.000 | and do something fun,

00:05:56.480 | that's a big benefit there,

00:05:59.740 | and I think, especially for a short-term strategy,

00:06:02.880 | I think there's a really good opportunity here.

00:06:07.560 | Now, whether you do this on the long-term

00:06:08.920 | or whether you just do this for the short-term, like I do,

00:06:12.320 | I think you should consider it.

00:06:13.680 | I've just returned from a week on the road.

00:06:16.520 | I went out to Texas for FinCon 2017,

00:06:20.040 | and I spent a total of a week on the road,

00:06:22.240 | and I actually didn't plan,

00:06:23.840 | I got behind and I didn't plan ahead in time this time.

00:06:26.600 | I didn't intend to drive out there.

00:06:28.480 | I was gonna book a room at the hotel

00:06:34.320 | and I was gonna fly out, but I got behind,

00:06:36.200 | and all the prices by the time I got around

00:06:38.000 | to booking my travel were just crazy expensive,

00:06:41.240 | and I looked at the prices,

00:06:42.080 | I'm not gonna do that, I said, "I'll just drive."

00:06:44.520 | So I did my usual minivan traveling technique

00:06:48.680 | that I'm gonna describe for you,

00:06:50.280 | and I saved quite a bit of money,

00:06:52.560 | quite a bit of money by going and staying in my car

00:06:55.680 | for the last week while I was at a professional conference

00:06:59.080 | and while I did some personal travel

00:07:02.120 | and did some other personal things along the way

00:07:04.800 | that I needed to do.

00:07:07.000 | Now, why would I do that?

00:07:08.720 | Could I not have paid the higher price?

00:07:11.700 | Well, yes, I could.

00:07:12.540 | I have the money, I could have purchased the hotel room,

00:07:15.200 | I could have purchased the air travel,

00:07:17.860 | but I have a few things that I have learned

00:07:20.360 | as to why I always think carefully.

00:07:22.800 | First, anytime I can save money,

00:07:24.360 | I think about the value of that savings

00:07:28.360 | and I consider what I get if I spend the money

00:07:32.040 | versus what I save if I don't spend the money,

00:07:36.560 | and I always try to put a long-term time perspective on it.

00:07:40.320 | So let's say that I conservatively saved,

00:07:42.300 | and I saved quite a bit more,

00:07:43.720 | but let's say over the last week,

00:07:44.760 | I conservatively saved $500 by avoiding hotel expenses

00:07:49.760 | and staying in my car, and I was very comfortable,

00:07:52.680 | very happy about it.

00:07:53.800 | I'll describe more about how and why

00:07:55.660 | to do this comfortably and love it,

00:07:56.880 | how to live in your car and love it.

00:07:58.540 | But if I saved $500, now, certainly $500

00:08:02.000 | would have been a business expense,

00:08:03.120 | so I have a little bit of tax savings there,

00:08:05.040 | but if I take $500, and let's say that I saved that $500

00:08:08.440 | today, I'm still in the wealth accumulation stage of my life

00:08:12.120 | and I haven't hit the tipping point

00:08:14.680 | at which my wealth grows so fast that I can spend

00:08:18.200 | and still grow wealthier.

00:08:19.920 | I haven't yet reached that point.

00:08:21.320 | I'm working towards it, but I haven't reached that point.

00:08:24.280 | So any savings that I can make happen

00:08:27.440 | at this stage of my life winds up being very helpful.

00:08:31.160 | If I saved $500 by living in my car for the last week,

00:08:36.960 | if I were to invest and successfully invest

00:08:39.320 | that $500 over the next 40 years at 10% growth rate,

00:08:44.320 | that could conceivably be worth $22,629 40 years hence.

00:08:49.520 | So again, my $500 savings invested at 10%

00:08:54.720 | over the next 40 years could wind up being worth $22,629.

00:08:59.720 | Now, is that an accurate number?

00:09:03.640 | Yes, if under those circumstances,

00:09:05.280 | will I wait 40 years and do this?

00:09:07.000 | I don't know, but I definitely saved far more

00:09:09.620 | than $500 this last week by living in my car and loving it.

00:09:13.760 | And I've done this again and again and again,

00:09:16.200 | and all these little savings add up.

00:09:18.260 | So big cost savings and potentially big investment return

00:09:23.000 | by me freeing up more and more investment capital

00:09:25.200 | so that I can invest aggressively at this stage of my life

00:09:28.280 | to build wealth more quickly

00:09:29.840 | and build financial freedom much more quickly.

00:09:32.520 | Now, what about the downside of it?

00:09:33.960 | There are downsides to living in a car,

00:09:37.480 | traveling in a car, et cetera.

00:09:39.040 | And I'll cover those at the end of today's show.

00:09:41.560 | I'll tell you when you should not live in a van

00:09:44.680 | or even travel in a van, because I don't always do this,

00:09:48.140 | but I do frequently do this

00:09:50.120 | because there are a lot of upsides to it as well.

00:09:52.840 | I enjoy traveling, I enjoy traveling on the road by myself,

00:09:57.160 | I enjoy the freedom and the flexibility and the adventure.

00:09:59.640 | And traveling on the road by myself allows me

00:10:02.140 | to have an adventure and to have a nice

00:10:04.040 | tax-deductible adventure.

00:10:06.040 | And I actually prefer, and I own an RV,

00:10:09.660 | I've owned other RVs in the past,

00:10:11.080 | there've been many times where I've actually chosen

00:10:13.280 | not to use an RV that I've had,

00:10:16.360 | but simply chosen to use a minivan.

00:10:18.940 | And I think that some of the things that I'll share with you

00:10:21.800 | will be very helpful to a few of you.

00:10:25.000 | The previous show that I have released here

00:10:26.760 | on Radical Personal Finance, I did it on how to save money.

00:10:29.760 | And just as a simple example,

00:10:31.080 | I was with a friend of mine who has really been

00:10:33.320 | struggling financially, a college student.

00:10:35.520 | And for this college student,

00:10:37.360 | if he could maneuver himself into owning a minivan

00:10:42.360 | to live in versus renting an apartment,

00:10:44.680 | it would be a major, major financial benefit for him.

00:10:47.560 | It would make a huge difference in his life

00:10:49.840 | to be able to do this.

00:10:52.400 | So I wanna share with you some ideas

00:10:54.160 | of how to live in your car and love it.

00:10:57.040 | So let's talk first about what kind of car to live in.

00:10:59.800 | Well, first you have just a standard car.

00:11:02.320 | I'm just gonna say car, a standard sedan.

00:11:04.880 | Now this is the worst solution in general.

00:11:07.560 | So let's talk about why it's bad

00:11:09.900 | and how to make it less bad.

00:11:12.080 | Many people wind up forced into their car.

00:11:14.420 | They get behind on their rent, they lose their house,

00:11:17.000 | and for whatever, they reach a financial crisis

00:11:19.360 | and they're kind of forced into their car.

00:11:20.560 | And they got to deal with whatever it is that they have,

00:11:23.140 | whatever kind of car that they have.

00:11:24.720 | And frequently this is something like a sedan.

00:11:27.760 | Now this for me, I'm a very large man.

00:11:30.400 | So I'm six and a half feet tall,

00:11:32.680 | I weigh over 300 pounds.

00:11:33.760 | So for me, this is the worst

00:11:35.320 | because there's almost no way for me to be comfortable

00:11:38.360 | in a small car the way that some people are.

00:11:40.840 | Some people can curl up in the backseat of a car

00:11:43.120 | and curl their legs up and be okay.

00:11:45.760 | But for me, there's almost no way to do this

00:11:47.640 | and be comfortable.

00:11:48.480 | So I consider this option to be absolutely awful.

00:11:51.800 | But if you find yourself living in a car,

00:11:55.140 | like just a small sedan of some kind,

00:11:58.100 | there are a couple of strategies that I have used

00:12:00.080 | and that I have tried that can be useful.

00:12:02.340 | Number one, check to see if the backseat of your car

00:12:05.260 | can flip down.

00:12:06.580 | Frequently, if you flip the backseat of your car down flat,

00:12:10.220 | you'll have a pass-through between the trunk of your car

00:12:13.580 | and the backseat.

00:12:14.860 | And sometimes in a small car,

00:12:16.800 | you can put your feet at the trunk

00:12:18.940 | and then you can lie in that pass-through

00:12:21.240 | with your head up towards the front seats,

00:12:23.900 | lying parallel with the orientation of the car.

00:12:27.900 | And that can be a way

00:12:28.900 | that you may be able to stretch out fully.

00:12:31.300 | Years ago, I had an old 1993 Honda Accord.

00:12:35.940 | I drove this car all over the place.

00:12:38.060 | And when I graduated from college,

00:12:39.320 | I took off on a, I did a 13,000 mile road trip

00:12:42.740 | over the course of a couple of months all around the US.

00:12:45.140 | And in this Accord that I had,

00:12:48.020 | I didn't really have a good way to sleep in it.

00:12:50.660 | And so I was primarily planning to stay with friends

00:12:53.540 | on that trip.

00:12:54.420 | I didn't have the money to stay in hotels,

00:12:56.100 | but I was planning to stay in with friends.

00:12:58.260 | And so I had the friend option.

00:13:00.140 | And then of course there was the tent option.

00:13:02.300 | I think I had a tent with me,

00:13:04.160 | but my backup plan was to just stay in the car.

