Ok so you want to live in a RV (recreational vehicle) full-time and you want to know how to do this as we head towards 2023. Let’s talk about it.
First of all, living in an RV full-time is something I’ve always wanted to do. And if you’re reading this article, it is obviously something you’ve thought about as well.
This is something we envision because it lets us think about a life with complete freedom. We’re talking about doing this full-time which means we aren’t doing what everyone else is doing.
Instead of living in a house, we’re living in a motor vehicle that allows us to travel and see the world. That’s what it’s all about.
No more boring 9-5 boring routine. We want excitement and adventure.
The bottom line is that if you’re wondering how to go about living in a RV full-time, and really want to make this a reality, we need to ask ourselves the biggest question.
How Much Does It Cost to Live in a RV Full Time?
If you’re downsizing to live in a RV then we need to know a couple of things. First, the cost of a RV upfront and second, the annual cost to live in a RV full-time. Without fully understanding this and planning your budget ahead you can’t make it work. Trust me I know (we’ll talk about this later).
How Much Does a RV Cost for a Family?
There a several different ways you could go about this when we’re talking about various RV types. Obviously depending on how big your family is and how little you’re willing to live with will determine how much you will have to spend here.
The most inexpensive option would probably be to live in a pop-up-camper. This means you could pull it with a truck that would be on the bottom range in terms of price because you don’t need a lot of towing capacity.
The top range of price would more than likely be a Class-A diesel RV.
Of course things can vary…but, let’s give some general numbers.
Bottom range: $10,000
Top Range: $1,000,000
That’s quite a ridiculous range, right? And probably not really all that helpful for the average person looking to live in a RV full-time, so let’s get more specific here.
A RV set up for $10,000 is the absolute minimum and that would be going with the smallest option available while also going with a used RV and/or used vehicle to tow it.
This likely wouldn’t be practical for anyone. And really, the only people that could pull it off would be a single person or a couple with no kids.
You could try for a full-size RV but you’d likely have to go with something decades old.
You’d also have to worry about repairs and breakdowns. So to me, this really isn’t practical at all, but technically you could get an RV set up for that price.
If we’re talking about not just camping, but full on living in a RV, then most people would probably think it’s a good idea to have a bit more than the average camper. So where does that realistically put us in terms of cost?
The realistic range you’re going to have to spend as we head into 2023 on a RV for full-time living would likely be between $30,000 and $120,000 depending on various factors.
So in other words, if you have a big family, then you’re more likely to be at the top of that range and it’ll be hard to put yourself at the bottom of that range, but if it’s just you and your significant other than hitting the lower range is very realistic.
But if we’re talking a nice set up with a quality RV then that’s just what you’re looking at. Going towards the bottom end means you’ll likely have to worry about more repairs/breakdowns/risks/etc.
At the top of that range likely means a more comfortable RV living experience.
Now let’s talk more about the top range.
I’m really trying to detail costs for the average person, but if you’re looking to buy a Class-A diesel for a large family to live in you could easily go beyond that.
If you buy one of these new then you’re talking a quarter million dollars…or more.
But with some shopping around, going used, and trying to come up with something practical you can put yourself under that $120,000 range where you could still live in a RV full-time.
And if you’re crafty and willing to live with less, even with a big family you could put yourself towards the bottom of this range.
30k to 120k is nice general range you can expect to spend, of course there will always be outliers, but most families would likely find themselves somewhere in the middle of this wide range.
For a family of 5 to spend 60-80 grand on a RV to live in full-time shouldn’t be unexpected, especially as we head into 2023.
I get it, you think it should be less, and I’m not saying you have to spend that much. Again, going towards that lower range is definitely possible with a used RV.
The primary thing to do is to shop around and not rush into a purchase. Any purchase this large requires plenty of forethought, especially if it’s going to be your future living space!!!
The Annual Costs of Living in a RV
Now that we know the general costs up front of purchasing a RV, we need to know what the costs are to live off of. As much as we want it to be so, we don’t just hit the road and have no expenses.
