How do u live on $700/month, truly?

[Camper]

I rather live cheaply as a nomad than stare at four walls until I die.

 

[rruff]

I mean what's the worst that could happen? Your van breaks and you gotta hoof it? I feel like rotting away wishing, shoulda/woulda/coulda is way worse.

There is so much diversity in this community, it's tough to make generalizations. It depends on the current circumstances, the person's attitude and skills, their finances, etc. If "crashing and burning" means someone ends up completely broke and broken and living in the gutter, that probably isn't a positive outcome.

 

[WanderingRose]

I agree, rruff, and some of us have more resilience and ability to bounce than others.

I am still learning resilience, tho I think we are hardwired to get up and keep on moving that is not always pretty, nor functional in any way, shape or form.

From my experience, living successfully on limited, fixed income is difficult, requires intense self-discipline, and doing that in a vehicle, with so many moving parts, and where expenses can vary, is at least triply difficult.

In my humble opinion.

 

[CosmickGold]

“Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.”​

― Sean-Paul Thomas

 

[rruff]

From my experience, living successfully on limited, fixed income is difficult, requires intense self-discipline, and doing that in a vehicle, with so many moving parts, and where expenses can vary, is at least triply difficult.

I've never had a problem spending less than I make, and letting my living standard drop when necessary. It feels natural to me. Living free in nature is so wonderful... and inexpensive at the same time... that I didn't miss any of the things I was accustomed to. But everyone has different challenges and struggles. Living in a vehicle isn't a good fit for many; precarious, lonely, too many things missed, stressful, etc. For others it's blissful ease.

 

[RearViewMirror]

“Better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.”​

― Sean-Paul Thomas

These are words I live by.

This will be a long post so I understand if it is a TL;DR post.

How can you make it on $700 a month? Well... to be quite honest, we can't. I'll try to explain to the best of my ability.

I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum that I retired as a Professional FF at the age of 48. I retired from one of the highest paying FD's in the South. I paid a very large sum into my pension throughout my career along with putting as much money in investments throughout my career. The way our pension system works is they take your highest final average pay over your top grossing 3 years over the last 10 years that you are on the job. We were offered plenty of overtime while on the job. We worked 24 hrs on and 48 hrs off. But if you took overtime you were at the station for 48 hrs. The take home pay for one overtime shift was a little over $2100 per shift. But... for each shift of overtime that you worked, it automatically added $26 to your monthly retirement check. So as you can imagine, $26 + the number of overtime shifts you worked during your 3 highest grossing years really added up. The overtime pay was nice. But the extra money on your pension each month was the payoff. Every July 1st I get a 3% (compounded) cost of living increase. When I retired I made more money off the job than I ever did on the job. So the pension system is paying me more to stay home than I ever made while actually doing the job. But... I paid heavily into it.

All of that said... The Fire Service takes a toll on you mentally and physically. After 28 years of service I have seen it all. And there are some things you just can't unsee, unhear, or unsmell. I lay down at night and those thoughts creep back in. Which means I don't sleep very well (if at all some nights). And not to sound fatalistic, if I live to be 70 without any major health problems? I will consider myself fortunate. I already know that if I don't die in some type of accident, I will die of some form of cancer due to everything that I've been exposed to throughout my career. That's just being a realist. So for the time that I have left on this rock, I want to make the most out of it.

We will be selling our house next spring. My daughter is going to attend the University of Colorado next year. The original plan has always been to move to Colorado when my daughter graduated high school. Now that will become a reality (kind of).

The "vanlife" thing kind of came out of nowhere to us. To be honest? We didn't even know this was a thing. We travel out West a few times a year. We took our daughter to the Grand Canyon, Vegas, up through Utah, and back through Colorado on our last trip. While out West, we kept on seeing these 4WD Mercedes Sprinter vans. I had never seen one before since they are not popular in this state. It wasn't until we were in Utah that I got an up close look at one. Then it hit me... People are actually "living" in these. That set off a chain of events that has taken us to where we are today.