00:13:07.020 | And I had tried it out,

00:13:08.260 | that I was able to flip that backseat flat

00:13:10.380 | and I was able to be,

00:13:11.960 | to lie in it with my feet at the trunk

00:13:15.380 | and my body coming through that hatch

00:13:17.820 | and to be not grossly uncomfortable.

00:13:22.060 | I wouldn't call it comfortable,

00:13:23.360 | but it was not grossly uncomfortable.

00:13:26.700 | So consider that if you're in a situation

00:13:29.100 | where you're in your car

00:13:30.100 | and it may be the kind of thing where it helps you

00:13:32.420 | if you're traveling across the country,

00:13:34.380 | you don't wanna pull into a hotel,

00:13:35.780 | you just wanna pull into a rest area,

00:13:37.400 | look to see if your car can be used in that way.

00:13:40.440 | Second, many sedans could be modified in a way.

00:13:44.700 | And especially if you have a cheap car

00:13:45.940 | where you can just change it without too much of a pain.

00:13:49.140 | You can modify it by taking out the passenger seat.

00:13:52.660 | So if you remove the passenger seat from a standard sedan

00:13:55.560 | and possibly if you remove the backseat,

00:13:58.500 | you may be able to build a platform there

00:14:00.700 | that would be sufficient for you

00:14:02.780 | to be able to lie flat on that platform.

00:14:05.420 | So build a sleeping platform.

00:14:06.800 | And you could do this

00:14:07.640 | even if you have rudimentary carpentry skills,

00:14:09.820 | build a plywood sleeping platform

00:14:11.540 | and then put some padding, a nice thermo rest

00:14:15.260 | or other mattress type of material on top of it.

00:14:17.980 | And you may be able to build a flat sleeping platform

00:14:20.380 | if you take the passenger seat out.

00:14:23.260 | So that can be a way for you to do it.

00:14:25.380 | Now, I think that's really not superior,

00:14:28.300 | but those are two options that can make an awful situation

00:14:31.640 | of living in a standard car a little bit better.

00:14:34.260 | Now, next kind of subset of a car

00:14:37.340 | is a special car called a Toyota Prius,

00:14:40.500 | which I consider to be basically the perfect car

00:14:43.780 | for most people who are gonna have a car.

00:14:45.900 | They're inexpensive, they're well-made,

00:14:47.880 | they're very efficient with fuel, et cetera.

00:14:50.340 | And I've described in previous episode

00:14:51.940 | of "Radical Personal Finance"

00:14:52.980 | how I've used a Toyota Prius to camp in comfortably

00:14:56.180 | and many other people have discovered this as well.

00:14:58.740 | The basic function of a Prius, because it's a hatchback,

00:15:01.820 | you have a significant amount of vertical space

00:15:03.940 | in the very rear of the car.

00:15:05.500 | And so, and interestingly also with the Toyota Prius,

00:15:09.640 | you can fold the seat back of the rear seat forward

00:15:14.220 | and it makes a flat shelf on the back of the car.

00:15:17.380 | And then you can fold the front seats, seat backs,

00:15:21.180 | backwards and you make basically a very long flat shelf.

00:15:25.620 | And so the Prius has significant interior space

00:15:28.240 | and I've camped many nights in a Prius

00:15:30.340 | with just a small mattress pad underneath me

00:15:33.180 | and can do it very, very comfortably for one person.

00:15:36.560 | I don't think, and by the way, all of my,

00:15:38.580 | most of my discussion today is for one person.

00:15:40.860 | In a moment, I will talk about vans,

00:15:44.220 | which are the options for two people.

00:15:46.580 | The Prius is really only suitable for one person

00:15:48.860 | because of where your need to put your baggage.

00:15:52.380 | And if you have two people in it,

00:15:53.980 | there's basically no place for you to put your baggage.

00:15:57.900 | And the only option would be to use something

00:16:00.540 | like a rooftop box, cargo box, for you to put your baggage.

00:16:03.980 | And there, that's gonna destroy your gas mileage

00:16:06.420 | significantly, I don't think it's a good plan.

00:16:08.560 | But the Prius can work really, really well

00:16:10.560 | for a single person.

00:16:11.620 | Today, if I were interested in long-term travel

00:16:14.900 | and I wanted to tour the U.S. United States

00:16:17.380 | as a single person and travel all around,

00:16:19.800 | I would choose a Prius.

00:16:21.460 | They're inexpensive to buy.

00:16:23.580 | They are very fuel efficient,

00:16:25.060 | which allows you to put on tons of miles

00:16:27.740 | at a very low cost.

00:16:29.140 | And the big benefit of the Prius is,

00:16:31.140 | because it's a hybrid, you can leave it on all night long

00:16:36.140 | and run the air conditioning while you're sleeping.

00:16:39.060 | You can also leave it on all night long

00:16:40.420 | and run the heater while you're sleeping.

00:16:42.820 | And it'll run the air conditioning, as a true hybrid,

00:16:45.340 | it'll run the air conditioning off of the battery system.

00:16:47.740 | And then as you drain your high voltage battery system,

00:16:50.780 | it will automatically turn itself on

00:16:52.740 | to recharge the batteries, and then off.

00:16:55.540 | And it'll cycle on and off all night,

00:16:57.340 | and it will just basically sip fuel.

00:17:00.260 | You can camp in this very comfortably,

00:17:02.900 | and you can travel very inexpensively.

00:17:05.380 | I've spent, I think my maximum time was two weeks

00:17:08.460 | that I spent traveling and camping in a Prius.

00:17:11.660 | And it worked really, really well.

00:17:13.620 | I've been so comfortable in many places.

00:17:15.860 | I've parked in parking garages in a Prius

00:17:18.220 | and slept in there.

00:17:19.140 | It's just been a, it's a great option.

00:17:21.580 | The challenge with a Prius is,

00:17:23.140 | you still have minimal interior space.

00:17:25.340 | And so you're kind of always vaguely uncomfortable

00:17:28.360 | if you're doing anything but sleeping.

00:17:30.060 | And so if you can't be out of the vehicle,

00:17:32.020 | it's really hard to be in the vehicle

00:17:33.460 | and be anything except vaguely uncomfortable,

00:17:35.520 | with the exception of being able to lie flat.

00:17:37.820 | So the Prius is hard to live in full-time.

00:17:41.000 | It's adequate for sleeping,

00:17:42.100 | but it would be hard to live in full-time.

00:17:45.260 | But good for travel, just hard for living full-time.

00:17:47.780 | If you're gonna travel with it,

00:17:48.900 | make sure that your style of travel

00:17:50.260 | is gonna involve your ability to be outside of the vehicle

00:17:53.460 | frequently for extended periods of time.

00:17:55.780 | You're traveling where there's good weather,

00:17:57.540 | and you can just set up your chair,

00:17:58.780 | set up a table outside of the car,

00:18:00.820 | because you don't wanna,

00:18:02.020 | it's too small to be able to comfortably live in.

00:18:05.780 | I consider it ideal for traveling, not for living.

00:18:09.020 | Next option would be a pickup truck with a camper shell.

00:18:13.120 | Actually, let's do SUV next.

00:18:14.760 | Next option would be an SUV.

00:18:16.960 | I've camped in SUVs,

00:18:19.420 | both a Ford Expedition and also a Ford Escape.

00:18:23.600 | The Expedition, of course, far larger.

00:18:25.160 | The benefit of the Expedition

00:18:26.280 | is that if you fold all of the three rows of seats,

00:18:29.720 | you can do the same thing with Suburban.

00:18:30.920 | If you fold them flat,

00:18:32.200 | you can get a pretty large flat space

00:18:35.300 | in the back of a full-size SUV.

00:18:37.600 | You can do this also with a Ford Escape.

00:18:40.880 | My wife and I, when we were newly married,

00:18:43.680 | we had both an Expedition and an Escape,

00:18:46.920 | and we both camped together, the two of us,

00:18:50.200 | in both the Expedition and the Escape.

00:18:52.460 | In case you're wondering why,

00:18:56.240 | what I frequently found is I like to have a tent.

00:18:58.500 | A tent is nice, but there are often times

00:19:00.860 | where if you just can stay in your car,

00:19:03.080 | you can be in a place where a tent is not appropriate.

00:19:06.060 | You don't have to go to a campground

00:19:07.360 | or find some kind of wooded area.

00:19:09.640 | The car, by being able to be in your car,

00:19:12.160 | you can be comfortable, you can be private,

00:19:14.320 | and you can sleep well in an urban environment.

00:19:16.760 | That's been the type of thing that was helpful for us.

00:19:19.840 | When we were newly married and saving money,

00:19:21.760 | I remember one time we went to a friend's wedding

00:19:24.240 | that was in another town.

00:19:27.800 | Of course, we could have spent the money

00:19:29.060 | to stay at the hotel, but we didn't have any need for that,

00:19:32.800 | so we just went there.

00:19:34.280 | Then on the way home, we pulled over,

00:19:35.580 | we had the mattresses in the back,

00:19:36.800 | and we were able to be comfortable

00:19:38.240 | in a parking lot or rest area on the way home.

00:19:41.280 | Those types of savings, when you're young

00:19:43.200 | and you're willing to be flexible,

00:19:45.120 | you're willing to be adventurous,

00:19:46.720 | those savings of hundreds of dollars add up.