And even while this can cut your cost of living quite a bit from the traditional lifestyle of having a mortgage, it can still be costly.
Let’s start with some general numbers:
Minimum monthly spending: $1,000 per month
High monthly spending: $5,000
Again, I give you…very drastic differences from the low price to the high, which right now means nothing to you. But this one’s a little simpler trying to figure out.
Of course, the “high monthly spending” amount could be more than $5,000, but we’re talking realistic here. Most people won’t spend this much, this is basically if you’re someone who has money and can spend it frivorously.
Now the bottom number of 1k is also more than likely not happening for anyone either.
For example, here is a couple living and traveling in their RV full time:
You don’t have to watch the video, but I’ll just give a couple of quotes that stood out to me.
The lady in the video stated, “We simply keep all of our expenses to an absolute minimum.”
And the guy in the video stated “We live as minimalist of a lifestyle as we can, so that we can continue to full-time RV and travel as long as possible.”
With that being said, their total monthly average was $1,600 a month, and this video is from August of 2018.
So now, we’re heading into 2023 with massive inflation and gas prices that are at least 30% higher than what they were then.
$1,600 a month under the same type of living isn’t happening. That $1,600 a month is likely going to be more like $2,000 (or higher).
To be clear here, these are the monthly costs not including any outstanding debt you have.
The monthly costs we’re including here consist of:
- Campsite fees
- Gas and Propane
- Rig Repairs and Maintenance
- Insurance
- Phone/Internet
- Food
- Laundry
- Entertainment
If you have other outstanding debt or if you have to finance your RV or if you’re paying for a storage unit, then add those to the total.
Campsite Fees
One way to really cut back on expenses while living in an RV is if you stay in free camping areas in your RV as opposed to paying campsite fees (which the above couple did).
Just be aware that these campsites likely won’t have any amenities like bathrooms, electrical hookups, showers, firepits, etc.
So it’s just you and your RV in a much more remote area.
However, if that’s not your plan, and you’re going to be spending money on campsite fees, it’s good to know the range you’ll be in for campsite spending.
Technically, at the high end you could spend $700 a week on a luxury campsite. But that’s probably not what you’re looking for.
If we’re talking your average campsites, then depending on location and the number of amenities etc. you will likely range somewhere between $100-300 per week with it being pretty likely you can go towards the lower rate on that.
Now that’s if we’re talking about short term stays (less than 1 month). If you stay long term somewhere you can get lower rates, possibly 30-50% lower than the numbers I’m showing here.
But we want to live the good life and travel the country, so let’s talk more about that.
As far as short-term stays, not long ago it was probably more likely you could only spend $300-400 per month, but it seems with the rising cost of…well…almost everything, that number has turned into more like $400-$800 (and yes it could be even more).
But, you could always do a blend of remote free camping and campsite camping and end up on the lower end.
This means if you want more of the amenities and nice locations you could very well be looking at $600-800 per month but if you’re willing to go more remote and go with cheaper campsites you might be able to pull off something more like $200-400 per month on campsite fees.
Full-Time RV Insurance
Insurance for full time RVing will be more likely range between $1,000 and $2,200 per year. Insurance has rates have gone up recently as well, so these costs are more than what they were a few years ago also.
That being said, where you fall on this scale depends on the size and quality of your rig. In other words, the more you spend on a RV, the higher your insurance will likely be. Keep that in mind when you are searching for RVs.
Repairs and Maintenance
Now obviously repairs and maintenance will vary quite a bit depending on the quality of your rig and well, hopefully you have some luck on your side.
This could range from $20 a month to a few hundred if something major were to happen. It’s important to plan ahead for repairs whether or not they happen meaning it may be a good idea to keep some money saved up in case you need it for the unexpected.
Gas and Propane
Ok, so this is something you have to spend money on no matter which way you slice it. If you’re traveling throughout the year in your RV it’s going to cost you some gas money.
