Here is how you beat the system (THE MATRIX)! Plus a rundown of various options!

[caseyc]

I'm an ex-New Yorker. I don't miss the freezing winters there! I dig California weather better. 

 

[RJCooper]

My winter grounds is in Old Forge.  20 feet on average a year of the white stuff.  The weather may be nice, but the wheels of god are turning ever so fast on Cali.  Such a shame because so much beauty. 

 

[caseyc]

The only snow I like is the stuff I downhill ski on from the slopes of Lake Tahoe&nbsp;<img src="/images/boards/smilies/biggrin.gif" class="emoticon bbc_img">

 

[Tara]

It's all in how you do it, or in what you can imagine without society's help.

Here's my version of hacking capitalism:

After van dwelling and really never being in one place for more than a couple weeks for years I wanted to wake up in the same place every day. So I bought a little home. It was less than $30k and I paid cash with what is saved van dwelling. No mortgage, no insurance, no taxes, no utilities, no other human beings or roads on this side of the river, just freedom. Life is much cheaper than when I lived in a van - like $300/m cheap.

After the last six years of that I got motivated to scrape up some money and invest in some land. I paid cash ($10k) for an acre a couple years ago. This summer I picked up a mostly furnished cabin someone wanted moved for $5k. Now I have a rental. I'm about to start building a second little cabin on that property. It'll cost about $3-4k (and a lot of hard work) and then I'll have a retal empire for $1k/year in taxes.

 

[RJCooper]

Tara,I have a little resting spot in the heartland about 5 acres when my time comes to settle again.&nbsp; I have always had plan b and c.&nbsp; I don't know what state your in, but when the planners and inspectors flood comes your way, the upkeep with codes and compliances is going to dig.&nbsp; I know I tend quite a few rentals here at the beach and inland a ways.&nbsp; <br><br>I owned a few rentals, the factories that were there for decades went overseas, the renters went elsewhere.&nbsp; But, in hind sight if I had of toughed it out would still be ok with owning them.&nbsp; <br><br>My thoughts on ground is more of a community or alone.&nbsp; The toss up is still raging in my head.&nbsp; Best of luck to you.

 

[ilovemyvan]

<p>I can honestly say that skydiving saved our lives. <img class="emoticon bbc_img" src="/images/boards/smilies/crazy.gif">&nbsp;or should I say, saved us from the 'real-estate trap' It was such an expensive sport that we never, until recently, could&nbsp;afford&nbsp;normal housing expenses.&nbsp;At one point we&nbsp;lived with 5 other jumpers&nbsp;in order to dedicate more money to the sport. We saved in entertainment&nbsp;too, we didn't have to go out to spend time with our friends, they were right there. For 6 months we stayed free in a tent in Gardner, NY and an other 6 months at $2.00/night in Eloy, AZ, still in a tent. We also lived 8 years in a converted school bus, anything to save a buck in housing. When we finally stop jumping we (physically) build our own house. The bank did us a huge favor by refusing us credit. We paid as we went, challenging our frugal side. It was a lot of hard work but looking back it was all worth it (now if you'd have asked me during all this construction I might have given you an other answer). As for the property taxes, well they are needed. We saw it first hand after all the hurricanes that hit this area a few years back. We couldn't even drive&nbsp;around because&nbsp;of all the&nbsp;trees&nbsp;blocking the way.&nbsp;Who knows how long it would have been to clean it all&nbsp;up if the tax money hadn't been there.&nbsp;<br><br>I love our house, at this point in my live I wouldn't want to live anywhere else but that won't stop us from&nbsp;traveling&nbsp;with the van. We consider ourselves very lucky and believe me when I say that we don't take any of it for granted. We even lucked out with the location we settled in, we are surrounded &nbsp;by peacock. There is a colony of at least 25 roaming the neighborhood. Thank god we didn't know that when we were negotiation the price of the lot.<br><br>Like every one we had some very bad, even&nbsp;awful stuff happened over the years but all of it brought us where we are now and I wouldn't change any of it.<br><br>Nicole</p>

 

[Terry]

Don't that many peacocks make an awfull lot of noise?

 

[Ziggy Moon]

Beautiful, but crazy bird... I've watched them (the males.. oddly the beautiful ones) fight their reflection on nice shiny objects, such as cars.... can really scratch up a nice paint job I suppose.

 

[BC Guy]

There is no beating the system.&nbsp; You just pick the level of misery that you are willing to put up with.

 

[ilovemyvan]

<span id="post_message_1278917494">Peacock have a loud call thankfully they&nbsp;don't use it often.&nbsp; <br><br>Only once did we have&nbsp;problems with a male hitting shiny things. This one male was not dealing well at all with the fact that mating season was over. He kept on hitting his reflection on the glass doors&nbsp;around the house. He was hitting so hard that he left a bit of blood a few times.&nbsp;I think he thought it was an other male.&nbsp;&nbsp;We had to put 4X8 plywood to cover the glass. So he turned his attention to the bumper on the truck.

