Life on a boat or RV

Traveling in a RV can take money. Of course it’s totally up to you on how much you spend for some things. We choose to spend less for fun things- and save our money to travel longer on the roads. We do work several months a year and bank that money, and invest some – and live off that for a few months, then when our accounts get low we stop and go back to work to build it back up. It has worked for us doing it this way for several years now. We can do this because we don’t have payments to make on the boat, or the RV. Neither one is new, but they are paid for and well maintained.  So how can you make money when traveling in the RV and make money on the Road?

The Most Popular way – Work a few months – Save your Money

We found over the years that many people work a few months throughout the year to have traveling money. This seems to be common to do and gives them spending money. They live cheaply, but this doesn’t mean that they go without. We have no bills- no credit card bills, and just a few bills for necessities – (insurance, cell phones, and my internet!). Other than that, we have no recurring bills. Usually what we do while we are working is pre-pay the bills so that while traveling – we don’t have to dip into savings for these things.  We try to spend on things only when we have income coming in and it’s on sale. We can’t do this with everything, but we do it quite often.

While working we also stock up on things that we need. We purchase extra toothpaste, shampoo, and other things that we will need while traveling. These things are small and can travel with us, while not taking up a lot of space.  While at stopovers- you can take the time to read the papers – see the sales, get coupons and take advantage of these saving.

Doing Odd Jobs:

Since when I am working – I do body work, when we stop for awhile and work – I will purchase a cheap project car to restore. I then fix it up, then take it to a car show and sell it. This can net me several thousand dollars profit that we can use to travel. While this is what I do,

Others will:

- do odd jobs in construction- building things for others, painting boats, RVs,

- fix things – one guy I know does electrical work on boats – he is always in demand.

- One lady does crafts and goes to craft stores and sells her things. Since she has limited room, she only takes samples and some few of the items to sell, the rest is special orders.

- One lady (and we do too) has websites that she gets residual money from every month. She gets money every month from advertisers whether she works on her sites or not.

- Several people we have met still eBay for cash. They will pick up things at thrift stores and resell.

- We have met people who write online and make money to have that extra cash.

-One lady writes greeting cards and sells them online

This is just a small sample of how people make money while on the road or boating that we have came across.

The one thing that they all have in common is that they live lives to the fullest, yet don’t invest in material things just for looks. While we all seem to spend money as necessary, the money is for us to travel and enjoy lives. Some don’t even own a car if they live on a boat, they have bikes.

So let me help you think of ways you can earn money on the road.  Here are some questions you can ask yourself about earning money while traveling. You won’t want to “bank on these ways, but instead use this money as bonus money”.

1. What is your Hobby? Can your hobby “travel” with you? (You may not have room for big equipment like a table saw)… Can you make money from your hobby? Are others willing to pay for it? Who could you sell your products to? (People who live in boats and RV usually won’t spend money on decorative things so you will have to find other places to sell those items, we will however spend money on useful things).

2. Do you like to write? You can write a book on your journey, sell articles online, make your own websites and earn money with advertisers; we have gone several weeks just from income from writing. One thing though – if you depend on it as a fulltime income, you could burn out. Sometimes it’s hard to get the creative juices flowing when you want to be out doing something else.

3. Do you mind selling, packing and describing things? You could buy things, and resell on EBay. This can produce good money for just a few hours of work each day. Make sure that you have the room to hold the items till you ship them. Some of the things that we have sold on eBay weren’t even ours. We sold them for others – and got a cut of the profit. One word of caution – always check out what they tell you about the item you will be listing against the actual item. It’s your name you’re using on eBay and your reputation.

4. What are your skills – like buying then selling cars? Depending on the amount of money you get from reselling used cars here and there, you could make this a fulltime income, with very little work. (well it could be allot of work, but it’s not a fulltime job – you can complete a car in just a few weeks).

5. Can you repair things? Maybe you’re a whiz at repairing laptops, radios and other electronics. You can purchase cheap things, and fix then resell.

