Living below your means

Living below your means is one of the best ways to reduce the stress in your life.

When you live the RV lifestyle, you have the option of cutting expenses to the bone for a month or two anytime you need to.

It's hard to do this if you live in a conventional house. In an RV you can decide not to travel which will cut your gas expense to zero. You can workamp or boondock and cut your camping fees to zero. Your entertainment expenses can be zero.

Everywhere I've camped (except Walmart parking lots) I have been able to find hiking trails, and enjoy sitting around a campfire with other RVers, etc. In other words, you can have fun and spend almost nothing. You will even have plenty of time to prepare meals at home and cut food costs way down.

Start by owning an RV you can afford

All of this sounds great, but to make it really work, you have to start by owning an RV that you can afford. That's easier than you think. Keeping up with the Joneses is not part of the RVing lifestyle. Life is no longer like it was when you were in the rat-race and living in a subdivision.

Living the RVing lifestyle makes it a lot easier to live below your means, but it won't be automatic. Start by not going into debt to buy your RV. In fact, don't even spend all of the money you have available.

Here's how to do it

For example, if you have $20,000 in cash available, don't spend that $20,000 as a downpayment on a new fancy RV. Don't even spend the $20,000 on a used RV. Spend $12,000 to $15,000 on a used RV. Spend $1,000 or so to do the necessary repairs that all used RVs will need immediately or soon after you buy it.

Keep the other $5,000 or so as an emergency fund. Having an emergency fund will relieve a lot of stress and make RVing much more enjoyable. If you're one blown tire or one dead refrigerator away from maxing out your credit card (or overdrawing your bank account), that situation puts a lot of stress on you and takes away the joy of the RVing lifestyle.

Your RV and your dog

Look at buying an RV the same way you would look at your dog. Whether you own a rescue dog or a high-priced pedigree dog, you will love it just as much and have fun and enjoy it just as much.

When I walk around RV parks or sit around a campfire with other RVers, I can tell you that beyond a shadow of a doubt, the people who have the high-priced rigs are not happier and are not having more fun than the people who own the older, low-priced rigs.

Bottom Line: Some of the happiest people I've met are the ones who have an older rig that they have renovated, redecorated, and personalized. It's like their rescue dog. They love their rig and their life.