Full Time RV Living: Making the Leap to Living in an RV

On this week’s episode of RV Family Travel Atlas, we are diving into the world of Full Time RV Living. Roughly a quarter million Americans have ditched their sticks and bricks abode and are living in an RV. This is a pretty fascinating idea for a lot of our listeners, so we will be launching a series of podcasts exploring the nomadic lifestyle.

Kicking it off for us are Full time RVers Heath and Alyssa Padgett, entrepreneurs who have built a business around helping people transition to living in an RV. They share the highs and lows, plus answer the most pertinent question of all: Where do I get my mail?

They were the perfect folks to invite on the show, since Alyssa recently released an e-book that serves a primer to entering the full time lifestyle. For more detailed information on everything we discuss in this episode, check out A Beginner’s Guide to Living in an RV: Everything I Wish I Knew Before Full Time RVing Across America.

Heath Padgett is the host of the podcast the RV Entrepreneur, which focuses on building location independent businesses while living in an RV. They both blog at heathandalyssa.com.

Segment One: Heath and Alyssa’s Personal Journey to Full Time RV Living

In the first segment of the podcast, we dive into how Heath and Alyssa ended up living in an RV as a young, newly married couple. What began as a creative year-long project morphed into a lifestyle and a business. We talk about the motivation for breaking out of the box and the obstacles they encountered in the process.

Much of our conversation in the first segment focuses on the highs and lows of their experiences. After living in an RV for more than three years, they have the hindsight to discuss the greatest benefits of the lifestyle, but also the biggest challenges.

Segment Two: Resources and Information for Folks Contemplating the Full Time RV Living

In the second segment of the podcast, we dive into the nitty gritty. Many people are intrigued by the idea of full time living, but are also completely overwhelmed by the process of making that transition. Heath and Alyssa give great guidance for navigating the planning and implementation of your own full-time RV dream.

We start off by talking money, because let’s face it…money is a pretty important factor in this whole journey. We discuss how you can reasonably develop a budget for full time RV living, and some hidden financial line items that you may not think of on your own.

Other topics that we talk about include…

Establishing and developing remote income
downsizing from a sticks and bricks home
establishing a domicile (i.e. the great, big MAIL question)
healthcare
internet
additional resources

A big thanks to Heath and Alyssa Padgett for coming on the show. If you want more detailed information about full time RV Living, check out Alyssa’s e-book over at Amazon.

RV News Minute

In this week’s RV News Minute, we welcomed a new sponsor onto the show: AcuvaTech, the makers of a UV-LED water filtration system that we are so excited to be installing in our RV next month.

We talked about our struggle to find a good water filtration solution on this year’s Fall Gear Guide. When Acuva reached out to tell us about their system, we did our research and found out that the RV Geeks are big fans. You can read their complete review here. This endorsement is a pretty strong one for us. Here’s their YouTube video about the system…