The more you sit at campsites, the less you’ll spend in this area, but the more you’ll spend on propane (and campsite fees). Either way your gas expense will be lower being parked than driving across the country. Gas prices have gone up so that’s just the unfortunate reality.
RVs typically aren’t going to give you the best gas mileage, this is something to consider, and there is always the option of having a truck pull your rig instead but that still won’t likely move the mpg needle too much since you’re pulling all of that weight.
This is an area that will be tough to keep under $500 a month, especially if you’re moving around a lot.
Breakdown of All Monthly Costs
We listed all of the important things above you need to account for while full-time RVing. However, expenses like food, phone, and entertainment will vary quite a bit from person to person.
Honestly, food probably won’t change much so whatever you currently spend on your family will likely remain close to the same. Your phone/internet/streaming expenses will depend on what you can get from your carrier that also won’t change much.
As far as entertainment, well that’s entirely what you want it to be. Any personal (health) insurance is entirely optional.
That being said, let’s give a general breakdown of what you might expect for monthly expenses when full-time RVing.
| Category | Monthly Budget |
|---|---|
| Gas and Propane | $600 |
| Campsite Fees | $500 |
| RV (+Tow Vehicle) Insurance | $140 |
| Repairs/Maintenance | $150 |
| Food | $800 |
| Phone/Internet/Streaming | $160 |
| Entertainment | $300 |
| Personal Insurance | $80 |
| Laundry | $20 |
| Total | $2,750 |
As you can see from this “dummy example” you can see the total monthly expenses ended up being $2,750 per month.
This isn’t using any drastic numbers or anything like that, however food expense was listed at $800, and again this is one thing that will vary quite a bit on how many people are traveling. You can adjust accordingly to your family size.
What else can you adjust? Again, that is dependent on what you’re willing to live with and live without.
However, this gives us a good idea what the monthly cost will be to live in a RV full-time. As you can see, it wouldn’t be easy to hit that low number.
But, all of that being said, a general number on what you can expect to spend monthly would be somewhere between $2,000 and $3,500 per month living in a RV full-time not including any other loan payments you have.
What does this mean for us if we want to make the transition to living in a RV full-time?
Well, we really need to understand the big picture. How long are you planning on doing this? Most people don’t just upend their entire life to just do it for a year, if you’re really wanting to live in a RV full-time there is a good chance you want to do this for at least a few years.
Here is a 5-year outlook of what that would cost:
| Category | Low Estimate | Middle Estimate | High Estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up Front RV Cost | $30,000 | $75,000 | $120,000 |
| Year 1 Annual Estimate | $24,000 | $33,000 | $42,000 |
| Year 2 Annual Estimate | $24,500 | $33,500 | $42,500 |
| Year 3 Annual Estimate | $25,000 | $34,000 | $43,000 |
| Year 4 Annual Estimate | $25,500 | $34,500 | $43,500 |
| Year 5 Annual Estimate | $26,000 | $35,000 | $44,000 |
| Total 5 Year Costs | $155,000 | $245,000 | $335,000 |
As you can see, to live in a RV full-time for 5 years you need to have a net worth of roughly a quarter million dollars. More or less depending on where you fall on the scale in terms of family size/quality of living, etc.
Yes, this includes an increase in spending each year because of inflation. And you might even be thinking that you could not only be at the lower end of this, but also go under.
Sure.
I’m not saying you can’t. It’s possible to get a rig closer to 20k and maybe you could even spend $1,800 a month instead of $2,000.
However, it’s always a good idea when budgeting not to underestimate what you’re going to be spending. If you overestimate, then that’s just extra you weren’t counting on.
If you don’t have this in your budget though, is there a way to make this work? I mean this is what you would have to have if you had no money coming in, but if you’re making money while traveling that would be different.
How Can You Make Money Traveling in a RV?
If you’re living in a RV and sitting long-term at a campground then you could still work a full-time job and make money…but that really isn’t the point of all of this, right?
