How do you financially support your nomadic lifestyle? 💸

Life on the Road Money/Financial Freedom
1

"How do I make money living on the road?"

This has to be one of the most common question an enthusiast would think about, when considering living life on the road. It makes sense though, one of the main purposes of living life on the road is so we can have the freedom to travel and not worry about our jobs, money, bills, etc…

Keep in mind, you will be living a minimalist lifestyle in most cases. Therefore, you will only need to earn enough money for the necessities, the rest could go into savings.

Your source of income may differ from someone else’s, based on your set of skills.
Either way, there are many ways you can make money while travelling. Some people’s profession allows them to work mobile, some have their own online businesses, while others work ‘short-term’ jobs for some quick cash, etc…

Reply to this topic and share how you make money. Feel free to also include, your income vs your expenses.

What are some ways you make money while living on the road?

1 Like
2

I am a freelancer that takes web development projects

3

I’m nomadic in that I live off the grid with my boat on an anchor and in my truck. I travel when I can. I use photography to pay for some adventures. But I do sales in a fixed location for the time being.

1 Like
4

Last year we took some pages out of Bob Wells’ book and worked the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota and then worked the holiday (actually post- holiday return) rush at Amazon. Just between the two jobs we were able to make as much money in 4 months as we usually do in a year (doing standard wage slave jobs like kitchens).

At those jobs we made personal connections with other like minded people who provided us with advice, idea, and connections to get other similar work.

For me, I’d rather work my ass off for a months and take the rest of the year off. Since we have escaped the rent trap we are now free to actually save money for the future. Imagine that. I make more as a hobo than I ever did before

11 Likes
5

Lol, that’s the spirit! :joy::+1:

7 Likes
6

I don’t live on the road yet but when I decided I wanted to live this lifestyle I figured out how to make my business work online.
I am a personal trainer, who started traditionally at a gym. Once I gained clients and established a good business, I decided to take my business online. I currently hybrid train. About half of my clients are online and half are in person. Once I begin my buildout I’ll start transferring all of my willing clients over to virtual training.
It definitely was not the easy route, but you can always find ways to make things work!

5 Likes
7

Sounds like you got a pretty good opportunity ahead of you. Goodluck and let us know how it goes!

8

Greetings!

After 30 years of working construction while living on the road, a terrible thing happened, I started getting old, and what was worse, I started feeling old. Working construction had taken it’s toll on my body and I found myself too young for retirement, and too old to make it easy to teach an old dog new tricks.

After attending a lot of seminars and classes, and studying work at home opportunities most of them turned out to either be scams or a huge gamble. Eventually I attended a workshop at an Escapee’s get together run by a fellow that goes by Off Grid. He taught many ways to make money working for yourself. Many could be done from anywhere with an internet connection, and it was from him that I learned to two things that I have done since giving up construction work.

I started out by selling ebooks, which was very profitable, but I didn’t find it especially enjoyable. He also taught us how to do remote computer repairs, which I found that I enjoyed more, and continue to do today. Surprisingly, I went from making $30k-$35k per year, to easily making $100k a year working part time from the comfort of home. Something I would have never thought possible if I hadn’t done it myself. You don’t need to be a computer wiz, you just need to know the right software and how to use it. Most of it is pretty straight forward, but to your customers, you will definitely be a wizard.

I imagine there is tons of free software out there that does exactly what I do for people, but they don’t know about it, how to use it, or even what problems they’re trying to solve, usually they just know it’s broke, or more often running terribly slow. Maybe they have pictures or other important files they need recovered, once again, it’s just knowing the right software and how to use it. You can practice everything on your own computer, before you go looking for customers, so you know all the ins and outs and can appear to be a professional. You can accept payment online through PayPal or your choice of other online payment processors. These same services can be performed in person if you wish.

Learning how to make money can be very time consuming, and there are lot’s of scams out there, but my advice is to start the process early, so you’ll already be prepared if the need arises. Besides, making a little extra money on the side while learning never hurt anybody.

Cheers!

10 Likes
9

Your journey inspires me!
Really glad to have you here. :blush:

10

Could you speak more about selling e-books? Send like they would sell themselves? But I’m still looking for a steady income to supplement my seasonal work.

1 Like
11

Greetings!

Okay, let’s start from the top… First you need a product, in this case it will be an ebook. You need something that is going to be of interest to a large number of people, that will think they’re getting they money’s worth when they buy it. I think it’s best to create your own unique products, from a variety of free information sources, and roll them all into one, so the final product is better than any of the original individual resources.

