By a convenient combination of my rental lease expiring, my Japan Vacation, and a bunch of work trips happening all at the same time I got to be homeless (some say nomadic) by choice.
About 8 years ago, fresh into my first home purchase without doing the proper math, I had myself a “delightful” panic attack as I tried to sleep each night. At that time my mortgage, insurance, and maintenance costs on the house used up about 130% of my paycheck. For reference, a healthy amount is 30%. I ended up about 120k$ in debt after one year ($100k I owed on that Ohio house). One mistake at work, one bad illness, one other catastrophic life event and I would lose it all and be stuck. Being a problem solver, I tried to come up with a solution, at least that took my mind off the issue.
One source of curious inspiration I came across was a random blog by Glenn Campbell. He had been laid off from an airline job, but retained the free travel perk. Living on savings and writing income, he traveled around the world. I found a lifestyle I wanted to emulate.
That’s not normal according to society’s standard! What standard is that? Well for most of my youth, I was bombarded with tv and other media telling me the best possible life (the only life) I should live is to buy a big house, get married, and have as many kids as I could. In the process I should consume constantly! I HATE THAT STANDARD! After escaping it’s slavery, I choose to fight it!
Here is what I did:
I knew my current rental lease was coming to an end. Thanks to a vacation and some work trips it was not worth my time to rent for at least 2 months. I rented a storage garage for 170$ a month and whatever I didn’t sell/recycle/trash went in it.
Everything that I own (the car is at the airport)-
I also got a postal box at a local shipping store ($200 for a year). I needed some way to get mail without a physical address and this works surprisingly well.
In the end here was where I went-
3 weeks in Japan (Hostels)
1 day in California (hotel)
1 week in Cleveland (work-hotel)
1 week in South Africa (work-hotel)
4 days in London (hotel)
5 days in California (free hotel on points)
1 week in Texas (work-hotel)
1 week in Cleveland (work-Hotel)
1 week in Magnolia (stayed with family)
3 days in Columbus (stayed with a friend)
Lessons Learned
I was able to save a few paychecks worth of income and boost my emergency savings accounts the way I wanted.
In the end I was starting to get burned out worrying about where I would stay next.
It is hard to eat healthy and workout while traveling
This weekend I signed a lease (and most of my income) away to the stability of a nice apartment. This used to stress me out, but this time around feels really good and relaxing.
Avoid debt – enjoy the freedom. It took me nearly 10 years to break my chains (and it could have been prevented).
I really don’t need all that many possessions to survive in this world. It is much less stressful when you don’t have anything worth stealing.
Someday I want to try #VanLife
