How do you make money?

[jonhash]

I just want to know the process you make money for living and traveling with VAN. Don't worry, I am not going to steal your ideas...

 

[mpruet]

I'm retired and living on savings, investments, and SS.

 

[lenny flank]

I'm an editor for a small book publishing company, and do my work on the road over wifi.

Though when people ask me how I make money on the road, I usually reply that I rob gas stations. That always sparks a conversation.

 

[WanderingBiker]

when I get on the road..... Im a photographer and graphic designer....

so can work online or locally...

 

[A Savage Adventure]

Selling on eBay currently. But I'm partially disabled, so pending disability as well.

P.S. - Feel free to steal my ideas. 

 

[IGBT]

I gamble in the stock market.

Takes a bit of work.  I probably spend four hours a day reading reports and listening to conference calls, digging around for research, almost exclusively in biotech stocks.  Sometimes I still get things wrong but overall it has been pretty good.   I started it in 2014.  2014 gain was 32%, 2015 gain was 8%, 2016 gain was 41%, 2017 gain was 130% (thanks Endocyte!) and 2018 so far am up 80%.

Not recommended for those with heart conditions.   Sometimes I am down thousands of dollars on a investment only to be up thousands the next day.  Biotech is crazy that way.

 

[Almost There]

I'm retired and Canadian so I have to spend 6 months of the year here in Canada to be able to continue to collect all of my government bennies.

Soooo, I work a summer job for 4 1/2 months.

I had to go  in to debt to help one of my children out so I'm putting every penny of my paychecks into paying off that debt. Then, maybe, I can retire again full time...

Having a self-contained camper puts me in the lead for a lot of seasonal tourist area jobs because most all of the tourist areas have housing crunches going on. Where I am now several of the seasonal workers are living in tents (difficult when you're working) because there simply is no housing available at any price let alone affordable.

 

[bullfrog]

Work seasonally and definitely a big plus to have your own self contained housing, makes living cheap and jobs easier to come by.

 

[deadwood]

I'm a Flight Attendant. I work quite a bit. Easy to leave the van in the employee lot when I'm gone. Right now I'm working out of Philadelphia but I'm planning a transfer to LA soon. It will be very easy to just drive west. Nothing to pack up. Once I get to LA I'll find some good spots for stealth camping and continue to keep working. I just won't be paying any rent is all.

 

[terranaught]

I work for a temp agency that can send me all over the state/country, if I am willing to travel.
I used to require camp grounds near by, but now with a decommissioned wheelchair van new opportunities are appearing.

 

[Theiznezz]

What agency do you work for? That's what I been doing.

 

[Van-Tramp]

From 2006 to the beginning of 2017 I ran my own website around online gaming. It generated enough for me to live my lifestyle. I closed that business and began programming PC and Mobile apps, selling them on multiple storefronts on the Internet. It is already earning the same or more than my website and I work a lot less hours... and I find it a lot more enjoyable. I had done a little coding in the past so it was pretty easy to pickup a new language and start earning money on it within just a few months. Lots of free stuff out there to start coding (programs and tutorials) and it is pretty easy to learn too.

 

[losthighwaydrifter]

I worked 6 months off shore drill rig as a mechanic/welder, let me go 6 months home/off.
While I was "off" I bought hood houses fixed(enough for section 8 standards) them up while I lived there then moved to next one did that cycle for most of my 20's after 6 yrs traveling the globe totting a rifle for uncle sam.
Now I have 60 rentals and a property management company that caters to other slum lords like myself! lol and am hell bent to travel 'MERICA full time. I also mushroom hunt when on the east coast my ex was a chef and I did it for her and her friends. It gets me outside and in the woods also keeps my Rambo skills sharp!!!hahaha. Seriously though I can make $500-$1000 a day but most the time I make $100ish for 2-3 hours wandering around the woods.

 

[Fivealive]

I do freelance IT fieldwork and I get jobs from the following 3 websites: Onforce.com, Fieldnation.com, and Workmarket.com.

 

[captndiet]

I sell on Ebay.

It is all drop-shipped from the factory, so I just need to process the order, send a P.O. to the factory and then at the end of the day add the tracking number to the listing.

Can be done from anywhere.

 

[bacps]

I do freelance IT fieldwork and I get jobs from the following 3 websites:  Onforce.com, Fieldnation.com, and Workmarket.com.

me too!!! 18yrs! Been with each platform since the start!

 

[CaptainBuilt]

Mississippi River Pushboat Captain.

 

[Fivealive]

me too!!! 18yrs! Been with each platform since the start!

Awesome!  Same here, started with computerrepair.com prior to it becoming onforce.  I went by "wallspc" on the onforce forums back in the day.  I vaguely remember someone posting on there with a name similar to yours.  Been a while though, could be mistaken.

 

[perj28]

I do freelance IT fieldwork

What certifications would you recommend for someone wanting to start this?

 

[Fivealive]

What certifications would you recommend for someone wanting to start this?

It's more important to just start working and building a history of successfully completed jobs on the platforms.  A lot of the service buyers are looking for experience and very few seem to care about certifications.   Experience and track record trumps all types of schooling in this field.   I get that experience needed to land jobs is a chicken and egg problem, but it's also reality.  Good news is that there are a lot of very desperate situations that happen in this field.  Failed equipment can often cause a company to loose money by the minute at which point they will loosen those hiring requirements as much as possible until they can get a body to show up.  Some of the most desperate situations happen in rural areas that are just big enough to have a major chain of some sort but not big enough to have any techs based out of the area.  The majority of the work on these platforms are for huge companies with remote locations all over the place.  Restaurants, retail, bank branches, insurance offices, etc.  McDees is a good example of a chain that is constantly desperate for a tech to show up ASAP, often in the middle of no where and experienced techs like myself avoid fast food because, well, who wants to work on greased up equipment when you have other jobs available.  Also they are constantly installing new tech, digital menu boards, self ordering kiosks, etc, and all that tech requires installation, maintenance and repairs. Since I have a long track record with thousands of completed jobs I can cherry pick high paying data center and office work in silicon valley for a few weeks and then travel around for a while without having to take any work.  But if I were just starting out I would put myself in a mid-sized market that is growing with a lot of chains and a lower population.  Vacation town type, Bend OR is a great example of where it would be easy to start fresh in. I have spent some time working out of Bend a couple times and last I was there, there was pretty much just one local tech who was overwhelmed and all the service buyers where super happy to see a new tech show up in the region, and then super disappointed when I told them I was just passing through and only going to be working there for a few weeks. A similar thing happened in Eureka CA.