My wife is 48 years old. I started doing as much research on these conversion vans as I possibly could. Then we slowly started to realize that we could make this work. My wife and I share the same passions for traveling and adventure. We realized if we decided to go this route, she could retire and we could spend whatever time we have left going and doing the things we always wanted to do with no timeframe. That will essentially cut our income in half. But we can easily live off of my pension by going this route. Once we either get tired of life on the road or just can't do it anymore, we'll put down roots in Colorado Springs. This also freed up another issue that we have. My parents are in poor health. We will need to remain mobile if something happens to one of them. It makes no sense to be paying for a place in Colorado and then have to come back here (maybe for months at a time) to take care of them. We will have to remain mobile.

So... How can we make it on $700 a month? We can't. We spent $180,000 on a completely loaded 2022 4WD Mercedes Benz conversion van. It has every creature comfort we need for life on the road. Did we "need" to spend that much money? No. Absolutely not. But when I buy something, I do my best to buy quality over anything else. That's not to say that things won't break. They will. But that is where our emergency fund comes in (not to mention the 6 year extended warranty we have on our van).

Let's just take the $1500 a month that we financed this van for (10 years) off the table. Once we sell our house we will make a large sum of money off the sale since it is almost paid for. The vast majority of that money will go into our investments. We won't be putting that toward the van since it will be a depreciating asset.

Lets just figure on monthly costs:

1: Fuel. We are not going to stay in one place for long periods of time. That completely defeats the purpose of going this route. So fuel cost will vary. Lets just assume a flat $5 per gallon of diesel. Yes I know that is low but just for the sake of easily figuring out monthly costs, lets just call it that. If we travel just 500 miles a month then fuel for that month will cost us around +/- $220 per month and that is being extremely conservative.

2: Assuming we don't eat out at all (which we will sometimes) will cost us around $200 per month just for groceries we keep in the van.

3: Cell phone is $130 per month with unlimited data for 4 lines.

4: Insurance is $90 a month on the van and $90 a month for my daughters car. Can't get around that.

5: Life insurance is $80 a month for both of us.

6: Health insurance for my wife and daughter. $500 a month since they will have to have their on coverage since my wife will retire early with no option of taking her health insurance with her.

7: Personal Property tax on the van is $1800 a year. $150 a month. Yes, I know I could register it in a state that has no personal property tax but with my pension, I don't pay State Income tax so it is a wash. And yes... I know that I could register it in a state that has no State Income tax. But we will need a permanent address. So we will be using my parents address until we can't.

Total all that up? $1460 a month. Not including the payment on the van itself. If we include the van payment we are looking at $2960 a month. Still way below my monthly pension.

But... if we go this route, we will actually be saving more since we won't have any of the traditional costs associated with home ownership. $0 in monthly utilities, $0 in mortgage, $0 in real estate tax, etc... So even taking the monthly price of the van off of the table, we will be living cheaper than we are currently.

Could I have gone a cheaper route? Sure... But I wanted something that will hopefully give us many trouble free miles (never guaranteed) and have every option inside the van that we wanted. But most importantly... I don't want to be 70 years old and my wife be 65 and her just retiring. We want to live our life the way we want to live it with no timeframe and no place to be. Just point the van in a direction and see where it takes us.

It is a large risk that we are taking and I understand that. But I don't want to be laying on my deathbed thinking "I sure wish I would have done that when we had the chance". Life is too short.

If you read all of that? I'm impressed. Thank you if you did.

 

[Camper]

I live on what I have and do the best I can.

 

[RearViewMirror]

I live on what I have and do the best I can.

We will be doing the same.

 

[dreamrunnerjt]

These are words I live by.

This will be a long post so I understand if it is a TL;DR post.

How can you make it on $700 a month? Well... to be quite honest, we can't. I'll try to explain to the best of my ability.

I have mentioned elsewhere in this forum that I retired as a Professional FF at the age of 48. I retired from one of the highest paying FD's in the South. I paid a very large sum into my pension throughout my career along with putting as much money in investments throughout my career. The way our pension system works is they take your highest final average pay over your top grossing 3 years over the last 10 years that you are on the job. We were offered plenty of overtime while on the job. We worked 24 hrs on and 48 hrs off. But if you took overtime you were at the station for 48 hrs. The take home pay for one overtime shift was a little over $2100 per shift. But... for each shift of overtime that you worked, it automatically added $26 to your monthly retirement check. So as you can imagine, $26 + the number of overtime shifts you worked during your 3 highest grossing years really added up. The overtime pay was nice. But the extra money on your pension each month was the payoff. Every July 1st I get a 3% (compounded) cost of living increase. When I retired I made more money off the job than I ever did on the job. So the pension system is paying me more to stay home than I ever made while actually doing the job. But... I paid heavily into it.

