Introduction
Vehicle-dwelling or vanlife is an alternative lifestyle for nomads who live in a vehicle full or part-time.
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Video
I'm gonna do van life forever.
No, no of the hundreds of van life videos.
I watched these five things were rarely discussed and if they were, they weren't really talked about in real detail.
Well, I want to start the conversation on these five things and the last one is a real eye-opener.
It hit me like a ton of bricks.
Now this video may come off as like a debbie, downer type video, but I'm really not trying to be negative.
I'm just trying to bring to light some of the things that aren't really discussed when you're thinking about living in a vehicle.
Also, anyone named debbie I apologize because we're always throwing around debbie downer, I'm sure a lot of you debbies are also awesome.
Positive people I mean look at lil, debbie, lil debbie just took that name and made it happy so good for you little debbie line number one.
Okay before I even tell you these first couple, you're gonna be like oh I've heard this before people are talking about this.
Stick with me and just hear me out because there's a few things in each category that I think is a little bit unique number one.
You can just drive your vehicle anywhere.
You want to go and you'll be fine for any weather, and I know you're sitting there screaming at the screen.
I know it's hot.
Let me explain fast forward to my first summer, in my van it was terrible.
I started to feel very heat.
Strokey headachy, tired run down.
I felt like I was gonna pass out.
It was just too much.
I was sweating constantly all the videos that I watched.
I tried all the things I bought products.
I did everything and I just could not get cooled off.
You can go into the mountains, but that doesn't mean that you're going to be cool, you do need to go to a higher elevation and when you go to those places, yes, you can cool down, but a lot of those places are going to be out in the middle of nowhere.
So you're not going to get a signal.
So if you're, the type of person that works remotely, that has to have a connection you're going to be out of luck unless you get a major booster or whatever those are costly and that's fine.
You can do that and the people that are living say on social security or they have a little savings or whatever, and they can be in those boondocking locations away from everything that definitely might work.
But if you are a remote worker or work at a location, it's not as easy to escape the heat, but allison you can just go to the library go get out of your van yes, you can.
But when you sign up for this lifestyle, you don't sign up for wanting to sit in a location all day.
But if I had a house or an apartment, I could just sit in my house apartment all day as well.
So it's not as freeing as one might think.
Another thing is people always post all these pictures of parking in front of bodies of water lakes, oceans, rivers and they have that all they're, just windows, just all open and everything bro, it's hot like right.
Now, I'm parked in front of a beautiful body of water by a marina, but it is like 90 something degrees in this van.
So I have to have all my shades up to block out the sun, so I can't just open up all my van and just you know be looking out into the beauty.
I have to cover up the windows, because the windows are the thing that's bringing in the most heat line.
Number two, I love being alone, I'm a total introvert, so I'm gonna do so great out on the road just never talking to anybody and never being with anybody, I'm just that kind of person that just enjoys nature and just being by myself bro.
That may be the case most of the time, but everybody's not built to be alone 100 of the time.
In fact, none of us are built that way.
I think people have lied to themselves because it's harder to maintain relationships, so people are like I'm just a loner.
I just like to give myself yes, but it's not healthy to isolate yourself all the time and then on the flip side, the lie that some people tell is like the van life community is so awesome, you'll be caravanning with people and you'll meet people at meetups, that's partially true.
So I've gone to a few van life meetups and I've met some people and it's great don't get me wrong, but when you see those videos of people gathered in the desert at a bonfire, roasting, marshmallows and hanging out and driving places together all these things.
That does happen, but that's not all the time you may not get along with some of those people.
You may travel with somebody and you only want to be for a short period of time, but that person wants to be around all the time or vice versa.
And then you have to talk to that person and be like hey.
I need some space.
It could be a whole thing.
It's not the same like when you live in a house or apartment.
You can tell somebody okay, I'm tired.
