Want to Full-Time as a Tech Worker, City to City

[starkruzr]

Hey gang,

I work in technology and my job is fully remote. My dream is to be able to travel from city to city (or thereabouts), staying for a few months at a time with some side-jaunts for vacation exploration, etc. I don't mind the idea of boondocking but it wouldn't be the primary goal. I'm also currently living in one of the most expensive cities in the country -- Washington, DC. Pricing out RV loans, I've realized that even with the costs of insurance, gas, tolls, and -- maybe -- park fees, I can save myself hundreds of dollars a month with this lifestyle compared to now.

So, my plan is to get a used Class A, probably a diesel that can easily tow my car on a dolly, and make that my full-time residence, probably registered in Florida. My questions are:

• How much money have you found you can save yourself with, e.g., a solar panel installation to let you save on utilities and possibly boondock longer?
• What kind of hidden costs have you found start to really add up month by month?
• Is it common to find places to park for a month or two, that are reasonably inexpensive, close-by to major cities?

It'll just be me doing this solo -- not even a dog! The reason I'm pretty sure I won't go crazy is that I have a number of friends to visit in most of the cities I want to visit -- I'd start in/around NYC, probably (likely in Long Island or Westchester), pop up to Toronto, out to Chicago and then out West from there.

So. I throw myself at your mercy, folks 🙂 What am I failing to think of?

Thanks!!

[Mr_Mark1]

Mr. Starkruzr,

You didn't mention your budget for the RV, that will depend on the suggestions you receive.

You might want to check out the blog: www.rvlove.com

Marc and Julie full-time and he works full-time remotely in the RV while they travel around. They have a Tiffin gas class A and pull their Mini Cooper on a dolly. Marc converted a bunk model into his private office.

Good luck and safe travels,
MM.

[doxiemom11]

check out rvparkreviews.com. You can look up any state and city you want and it will bring up reviews for the park. There will be a link to the campground website, if they have one. Some do list their monthly amounts, others you have to call. There will be a list of rules, amenities etc. Depending on where you are, many include electric in the rate, other have it metered and you pay on top of rent. In the south you may also pay for water usage in certain areas. Some have coin laundry facilities and if you are camping there without hookup, the dump station is usually free. If not, campgrounds, fairgrounds may charge anywhere from $3 - $15 per dump. Sanidumps.com is handy for finding a location to dump. I would suggest you check out the Escapees forum at rvnetwork.com. Most everyone is or has been full-time and some as long as 20 years. You can learn alot just from reading on there, but feel free to ask questions also.

[RBPerry]

What type of tech work do you do. Wife was a software engineer in Silicon Valley, we moved to a remote area with no internet, so went with satellite internet service and it works great anywhere, the issue is speed needed and data allowance, but if your company is paying for it data usage isn't a issue. However if you need to stream a lot of data fast it can become a problem with satellite, some companies won't allow remote workers to use satellite.

[starkruzr]

Thanks gotsmart. I figured it would work something like that 🙂

I'm now trying to decide how big a vehicle I need. This would be my sole residence for a few years at least. It's just me, but storage is still a concern. Is it better to get something bigger, but older (for the same price point), and not have to worry about space concerns, or better to get something newer and downsize more where necessary? It would be really nice to be able to accommodate having people over, too 🙂

Just curious what the other fulltimers have learned in this vein.

[gotsmart]

starkruzr wrote:
I guess I'm not clear on the process here.

So,
1) I live in DC, have a permanent address there.
2) Apply for loan with said address.
3) Receive loan, purchase RV, registered to my DC address.
4) Load stuff into RV, leave.
5) Drive to Florida, re-register, obtain forwarding service, establish residency in Florida.

How after step 3 is the bank going to be involved again unless I stop making payments? Even when I re-register and the title notes the lien from the bank, so what? How does the bank have the right to tell me what my living arrangements are allowed to be? As long as they're getting their money, what's the issue?

Thanks again.

1) I live in DC, have a permanent address there.
1.1) rent private mailbox in the state that you want to domicile in. Sign the 2 USPS forms allowing them (the mailbox provider, aka: CMRA) to receive US Mail on your behalf and to sign for mail or packages for anything with "signature required".

To add to what Old Biscuit posted above, don't use the designator "PMB" in your new address. Use APT, #, UNIT. Your mailbox provider won't care as long as your box number is on the address so they don't have to look you up on the computer. It may help you to fly under the radar in places. I use: APT.

2) Apply for loan with DC address.
3) Receive loan,
3.1) you'll need some documents with your new address on them when getting your new driver license. Turn off paperless billing for cell phone bill and a credit card bill, and change the address on them to be your private mailbox. Do this at least one billing cycle before leaving DC.
3.2) purchase RV, Don't register it in DC. If bought from a dealer use the temporary plate. There is something called a "trip plate". It is for moving an unregistered vehicle over the road from point A to point B. There usually is a fee involved. It's something to look into. Here in WA Cruise America had me fill out a form for a 45-day trip plate when I told them I was going to register my MH in Oregon. I later changed my mind and registered it in WA.
4) Load stuff into RV, leave.
5) Drive to Florida, establish residency in Florida.
6) register the MH. Some states require proof of vehicle insurance before it can be registered.
7) register the car. Note, if you have the title some states have high title transfer fees.

