“What do I say to my family?”

Be prepared to have well intentioned family and friends do everything they can to dissuade you from starting this lifestyle. You’ll find that those detractors are comprised of almost entirely, the Baby Boomer generation. They grew up in a world where you could start in the mailroom of a company, work your way up to being an executive, and retire without having ever needed to change companies. They are the generation that was able to, “Go to school and get good grades, go to college and get good grades, and finally, get a job, work 40 hours a week, work your way up, and finally retire with a pension”.

Not all family are like that, some are going to be excited for you, some jealous, yet excited. Sadly, the ones that will stick out are the negative ones. Be prepared.

I personally have discovered that the Baby Boomer generation mostly hasn’t grasped that here in the 21st Century, companies are no longer loyal, and will let go of one person to hire two students for half the wage between the two. In the 21st Century, even the most respected business magazine has written that staying with any company for more than a couple years, may in fact hurt your career financially.

We, as a family, have been attacked by those well intentioned family members. Some accusing us of child neglect, simply for considering the idea (without even doing it), others for not working a standard job. The latter have shown they would be happy with us working for less than half what we make now, as long as we have the appearance of working a “normal” job. That’s another part of the Baby Boomer mentality of “Keeping up with the Jones’”. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured.

You are going to come across these issues, no matter what type of family you have. Even the most liberal families are going to have opinions on how they know far more than you do, and that you should follow in their secure path of school, job, house, and retire. Once you retire, then you can pretend you are happy, and able to travel. They do most certainly have life experience, but just like everything else, time changes life, and what worked once, will no longer work later.

Just remember, Life is Short, Money is Replaceable.

My next post is about your RV itself. Just buying an RV is not enough if you are planning on living in it. You are going to want to make it your home.