00:19:49.000 | When you're in that wedding season of life,

00:19:51.000 | those things add up and it allows you

00:19:52.600 | to put a lot more money into your investments

00:19:55.200 | if you can minimize your hotel expenditures.

00:19:58.080 | We've done both the expedition and the escape.

00:19:59.980 | The expedition was obviously nice

00:20:01.280 | 'cause I could stretch out full length.

00:20:03.480 | The escape was a little bit pinched for me,

00:20:05.720 | but the escape was really nice

00:20:07.320 | because with the older original models of the escape,

00:20:10.100 | you could get that completely flat load floor.

00:20:12.600 | It just wasn't quite long enough for me.

00:20:14.580 | I had to make alternative provision,

00:20:16.520 | but if you're under six feet,

00:20:18.000 | then a Ford Escape or similar size Mazda Tribute,

00:20:22.160 | that type of midsize SUV might work for you.

00:20:25.340 | Just put the seats down in the back

00:20:26.560 | and start to play with it and figure out what looks good.

00:20:29.680 | Sometimes with different SUVs,

00:20:31.420 | you can remove the seat back or remove the base of the seats

00:20:35.240 | and then put the seat back flat.

00:20:37.000 | Sometimes you need to build a small platform,

00:20:39.360 | a small wood platform with a piece of plywood and some legs

00:20:44.200 | where the rear seat passengers feet would go.

00:20:47.440 | And or sometimes you need to put,

00:20:51.400 | you can fill it with bags or some other kind of material

00:20:55.800 | so that you have a longer place to lie down.

00:20:59.240 | The problem with SUVs is however, again, vertical space.

00:21:03.720 | You don't have much space between your platform

00:21:07.680 | and your roof because the seats aren't usually designed

00:21:10.560 | to go completely flat.

00:21:11.760 | And because of the way that SUVs are constructed,

00:21:14.500 | they don't have that low floor.

00:21:18.360 | And so you have very little vertical space.

00:21:20.540 | So again, although two people can go in an SUV

00:21:23.680 | and because it's more comfortable than a car,

00:21:27.280 | you still don't have all that much vertical space.

00:21:29.640 | So hanging out inside the vehicle

00:21:32.600 | is never gonna be quite comfortable.

00:21:35.160 | It's just not.

00:21:36.440 | And so they're just always vaguely uncomfortable.

00:21:39.900 | It's fine for temporary sleeping,

00:21:42.640 | not fine for being inside.

00:21:45.640 | It's kind of the same, imagine this is the same problem

00:21:47.560 | that you face with tent selection

00:21:49.880 | because we all have these same trade-offs.

00:21:52.080 | You can get a very small tent.

00:21:54.080 | Let's say you have a small backpacking tent.

00:21:56.240 | Well, a small backpacking tent is wonderful.

00:21:58.240 | It's lightweight, it's small.

00:21:59.920 | It can be very good in extreme weather.

00:22:02.620 | It's low to the ground, minimizes the wind pickup,

00:22:05.880 | the wind that hits it.

00:22:09.620 | But the problem is you don't really wanna hang out

00:22:11.640 | in a two-person backpacking tent.

00:22:13.440 | There's just no room to set up.

00:22:14.840 | There's no room to be in it.

00:22:15.760 | And so if you're stuck in the thing in a bad weather

00:22:18.040 | on a bad camping day, it's just not fun.

00:22:20.920 | You can get a big old wall tent,

00:22:22.480 | like the ones they use out in the Western United States

00:22:24.440 | during elk season.

00:22:25.280 | You set up these giant wall tents.

00:22:27.200 | Well, they're awesome to live in,

00:22:29.120 | but now you're not gonna set one up and move every day

00:22:32.640 | if you're traveling across the country.

00:22:33.960 | You face the same trade-off with vehicles.

00:22:36.400 | So SUVs I consider adequate in some cases, but subpar.

00:22:39.880 | Just like with about everything else about an SUV

00:22:42.440 | is they do everything in a mediocre manner.

00:22:44.500 | And really, unless you need to haul a bunch of people

00:22:47.720 | and tow a heavy trailer, and you need four-wheel drive

00:22:49.880 | and high ground clearance

00:22:50.720 | 'cause you live at the top of a mountain,

00:22:52.260 | nobody should own SUVs 'cause they're worthless vehicles.

00:22:55.840 | How's that for an absolute statement?

00:22:57.880 | Just teasing you, but I really think pretty much about that.

00:23:01.440 | Next would be a full-size.

00:23:02.960 | Let's do pickup with a camper shell.

00:23:04.920 | And this is a frequent option that you see

00:23:07.200 | that can really work.

00:23:09.440 | If you buy an eight-foot pickup, or if you're shorter,

00:23:11.680 | you buy a shorter bed pickup,

00:23:13.280 | and you put a camper shell on the back,

00:23:15.360 | you can have an inexpensive dry place,

00:23:18.060 | and this can work well.

00:23:19.480 | Frequently, people who do this

00:23:20.800 | will build a sleeping platform that is raised,

00:23:24.200 | or sometimes they'll go ahead and just put a mattress

00:23:26.320 | right on the floor of the pickup.

00:23:29.120 | You can also buy very high camper shells,

00:23:32.800 | which can gain you more vertical height.

00:23:36.280 | And here, there's gonna be a balance

00:23:37.960 | between how much vertical space you have

00:23:42.580 | and how comfortable you are.

00:23:45.280 | One individual, single person could be very comfortable

00:23:48.580 | camping in the back of a pickup

00:23:50.700 | with a very simple topper shell.

00:23:52.720 | And by camper shell, I'm not referring to a truck camper,

00:23:55.400 | which is a drop-in RV that would have a kitchen

00:23:57.800 | and a dinette.

00:23:59.840 | Those are good options, but I'm talking cheap here.

00:24:02.480 | I'm just talking about a standard truck topper,

00:24:04.640 | fiberglass truck topper, like you see all over the place.

00:24:08.500 | You can build, in the back of a pickup truck bed,

00:24:11.240 | you can build a single-width cot

00:24:14.280 | that's raised up a little bit,

00:24:15.980 | and that gives you a comfortable bed.

00:24:18.300 | It gives you storage space underneath the bed.

00:24:20.920 | And then, beside the bed, you can also set up

00:24:24.760 | a low platform for you to work on,

00:24:28.720 | set up a mini desk or to cook on, et cetera.

00:24:31.060 | So an individual, single person can be comfortable

00:24:33.680 | in a camper shell.

00:24:34.920 | And because the space is so large,

00:24:36.620 | you have the benefit of being able to use large mattresses.

00:24:38.760 | So a couple people can sleep comfortably

00:24:41.040 | in the back of a camper shell.

00:24:43.740 | That works well, but again,

00:24:45.420 | you face the problem of livability,

00:24:47.720 | especially if you have a compact pickup truck

00:24:50.460 | or a relatively low-height camper shell.

00:24:55.460 | And if you need the storage space under the bed,

00:24:57.720 | you start to face a problem with that livability

00:24:59.960 | 'cause you don't have much vertical room.

00:25:02.080 | So I think that the pickup with camper shell is workable,

00:25:05.920 | but the other big problem is what do you do

00:25:08.020 | in terms of climate control?

00:25:10.300 | If you are camping in a hot area,

00:25:12.860 | then, and you're in the back with a camper shell,

00:25:14.660 | you have no air conditioning.

00:25:16.080 | And if you're in a cold area

00:25:17.320 | and you're back with a camper shell,

00:25:18.400 | you have no built-in heating from the vehicle.

00:25:21.300 | You simply have to use an external heater,

00:25:23.400 | a kerosene heater or something like that.

00:25:25.400 | And with air conditioning, that's especially hard.

00:25:28.220 | So I think this is an okay option, but it's not the best.

00:25:31.980 | It would be the best if you are camping

00:25:34.500 | in a remote rural place

00:25:36.460 | where you need off-road capability

00:25:38.780 | and you need four-wheel drive capability.

00:25:42.040 | But here, depending on your budget,

00:25:44.020 | if you're a real dirt bag and you just don't have any money,

00:25:46.820 | then you gotta go with a camper shell,

00:25:48.300 | me, I would look to buy a cheap truck topper.

00:25:51.420 | Some of the, sorry, a cheap drop-in truck camper.

00:25:55.460 | Some of these options with the raised roofs are really nice

00:25:58.780 | and give you substantially more living space

00:26:01.300 | with minimal costs,

00:26:02.940 | gonna be a few thousand dollars, five or six,

00:26:05.460 | especially for a used one,

00:26:08.820 | and/or it's gonna be a lot more livable

00:26:11.020 | and a lot more usefulness.

00:26:13.620 | One thing I have seen if you own a pickup truck

00:26:15.540 | is you can sometimes stay inside of it,

00:26:19.540 | especially if you are somewhat short.

00:26:22.740 | I have seen a friend of mine,

00:26:25.100 | real redneck out here in Florida,

00:26:27.460 | he used this idea and he took one of the folding bench seats

00:26:33.300 | from the back of a conversion van

00:26:35.100 | and he swapped out the front seat in a crew cab pickup

00:26:39.180 | with the folding bench seat.

00:26:40.940 | And so that folding bench seat would fold down flat

00:26:43.680 | into a bed and he lined up that bed with the back seat

00:26:48.500 | to make a very large mattress inside of a crew cab pickup.