[Old-Biscuit]

Issue with 'mail forwarding address' can be with banking institute and investment institutes

Some will NOT accept/recognize the PMB address as a real physical address.
That and the fact that you do NOT really have a 'physical property address' they get nervous that you will abscond with their 'asset'
Investment institutes may not recognize the PMB address as an acceptable address

These are both issue that some FTrs have had and posted on RV Forums about.

Just information to be aware of

We used a SD PMB and had no issues.....




We also had Verizon cell/internet
Internet was via an air card
We also had a 'truckers antenna' that we would hoist up the ladder IF we had weak signal
As long as we got the 'tower' indication we would use the antenna and plug into cell phone OR air card and get good service

Most of the time during our 7 yrs FT traveling we had good signal

Now there are better means/methods available

You should be able to get good internet service and NOT all that expensive.

[Effy]

I work in technology - more IS really and am also 100% remote. I have thought about this and logistically I think it's easier than some would say. Save money? Maybe, depending on your rig, travelling habits and where you prefer to stay. Many have done this. For me, the critical factors would be connectivity and ability to do my job. If you work project work and don't need connectivity daily all day then it's less of an issue. For my job I would be required to have solid 4g connectivity all the time. I've been able to accomplish this with a VZ jetpack but it consumes massive amounts of data. If your company is springing the bill then no biggie. But there are areas of the country where connectivity is an issue. The rest is logistics. People full time all the time with RV loans so this can't really be that much of a black box.

[Grit_dog]

Oh and if the address thing is an issue, just use a friends address that you can trust.
I've still got a buddy who gets mail at our house since he moved to Canada 4 years ago.
(Not much anymore since he is now married and owns a house there, but for the first couple years, his "residence" was our address.)

[Grit_dog]

starkruzr wrote:

Old-Biscuit wrote:
The loan institute will KNOW that you have changed addresses and are now FTng by the mail forwarding address.
ALL of them are KNOWN byy banks, savings/loans, investment and INSURANCE institutes.

Mail forwarding address recognition is NOT a secret

So you MAY run into issues when you go FT AFTER getting loan and the required insurance

And you will need FTrs insurance coverage when you do go FT vs just liability/comp/collision as loan requirement.
FTrs insurance is an auto policy combined with a Home owners type coverage policy.......as the RV will be your home

National Interstate was the FTrs insurance we used. Good coverage, great service, decent pricing and very easy to work with when you have a claim(s)

Thanks for the insurance heads-up! This is good stuff to know.

I guess I don't understand what "issues" I could run into going FT after getting the loan and insurance. Either the bank wants to make the loan for the sum asked for or they don't. What are they going to do? Try to repo my RV when I'm paid up for the month? Under what authority? "We don't like that he left his former address!" Not sure how it's any of your business, Mr. Banker!

Don't expect to have any issues with changing residencies. Idk where these notions come from....maybe old timers who've lived in the same spot for a long time, or mis handling finances or records. Just speculation.
We've moved around a bunch. And sometimes the insurance company actually tells us to not change the policy. Re-registering or titling vehicles is no more of a hassle than most trips to the DMV. And I've never found a mortgage banker or any loan office to care what the return address was on the envelope with the payment inside. And now since most pay bills online, it could come from freakin Bangladesh as long as it gets there.
I've re financed mortgages a month before moving to another state and buying another house. Bank didn't flinch. Rented out homes with homeowners mortgages not commercial loan, banks didn't care.
Figure out what it will cost you and go have fun with it.
Only possible challenge I see is how much you want to pay for a campsite and how close to the city you want to be. I wouldn't expect to camp within 1/2 hour of downtown Chicago, but in Seattle you might be able to do that. BUT you got the home on wheels. If it's not working, move.
Sounds like good times ahead!

[tatest]

It would be a great idea if you wanted to see the country but not visit or live in the major cities. Cost of a place to park, and plug in (boon-docking and connectivity are difficult to put together) is strongly connected to land values, making it problematic to RV in the most densely populated areas. To some extent this can be gotten around with choice of RV for stealth camping, i.e. if your RV can be disguised as a plumber's work van or something else expected to be parked on a city street, things go better in the city, but that works against you if you want to spend some time in a RV resort.

Get out of the major metropolitan areas into small town or even small city USA, where you have lower land values, cheap RV parks or public parks, but still enough population density to be on the 4G LTE network, it all becomes more feasible. $10 a day spot in city park in Coffeyville, Kansas works a lot better than trying to boondock a class A with towed vehicles in midtown Manhattan. There is a lot of variation in between, but the more likely it is that you can boondock, the less likely you'll have the connection you need.

