Professionals Living In Van by Choice

[Krendle]

Searched this forum for fellow professionals out there but found little to nothing.
Are we as few as I think?  I make $100K+ and saving LOTS of money stealthing in van near work.
Let me know if you are out there! 

 

[Bobflhtc]

I'm retired and saving money as a unintended consequence but reminds me of a quote I heard recently. Invest conservatively but save aggressively

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Krendle! Seems like most of fulltime professionals work remotely. Cherie & Chris of Technomadia have been doing it for years and have a blog which includes interviews and articles about other fulltime professionals. http://www.technomadia.com/young-full-time-rving-nomads/

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started. We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[Krendle]

Thank you for your replies.  I have a stationery job with one company.  So I am need to stealth around my employer's location.

 

[deadwood]

I'm a flight attendant. I've been full time in my van for the last year now. I wear a suit to work every day. Easy to go to the gym and then after my workout take a nice hot shower and get ready for work. If needed I do have a wet bath I built into my van so I do sometimes shower in the van and get ready for work.

I've been saving a ton of money because I have no expenses except for my cell phone and car insurance. Because I fly so much I get to stay in hotels anywhere from 3 to 5 nights a week. As I write this I'm lounging in my hotel room in Munich using all the free wifi I could use. I'll be back in Philadelphia tomorrow so tomorrow night I'll go to one of my overnight spots and be spending a free night in Philadelphia.

For my job van life is the perfect scenario. Although some of my friends that know what I do think I'm either brilliant or crazy. No in-between. I just got back to work after taking 4 weeks off for vacation. Because I fly for free it was easy to just park my van in the employee lot at work ant I took off for Phoenix to visit my daughter. Then to Japan to visit my son and his wife. Then back to Phoenix for a few more days before coming back to Philadelphia. I was gone almost a month and it was nice to know I wasn't paying for a place that I would rarely ever be at.

I'm transferring to Los Angeles in November. I am very fortunate that I can transfer bases around the county. That way I can follow the good weather. Philly wasn't too bad for the summer but I couldn't do it there in the winter. So I'll spend the winter in LA and then decide next spring if I want to transfer again for summer flying next year. The van makes it so easy to just drive to another base. No leases to get out of. No packing. Just drive.

 

[dhurtt]

Searched this forum for fellow professionals out there but found little to nothing.
Are we as few as I think?  I make $100K+ and saving LOTS of money stealthing in van near work.
Let me know if you are out there! 

At long last I have a job that allows me to work anywhere, as long as I have access to the internet. I plan to head into higher bandwidth areas during the day and then push out at night, while exploring on the weekend. I intend to use mobile internet (cellular) tech to make it work. Just waiting for my Highlander Hybrid to come from the factory so I can get started.

One of my side goals is to make signal strength wherever I stop.

 

[dawnann7]

I am a professional running my own business. I do not yet live in my van but I've started working towards that. (Right now I live in a tiny one-bedroom apartment.) For me, it is about the flexibility of going anywhere and still being able to do the work remotely. And being able to take my cats with me, of course. We just did our first trial run on a two-day trip from Vancouver Island to Calgary. There was much protesting from the cats at first (they thought they were dying) but after the first couple of hours they settled in nicely!

 

[Fivealive]

It's common in SF/Bay area but its not openly discussed in many parts of the internet.

 

[RVTravel]

Define professionals? Also what does it have to do with announcing ones income?

 

[John61CT]

Nothing wrong with talking about income, that prohibition "etiquette" only benefits employers and others hiding unfair inequality.

And those truly choosing full time van life do have some different concerns from those surviving on very little.

Van living is a big tent, room for all.

 

[theNomadicHacker]

I do it and love it! My family and I are full-time in a 29' coachman and I'm a software dev for a small tech startup that's doing great. We'd been "stealthing" around my work all summer, as I had previously been working remotely only half-time, but this past weekend I popped the question to my boss about going remote full-time. To my delight his answer was, "well if it's between you leaving the team or working remotely full-time, I'll definitely have to choose the latter!" It was a conversation I had been putting off all summer and am glad to have finally had it. We're currently looking into the annual state camping pass in New Mexico and will be heading down that way within the next couple of weeks. I'm also excited to hopefully make it out to the RTR this year!