00:26:52.100 | So that could be done if you're really into that.

00:26:54.580 | I wouldn't wanna do that

00:26:55.460 | because I wouldn't wanna have a fixed bed seat,

00:26:57.860 | you'd give up all the ability to,

00:26:59.500 | that wouldn't work for me, but you could do that.

00:27:02.660 | And then you also will see frequently

00:27:05.780 | the over-the-road pickup truck drivers,

00:27:08.660 | especially these guys that are car haulers,

00:27:11.700 | they usually will use these large trailers

00:27:15.020 | and they haul cars for car dealers,

00:27:18.280 | but they'll often use a one-ton pickup truck.

00:27:20.740 | Frequently you see them

00:27:22.020 | and they'll often sleep in the back seat

00:27:24.800 | and they'll make that back seat area up into a bed

00:27:28.200 | that works if you're short

00:27:29.780 | and/or sometimes you can actually buy

00:27:31.940 | a small sleeper module.

00:27:33.560 | There are companies that manufacture a small sleeper module

00:27:37.720 | that goes in the front of the bed

00:27:39.800 | and they target it to that world of trucking as well.

00:27:42.680 | So if you're interested in that,

00:27:43.680 | if you have a pickup truck, there are options there for you,

00:27:46.200 | but I still don't think it's ideal.

00:27:48.000 | Next would be a full-size van.

00:27:50.220 | And a full-size van is a wonderful option for two people.

00:27:54.840 | It really is.

00:27:56.080 | Or it's a great option

00:27:57.920 | if you're gonna be on the road full-time

00:28:00.280 | and you're gonna be living in a full-size van all the time.

00:28:05.280 | There are many good things to say about a full-size van.

00:28:08.960 | There are many manufactured RVs

00:28:11.200 | that are built upon a full-size van chassis.

00:28:13.760 | And you can get a large high roof,

00:28:17.000 | you can get a large high roof sprinter van

00:28:19.800 | or modern variation of that.

00:28:22.760 | Lots of the manufacturers now have high roof vans

00:28:26.400 | and very long.

00:28:27.880 | And these vans can be very spacious

00:28:29.600 | for a couple of people to be in.

00:28:32.480 | I previously owned a, what's called a class B motorhome,

00:28:37.560 | which is built upon a van chassis.

00:28:40.080 | And we loved that thing.

00:28:42.240 | It was awesome.

00:28:44.280 | And you can do that as well.

00:28:46.440 | The problem with the full-size van

00:28:48.680 | or an RV that's built upon that platform

00:28:53.680 | is it's still pretty big.

00:28:56.600 | And which means it's still pretty inefficient on fuel.

00:28:59.860 | My class B motorhome or my other full-size vans

00:29:05.120 | have frequently gotten 10 to 13 miles per gallon

00:29:08.680 | on the highway, sometimes as high as 15,

00:29:11.640 | but that's not abnormal.

00:29:14.400 | Now, often you have to look at what you're doing.

00:29:16.420 | Are you living in it?

00:29:17.400 | Are you traveling in it, et cetera?

00:29:19.080 | But that miles per gallon can add substantially

00:29:22.040 | to your cost if you're traveling long distances.

00:29:25.480 | So full-size van, there's a world out there,

00:29:28.360 | both commercial and DIY.

00:29:30.600 | I think it's a good solution,

00:29:33.180 | but it's not, in my opinion, the sweet spot.

00:29:36.460 | I continue to be convinced that a minivan

00:29:38.600 | is the sweet spot for one person,

00:29:41.080 | either as a traveling rig or as a living rig.

00:29:45.480 | And let me explain why.

00:29:47.720 | Minivans can be found cheap.

00:29:52.320 | You can buy, if you're willing to buy a Kia Sedona,

00:29:57.440 | Hyundai Entourage, you can buy one of the Korean minivans

00:30:01.860 | that's less than 10 years old,

00:30:04.120 | was less than 100,000 miles,

00:30:05.700 | you can pick 'em up for four grand.

00:30:08.000 | And these are good, useful minivans

00:30:10.200 | with a ton of life left in them.

00:30:13.400 | They're a knockoff, basically,

00:30:15.020 | of the Toyota and the Honda designs.

00:30:18.300 | The Toyotas and the Hondas are also available.

00:30:20.400 | Whatever you find, you can buy a great van

00:30:23.400 | for under $4,000 all day long on Craigslist.

00:30:27.400 | You can buy them even cheaper.

00:30:29.560 | The last minivan that I bought, I bought a nice Toyota,

00:30:31.820 | paid 3,000 bucks for it, the thing is great.

00:30:34.600 | And it's very reliable and wonderful.

00:30:37.400 | The minivan has the benefit of being very easy to drive.

00:30:42.400 | They're built to be easy to drive.

00:30:44.760 | In a past episode of Radical Personal Finance,

00:30:46.860 | where I shared with you that your only car

00:30:49.040 | should be a minivan, I explained to you

00:30:51.520 | how minivans have greater cargo volume

00:30:54.860 | than even a big SUV like a Suburban.

00:30:58.520 | I explained to you that they have a tighter turning radius

00:31:00.560 | than a small SUV like an Escape.

00:31:03.160 | They have better gas mileage

00:31:04.660 | than any kind of SUV, basically.

00:31:06.840 | You can frequently get 25 miles per gallon

00:31:09.060 | on the highway with a minivan.

00:31:11.000 | And that's wonderful, that's really, really good.

00:31:13.620 | But the benefit of the minivan

00:31:14.800 | is you get a ton of interior space.

00:31:17.040 | Because of the way that minivans are constructed,

00:31:18.920 | they have a very low load floor and a high ceiling.

00:31:22.440 | And so you get a lot of interior space.

00:31:24.840 | You get a very usable platform

00:31:26.880 | and you get a lot of interior space

00:31:29.120 | with still some of those benefits

00:31:31.760 | of good gas mileage, easy parkability.

00:31:33.720 | They're just small and nimble

00:31:35.320 | as compared to a full-size van.

00:31:38.200 | So, inexpensively available,

00:31:40.640 | lot of interior space, small and nimble,

00:31:43.840 | cheap to buy because there's a large supply,

00:31:46.040 | cheap to own because there's a large supply,

00:31:48.800 | reliable, I mean, they're just a wonderful vehicle.

00:31:51.800 | But what about camping in 'em?

00:31:53.320 | What do you actually do?

00:31:55.720 | For camping inside, a minivan is great

00:31:58.080 | because with no modifications,

00:32:00.680 | you can fit a twin-size mattress in the back

00:32:03.280 | and have a little bit of room left to spare.

00:32:05.800 | Now, there's all kinds of things,

00:32:07.120 | and again, I'm focusing on one person,

00:32:08.560 | there's all kinds of modifications

00:32:09.920 | that you can make if you want to.

00:32:12.000 | There are people who will build platforms

00:32:13.720 | for storage boxes, platforms for kitchen equipment, et cetera,

00:32:17.720 | and put mattress on top, that's fine.

00:32:19.800 | But you can take a standard minivan

00:32:21.760 | from almost any manufacturer,

00:32:23.720 | as long as it's not one of the older, tiny ones.

00:32:27.720 | But Dodge, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, doesn't matter.

00:32:32.680 | Any of the modern ones that are 10 years old or newer,

00:32:35.840 | and you can just take the seats out,

00:32:37.120 | fold them flat, or take them out.

00:32:38.920 | All of them now have the flat seats in the rear row,

00:32:42.400 | and you either remove the middle row seats

00:32:44.160 | or fold them flat as well.

00:32:46.160 | You could just take that thing,

00:32:47.200 | toss a twin-size mattress right in the back,

00:32:49.640 | and you have a comfortable, normal mattress

00:32:52.640 | on a flat load floor that will fit any size person.

00:32:57.380 | That's the benefit.

00:32:59.000 | You get a comfortable mattress,

00:33:01.860 | an actual, real bed with no modification.

00:33:06.240 | And because of the high interior height,

00:33:10.940 | you have living area.

00:33:13.820 | Now you can't stand up, obviously.

00:33:16.100 | You can't stand up.

00:33:17.540 | That's one of the benefits of a full-size van.

00:33:19.220 | You can stand up, especially if you have a raised roof,

00:33:21.540 | you can stand up, you can use that all to get dressed,

00:33:23.700 | et cetera, but it's not a claustrophobic space.

00:33:27.200 | I frequently have found it very easy to hang out

00:33:31.700 | in the back of a minivan, sitting on a twin-size mattress,

00:33:34.580 | and I can sit, I can work on my computer comfortably.

00:33:36.860 | I've recorded episodes of "Radical Personal Finance"

00:33:39.460 | sitting on a mattress in the back of my minivan.

00:33:41.620 | You would have no idea which ones they were.

00:33:44.660 | And I can just sit and work comfortably

00:33:46.420 | for a very long period of time.

00:33:48.040 | They're easy, no modifications needed.

00:33:52.620 | Twin-size mattress, normal bed.

00:33:55.380 | That leads to good sleep.

00:33:57.620 | And it's superior to all of the other options for sleeping,

00:34:02.620 | which are in a car or even the Prius,

00:34:05.660 | you can't put a real mattress in 'em.

00:34:07.500 | You're limited to some kind of camping mattress.