Once you have a product, then you need customers, a way to collect their money, and a way to deliver the product. One of the best ways to get customers quickly is through free online classified ads. I’ll advertise my ebooks in the top 200 major metro areas in the USA. Each ad will sell 5-10 ebooks, x 200 ads, = 1-2k sales. I sold ebooks for $19.95 up to $39.95, so you can do the math. My goal was to sell at least 1,000 in a month, and that was never a problem for me.

I use PayPal for an online payment processor, but any of the online payment processors should work equally as well.

I set up a website for each ebook, with a good description of what they’re getting. Then there is a link to buy it, and after they pay for it, it returns them to the website where they can download their purchase. The classified ads usually expire in somewhere between 7 days and 30 days. So sometimes I needed to renew the ads. When the sales dropped off, I would delete the ads, and a week later I would delete the website.

I always offered a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and on most ebooks I’d get about a half dozen people who wanted their money back, which I cheerfully refunded, with no hassle.

With a good product, and the knowledge of how to market it, the sky’s the limit. I never made less than $20k on an ebook, and on one I made over $100k in just under a month. Your main investment is just your time, so the price is right.

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

8 Likes
12

Check private messages

13

Oh wow. That’s more lucrative then I would have thought, but what are the books about? Did your write then yourself? I’ve certainly never written a book before…

1 Like
14

Greetings!

No, I didn’t write any of the ebooks myself. I found free ressources for the various topics, then combined them to make a superior product.

In 2007, I did 3 recipe books, Grandpa’s favorite BBQ recipes, Grandma’s Favorite Picnic Recipe’s, and Grandma’s Farvorite Christmas Recipes. Between those three, I sold over 10k copies at $19.95 each.

In 2008 I was cranking out material as quickly as I could put it together. Due to the crashed economy, I did a series on how to keep your house, finance, refinance, loan modifications, how to buy a house for nothing down, etc. And then another series about how to get and keep jobs, and still another series in how to thrive in a failing economy. I was not doing it for the money, I was doing it to contribute to helping people, and I sold all those for only $4.95-$9.95. I still made a fortune, and it was a lot of work, but I created jobs for people who had lost theirs, and helped keep people from losing their homes. That year I was putting out new ebooks almost every week. I had 30 people working for me at $500/week each, and by the end of the year, I still had a $250k profit.

I spent 2009 teaching my workers how to do everything on their own, and I gave the previous year’s ebooks to them to get them started, because I felt they needed to still be available.

In 2010, I did a series of 3 different expose’s on work at home scams, and many people bought all three volumes.

In 2011, I did one on how to prevent identity theft, one on what to do if you were a victim of identity theft, and one on credit repair.

About 2010 or 2011, I also started doing remote computer repairs and maintenance, so 2011 was the last year that I personally sold ebooks. The people that I taught the business to are still supporting their families selling ebooks.

I did the recipe ebooks because I was experimenting with new recipes for every meal, I kept the ones I liked the best, and tossed the rest. In 2008 I switched my focus to topics that would help people who were struggling. I think just about any topic telling people how to save money, make money, or how to improve their lives in some way should be a great seller.

Cheers!

8 Likes
15

Thanks! This is extremely helpful. One quick question tho, do you advertise on Craigslist? Are you paying for ads? I love cooking so cook books seem like the obvious thing for me. I assume I can find more info online about writing an selling an e book. Do you have any recommendations?

16

Greetings!

For my remote computer business, I have been using Craigslist, but I am only advertising in a single area at a time. I had trouble with Craigslist trying to post ads in multiple areas, so I just googled top USA free classifieds, and found some that allowed me to post in as many areas as I wanted. Once, I actually found one that let me post my ad to the whole country in one go. No, I don’t pay for the ads ever, but I have paid others to post the ads for me.

Years ago I knew a site that gave all the info on creating and selling ebooks, but I don’t remember it. I’d just google it, I’m sure there are lots of sites with the information.

Cheers!

4 Likes
17

Are you planning on trying this out?

If you do, make sure to let us know how it goes

18

We’ll see. I need a new laptop first, so probably not until after the fall and winter work season

3 Likes
19

Maybe you can make a Christmas ebook as well

1 Like
20

When I lived on the road I made jewelry and sold it at music festivals, gift stores and farmers markets. Many times I would trade jewelry for food at the farmers markets. I would also buy stuff at thrift shops and yard sales (when I could find it) and sell it on eBay. To ship stuff all I bought was tape, I would make envelopes out of paper bags and stuff, and ask the hardware stores and health food stores if they had small boxes or packing wrap (most of the time they were happy to give it to me). It was usually feast or famine but I loved it.

One time when a buddy and me travelled the Sierras in the winter we would stop in resort towns and goto local rental agencies and ask if any properties they owned needed decks or driveways shoveled. We actually made more money than we spent on that trip.

Just be resourceful and try to adapt skills you already have. And keep your overhead low.

9 Likes