Lots of people ask us how we can afford to be on the road.  Well, actually, that’s a lie. Not a single soul has asked us, but I sure bet you are wondering …

Let’s do some simple calculations.

Add together the following:

• Rent or mortgage payment
• House insurance and taxes, if applicable
• Gas
• Electricity
• Cable
• Water
• Trash
• Household improvements
• Car payments
• Car insurance*

When you are living on the road, you won’t have these expenses.  This becomes the amount you can spend on fixed travel expenses – lodging, transport –  per month.  Subtract this from your monthly retirement income. How does that feel? OK?

The balance is what you have left over for:

• Groceries
• Eating Out
• Healthcare
• Grooming
• Storage
• Entertainment
• Cell Phones
• Services and subscriptions (virtual post office*, news subscriptions, etc)

Still feeling OK? For us, the largest expenses we have in addition to our fixed travel are our cell phones and health care.

What’s that? You don’t want to sell your home or give up your apartment?  No worries. Rent it furnished.

When we did our trial run for full time travel, we went to Mexico and rented our furnished loft for over the cost of our rent.  Of course we interviewed the sub-letters and got a security deposit.  The sub-letter paid all the utilities by making a EFT into our account.  No checks to worry about.

I’ll post more on this page as we experience more on the financial side of things.  We are learning as we go!

* Learn about virtual post office services on our Logistics Page.

**If you store a car, you will still need to keep it insured. But the cost is nominal.