00:34:10.180 | You're limited to some kind of thin air mattress,

00:34:13.060 | which is fine for a short period of time,

00:34:15.300 | but it's not as truly comfortable as a real spring mattress

00:34:20.460 | or a real foam mattress, if you're into a foam mattress.

00:34:24.180 | That is huge.

00:34:27.220 | Huge. (laughs)

00:34:30.740 | It's a big, big deal.

00:34:32.540 | That living space means that you can hang out

00:34:35.260 | inside of a minivan very comfortably.

00:34:38.060 | So if you're traveling and it's a rainy day

00:34:39.860 | and you're not on the road, you can be inside of the van

00:34:43.340 | and you have a few different positions inside of it.

00:34:45.580 | If you need to sit up,

00:34:46.460 | you can always use the passenger front seat.

00:34:49.340 | I've done that frequently.

00:34:50.280 | You sit in the passenger front seat,

00:34:51.820 | work comfortably on a laptop,

00:34:53.900 | or you can sit Indian style on a bed in the back,

00:34:57.740 | or you can lie down and read,

00:34:59.220 | or of course, one of the pieces of equipment

00:35:01.140 | that's good to take with you

00:35:02.420 | is you can carry a chair with you and use that.

00:35:07.420 | If you need an additional seat,

00:35:09.460 | one thing I have done in the past

00:35:11.060 | is instead of using a real coil spring mattress,

00:35:13.560 | I've used an air mattress.

00:35:14.580 | You can get a small air mattress

00:35:17.700 | and that can work well for you.

00:35:19.700 | It can put you in a situation

00:35:22.400 | where you can actually pivot it.

00:35:25.320 | It's a little smaller

00:35:26.160 | and you can have a third seat in the back as well.

00:35:28.500 | Because minivans, most of them now have doors on both sides,

00:35:33.360 | if you're in a place where you can just open up the doors

00:35:36.160 | and you wanna work in your minivan,

00:35:38.000 | you can pull it up into a beautiful park underneath a tree

00:35:41.040 | or down by the ocean or down by the river.

00:35:43.480 | Evidently, that's a cultural meme.

00:35:46.120 | Living in a van down by the river,

00:35:47.240 | you can pull it down by the river.

00:35:48.800 | You can open up the two big sliding doors on either side.

00:35:52.060 | You can open up the back hatch

00:35:53.540 | and now you have a big, airy, comfortable place to be

00:35:56.840 | to hang out, which is really, really nice.

00:35:59.660 | So a minivan is vastly superior

00:36:02.160 | with the ability for you to just simply be very comfortable,

00:36:05.780 | very comfortable in a real sized mattress on the road.

00:36:11.400 | And that sleeping quality is important,

00:36:13.240 | especially if you were considering

00:36:16.600 | staying in it for a long period of time.

00:36:18.840 | Now, another big benefit of the minivan

00:36:21.280 | is the climate control system.

00:36:24.260 | So a minivan is inferior to something like a hybrid.

00:36:28.620 | I'm not aware of any hybrid minivans yet,

00:36:30.340 | but in the future, maybe we'll have those.

00:36:32.200 | It's inferior to a Prius

00:36:33.220 | because if you're gonna run the air conditioning all night,

00:36:35.720 | you have to actually run the air conditioning all night.

00:36:39.000 | But I've done it and I've measured it.

00:36:40.300 | And you'll often find

00:36:41.360 | that if you just run the vehicle all night long

00:36:44.080 | and you run the air conditioning all night long,

00:36:45.920 | you can sleep well,

00:36:47.200 | and it'll use about three gallons of gas,

00:36:49.320 | two or three gallons of gas,

00:36:51.000 | depending on the size of your vehicle.

00:36:54.840 | Now, that's obviously cost,

00:36:57.040 | puts wear and tear on the engine.

00:36:58.680 | But if you compare that cost

00:37:00.080 | for the times when it's so hot and so humid

00:37:02.320 | or perhaps raining,

00:37:03.480 | and you can't be comfortable without the air conditioning,

00:37:06.520 | that's a very low cost,

00:37:08.120 | very, very low cost, comparatively speaking.

00:37:11.940 | Now, a quick safety tip,

00:37:12.800 | make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector in the car.

00:37:15.720 | It's easy to have a carbon monoxide detector

00:37:17.560 | so that in case there is an exhaust leak,

00:37:20.080 | in case the vehicle is leaking in some way

00:37:22.440 | and there's carbon monoxide coming into the car,

00:37:24.760 | you wanna make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector

00:37:27.880 | ready for you.

00:37:28.720 | That's a standard piece of safety equipment

00:37:29.840 | I really recommend.

00:37:30.940 | The likelihood is very low,

00:37:33.360 | but it is possible and it's cheap to protect

00:37:36.800 | against that risk.

00:37:38.720 | That climate control system, however, is very valuable.

00:37:41.160 | It means that when you're hot and it's humid,

00:37:44.380 | you can have air conditioning.

00:37:46.100 | The other big benefit is what if you're in a place

00:37:48.680 | where it's cold?

00:37:50.040 | Well, cold is easier to deal with

00:37:51.620 | because you can deal with cold while you're sleeping

00:37:53.680 | with insulation, with blankets

00:37:55.400 | and a cold weather sleeping bag.

00:37:57.520 | This past week, as I have been staying in my minivan,

00:38:01.040 | it's been pretty cold.

00:38:02.060 | I've needed a couple of blankets.

00:38:03.760 | But the best thing about a minivan

00:38:04.920 | is even if it's snowing,

00:38:06.740 | you can be warm if you put on enough blankets

00:38:08.760 | and you can be warm if you put on enough

00:38:10.380 | of a good enough sleeping bag.

00:38:12.740 | But when the morning all you do is get up,

00:38:14.960 | flip the van on and turn the heater on

00:38:17.000 | and there are front air conditioning vents

00:38:19.080 | and rear air conditioning vents,

00:38:20.840 | crawl back into your sleeping bag

00:38:22.240 | and about 10 minutes later,

00:38:23.320 | you'll have a toasty warm interior space.

00:38:26.880 | So if you're living in a minivan full time

00:38:28.880 | and even if you're a college student

00:38:31.120 | and you're going to class in a cold weather place,

00:38:34.400 | you can turn it on, run the van for 30 minutes

00:38:36.360 | in the morning while you're getting dressed,

00:38:38.320 | getting everything ready

00:38:39.440 | and that doesn't take very much fuel.

00:38:41.720 | Just a little bit of fuel to be warm.

00:38:44.220 | And you don't have to deal with having the external heater.

00:38:46.220 | You don't have to deal with the extra propane heater

00:38:48.260 | or whatever your other heating mechanism are

00:38:50.220 | is because it's built into the van.

00:38:52.280 | It makes it simple and easy.

00:38:54.420 | What else is great about a minivan?

00:38:59.100 | The electrical system.

00:39:00.440 | Minivans are built for people to go and families,

00:39:03.980 | which means they have electrical outlets.

00:39:06.100 | Some of the modern ones have a built in 120 volt system,

00:39:09.500 | an alternating current electrical system

00:39:12.160 | with a built in inverter.

00:39:13.480 | Mine doesn't, but what mine does have

00:39:15.420 | is it has multiple 12 volt sockets that are live,

00:39:18.040 | whether or not the key is on or not.

00:39:20.720 | So you have of course,

00:39:21.560 | the 12 volt cigarette lighter plug up front.

00:39:24.360 | That's very useful.

00:39:25.560 | But almost every mini, all my minivans

00:39:27.600 | have in the back as well.

00:39:29.060 | So you have a 12 volt socket in the back.

00:39:31.160 | This can be very helpful

00:39:32.400 | because you have a battery that's sufficient

00:39:36.040 | to run 12 volt stuff on pretty consistently.

00:39:40.600 | So for my computers, one thing I always buy for my computers,

00:39:43.120 | I always buy a cigarette lighter adapter,

00:39:45.460 | which allows me to run the computer directly on DC current.

00:39:48.640 | That's more efficient than running an inverter.

00:39:50.840 | So if you need a laptop, you can plug your laptop in

00:39:53.280 | and run right from the power system

00:39:54.800 | that's built into the van.

00:39:55.640 | You don't have to buy something extra.

00:39:56.920 | You don't have to build something extra.

00:39:58.520 | It's built into the van.

00:39:59.720 | It's the battery that's up front underneath the hood.

00:40:02.840 | You can of course run anything

00:40:04.180 | and charge anything that runs on USB.

00:40:06.380 | You just plug your little USB cigarette lighter adapter in,

00:40:08.940 | you run your phone,

00:40:10.280 | get yourself a six foot or a 10 foot USB cord to your phone.

00:40:13.640 | And you now have the ability to charge your phone overnight

00:40:16.760 | while you're sleeping.

00:40:18.120 | Or, and or, you get yourself an inverter.

00:40:20.800 | I recommend getting a small one and also a larger one.

00:40:23.920 | So the small one is nice,

00:40:25.600 | like up to 300 watts or so.

00:40:28.760 | A small one is nice

00:40:29.720 | because you can plug it right into the cigarette lighter

00:40:31.760 | right there in the back of your van.

00:40:33.080 | So if you have a small electrical appliances

00:40:35.820 | that are gonna be under that wattage,

00:40:37.460 | you can use the electrical system that's in the van.