Again, you want to travel. Meaning you won’t be in one location, meaning it’s going to be hard to have a full-time j.o.b.
Realistically you likely won’t be working a regular job while doing this. Which means you’ll have to get creative.
One way you can make money or cut back on campsite fees is to ask around at various campsites you’re staying at if there is any work that can be done that could either earn you money or cut back on your fees.
This, however, may be hard to do if you’re only doing short term stays.
So if you’re only at a campsite for 2-3 weeks and it takes you a few days to get to know the owners and find work then there isn’t a whole lot of time to be getting paid.
All in all this can bring in some extra money but won’t likely bring in a significant amount.
What would be the ideal situation then to make money?
Passive Income
The answer here would be passive income. In other words, income that comes in every month whether we work or not.
To many this may sound like a pipe dream. Whether you think that or not, this really is the ideal situation because traveling full-time would then be something that wouldn’t be a burden on your finances.
I showed the video above of a couple who are full-time RVing. I also noticed their channel has 133k subscribers and that all of the videos they put out get thousands of views.
I have no idea what they make, but they likely are making an income online bringing in somewhat passive income.
I am, however, aware of someone who full-time RV’d and made over a million dollars a year from online income. Last I read from her blog they lived in yacht full-time.
Completely insane, talk about an adventurous life!
That being said, as far as I see it. These people are living the dream full-time RVing, documenting their life, and making money doing it.
Awesome.
To be very clear, this isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s something that will likely take months or years of effort to be at a point of making a full-time income while RVing, fortunately there are courses you can take that will significantly lower your time frame and show you the exact steps to make this a possibility.
Personally, I don’t see living in a RV full-time without creating a source of passive income ideal unless you’re already wealthy.
If you’re not wealthy and can’t create an income while living full-time in a RV then you’re basically looking at a temporary situation.
You’ll have a finite amount of time until you run out of money.
So just look above at the 5-year chart and you’ll get an idea how long you can live in a RV before you have to head back to the 9-5 rat race.
This brings up another big question you’ll want to consider if you’re thinking of full-time RVing.
Do RVs Appreciate in Value?
At the end of the day, is it worth it to do this? On this site we talk a lot about investing and how we can improve our financial outlook.
Long story short, we want to be investing in appreciating assets, not depreciating.
This is where things get tricky. Typically, like automobiles or boats, RVs lose value over time.
Some interesting facts are that RVs generally:
- lose 15-30% of their value after being driven off the lot
- are worth half of what you paid in about 5-6 years
- after 5 years, depreciate about 5% every year
- within 15-20 years, most RVs will be depreciated to their scrap value
- the last couple of years (after the pandemic) have been an anomaly where there might be an exception to these rules
A couple of things to take away from this (imo) is buying new probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and that maybe even looking for something 5-6 years old would be the ideal range.
Keep in mind though this is just “off the lot” and doesn’t necessarily mean buying new. This tells me that maybe you’d be better off buying from a private seller than buying from a RV lot.
Doing that means you could likely find a better deal but that you’ll really want to do your due diligence on the repair history etc. to make sure you’re not getting ripped off.
Another thing it tells me is that if you’re buying from a lot (or even private) that you have plenty of room to negotiate the price, especially buying used.
Either way, if you’re buying a RV at all it will be highly important that you take your time and find one that checks all the boxes and doesn’t have some time of damage. Trust me, I know.
It’s Easy to Get Ripped Off Buying a RV
Above I mentioned that without planning ahead and understanding all of the costs involved in full-time RVing you could be setting yourself up for failure, and that I (unfortunately) know this from experience.
I won’t get into all of the details, but years back my family decided we wanted to do this, and jumped into it way too fast without understanding all of the costs, etc.
Our first mistake was trying to go too cheap on our RV and actually ended up getting ripped off. Long story short the RV had too many issues for full-time RVing to be a reality.
