Anyone read Vanabode? I liked it...liked Bob's book too!!!

[Billyidol]

I bought Vanabode about a year ago and it was really awesome.&nbsp; I was already pretty much converted to his philosophy before I even bought the book.&nbsp; I really like how confident and authoritative Jason is.&nbsp; I like a person that has an opinion.&nbsp; Ultimately, I don't think the Chevrolet Express will fit my needs, but that is beside the point.&nbsp; I bought Bob's book too, and I never realized that there was such a thing as a high top van.<br><br>I really like some of the ideas that are contained in Vanabode.&nbsp; I think that everyone here on Bob's site inherently agree with the Vanabode ideas, but Jason does have an elegant way of saying it.&nbsp; <br><br>-I like the idea that we don't really own anything.&nbsp; Even a house, when you die, someone is going to take it.&nbsp; Our most valuable asset is our time.&nbsp; Brilliant!&nbsp; Time rich is better than money rich.&nbsp; <br><br>-Work to buy, then die.&nbsp; So true!<br><br>-"When you bought the house, you just wanted a safe place to bath, eat, and sleep.&nbsp; Instead you got a prison with a 30 year sentence or mortgage as the bankers call it."&nbsp; So....freaking....true!!!! I was laughing after I read that!!!!&nbsp; All day long, day after day, busting your ass for a box to sleep in!<br><br>-"People often wrap their entire life around the acquisition of a dry wall box to sleep in.&nbsp; They marry prematurely, burn years of their life studying subjects they are not interested in and spend tons of money paying for it.&nbsp; Then most people find that they can not leave the immediate area except for a pitiful 1-2 weeks a year when they can get permission from their boss to take a vacation.&nbsp; Their entire world becomes a house they won't pay off until they are 55 years old.&nbsp; Unhappiness, indebtedness, and outright slavery to their job has become the norm.&nbsp; Once disillusioned, people argue, blame each other, and get divorced."&nbsp; Effing brilliant!!!&nbsp; Well said!!!<br><br>I felt that Bob's book opened my eyes to other alternatives including the high top van.&nbsp; But his philosophy is similar to Vanabode.&nbsp; I guess the one thing that made the Chevy Express van not work for me was the lack of roof top air conditioning.&nbsp; For the place that I like to go (southern Cal and Arizona), I need AC.&nbsp; So I'm looking for class B RVs with roof top air, plus the class B has a shower to boot.&nbsp; But I am still going to use a lot of the strategies and philosophies that I learned from Vanabode.&nbsp; <br><br>John

 

[caseyc]

I feel "lucky" to have experienced the imprisonment treatment in my early twenties. Got a large house, big mortgage, nagging wife, bad commute, and my life was miserable. Got rid of all that a few years later.&nbsp; I discovered that my pain threshold is rather low! Got all that out of my system early on so I don't have to make the same dumb mistake again later on in life! <img class="emoticon bbc_img" src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif"><img class="emoticon bbc_img" src="/images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif">&nbsp;Lesson was already learned many years ago!

 

[caseyc]

By the way, go get a RoadTrek if you can afford one!&nbsp; I recently went to a RV shop and checked out the various RoadTrek new models. Quite pricey though!&nbsp; I was hoping to see the 170 series, but they didn't have any in stock, only the 190 series and larger.

 

[MrNoodly]

Some good philosophy, but where Jason and his wife (sorry, forgot her name) differ from many of us here is that they aren't full-timers. So the advice that you can go out with only the stuff they take doesn't apply all that well to us full-timers. <br><br>I do like, though, that they mix urban and wilderness locations. I happen to like cities. I can take only so much wilderness before I get really bored and lazy. Cities energize me. I've been staying at a friend's place in a semi-farming area about five miles outside a small city/large town. I go stir crazy, and that's even when I've been busy all day working on the van. I go to a large city an hour away on weekends just to change things up.

 

[Willy]

&nbsp;You know, in the movies, where everyone is shouting "Don't go down them dark stairs into the cellar!".. but the brainless teenager does (and gets carved up into little wet bits)? Well, I had plenty of friends who trod that dark stairwell (so to speak) and I, seeing the horror that ensued, chose a brighter path less fraught with danger. ..Willy.

 

[ilovemyvan]

Looking around at other people I always knew what I didn't want.....their lives. It took me what seemed like&nbsp;a long long time to figure out what I wanted. There was a&nbsp;fair amount&nbsp;of loneliness because of it. I didn't fit in well at all. I worked for IBM for 15 years, I enjoyed it for most part, the work not the people. They were the 30 years mortgage kind which I&nbsp;couldn't relate too at all. Reading your posts made me realized that I made the right decision to not give in. I finally found my kind of people in my late 20's&nbsp; and never looked back. It was well worth it.<br><br>Nicole<br><br>updated a few hours later...<br><br><br><span id="post_message_1278970567">Hummm, I've been thinking about this subject a bit today and in all fairness&nbsp;I have to say that I don't&nbsp;thing&nbsp;all&nbsp;30 years mortgage people&nbsp;are stuck in the rat race and miserable. A lot of them planned it right and were fortunate enough to make it thru the recession unscratched. Not everybody that has a job, hate what they are doing. Not everybody that has a home are doing it to impress the Jones. The homeowners that paid off their mortgages are in a very nice place financially and I, for one, am happy for them. That's what they wanted and I have to respect that, just like I wanted to be respected when I lived in the bus....just a thought</span>

 

[spd2918]

I read Vanabode and enjoyed it because, finally, there was someone with my same dream.&nbsp; Most of the rest of the book was common sense.<br><br>I have never felt trapped by my home or the mortgage, but I get it.&nbsp; I will retire at 50 years old and have the rest of my life to explore.&nbsp; My wife will put up with van life for a month or two at a time, but we will still have a home base somewhere in the US.&nbsp; I look forward to my small (or tiny) retirement house as well as extended travel in a stealth van.&nbsp; I just wish the cost of the diesels was less.