00:40:41.300 | You just plug your inverter into the 12 volt system.

00:40:43.980 | It inverts the direct current into alternating current.

00:40:47.900 | And you can use small appliances,

00:40:50.320 | whatever it is that you need to do.

00:40:51.380 | I've used this for blowing up an air mattress.

00:40:53.860 | You buy an air mattress,

00:40:54.700 | a lot of times now the cheap ones have the blower built in.

00:40:59.700 | And so you can blow it up and put it down.

00:41:02.060 | It's all built in right to the van.

00:41:03.640 | If you're gonna run an appliance

00:41:04.560 | for a significant amount of time,

00:41:05.700 | just turn the engine on in the van

00:41:06.900 | and use the engine as a generator.

00:41:08.780 | Or of course, carry a larger one.

00:41:10.780 | And you can carry a larger one and pop the hood

00:41:13.260 | and connect to the hood and use that to run

00:41:15.580 | any kind of larger electrical equipment that you have.

00:41:18.460 | One thing I have done, found very easy,

00:41:20.100 | you can actually put the inverter on.

00:41:22.500 | You can find a place under the hood that's safe,

00:41:25.060 | put a little platform for the inverter,

00:41:26.860 | and then just run your electrical cord from the front

00:41:28.860 | right into the vehicle.

00:41:29.780 | Now you have an electrical cord

00:41:31.500 | that can run larger current draw equipment

00:41:34.700 | inside the vehicle.

00:41:35.640 | It's fun, sorry, it's, I guess it's fun.

00:41:38.380 | I'm having fun describing it to you,

00:41:39.820 | but it's easy and it works.

00:41:42.000 | The inverter is simple.

00:41:43.460 | It's really, really nice.

00:41:44.720 | So when you start putting these things together,

00:41:48.240 | a lot of your basic equipment is there and it's built in.

00:41:51.700 | You don't have to do a lot of modifications.

00:41:53.460 | Is it as good as having a nice RV

00:41:55.420 | with a built-in toilet and all that?

00:41:57.340 | No, it's not.

00:41:58.180 | It's definitely not.

00:41:59.860 | But is it adequate?

00:42:01.140 | Is it adequate for one person with an adventurous spirit?

00:42:04.460 | I think it's more than adequate.

00:42:06.060 | There are people all around the world

00:42:07.340 | who don't live nearly as well every day.

00:42:10.700 | And I could very happily, very pleasantly,

00:42:13.640 | without feeling like I was suffering,

00:42:17.780 | I could very easily, as a single person,

00:42:20.380 | live in a minivan for an extended period of time,

00:42:25.260 | traveling or living for an extended period of time.

00:42:29.220 | And I would be willing to make that choice.

00:42:31.020 | If I were gonna go back today, now we're 18 years old,

00:42:33.420 | now we're looking at my college living expenses

00:42:36.460 | or things like that,

00:42:37.300 | personally, if I were gonna do it again,

00:42:38.760 | I would do that and I would save the $30,000

00:42:42.420 | that I spent on living expenses during those college years.

00:42:45.340 | And I would use that and I would invest the money instead

00:42:48.280 | to build a stronger foundation for my financial future.

00:42:52.740 | This is different than at other stages of life,

00:42:54.780 | when you're wealthy or when you have other people.

00:42:56.900 | I would not, unless we were forced to,

00:42:59.160 | I would not live with my family in a van, certainly not.

00:43:03.040 | But when you're young and you're single and you're flexible,

00:43:06.300 | there are tremendous opportunities.

00:43:08.420 | Let's talk about necessary and valuable equipment.

00:43:10.220 | I talked about a comfortable mattress already.

00:43:12.020 | Safety equipment, carbon monoxide detector,

00:43:14.220 | make sure you have one of those just to make sure.

00:43:17.340 | Test it as well.

00:43:18.460 | I recommend having a fire extinguisher.

00:43:20.140 | You should always have a fire extinguisher

00:43:21.420 | in all of your vehicles.

00:43:23.140 | How dumb to have your car burned down

00:43:24.980 | because you didn't have a fire extinguisher.

00:43:26.940 | I talked about an inverter, having an inverter.

00:43:29.420 | Other basic and important equipment

00:43:30.740 | is you wanna make sure that you have

00:43:31.840 | some tinting on the windows

00:43:33.700 | and a sunshade for the front window for privacy.

00:43:36.520 | Now, many, many vans come from the factory

00:43:38.400 | with dark tinting all around.

00:43:39.620 | So once again, this doesn't require you to do anything.

00:43:43.340 | If yours doesn't, then you can go ahead and tint it.

00:43:46.440 | Get a sunshade for the front window

00:43:47.800 | so to enhance your privacy.

00:43:49.660 | Many times what you'll find

00:43:50.700 | is when you're sleeping in a vehicle,

00:43:52.140 | you'll be sleeping in a place where there are other people

00:43:55.380 | and that privacy will be valuable for you.

00:43:58.260 | Some people will go ahead and modify their vehicle

00:44:00.220 | by installing curtains.

00:44:01.300 | You can do this with Velcro.

00:44:02.760 | You can do this with snaps.

00:44:04.660 | You may do that.

00:44:05.660 | If and if I were doing it full-time, I would consider it.

00:44:08.920 | Some people also will add insulation to their vehicle.

00:44:12.340 | The most popular product is a product called Reflectix.

00:44:15.440 | You can get it at the local home improvement store.

00:44:17.140 | They sell it in large rolls,

00:44:18.460 | but it's this shiny, silvery bubble insulation material

00:44:25.140 | that'll help you to stay warmer in the winter

00:44:29.300 | and cooler in the summer.

00:44:31.740 | I don't think I would do that

00:44:33.020 | unless I were living in the van full-time,

00:44:34.700 | but if I were, just a tip for you,

00:44:37.300 | don't put the shiny silver Reflectix up to the window.

00:44:40.100 | Make sure you have a black curtain

00:44:42.260 | or perhaps a black piece of cardboard.

00:44:44.260 | Make sure that your vehicle

00:44:46.620 | just looks like it has dark windows

00:44:48.560 | so that you can camp in places that are populated

00:44:52.340 | and you don't have to worry about someone

00:44:54.260 | knowing that you look like you're living in a van.

00:44:56.840 | I think that stealth camping is really valuable.

00:44:58.960 | We've all known people, I think,

00:45:00.140 | who've lived in their vehicles,

00:45:01.200 | and the front dash is filled with junk.

00:45:05.940 | The vehicle's filled with junk.

00:45:08.420 | That's not me, I don't like junk.

00:45:10.100 | So dark tinting and a sunshade are valuable.

00:45:13.300 | Cold weather sleeping bag blankets is important,

00:45:17.380 | especially if you're gonna be where it's cold.

00:45:19.540 | And then my big philosophy

00:45:21.060 | is try not to have a ton of stuff.

00:45:23.300 | The more stuff you have, the worse it is.

00:45:25.940 | If you have just a few things with you,

00:45:28.220 | you won't feel oppressed,

00:45:29.340 | you won't feel like you're suffering.

00:45:31.220 | If you have tons of stuff with you,

00:45:33.840 | then you constantly feel like you're digging through stuff

00:45:36.700 | and now it just gets really annoying.

00:45:39.380 | It gets really annoying, like I need a big dresser.

00:45:41.340 | Well, yes, because you have too much junk.

00:45:43.580 | So try not to have too much junk.

00:45:45.540 | One thing, one philosophy I've developed

00:45:48.560 | is that stuff is really oppressive

00:45:53.560 | if it's not modularized and organized.

00:45:57.040 | It's not so annoying to have larger amounts of things

00:46:00.320 | if they're modularized and organized.

00:46:03.720 | So I always like to have nice organized modules for stuff.

00:46:07.200 | In my home, that means I try to just keep everything

00:46:09.560 | and I use bags for most things, boxes are fine,

00:46:12.660 | but keeping things in modules,

00:46:14.400 | things that go together, go together.

00:46:16.220 | So all the cables are in one place,

00:46:17.640 | all of the miscellaneous things are kept together.

00:46:21.040 | That allows me to have more things,

00:46:22.720 | but not to be so obnoxious to have those things.

00:46:26.060 | This is to me, the practical balance

00:46:28.000 | between excessive junk everywhere

00:46:30.680 | being oppressive to you and minimalism,

00:46:33.600 | where you get rid of all the stuff that's useful,

00:46:34.960 | is to have things organized into nice modules.

00:46:37.400 | In a van, soft modules are better than hard.

00:46:40.360 | A standard van, you put a twin mattress in,

00:46:43.240 | you slide it over to the side,

00:46:44.160 | there's enough room down the side

00:46:45.160 | to put some normal size duffel bags,

00:46:47.720 | and then you have some hanging shirts

00:46:51.040 | or things that you don't wanna have wrinkled,

00:46:53.240 | then you could put those along the side.

00:46:55.700 | So that's my recommendation, is keep soft modules,

00:46:57.920 | soft duffel bags with bags in them as well.

00:47:01.280 | That works really well.

00:47:02.440 | I recommend that you consider having some cooking gear.

00:47:05.960 | I think the best, most practical solution here

00:47:08.540 | is a small butane stove.

00:47:11.400 | This is what I travel with, is a small butane stove,

00:47:14.120 | single burner gas stove, runs on a little butane bottle.

