What extreme thing would you be willing to do if you really wanted to get out of debt? Would you take your car back to the dealer? How about selling your favorite TV or starting a 2nd job? Or, maybe you’d consider 9 months of full-time RV living to pay off debt? ($20,000 worth, to be exact!)

Well, that’s exactly what we decided to do…

Here’s why AND what we learned during the process:

For the majority of people, the idea of selling half your possessions and moving into an RV is terrifying. Admittedly, that wasn’t a decision that we took lightly either, but at the time, it made sense for us.

When we began our journey towards debt freedom & financial independence, we were determined to make changes that would actually move us closer to our goals. But, as a married couple, living in California, paying off debt on one income – that meant we needed to get creative.

We were renting a house at the time and realized that we were essentially giving away $2,300+ each month with none of the benefits of real home ownership.

Dannie came to me one day and brought up the idea of moving out of our house and into an RV. I thought it sounded crazy at first, but the more we talked about it, the more it actually seemed like a good idea.

So, that’s exactly what we did!

Towards the end of 2015, we put in our 30-day move-out notice, sold ALL of our furniture, and purchased a 37 foot RV.

And so began our journey of full-time RV living to pay off debt!

Good things we learned

1. Decreasing expenses > Increasing income

Some financial gurus will mislead you into thinking that the only real way to build wealth is by increasing your income. While that is a great idea and should be a goal for most people, there isn’t always much talk about other ways to create the same effect.

We quickly realized that the simple act of decreasing our living expenses by about 70% had the same effect as a 70% increase in our income. This was mind-blowing! Why focus on job changes and raises, when you can actually control your expenses?

Going full-time in an RV changed our rent from ~$2,300 to only $600 per month!!! That left us with about $1,700 extra every month and helped us wipe out ALL of our consumer debt!

2. RV living to pay off debt isn’t terrible!

I used to think that minimalism was a curse word! I had this image in my head of us moving into an RV and constantly bumping into each other, hitting our heads on the ceiling and running out of food because the fridge was too small.

It turned out, the RV wasn’t actually as cramped as we had imagined it would be. The rig that we chose had plenty of storage space, was super-comfy and had WAAAY less area to keep clean than our house did!

However, the smaller living space meant that we had to be more intentional about what we bought and when we bought it. No more needless spending on clothing because we only had enough space to hang up the clothes that we actually wore.

When we were moving out of our house, we realized that we had a lot of random crap. We sold most of it, put some of it in storage and then lived without it for 9 months. This really opened our eyes to the fact that you really don’t need most of the things that you probably have!

It also helped our budget immensely because we stopped overspending at the grocery store. You’d be surprised at how quickly you stop buying *extra* food when you know that you don’t have anywhere to put it and probably wouldn’t eat it anyway!

3. Sometimes, sacrifice is necessary.

Although we didn’t decide to stay in the RV forever, another lesson we learned is that sacrifice is often necessary for meaningful progress. Most of us spend a lot of time talking about how we wish things were different, but then we don’t go out and actually do anything about it.

Going full-time in an RV meant that we would have to make a serious adjustment to our mindset and lifestyle. It helped us zero in on what was important and it also allowed us to meet our goal of becoming consumer debt free.

That extreme method might not be the best choice for most people, but the lesson we learned can be applied anywhere:

4. God rewards us for being faithful

Luke 16:10 – “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.”

• 2 months into our RV life, Dannie was able to secure a full-time job after searching and applying for nearly 4 years!
• In that same month, I was selected for a promotion.
• 2 months after that, Dannie received the job that she currently has and negotiated her salary to be twice the amount of her previous position.

We honestly believe that these things happened because we took a leap of faith and tried to meet God halfway. We prayed a lot about our finances beforehand, but one thing we kept seeing is that “faith without works is dead”.

By our interpretation, that meant that we needed to do more than just pray. We needed to actually make changes and show God that we were serious about making improvements in our life.

In return, He blessed us in ways that we couldn’t even imagine.

No matter what religion you believe in, this lesson still holds true. You can’t expect things to change just because you want them to or simply think that they should. You have to actually go out and start doing something.

The rest will eventually fall into place.

Bad things we realized

1. Pay cash for depreciating assets.

9 months of RV living to pay off debt was a great decision for us. The way we went about doing so, was not.

We bought a brand new RV and financed it. Our thinking was that the money we would be saving would offset the monthly payment we’d be making.

What we didn’t take into consideration was the interest rate we’d be paying during this time.

Our rate was at 8.5% so the majority of the monthly payment went towards interest and not the actual balance of the loan. We were getting absolutely hammered by interest! If we had kept the RV for the full amount of the loan term, we would have ended up paying more than double what it was worth.

More. Than. DOUBLE!

We learned a key lesson here: It is always better to pay cash for depreciating assets.

* Depreciating asset: Anything that goes down in value after you buy it (cars, boats, rvs, etc).

2. There is a such thing as TOO small.

Earlier, we talked about how living in a small space actually turned out to be a nice experience. Well, it was also a “not-so-great” experience at the exact same time.

We learned that “too small” is actually an accurate term to categorize the rooms in an RV. We would bump our heads on the ceiling of the bedroom and the bathroom area was TI-NY! If you’ve been following us on Instagram at all, you already know that Dannie does her own hair to save $100+ per month.

Can you imagine trying to do anything like that in here?

And yes, it was actually as small as it looks.

***

At the end of the day, the experience of full-time living in an RV to pay off debt was one of the best things we’ve ever done.

And, although the RV is gone, we’ll always carry the memories we made and lessons we learned with us going forward.

Would we do it all over again, if we could?

Hell yes!

— Dj

What’s the most extreme thing you’ve ever done to improve your finances? Would you consider full-time RV living to pay off debt or is that TOO much of a lifestyle change? Let us know in the comments below!