How RVers make money while living on the road

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The most important thing to realize about making a living while on the road is that you won't need anywhere near as much income as you need now. That's what makes the RV lifestyle possible for so many people.

When you cut your living expenses down to less than $1,000 a month, earning a living becomes so much easier. If you do much boondocking (camping free where there is no water, electric or sewer connections), you can easily get your expenses down below $1,000 a month. Of course, if your budget is $2,000 a month, you can live less frugally, travel more, stay in nicer RV parks, boondock less, go out to eat more and do a few more tourist things.

And you can mix it up and live on $1,000 some months and on $2,000 other months. You will have a lot of control over of your monthly expenditures. Your expenses are not locked in like they are in a conventional stick and brick lifestyle.

Some people make a whole lot more than this and put the rest in savings. And some people only work a few months a year to earn the money they need to live on for the whole year. And of course, some people earn a lot more than $1,000 a month and then live a much more luxurious lifestyle with a newer and fancier rig and they do more traveling.

Having the freedom to decide how much you want to work and how much free time you want is one of the big advantages of living the RV lifestyle. You can change your work and free-time ratio from month to month. It's part of the freedom of the lifestyle. You will find that RVing is a completely different world from the rat race you're used to.

A whole book could be written about the ways full-time RVers are making money and supporting themselves on the road. I won't try to cover all of the techniques--heck, I don't even know all of the ways RVers are making money. It seems like every week an RVer tells me about how they're supporting their lifestyle and it's a way I have never heard of before. It never ceases to amaze me.

Some people have special skills and some have made arrangements with their present employer to 'work from home' (it's just that their home has wheels). But most people don't have any of these special skills or special situations.

If you're old enough to get a check from Social Security or a pension (or both), this could cover your living expenses.

Here are some of the many ways RVers are making money while traveling and living the RV lifestyle:

Ways RVers Make Money

Working in Amazon's Camperforce program. This is where you pack boxes at one of the Amazon warehouses for the three months before Christmas. This is one of the most popular jobs for RVers. You get free camping, a salary of $10 to $12 an hour and a lot of overtime. Find out more at the link below:

amazonfulfillmentcareers.com/opportunities/camper-force

Forbes.com recently stated that, with the explosion of online college courses, running a class no longer requires a classroom. Online post-secondary teachers earn a median of $62,000 a year and are free to lecture from anywhere in the world, with the help of a webcam.

Forbes.com also reported that telenurses are hired by hospitals to do telephone triage--advising patients over the phone--and earn near the $65,000 median salary of traditional registered nurses.

A lot of RVers who want to work and receive free camping find opportunities by checking out the websites below (and most of the jobs include free camping):

CoolWorks.com
WorKamper.com
Work-for-rvers-and-campers.com

Many people select work they want to do using the above websites. They get free camping for volunteering a few hours a week and some of the jobs also pay a salary.

Here are some of the jobs RVers have told me they have done recently:

Tram driver
Interpreter
Campground host
Pointing out eagles and other wildlife at a National Park
Guest services and maintenance at a resort ranch
Working at a lighthouse
Gatekeepers at oil fields. Two RVers park their RVs at the gate and each work 12-hour shifts letting trucks in and out. The hours are long, but the pay is excellent.
Sugar beet harvesting. This is very hard work, but you get way above average pay. Check it out at SugarBeetHarvest.com
Working for the Grand Canyon Association. One couple worked for six months and at the end of the six months said, "We worked 30 hours weekly in exchange for full hookups with elk herds and wildflower views plus hourly pay."

You probably won't make as much living in your RV as you do in your present job (some people do), but since what it costs you to live in your RV is so much less, you could find yourself with more money left over at the end of the month to go into savings even with the lower income. Many people do.

I have three full chapters in my book, Young RVers, that go into a lot of detail about the ways other RVers are making money while living on the road. These three chapters cover ways to make money with a computer and without a computer. Mainly the chapters cover ways that other RVers are making money that you probably had not thought of.

Here are links to some good articles about how RVers are making money:

Take a look at Jason and Nikki Wynn's series of articles on how other RVers are making money. Check them out at:

http://www.GoneWithTheWynns.com/make-money-travel

When you get to the site, continue clicking and you will see several interviews with RVers and they will explain in detail how they make their living. The things they're doing may not be what you want to do, but it does get you to thinking outside the box. It always amazes me to see all of the diverse, interesting, and fun things RVers are doing to support their lifestyle.

Take a look at Chris and Cherie's website at Technomedia.com. Below is a long link that takes you directly to their very detailed article about how non-retired RVers are making money as they travel. You can learn from them and do the same type of work in many cases.

Technomadia.com/2014/06/mobile-income-sources-for-non-retired-rvers-jobs-careers-and-workamping

Of course, it's easier to make money if you have skills such as, photography, shooting and producing videos, web design, software programing, writing, etc. (By the way, writing novels pays a lot more than writing how-to books, but novels are not my expertise.) If you're a lawyer, doctor, or Indian chief, you will find it harder to use these skills to make money on the road, but it can be done.

Howard Payne and his wife Linda have been living as full-time RVers for nine years. Howard has a law degree from the University of Louisville, a BS degree in Accounting and a minor in Information Systems from Western Kentucky University.

Linda has a BS degree in Interior Design and a minor in Architectural Drafting from Western Kentucky University. That's a lot of education to flush down the drain and not use any more, but that's what they did. They walked away from those jobs in 2005 and said the heck with the 'rat race'.

I was talking to Howard at a rally recently and he told me he would hate to have to go back to makinghis living as a lawyer. They make their living by managing their website, RV-Dreams.com, by putting on RV rallies, speaking at RV shows, and by volunteering and doing some workamping from time to time.

If you want to have a great time and learn a lot about RVing, go to their website and select one of their upcoming seminars to attend. Here's a link to their website:

http://www.rv-dreams.com

What this story shows you is that where there's a will there's a way.

A lot of RVers work for a while to build up their bank account and then travel for a while at a more relaxed pace--always keeping a comfortable nest egg for emergencies, of course.

The unemployment rate in the US is high, but that's because most people are looking for a position. Positions are hard to come by, but if you want a job, jobs are easy to find.

Bottom line: The purpose of this chapter is to convince you that there are jobs and opportunities out there and that you can easily find a way to support your RV lifestyle when you're ready to hit the road. Of course, if there are two of you working, that doubles your income and makes it even easier.