00:47:16.800 | So it's the kind of thing, if you stay in a nice hotel,

00:47:18.760 | they'll usually use these stoves for the omelet station.

00:47:21.680 | You'll frequently see them used for that.

00:47:23.160 | That works great, it gives you a stove to cook on.

00:47:25.680 | And you can keep a small stove, some simple pots and pans.

00:47:29.960 | I like to travel with a French press to make coffee.

00:47:32.040 | And that allows you to have a small cooking kit

00:47:34.920 | held in a small duffel bag.

00:47:36.640 | So if you're gonna get up in the morning

00:47:37.820 | and you wanna cook, then you pull, or make some coffee,

00:47:41.100 | then you go ahead and just find a park

00:47:42.720 | or a picnic table, or if you're at a rest area on the highway

00:47:46.080 | it takes about 10 minutes, just grab your stove,

00:47:47.720 | take your little bag over to the table,

00:47:48.960 | set up your stove, and you're good to go.

00:47:51.680 | And you can make a little pot of coffee very easily.

00:47:54.640 | So I think it's worth it to have

00:47:56.080 | a little bit of cooking gear.

00:47:57.480 | Because when you're on the road, the two big expenses are,

00:48:00.120 | well, three big expenses are cost of getting there,

00:48:03.040 | plane tickets and/or cost of gas.

00:48:06.200 | We're trying to minimize that by having a vehicle

00:48:07.940 | that has decent gas mileage.

00:48:09.820 | Cost of accommodation, this is usually the huge cost,

00:48:12.900 | especially if you're going to a big city conference

00:48:16.140 | or something like that, $150 a night

00:48:18.520 | is not an abnormal cost, or even more sometimes.

00:48:22.580 | And then the cost of food.

00:48:24.000 | When food is taken out of your control

00:48:26.340 | and you're at the mercy of the restaurants around,

00:48:28.340 | oftentimes that can be a substantial cost for you.

00:48:32.080 | So having a little bit of cooking gear helps as well.

00:48:35.260 | Next piece of gear is having a cooler.

00:48:37.460 | And since the modern injection molded coolers

00:48:42.180 | have kind of taken over the market,

00:48:44.040 | that's kind of the term for,

00:48:46.480 | sorry, it's the roto-molded coolers,

00:48:51.540 | like the Yeti brand that you see a lot of places.

00:48:54.520 | These modern coolers have changed

00:48:56.260 | much of the cooling technology.

00:48:58.680 | So the Yeti, it's probably the most popular brand name

00:49:01.620 | in the roto-molded coolers,

00:49:03.580 | they've come out with soft coolers.

00:49:05.500 | And you can now buy these in the,

00:49:08.480 | kind of the knockoff marketplace.

00:49:10.180 | We can buy one of these soft coolers

00:49:11.480 | that has a good thick foam insulation,

00:49:13.820 | and they do really well,

00:49:15.460 | but they're very, very flexible inside a vehicle,

00:49:17.580 | and they're small.

00:49:18.520 | I'm not talking here about the very thin lunch coolers

00:49:23.620 | that just have very little insulation,

00:49:26.580 | but you don't want, in a van,

00:49:28.420 | you don't want a big square plastic thing

00:49:30.800 | that's getting in your way.

00:49:31.700 | You want a small, compact cooler.

00:49:34.060 | So I have one from Walmart that just does a great job.

00:49:37.860 | It'll keep a bag of ice for multiple days,

00:49:40.700 | and that allows you to keep your food cold,

00:49:43.000 | which is really worth considering.

00:49:45.620 | And it's small enough and simple enough

00:49:48.180 | to be useful and not to be oppressive

00:49:52.580 | inside a small minivan.

00:49:54.940 | Make sure you have a comfortable chair to sit in outside.

00:49:57.780 | The whole point of doing something like this

00:49:59.540 | is to get outside when the weather's beautiful.

00:50:01.540 | So you want something small,

00:50:03.620 | but something comfortable that you can sit in outside.

00:50:06.420 | Make sure that you carry with you an eye mask

00:50:08.940 | in case it's light.

00:50:10.400 | One of the biggest challenges,

00:50:12.980 | the places that are easy to sleep

00:50:15.220 | and safe to sleep when you're on the road,

00:50:17.340 | for example, a rest stop or a truck stop,

00:50:21.900 | many of these places are very bright.

00:50:23.980 | Now, that bright light is nice for safety,

00:50:27.320 | but it's often not so nice when you're sleeping.

00:50:30.540 | And if you're in a vehicle that has open windows

00:50:33.200 | and you don't have curtains,

00:50:34.880 | then sometimes the angles,

00:50:37.580 | if you're lying down in the back,

00:50:38.820 | the angles of the bright truck stop sign

00:50:41.460 | or the bright light will just come right in

00:50:43.940 | and be right in your face.

00:50:44.860 | So carry an eye mask with you.

00:50:46.820 | Other equipment that's important, gym membership.

00:50:50.060 | The best, easiest place to get a shower on the road,

00:50:53.620 | 'cause of course, what do you do about bathroom facilities?

00:50:55.720 | Well, bathrooms are easy to find.

00:50:56.980 | And as an adult, those are easy to find

00:50:59.140 | and easy to deal with.

00:51:00.660 | And then for showering,

00:51:04.980 | you can use either a national large gym franchise

00:51:08.980 | or what I found many times,

00:51:10.440 | just go to a local gym, explain to them,

00:51:12.220 | hey, I'm traveling, I'm staying in my car,

00:51:14.300 | I need to take a shower, may I take a shower?

00:51:15.820 | And they'll allow you to take a shower.

00:51:17.460 | At the, in the worst case scenario,

00:51:19.260 | if you have to pay for one,

00:51:20.420 | you can always take a shower at a truck stop.

00:51:22.260 | They're expensive, they're not cheap.

00:51:24.900 | That's the same thing, not cheap and expensive.

00:51:26.660 | They're expensive, but in a pinch, it'll do.

00:51:30.640 | And make sure you also just travel

00:51:31.940 | with washcloths and baby wipes.

00:51:33.780 | There have been times where I've needed a shower

00:51:36.220 | and I couldn't find facilities.

00:51:38.020 | And so in those circumstances,

00:51:40.100 | you wanna make sure that you have a washcloth,

00:51:41.540 | then you find a public restroom where you have privacy

00:51:43.980 | and you can use a washcloth to freshen up

00:51:46.020 | and or baby wipes are very useful.

00:51:50.340 | In terms of, I glossed over bathroom facilities.

00:51:53.420 | For most adults, bathroom facilities should be fine

00:51:55.980 | and easy to find.

00:51:56.820 | There's plenty of public bathroom facilities.

00:51:59.280 | Some people who are living in larger vans

00:52:01.140 | or larger vehicles will use things like a cassette toilet.

00:52:04.480 | There's a technology called a cassette toilet

00:52:06.540 | that even many RVers will use.

00:52:08.540 | Those are fine, they're very practical.

00:52:11.260 | There's not enough room in a minivan to use one.

00:52:13.580 | So you'll just wanna use public restrooms

00:52:15.820 | and or make temporary accommodations in your vehicle,

00:52:18.820 | just like you do when you are in a tent.

00:52:22.600 | Have a pee bottle or something like that.

00:52:24.580 | Next, where can you sleep?

00:52:26.440 | Basically almost anywhere,

00:52:28.340 | especially if you have a minivan with dark windows.

00:52:31.140 | I have stayed in parking garages in big cities.

00:52:34.900 | This can actually be great in the winter time.

00:52:36.660 | Sometimes if you're in a big city

00:52:38.100 | and you're traveling in the winter time when it's cold,

00:52:40.380 | if you find a parking garage in a city

00:52:42.020 | where there are basement facilities,

00:52:43.560 | you go down below, the parking garage can be very warm

00:52:46.300 | and that can help you to sleep more comfortably.

00:52:47.980 | So I've stayed on the fifth floor of a parking garage

00:52:50.380 | and then four floors underneath the surface street.

00:52:53.860 | And sometimes that's your best bet.

00:52:55.500 | Yes, you pay for parking,

00:52:56.900 | but when you're in a big city,

00:52:58.660 | your hotel costs are generally just massive.

00:53:01.580 | And frequently, if you are staying in a car,

00:53:04.980 | you can be right at your whatever it is.

00:53:07.160 | If you have to go to a business conference

00:53:09.020 | or if you're a sightseeing, you can be right in the city

00:53:11.620 | and paying $10 for 24 hours of parking in a parking garage

00:53:15.220 | is a lot better than paying $300

00:53:18.060 | for a mediocre room in that hotel.

00:53:21.500 | You can stay in parking lots, obviously, almost anywhere.

00:53:24.700 | In cities, you can stay in, I've stated,

00:53:27.980 | paid parking lots if you're in a city

00:53:30.580 | or just about any parking lot,

00:53:32.740 | or of course, the parking lot of almost any business.

00:53:35.300 | Walmart is well-known for being accepting

00:53:37.900 | of people staying in their vehicles, especially RVers.

00:53:40.700 | So you can easily stay in most Walmart parking lots.

00:53:44.380 | There are other cities that have this as a,

00:53:46.260 | sorry, other businesses that have this as a standard,

00:53:51.180 | a standard protocol or a standard procedure.

00:53:55.540 | For example, Cracker Barrel.