All of that said... The Fire Service takes a toll on you mentally and physically. After 28 years of service I have seen it all. And there are some things you just can't unsee, unhear, or unsmell. I lay down at night and those thoughts creep back in. Which means I don't sleep very well (if at all some nights). And not to sound fatalistic, if I live to be 70 without any major health problems? I will consider myself fortunate. I already know that if I don't die in some type of accident, I will die of some form of cancer due to everything that I've been exposed to throughout my career. That's just being a realist. So for the time that I have left on this rock, I want to make the most out of it.

We will be selling our house next spring. My daughter is going to attend the University of Colorado next year. The original plan has always been to move to Colorado when my daughter graduated high school. Now that will become a reality (kind of).

The "vanlife" thing kind of came out of nowhere to us. To be honest? We didn't even know this was a thing. We travel out West a few times a year. We took our daughter to the Grand Canyon, Vegas, up through Utah, and back through Colorado on our last trip. While out West, we kept on seeing these 4WD Mercedes Sprinter vans. I had never seen one before since they are not popular in this state. It wasn't until we were in Utah that I got an up close look at one. Then it hit me... People are actually "living" in these. That set off a chain of events that has taken us to where we are today.

My wife is 48 years old. I started doing as much research on these conversion vans as I possibly could. Then we slowly started to realize that we could make this work. My wife and I share the same passions for traveling and adventure. We realized if we decided to go this route, she could retire and we could spend whatever time we have left going and doing the things we always wanted to do with no timeframe. That will essentially cut our income in half. But we can easily live off of my pension by going this route. Once we either get tired of life on the road or just can't do it anymore, we'll put down roots in Colorado Springs. This also freed up another issue that we have. My parents are in poor health. We will need to remain mobile if something happens to one of them. It makes no sense to be paying for a place in Colorado and then have to come back here (maybe for months at a time) to take care of them. We will have to remain mobile.

So... How can we make it on $700 a month? We can't. We spent $180,000 on a completely loaded 2022 4WD Mercedes Benz conversion van. It has every creature comfort we need for life on the road. Did we "need" to spend that much money? No. Absolutely not. But when I buy something, I do my best to buy quality over anything else. That's not to say that things won't break. They will. But that is where our emergency fund comes in (not to mention the 6 year extended warranty we have on our van).

Let's just take the $1500 a month that we financed this van for (10 years) off the table. Once we sell our house we will make a large sum of money off the sale since it is almost paid for. The vast majority of that money will go into our investments. We won't be putting that toward the van since it will be a depreciating asset.

Lets just figure on monthly costs:

1: Fuel. We are not going to stay in one place for long periods of time. That completely defeats the purpose of going this route. So fuel cost will vary. Lets just assume a flat $5 per gallon of diesel. Yes I know that is low but just for the sake of easily figuring out monthly costs, lets just call it that. If we travel just 500 miles a month then fuel for that month will cost us around +/- $220 per month and that is being extremely conservative.

2: Assuming we don't eat out at all (which we will sometimes) will cost us around $200 per month just for groceries we keep in the van.

3: Cell phone is $130 per month with unlimited data for 4 lines.

4: Insurance is $90 a month on the van and $90 a month for my daughters car. Can't get around that.

5: Life insurance is $80 a month for both of us.

6: Health insurance for my wife and daughter. $500 a month since they will have to have their on coverage since my wife will retire early with no option of taking her health insurance with her.

7: Personal Property tax on the van is $1800 a year. $150 a month. Yes, I know I could register it in a state that has no personal property tax but with my pension, I don't pay State Income tax so it is a wash. And yes... I know that I could register it in a state that has no State Income tax. But we will need a permanent address. So we will be using my parents address until we can't.

Total all that up? $1460 a month. Not including the payment on the van itself. If we include the van payment we are looking at $2960 a month. Still way below my monthly pension.

But... if we go this route, we will actually be saving more since we won't have any of the traditional costs associated with home ownership. $0 in monthly utilities, $0 in mortgage, $0 in real estate tax, etc... So even taking the monthly price of the van off of the table, we will be living cheaper than we are currently.