Coming from a guy who loves to visit the big cities of the world, but has learned it is a whole lot easier to live where land values are less than 1/1000 of big city costs.

Things like financing, health insurance, domicile can all be worked out. Texas, Florida and South Dakota are popular domicile states for various reasons, income tax for some, and just making the paperwork easier for others. My brother domiciled in Michigan while living 8 months of the year in Florida, because Florida made it easier to be a long term visitor.

Recognize, that while you are working and earning an income, your residency and tax status may depend on where you physically are, and where is whoever is paying you, rather than your choice of domicile. This is coming from experience of living and working in China, domiciled citizen of a U.S. state, being payed by a corporation in an offshore tax haven wholly owned by a entity incorporated in yet another state. They all got a piece of me, and the tax returns were very complicated. This whole thing of roaming around the country is a lot less messy if all you are doing is drawing Social Security and your pension.

Another thought on this, I have a friend self-employed in online marketing and consulting for that business, who does almost all her work online except for live seminars all over the world. She doesn't RV, but lives (owns homes) in four different states and an off-shore tax haven. Two of the states can collect income tax from her, each by different rules. The other two don't, either because they don't have income tax or she doesn't spend enough continuous time there to be considered a resident and employed.

I've worked with other self-employed consultants who have worked around the world, but they all work through an agency. On paper the agency looks like the employer paying them, and they usually domicile in the same state. Most often it was Texas, a no income tax state, and a focus for our industry. Usually when out on a job, the state or country does not know they are there working, since they come in as temporary visitors e.g. business meeting.

Similarly as an employee of a global location I did short jobs at other locations in the U.S. and overseas. Most of the time I was still "working" at my home location, while "visiting" the place where I happened to be.

In both cases, the length of the job away from home was always less than a month, usually no more than a week. Within the U.S., for most states this is a short enough not to get caught up in the working resident trap that catches you on taxes, ID, and vehicle licensing.

You need to consider the meaning of your relationship with your employer, and whether any of these models can work for you.

[starkruzr]

WNYBob wrote:
I haven't heard anything about your remote connections.

Keep in mind it is rare to have good Internet on the road.

I'd have both Verizon and AT&T on the road, paid for by the company.

[starkruzr]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
SD is NOT the place to FT address only because SD Medical Insurance coverage issues IF you are under 65 and NOT using Medicare

FL is more friendly in that aspect -----Blue Cross Blue Shield has coverage that will allow you medical coverage outside of FL.

BUT ....hold on to your hats as Obamacare is/will be changing.....:B


If your COMPANY is providing medical insurance you will need to verify that the coverage is applicable outside of DC.....northern states/west coast as you stated were your travel plans etc

We have UHC, and I think it would just get moved to FL when I changed my permanent address. I believe we're all on a PPO plan that works in every state, but this is an important thing to check, I agree.

[starkruzr]

DutchmenSport wrote:

starkruzr wrote:
... ...
How after step 3 is the bank going to be involved again unless I stop making payments? Even when I re-register and the title notes the lien from the bank, so what? How does the bank have the right to tell me what my living arrangements are allowed to be? As long as they're getting their money, what's the issue?

As someone who is also in IT for a lending/servicing/financial institution, financial institutions work aggressively to track your physical address. The organization I work for, on almost every single item of physical mail sent out, is printed on the envelope "Do Not Forward". When the mail comes back to the company, the account immediately goes into "skip tracing", even if the account is paid up to date.

Besides, you will need to keep the vehicle registered. If you keep it registered at your current address (say Washington DC), you'll need to keep insurance, drivers license and every thing else with that same address. If you move out, almost every state in the country has DMV laws stipulating how long you can stay before you have to re-register your automobile in THAT state. When you do, then your lending institution will need to surrender the title to your vehicle so you can get it titled in the new state!

Even if you pay cash for your RV, your insurance company will probably cancel you once they find out you've titled the vehicle in a new state (let alone a new address within the same state).

If you have a loan, you have an obligation to keep the lending institution updated of your current physical address at all times. If you are physically working in other states, you may also be subject to income tax in those states.

A friend of mine drives a US Post Office Semi truck between Indiana and Ohio. He has to pay state taxes for both Indiana and Ohio, even though his home location is Indiana. Taxes can get very messy.

I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just saying, both your insurance company and your lender for the loan will expect your current address.

I mean, my "current address" would move from DC to (probably) FL. I'd be able to receive and answer mail there. And all of my work is remote, but I only receive income in one state -- DC (eventually FL). The lending institution would be updated for my address change. And that would really be the end of it, as far as I can tell.

Let them "skip trace" me. They'll be really confused when I keep paying my loan on time 😛

[coolmom42]

People move and re-register their cars all the time. The lender does NOT have to surrender the title; all you need is a valid registration from one state to move it to another.

There are plenty of full-time RV people with liens on their RVs. Probably the Escapees club can help you out with how that works.

Others have some good points about your medical insurance; the Escapees club might have some good info on that as well. There are lots of people full-timing without Medicare.