In 2016, when I was 35 and my wife, Courtney, was 32, we sold our four bedroom, two bathroom, 1,600 square foot home in Arizona, moved our two dogs and ourselves into a 200 square foot Airstream RV, and made our new home at a KOA campground in Tucson.
It was the first of many big changes for us.
At that point, I had saved up about $900,000, enough to live comfortably and quit my software development job that I hated. Courtney, a rocket scientist, joined me in 2017 in quitting her 9-to-5 job to hit the road.
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For the next three years, we traveled the country full time, filming videos for YouTube and writing about our experiences.
I’m a self-made millionaire at age 42, and looking back, my decision to downsize was one of the main reasons I was able to build my wealth.
The “freedom” of living small
One of the biggest challenges was getting rid of most of our stuff before moving into the Airstream. We were surprised at how much junk we had accumulated.
We gave some things away to friends and family, donated quite a bit to Goodwill — probably enough to fill a store. We held a garage sale over a few weekends, and digitized thousands of photos onto CDs instead of keeping them as physical photos, which helped a lot.
Dodge Ram 2500 and Airstream outside Bryce National Park, Utah
Photo: Steve Adcock
We’ve realized that we don’t miss the things we let go of in order to pursue this life, and keeping things less can actually be quite freeing.
Living tiny made housework quicker and easier. I was able to vacuum the entire house in five minutes. It took another five minutes to dust, and a couple minutes to tidy up. In under 30 minutes, the entire Airstream was as clean as when I bought it. It felt amazing.
Me on the couch in my Airstream reading my Kindle with my two dogs, Patty and Penny.
Photo: Steve Adcock
The joys and challenges of RVing
We were able to keep our travel costs down by staying as long as possible on Bureau of Land Management land – RVers can camp for free for 14 days on most Bureau of Land Management land – and it was a beautiful place.
The only drawback was that there were no electricity, water or sewer connections, so instead they used solar panels mounted on the roof to charge batteries.
Courtney sunbathes in a hammock at a campsite near Truckee, California in 2017.
Photo: Steve Adcock
A 72-gallon freshwater tank in the Airstream provided about two weeks’ worth of fresh water if we were careful. A solar power system made living off-grid a breeze, and we brought along a 2,000-watt generator in case we needed extra power because of cloud cover or trees blocking the sun from the panels.
We love traveling and have learned so much about the country. We have camped in about half of the 50 states, from New York to California.
Some of our favorite experiences have been parking on the waterfront of Lake Powell in Arizona, camping along the rugged mountains of the Alabama Hills in California, and driving through the grassy hills of New York’s wine country.
However, camping in the wilderness means you’ll experience less-than-pleasant weather first-hand.
In 2017, I walked through one of Montana’s few unavoidable snowstorms.
Photo: Steve Adcock
I vividly remember staying at a campground in Leavenworth, Washington in the summer of 2018. It was so hot that we kept running the air conditioner on full blast, tripping multiple electrical breakers.
Every week or two, we had to pack up everything and move. This routine included securing our toiletries on the counter in the Airstream’s tiny bathroom and anything that might move or break while we were driving. We secured our external computer monitor to a small desk with bungee cords to prevent it from falling.
Me working on my computer in the Airstream. To make it easier to blog and work on my computer while on the road, we removed the dining room table and installed a desk.
Photo: Steve Adcock
Travel costs
In our first year of traveling, we spent about $35,000, and that includes all expenses: food, gas, insurance, camping fees, etc.
Most of our expenses have decreased significantly since moving to the Airstream, with one exception: our grocery bill has increased by about 25% because we no longer live in a large metropolitan area with lots of Costcos and Safeways. Instead, we have had to shop at more expensive local grocery stores in our smaller communities.
Steve relaxes around a campfire outside Bend, Oregon in 2017.
Photo: Steve Adcock
We typically spend about $3,500 per month, which includes:
Propane: $40 Pet care: $75 Health insurance: $350 Vehicle maintenance: $400 Recreation: $1,000 Groceries: $600 Camping fees: $500 Fuel: $500
Fully equipped campgrounds in prime locations can cost upwards of $100 a night. These clean sites are flat and well-maintained, with electric, water, and sewer hookups.
We spent two weeks on Secretariat land and didn’t pay any camping fees – a $40 a night camping spot with amenities would have cost us $560 for 14 days – and that difference adds up quickly.
RVing was one of the best decisions I ever made.
During those three years, we lived cheaply in an Airstream, drove our car, and grew our net worth, even though we no longer had full-time jobs.
We were making a few hundred dollars a month filming our lifestyle on YouTube, and I was writing a blog about early retirement that I then sold and was making about $1,000 a month.
This is a nighttime view of the Airstream taken in 2016 at a small campground just west of Tucson, Arizona.
Photo: Steve Adcock
We lived primarily off the income from these small sources, barely touching stocks, instead letting capital gains continue to grow over the three years we were traveling full time.
We started with about $900,000 and by the end of the journey, my net worth had increased by about $150,000. That foundation paved the way for me to be a millionaire today. That’s not bad considering I’ve never set foot in an office!
Steve Adcock is a finance expert who blogs about how to achieve financial independence. A former software developer, Steve retired early at age 35. He occasionally writes about money for MarketWatch, Forbes, and Business Insider.
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