Guest post by Jenn Campbell

Just a few short years ago, the idea of getting to live full-time in an RV and exploring the nooks and crannies of North America before retirement age would have seemed bizarre and nonviable. People just don’t do that, no matter how much we may daydream about it. The expectation is to ride the earning and spending merry-go-round in hopes of laying sufficient groundwork to eventually retire. With ample planning and saving, per societal norms, some of us may be fortunate enough to travel later in life, provided health and mobility limitations do not prevent doing so. Sure, we may daydream about ditching the traditional 9 to 5 (or 8 to 6, or 7 to 7…) and downsizing into homes on wheels that would allow for freedom and life in pleasant climates. A lot of us have probably fantasized at some point about packing up and leaving our old lives behind, but who actually does it?

Taking the Plunge

In 2016, we did. We switched to remote work, sold our sticks and bricks, downsized into an RV, and hit the open road. Downsizing became our mission, and we vowed to make the necessary lifestyle changes for a life on the road. We had grown tired of work commutes, burnout, and fitting such little travel into our oversized lives. Add in the timing of our daughter recently graduating college (read: there was nothing to anchor us to any one area anymore), and we decided there would never be a more ideal time to take that leap.

We were fortunate that my husband Jeff found a role with a fantastic employer, InventoryLab Inc. By working remotely as an InventoryLab Customer Champion, anywhere with internet connectivity could become his “office.” Like many Americans, our biggest financial burden was health insurance. Not long into Jeff’s new career, the company began offering employees health coverage. Health insurance benefits and remote work have made IL the ideal employer for nomadic life. Most importantly, we enjoy our work – Jeff with InventoryLab and me as a writing contractor – and relish the satisfaction of working to live (instead of vice versa) while enjoying the freedom and simplicity that full-time RV life affords.  

Selling on the Road

Jeff and I earn additional income through Amazon FBA sales while on the road. We are often asked how we are able to sell from home since living tiny means so little storage space. Our answer: we don’t. Our products are in Amazon warehouses across the country, thanks to FBA. Once delivered to UPS, we never see our merchandise again. Managing our FBA business is as simple as retail arbitrage wherever we happen to be, entering product information into InventoryLab, packing, delivering shipments to UPS, and done!

It has been about two years since we ventured into full-time nomadic RV life. We are regularly stopped and questioned by kindred spirits who express their desire to do what we’re doing. People have been curious about tiny living, RV life, what we have learned, and how we “make it work.” We answered these questions and more and chronicled our journey into nomadic RV life in our new book, Being Free: How Two Packrats Downsized and Traded Burnout for RV Life, now available on Amazon. Check out our story and follow Nomadic Point of View on the usual social media platforms. We hope to meet you somewhere down the road!

Jenn is a full-time RVer and part-time yoga enthusiast who enjoys warm breezes, cold beverages, good music, bad puns, all chocolate, exceptional planetary stewardship, urban and forested exploration, and making memories with her tribe and any four-legged critter. GO DUCKS!

Click on the link above to get your copy of Jenn’s new book. Happy trails!