How to Earn Money While Living the RV / Van Life on the Road.
Since retiring some 15 years ago, I have been living my dream of traveling around North America while living in an RV and then in my van. During those years, I learned multiple ways of how to make money on the road. I love learning new things and learning how to make money on the road provided that for me, plus it supplements my retirement income.
As we all know, Covid then affected all of us. We were locked down and overcome with cabin fever. As a result, the RV and van industry exploded with people wanting out of their homes. Now, some 18 plus months later, RV lots are extremely low on inventory as is the van market. What are available costs much more now than before Covid. RV parks and resorts are booked for up to a year. The alternative to RV parks and resorts is boondocking and there are more boondockers out there now than I’ve seen in my 15 plus years boondocking across this great country.
This brings up the question: How does one sustain themselves while living on the road.
Once Covid hit and we were locked down, a great many of these folks began working remotely. They then discovered they could work from anywhere on their computers and smart phones as long as they had a good Internet connection.
What about those that did not have a job that could be worked remotely but wanted their freedom too?
That brings me to the various ways I learned to make money on the road.
eBay. An excellent way to make money on the road.
Retail arbitrage. (for those who don’t know) Is the practice of taking advantage of a price difference between two or more markets; striking a combination of matching deals that capitalize on the imbalance with profit being the difference. With this business model, you simply purchase products, usually close outs, sale items, etc. from retail stores such as Walmart, Target, etc. and then list them for sale on Amazon and other online marketplaces at a higher price.
The downside to this model is that if your RV or van is not very big, you’ll be limited on the amount of product you can purchase. I have purchased many items at Walmart for example and listed them on Amazon. All I need Once the purchase is made is finding a UPS Store. I use the UPS Store to ship items to Amazon and they do the rest.
Online arbitrage. Like retail arbitrage, but you search for items online that you can list and sell on Amazon, etc.
Drop shipping. In this model, I find a drop shipper with items I can purchase at a profit. I then list and sell online and once the sale is made, the drop shipper will ship the item to my buyer. I’ve done this with items from China as well.
Design and sell mugs. In this model, I set up an ETSY Store then design mugs and list them on ETSY. ETSY then does all the work including shipping, collecting the money and then send my profit to my bank account.
Design and sell T-Shirts. This model is similar to mugs on ETSY. I design and sell these through Amazon and again, Amazon does all the work and sends my profit directly to my bank account.
The T-shirts and mugs are my favorite ways to make money on the road. There is no inventory and no upfront costs to start and run these businesses and I work at my leisure.
Sell photos to stock companies. When I travel, I’m always taking photos of my travels and unique things along the way. Stock photo companies will pay for certain photos.
These are just a few of the many ways to make money on the road. Check out Craigs List for whatever skills you may have. I’ve met people on the road that get jobs through Craigs List for handyman services, auto repair, solar installation, and many other type jobs.
Source: Most of the photos in this blog are provided courtesy of unsplash.com.
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