Other ways to earn some money while traveling in your RV or boat. Are you staying a few months in one place? Maybe the campground or marina will need someone to clean, paint, or do some kind of work there. While working your fulltime job, you could do a part time work at the place your staying. We cleaned the bath house at one place we stayed; we didn’t get paid but got free rent while we did it. For us that was like getting paid.

So now once you figure out some ways that you can earn money on the road or boating, you will have to create a plan of action. You will want to maybe jot down several ways that you think you could make your “play” money while traveling. Then think about ways that you can do it.

HERE ARE SOME USEFUL LINKS THAT YOU MAY WANT TO CHECK OUT THAT WILL HELP INSPIRE YOU.

Writing and Get Paid –

Associated Content – You can write and get paid up to $20 for one article. It’s free to join, and easy to do. Write 400 words and more articles and they can pay you for it. You also can submit video’s and get paid. They will pay you with PayPal when you have articles approved. This is an easy way to earn extra money if you like to write.  You choose the topics and write! We use this lot to make money – they pay on Mondays and Wednesdays if they have approved and accepted our articles, we have been with them for 3 years now, and they have never missed a payday for us.

The Content Authority:  They will tell you what to write about then pay you for articles.

Blogs and Websites:

Start your Own Blog or Website. This site is an example of a blog. We update it frequently, and if you notice there are ads on the blog.  We signed up with Commission Junction, Ebay Partner Network, and Google Adsense. When someone clicks on an ad – or purchases something – we make a commission. It’s quite simple.  You write what you know about – and get paid when someone does something on your website that the advertiser wants them to do. Each one is different. The website costs us about $10 at a year, www.GoDaddy.com and web hosting is just a few dollars a month at IXWebHosting.Com:$3.95/mo – Superior Service with Excellent 24/7 Toll Free Support, Live Chat, and Email. Linux AND Windows packages!!! .  With the hosting we can have as many sites as we want.  So we have several sites that we have online and make commissions from them. We don’t have to update them daily, we have the all set up using WordPress (which is usually part of the hosting company’s features) and we can blog.

How to learn how to make money with websites:

There are several good websites that I learned from – One is Keyword Academy. They have a 30 day trial to learn everything and it’s only $1 to get started. If you follow their directions, you will make money online using their techniques.  This site tells you exactly how to do it, and even a forum that you can learn more from.  They will give you ideas on what keywords to look for when you start a site, and how to set up a website. I have been doing websites for several years, and still I have learned much more from this site than I ever knew. It has helped me increase my money, no fluff, no bull, just straight forward information that works!

Ebay:

You have to have an ebay account to be a seller. You can get your ebay account here: Sign up with eBay

Selling Crafts :

Esty is one place to sell crafts online. If you can make your crafts quickly you can make them as the orders come in.

Selling T-shirts and other things with photos, designs and sayings can be sold at Zazzle, CafePress, and Lulu.com. You can make calendars, books, photo books, and even download full resolution photos and make money.  Why do we like this? You don’t have to have inventory. We upload our designs once and when someone orders they ship, print and do it all, and send you the commission! And we have online stores opened 24/7 with no maintenance. And it’s free.

Buying and selling Project cars:

You can find these cars on eBay, craigslist, or our favorite on the side of the road.  Buy them and fix them up, clean them up and then resell them for a profit.

Find Work From Home Websites:

Here you will learn how others are making money from home. Sure you won’t be able to do everything that they are because your mobile, but they will give you great ideas on how to earn money from home and you can adapt them for what you need. Many of these are inspiration for you.  There are many websites out there that you can learn from,

Learn how others work for themselves and make money at Entrepreneur Magazine Online you will be inspired at ways that you can make money, and it’s a great place to start when brainstorming to make money and still enjoy your freedom of traveling!

There are many other ways that you can earn money while being on the road traveling. Take time to brainstorm and you will find ways that you can earn additional money without hitting into savings for the fun things that you want to do without spending your bankroll.