I want to go to bed, your home is parked right next to them, so it's harder to have a little bit of privacy and then, when you want somebody around, sometimes they might be traveling somewhere else.
The other thing is that the van life community, that you think you're going to be a part of, may not suit your needs.
For example, I don't drink.
I don't party and I work a lot so when I'm looking on some of these apps for meetups and stuff, like that, I'm noticing there's a trend of people wanting to just play loud, music and smoke, weed and drink, and all these things and I'm like that's, not the vibe.
For me, it's not a perpetual party here out on the road now for some people it is it's a regular life but living in a vehicle, and on that note I don't think anyone's talked about this.
Is you have connections where you came from friends, parents, kids, siblings, there's people that are in one location and you're? Not there, a lot of nomads are constantly on the move and those people's lives are going on they're living their regular life.
I just had this discussion with one of my best friends who lives in san diego.
Now, when I'm not only out on the road, I tend to hover around san diego in my van and she lives in one place and her and her friend group.
They have a get-together once a month, and so when I came back to san diego, she was doing all these fun things and I'm like wow, I wasn't invited, but then she's like you're, totally welcome.
You have a blanket invite, but the fact is that you're, not always here, so I don't think of it.
That way.
We already have these established plans all the time, and so, when you go back to a certain place, you can't really expect people to just pick up where you left off, because they're already living their life.
Sometimes it can feel like you're, an outcaster you're, not part of any group or any community, and that can feel like a lot of rejection at times.
Hold up, don't be a loner out there.
If you don't have a community, even if you do you're still going to want to be part of the snack pack.
All you gotta do is hit that subscribe button and the notification bell throw a like on this video and keep watching till the end, because the last one is a doozy you're, not gonna want to miss it line.
Number three living in a vehicle gives you so much more freedom.
You are so free.
You can do whatever you want anytime.
You want living in a house.
An apartment, sucks living in a vehicle is the way to go.
Now.
I actually really enjoy living in a vehicle, but but listen you have to move your vehicle every night, but there's times where you're, somewhere and you're so comfy cozy, and it's like 9 00 pm 10 pm you're like oh.
I wish I could just stay here, but you can because you're in an area that you're not allowed to sleep and you got to pack everything up in the back and drive and find somewhere.
I did a video recently where I drove around, showing in real time how I find parking, and it doesn't always happen in just two minutes and constantly moving is hard on your body and also hard mentally you're.
Never a hundred percent settled, I'm not a full-time boondocker.
I don't go and sit in the desert or in the mountains for two weeks at a time.
So that's going to be a different type of nomadic lifestyle and that might be better because you're staying in one spot longer when people talk about freedom of being on the road.
Yes, it is free.
You can drive wherever you want, you can go wherever you want, but there's still rules.
Freedom is not 100 free and in fact the rules for being a nomad are getting harder and harder.
You guys have noticed in the news and they're pushing people out of this lifestyle, so I think that may also continue to get worse as people are like.
I don't want vans just parked up in my neighborhood all the time.
It's not complete freedom.
It's just a different way of living line.
Number four! I can quit my job, I don't to make a lot of money.
I can just pay for food and gas and I'll be set.
That's partially true.
When you live in a vehicle life is going to continue.
You're, probably going to have some health issues.
Some accidents things are not always going to go as planned, so you're going to need to set some money aside.
So if you quit your job and you have very little to no income coming in, you might be able to survive living in a van by just having food, water, gas and stuff like that.
But you're gonna need money for other things and along those lines, if your actual vehicle that you live in needs repairs and they need to keep it for more than a night you're going to have to go somewhere because, especially if they've taken things from under your vehicle, like in my case recently, I had to have my gas tank removed.
I can't drive it they've already taken it off and they can't just put it back on every night and let you take your van or your vehicle.
So, in that case, you're gonna have to either stay with a friend or get a hotel and you're gonna need money.