We also rushed into a purchase and didn’t notice some of the underlying issues.
We ended up never full-time RVing and instead sold our RV for a loss.
It was a terrible investment.
Hence, why I’m writing this article. To help you avoid making the same mistakes we did. Trust me, take your time when looking for a RV you want to live in, if someone is pushing you to sign because “several other buyers are interested” it’s more than likely a sales tactic.
There are no shortages of good RVs.
Now granted, after the pandemic this has changed some and that’s why prices (like used cars) have actually uncharacteristically went up.
The way I see it is that’s already priced in. Prices have went up so you don’t need to feel like you have to outbid someone (the bidding has already been done).
Again, that’s just how I see it after making a bad purchase. None of this is financial advice, but again, do your homework.
Is It Hard To Live In An RV?
The next thing we really want to look at is if you can pull it off, or whether 2 months in you’ll be wishing you never decided to do this and already want to go back to living in a house.
The truth of the matter is that you’ll have to live with less.
There are benefits to this but there are also (obvious) downsides.
I think if you’re someone who is considering full-time RVing you’ve already given this a lot of thought, so I won’t take too much time here.
The benefits are that you’re going to have more time to travel and see the world. If you’re a big outdoors person who loves hiking, camping, etc. then the benefits of drastically changing your life like this could be the best thing ever.
If you’re somebody that likes these things on occasion but aren’t exactly avidly into this, then you’re either going to have to get there, or you may feel like it’s not for you.
Truth be told you’ll have to give up a lot of things to full-time RV.
One of the most important things you can do then is get a RV that has enough size to make it work.
Make a list of everything you plan to bring with you while RVing and make sure you have the exact amount of space you need.
Having too little space available could make for a nightmare situation where you are always feeling cramped.
To the contrary, having too much space you don’t need could add extra unnecessary costs.
Again, this is why really doing your research and planning ahead is so important.
Should You Sell Your House and Buy a RV (with the Equity)?
This will be the most practical way that the average person will be able to do this. Most people live paycheck to paycheck and still have debt.
This means if you own a home and have equity, this could be one of the most feasible ways that you can realistically full-time RV.
So should you do this?
Well, if you’re considering this, then you at least need to understand what this entails.
Historically, as we mentioned RVs are depreciating assets, meanwhile housing is one the safest long-term investments.
Now granted, what’s happened historically doesn’t mean that will happen in the future, but if history repeats itself this means that buying a house would fall under the category of a good investment, while buying a RV would fall under the category of a bad investment, at least in terms of building wealth.
Technically, long term this would make it likely to be a poor investment.
You could be putting yourself in a position where you are living in a RV only to deplete your entire life savings over a few years and be left with almost no net worth.
One thing to consider is renting out your home while RVing, therefore, holding on to your biggest investment.
It just depends on your personal financial outlook and whether or not that is even possible.
This is just another aspect to consider if you’re thinking of full-time RVing.
Summary
With this article I’ve tried to lay out the biggest questions on what it takes to live in a RV full-time. Obviously, the biggest question is the cost and if it’s something feasible.
Personally, the way I see it is that financially it is a big risk considering you likely aren’t investing in an appreciating asset.
That doesn’t mean it can’t be right for you.
We also spoke about earning passive income in order to feasibly live in a RV full-time. If living in a RV full-time helped you build a passive income stream, then it could actually be a good investment.
This, however, is something that can be done outside of full-time RVing.
The bottom line is that it would be a life changing experience that needs to be well thought out and planned ahead of time. Not something that should be impulsive.
The irony is that many people considering this probably tend to be more impulsive in nature (I have zero science to back that up).
While living in a RV can provide a life with more freedom and more adventure, it does seem to be a long-term financial risk.
If you’ve read this entire article then hopefully it gave you some insight on how to live in an RV as we head into 2023.
What do you think? Do you think you could full-time RV after reading this? Does it sound exciting? Did this make you aware of things you didn’t realize previously?
Let me know in the comments below!