Could I have gone a cheaper route? Sure... But I wanted something that will hopefully give us many trouble free miles (never guaranteed) and have every option inside the van that we wanted. But most importantly... I don't want to be 70 years old and my wife be 65 and her just retiring. We want to live our life the way we want to live it with no timeframe and no place to be. Just point the van in a direction and see where it takes us.

It is a large risk that we are taking and I understand that. But I don't want to be laying on my deathbed thinking "I sure wish I would have done that when we had the chance". Life is too short.

If you read all of that? I'm impressed. Thank you if you did.

Thank you. This is the sort of information I have been looking for. I was going to start asking people what their yearly cost are to hopefully get more accurate information. But you really covered a lot of the areas I had been wondering about. Thank you.

 

[dreamrunnerjt]

Let’s face it, even if someone is able to live on $700 a month now it won’t be long before they can’t due to inflation. For those that can, congratulations! Excellent job. For those that can’t, I wish the best to you and hope you are living within your means.

 

[Seajatt]

$700 a month is pretty tough. I think you're almost better off getting a little bike and an ultra light trailer to pull with it. It would eliminate gas, insurance, and the single biggest risk to such a small income, which is breakdowns/maintenance.
The other alternative is to find someone else trying to make it work on a smaller income, pool your resources and share a large van. You could make it work then.

 

[bullfrog]

Again well vetted seasonal work has so many benefits and with the new health care assistance, some form of cheap transportation you are able to easily maintain, if you are healthy and on your own living simply works in many parts of the United States with mild climates. When you try to have a family, develop health problems due to what ever reasons usually age or start loosing sight of how simple living benefits you the problems start to build and you need to improve your financial situation to meet the needs. $700 ain’t gonna cut it in my opinion. Continued education and improvement of skills and business savvy begin to come into play to increase income which is something you need to better through your entire lifetime if you intend to do more than just survive.

 

[Camper]

.

 

[SLB_SA]

Where he retired on $500 Month
Information shared by Michael about Brazil: Where can you live on $500 USD per month

 

[SLB_SA]

Try to stay on topic please. Which is:

"How do u live on $700/month, truly?"​

Is this about living on $700 a month?

If one is willing to travel, the link "Where he retired on $500 Month" above (post #445) provides an example of where someone can live on $700 dollars per month. Is this not on topic? The couple "2GoRoam" lived economically when visiting Thailand; they intended to stay in Thailand for a year and I believe their expenses would have been low. This plan was upset as shown in Channel and Life Update and their expenses as tourists was high ($116.80 per day according to What does it COST to travel the World for a year?.) This video Could this change YOUR life??? discusses a one year education visa and self-defense training course in Chiang Mai,Thailand which costs $125 per month (per person); the site A Little Expat Living… Cost of Living in Chiang Mai, Thailand (2022) estimates a minimum cost of $650 per month.
So the answer to the question is Yes. On a different visa (without the $125 per month visa & course), one could live on $700 per month.

PS This post took some time to research and was started before rvwandering posted above. I hope I have provided useful information in Bob's spirit. Noting the Bob gives talks at tiny homes conventions and elsewhere and generally tries to be inclusive, I hope readers here benefit from and accept discussion of nomads who travel internationally without a vehicle.

 

[user 22017]

CRVL's newest video is "Living on $887 Per Month". The video is the first in a series about how to live well on the road with little money.

 

[Seajatt]

CRVL's newest video is "Living on $887 Per Month". The video is the first in a series about how to live well on the road with little money.

Very timely YT video haha

 

[Seajatt]

For those living on a fixed income, unable to work a standard job for whatever reason, might still find an income stream off of etsy. If you're handy and can make little crafts, people will buy them. The market is pretty saturated, so I would encourage one to find a niche product, or a creative way to market it if thats the route you're going to go.

 

[Gutz]

I have a decent retirement pension but still hustle on the road, I play guitar and sing and I can go into about any city and busk up 20 - 30 bucks in no time, I have a metal detector and if you know the game and where to look can hustle up coinage and you never know what with it! I'm a certified diver and the detector is for underwater use, I've found all kinds of crazy stuff and many rings, watches, jewelry, you name it simply by knowing where to look for stuff! Living on the road is what we make of it! A positive attitude goes a long way! Having a few side hustles is invaluable! A little money isn't that hard to come by!

 

[Lizmccal]

Here is a video about living on $500 a month.