 

[rokguy]

<EM><STRONG><SPAN style="COLOR: #888888">Ouch, Mr Peacock. We have Emu's that do that. Geoff</SPAN></STRONG></EM>

 

[flukewho]

I am just wondering how every one is going to move their RV around if and when the bottom falls out of our country ?<br>Guess I better keep my bike handy,and then how are we all going to get food ?<br>Any way I am putting together a Rialta with plans of getting away from house payments,cutting grass,tax and all the other house things that drain your money.<br>I got a feeling though that the government is fast at work ahead of us preparing a new way each day to get our money and give us less freedom.

 

[user 423]

"Always look on the bright side of life..." - Monty Python <br><br><br><br>

 

[Terry]

I used to worry about all that crap about the future. i don't have any grand kids and my last surviving son doesn't want to have any kids of his own so I'll never have to worry about their future. Now I say f??? them all. There have been more handouts to people that are considered rich than ever given to the poor and needy, value for value. I'll do what ever it takes to get by till I'm dead and gone and hope things don't mess with my son too much when I'm no longer able to help him. He hasn't needed my help in over 5 or 6 years so I don't really worry a lot about him anyway.

 

[RJCooper]

I watched His Holiness "Daili Lama" documentaries, three of them to be exact.&nbsp; A few things he said that struck home, one every generation thinks the sky is falling, one most man live life like they are never going to die and never really live and the last thing was what we put our energy/mind into.&nbsp; <br><br>By reading some of these posts, can see who has given up, who is living in the past, who is stressed and who is planting a tree, that they know they will never sit in it's shade.&nbsp; <br><br>

 

[Coffee Tim]

Well said RJ Cooper.

 

[ilovemyvan]

<span id="post_message_1278970567">Oops posted in the wrong tread. sorry<br></span>

 

[Outsource]

Well this is some very interesting news.&nbsp; Hearing about all of your real estate fortunes and now most of you live in a Van.&nbsp; <br><br>As a RE Broker, Appraiser, .&nbsp; .&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; .&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; .&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; .&nbsp;&nbsp; I have to say that all of you <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Are Right!!!&nbsp;</span> </strong><br><br>At this last RE Crash, (September 2007) I have lost everything I ever owned.&nbsp; I had a home that I was paying almost $1,400 per month for, and then I had a very light stroke.&nbsp; My business is stopped.&nbsp; What ever could I do.&nbsp; Due to these bank failures and my bankers have almost all&nbsp;died off, it has changed my entire life.&nbsp;<br><br>I was at one of my old clients funerals last week, and he had a lot of things, collector Corvette, motor home, mobile home, a brick house, tractor and the thing that I noticed is what he took with him.&nbsp; NOTHING!!!<br><br>He had a life full of good experiences, he was a member of a couple of bands, a music ministry, he had a real good faith, and he left everything.&nbsp; (He had Liver&nbsp;cancer, died in 7 months) &nbsp;It now comes to mind just what kind of life he would have had if he had never bought these things and just traveled.&nbsp; Like you,&nbsp; and&nbsp; soon to&nbsp; be ME.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br><br>At the age of 52, its really funny how things are looking very different now.&nbsp; I am finding that what was important to me is now&nbsp;non existant, or not even hitting the list.&nbsp;&nbsp;I want to thank everyone of you,&nbsp; for showing how to live and be very happy in a Van.&nbsp; I think that me and my Road trek are going to be just&nbsp;fine out there.&nbsp; Plus, I can see van-dwellers pulling up at the local truck stop and sleeping there, then moving out in the morning.&nbsp;&nbsp; How I wished that I were&nbsp;like you now!!!&nbsp; &nbsp;All I have to do is convince my wife that this is the best, &nbsp;forever.&nbsp; <br><br>Thank You again!!!<br><br>

 

[Vonbrown]

I wish I didn't have to change my life BECAUSE of money.

 

[Spirituallifetime]

Yea I did the real estate thing and work hard to have stuff when I get older and retire now that I'm 53 I don't have much and still working hard and paying. For what I'm not sure any more. I'm so tired of working so much that I feel like retiring now but don't have any thing to retire on. <br>Sold the house in Las Vegas and bought property in northern NV to live cheap, don't seem to be so cheap now with all the projects (fence around the property, chicken pens and houses, goat shelter). And who&nbsp;knew that northeastern NV could be so harsh of an environment, 20 below zero in the winter and snow(spent a <strong>lot</strong> of <strong>money</strong> last winter just for heating).&nbsp;<br>Thought we would be self-sufficient grow our own food,&nbsp;it costs a <strong>lot</strong> of <strong>money</strong> to grow your own food(I figured our eggs were about $5-7 a dozen but they were good eggs)!&nbsp;<br>Now I just want to get back to working just 8 hours a day instead of the 14 hours a day that I do now but seems I can't do that yet and afford to live! With the cost of living getting higher and wages stagnant this seems to be hard to do!<br>We are getting rid of the animals and going to Yuma for the winter and live much cheaper.