00:53:56.860 | Cracker Barrel, if you're an RVer,

00:53:58.380 | you can always stay at a Cracker Barrel in a park

00:54:00.220 | without being, fear of being hassled by somebody.

00:54:03.340 | Cabela's or other sporting goods stores

00:54:05.180 | will often have this policy as well.

00:54:07.580 | But really, just about anywhere.

00:54:08.900 | There's a local, in my local Home Depot,

00:54:10.940 | there's a van dweller who lives

00:54:12.140 | in the Home Depot parking lot that I always notice.

00:54:15.260 | I always notice him in there.

00:54:16.520 | So big, just any major parking lot.

00:54:19.540 | And of course, you can do this on city streets.

00:54:21.860 | On multiple times, I have stayed on city streets.

00:54:26.140 | The benefit of a city street is you can often find

00:54:28.300 | a dark spot that gives a very nice sleeping environment.

00:54:32.060 | And so you just usually wanna be unobtrusive

00:54:36.220 | and respectful of the residents of that city street.

00:54:40.420 | And of course, when you're on the highway,

00:54:41.660 | some of the simplest and easiest places,

00:54:43.500 | if there's a rest area near to you.

00:54:45.900 | A rest area on a highway is great.

00:54:48.240 | Many rest areas will have nighttime security.

00:54:51.140 | So that's good for having a secure location.

00:54:53.900 | Always pay attention to your safety.

00:54:55.900 | But it's also a normal place for people to be.

00:54:58.900 | Remember, truckers live in their vehicles

00:55:01.780 | when they're on the road.

00:55:02.940 | And so the rest stops and the truck stops

00:55:04.660 | are filled with truckers sleeping in their car.

00:55:06.580 | So it's not out of place if you're in a rest area.

00:55:09.040 | You go in and you use the restroom,

00:55:10.700 | you brush your teeth, things like that,

00:55:12.760 | that sometimes can be a little out of place in other places.

00:55:16.100 | If you're near a rest area, truck stops, et cetera,

00:55:18.180 | places where the truckers are,

00:55:19.660 | that's a very normal, normal place.

00:55:21.540 | But what I have found is if you have a small vehicle

00:55:23.780 | that's unobtrusive and you're just discreet

00:55:26.500 | in your behavior and your actions, you can sleep anywhere.

00:55:30.580 | And as a traveler, it's pretty cool

00:55:32.340 | to be able to be right in the middle of a downtown place

00:55:35.460 | where you're gonna do big tours and things like that

00:55:38.180 | and to be very comfortable

00:55:39.980 | and yet to be able to do it inexpensively.

00:55:43.740 | Now, what about if you were doing this for the long term?

00:55:46.860 | Probably today it's so much easier than it ever was.

00:55:50.100 | With internet connection right on your cell phone,

00:55:52.660 | you have the electricity right there in the van

00:55:54.940 | like I've described with an inverter if you need it

00:55:57.060 | or just pull directly from the 12 volt power.

00:55:59.940 | You've got restrooms and things like that all around.

00:56:02.740 | I mean, it's so much easier today

00:56:04.980 | than it ever was in the past.

00:56:06.900 | The only, I guess, other consideration

00:56:08.220 | would be mail, mail forwarding services.

00:56:09.820 | If I were a college student, of course,

00:56:11.060 | college students often will have a mailbox on campus.

00:56:13.900 | Or if I were traveling long term,

00:56:15.260 | I would just sign up with one

00:56:16.100 | of the mail forwarding services

00:56:17.620 | that cater to the RV community and that would be great

00:56:21.900 | or rent a post office box.

00:56:23.340 | But there's no reason why you can't,

00:56:26.140 | you couldn't do this long term.

00:56:27.780 | There's no reason why whatsoever.

00:56:30.060 | Now, when should you not live in a van?

00:56:32.260 | Or when should you not stay in a van?

00:56:34.860 | I think number one,

00:56:36.020 | when it impedes your overall performance.

00:56:39.140 | So I choose not to do this

00:56:41.020 | when I'm giving something like an important speech.

00:56:43.700 | If I'm giving an important speech

00:56:45.220 | and I wanna make sure that,

00:56:46.740 | then I wanna make sure if I'm speaking from stage

00:56:48.980 | that I'm feeling confident, that I'm doing well.

00:56:51.460 | I wanna make sure that my, you know,

00:56:53.260 | my clothes are right, my hair is right,

00:56:54.900 | all of those kinds of things.

00:56:56.180 | I've often found that I just often feel

00:56:58.340 | just a little tiny bit off when I'm in a van.

00:57:01.460 | So if I'm working or if there's something very important,

00:57:03.620 | then I'll just go ahead and get the hotel room.

00:57:05.380 | And that's just the cost of doing business.

00:57:07.820 | Because it's more important to me

00:57:09.060 | that I'm at my top, my peak shape

00:57:11.340 | than that I save $100.

00:57:13.580 | But that tiny bit off that I'm describing is not,

00:57:17.700 | you know, it's not,

00:57:19.300 | that's not a big deal most of the time.

00:57:21.740 | I think if I were living in a vehicle for the longterm,

00:57:24.180 | I would get over it and it would just be normal.

00:57:26.260 | But that it's just the tiniest little bit

00:57:28.700 | of kind of being out of sync.

00:57:31.900 | And frankly, I think it's more the social aspects of it,

00:57:36.900 | the social stigma versus the any actual practical effect.

00:57:41.780 | If you're in a place where it's nice and cool

00:57:43.500 | and you have a nice comfortable bed and you sleep well,

00:57:46.420 | everything's fine.

00:57:47.260 | You can use a restroom, you can freshen up,

00:57:48.980 | you can go to the gym, take a shower, everything is fine.

00:57:52.180 | But because you're kind of on the fringes of society,

00:57:55.500 | if you're staying in a vehicle,

00:57:56.580 | you're kind of always on the fringe.

00:57:57.820 | You're never in that same place

00:57:59.580 | where all the normal people are.

00:58:00.780 | You're never in your normal house.

00:58:02.100 | You're never in your normal apartment.

00:58:03.260 | You're never in your normal hotel room.

00:58:04.980 | You're always kind of on this fringe

00:58:06.660 | that has a bit of a psychological effect.

00:58:09.820 | And so one thing I've learned

00:58:12.660 | is that I don't do it

00:58:14.900 | if I have an important business engagement

00:58:17.420 | or if I'm giving an important speech

00:58:19.620 | or if I have important meetings or something like that there.

00:58:21.920 | I don't wanna lose even the littlest bit of an edge.

00:58:24.460 | But in terms of the rest of the time,

00:58:27.900 | there are big savings in money

00:58:34.420 | and in the early stages of your wealth building,

00:58:36.720 | that's so valuable to save those hundreds

00:58:39.340 | and hundreds of dollars,

00:58:40.640 | but yet still be able to have the big experiences

00:58:42.860 | because I wanna live a rich life,

00:58:44.980 | which doesn't mean being a hermit and not doing anything,

00:58:48.520 | but I wanna live a rich life well.

00:58:50.940 | And then my final piece of advice,

00:58:52.300 | make sure you're careful of the way that you're eating

00:58:54.220 | and make sure you're not just eating junk all the time.

00:58:56.260 | When you're on the road,

00:58:57.100 | and this is one of the reasons why I think it's important

00:58:58.700 | and valuable to have cooking equipment

00:59:00.620 | and to have a cooler with you,

00:59:02.320 | be careful how you eat

00:59:03.500 | 'cause it's too easy to eat junk and then you feel bad.

00:59:06.020 | But the reason you feel bad

00:59:07.020 | is not because you were living in your van.

00:59:08.900 | The reason you feel bad is 'cause you've been eating junk.

00:59:11.620 | So that's where I try to make sure

00:59:13.660 | that I have refrigeration capability with a cooler

00:59:17.020 | and a little bit of cooking capability as well

00:59:20.100 | so that I can eat quality food.

00:59:21.760 | So that's it, those are my ideas.

00:59:24.340 | Those are my recommendations for you

00:59:26.320 | on how to live in a van and love it,

00:59:29.220 | or live in your car and love it.

00:59:31.180 | If you've done this, feel free to come by the show.

00:59:33.300 | Tell me about it, radicalpersonalfinance.com.

00:59:34.860 | I'd love to hear about it.

00:59:35.860 | And I hope that this is helpful

00:59:37.220 | and inspirational to many more of you.

00:59:39.580 | Listen, if you wanna live well and get rich, it's possible.

00:59:44.500 | You don't have to just sit around and do nothing.

00:59:47.780 | You don't have to say,

00:59:48.860 | well, either I'm gonna travel

00:59:50.660 | and spend thousands of dollars traveling,

00:59:52.860 | or I'm not gonna travel at all 'cause I can't afford it.

00:59:55.600 | It's a completely false choice.

00:59:58.420 | You can live well and live on a great adventure

01:00:02.060 | and save money the whole way.

01:00:03.900 | Just think outside the box

01:00:05.420 | and look at the opportunities that are around you

01:00:07.540 | and don't be scared to buck society's trends.

01:00:11.580 | This show is part of the Radical Life Media Network

01:00:16.420 | of podcasts and resources.

01:00:18.700 | Find out more at radicallifemedia.com.

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RPF0499-Living_in_Your_Car_and_Loving_It