For that, and one thing that I haven't heard anybody talk about is that if you have solar panels on your vehicle and that's powering all the things in your van when your van is in the shop in the bay where they're, repairing it, your solar is not getting any sun and if you have a solenoid you're, not driving your van.
So anything in your van being powered, for example, your refrigerator, that's running, running running it's going to die.
Your battery is going to get drained.
You should definitely have a plan in place so that, when something breaks you are prepared for it, and that leads me to line number five that has to do with preparation and this one I haven't fully figured out, but it just recently just kind of smacked me in the face- and I was like oh shoot like I've- never even thought about this, and so I'm gonna be talking about this.
A lot more on the channel, but for number five is I'm gonna.
Do van life forever? No, no! Now I'm the type of person that, when I get excited about something I'm full force into it, I'm like I'm gonna, do this forever, but over the years I've learned something about myself is that I'm really invested into something until I'm not and then I'm ready to do something else, and that's okay, but when I first started car life, I was like I'm never gonna.
I gotta live in this vehicle for the rest of my life.
This is the way to go, and now that I've been doing this for three years, I'm like all right.
I get it.
I understand why people get to the point where they're, tired, uh, I'm tired, it's not living in this van people.
Get it wrong.
It's not the small space.
It's all the other things that go with it.
You still have family issues, health issues, relationship issues, all the issues.
Every issue that you have in a house or an apartment is all the same issues you have in a vehicle plus you got other issues so right now.
Somebody watching this is like no, I'm never gonna get to that point, and maybe you're in the one percent that you're going to want to do this for ever.
Even if you want to do it, sometimes it's not going to be your choice.
It could be a family issue or a health issue.
That's going to take you out all the way you're going to have to go, live in a certain spot for a period of time.
There's going to be a time, even if you're, like 150 years old, I mean, if you're, 150 years old, you beat someone out, beat out some of the people in the bible.
I'd like to meet you, you may be in your hundreds and you break a hip and you're not gonna, be able to live in a vehicle like what are you gonna do all I'm asking is.
Are you ready? I had to ask that to myself recently and at a certain point in your existence of being a person you're going to want to be in one spot, you're going to want stability, some people that are doing this lifestyle are in their 60s 70s 80s, even and they love this lifestyle and there's nothing wrong with that, but hit that for like 10 more years, 20 years, you're gonna be like okay, I need some stability.
I need to have a place to rest.
What am I gonna? Do I got a good few years left in this van life and then I'm gonna want to do some different things, and I really wish that I would have watched some videos about this earlier.
I didn't plan it.
I was just like.
Oh it's so fun we're gonna just have a whimsical time, and now I'm like okay, I like it, but I'm also kind of like.
What's next, don't let this deter you from this lifestyle because it still is a great lifestyle, but if you're, just starting out, make sure that you have a plan in place.
I never want to be stuck with no options, so I'm planning now one of the things that I'm doing is well, I'm not going to tell you on this video, but there's something exciting that I'm going to be doing now to set myself up for the future and I'm very excited to share it with you.
I have that little bit of like is this gonna work like is this gonna be okay, but I'm gonna, try it and just see how it goes so I'll be sharing that in the next video.
Also, if you wanna know the secret before that video drops, you might wanna join us on patreon, because I share all the exciting news ahead of time to my munch bunch on patreon.
Now I could be wrong about a lot of these things.
So drop it in the comments your experience living in a vehicle.
Is it been great challenging? Have some of these lies crept up for you and you're like yeah? I wish I would have known this before I got into this lifestyle and if you live in a house or apartment or a stationary location, let me know if you've ever thought about living this nomadic lifestyle of the hundreds of we're starting off real bad, but there's that time but they're into the court.
No, not in my car could you stop yelling.
I was warm plenty community.
You can care about whether it's friends family, who else? Why am I so shiny, because it's flipping hot, so you're, always in this being powder powdered? Anything in your van that's being powder if you're living in a vehicle? What are some of the if you're living in a vehicle? What are some of them.