Start van life in a week instead of working on a build for six months or more!
Do you want to
- Cut your rent costs?
- Get out of debt?
- Free up time so you can build your business and leave your job behind?
Urban van life might be the way to go if you’re single or a couple without kids. It’s safe and doable for a year or two.
Have you thought about van life or living in a skoolie, but you just can’t spare the time and money to build out an elaborate tiny house on wheels?
Start Your Van Life for Under $3K in Under 2 weeks!
If you look at all the YouTube videos, TikTok posts, and Instagram posts it looks like you have to buy an 80-thousand-dollar sprinter van and then spend another 50 k and all your spare time for the next year to build it out into your dream van with all the luxuries:
- composting toilet and built in shower with fancy heavy tile work
- kitchen with full sized fridge, stove with oven and more heavy gas guzzling tilework or maybe some super heavy marble counter tops
- stupid collection of knives on the wall
- built in sink 20-gallon fresh water and grey water tanks
- full solar panel system with fancy electrical units and buttons that blink
- cute ladder to your deck on the roof
- lots of heavy wooden molding and ceiling stuff to drive gas mileage down even more
- cute little miniature woodstove for one thousand dollars minimum
- built-in queen-sized bed for all that wild #vanlife sex you are going to be having by the beach in your teeny tiny bikini.
Forget about all the fake glamour you see on Instagram and get yourself into a van cheaply and quickly in just one week!
You don’t need 100K to start living in a van, or even 10K
You can start your van life with $2000 down or less on a used preowned certified minivan.
spend another $800 on bedding storage, heating, power and USB lights and bobs your uncle.
You can add solar and a real fridge later. Just start with the minimum and add on as you go.
Car dealers are desperate to sell even if your credit is bad like mine was. All you need is a job to finance or if you’re lucky enough, savings to buy a used van with cash.
Get on the road now and wait until later to do the glamourous build when you are ready for all that sexy teeny weeny bikini crap.
You just don’t need all that built-in furniture or the set of knives on a magnetic strip to be happy and free and get yourself out of debt and into a better financial life.
Cheap van life in a minivan isn’t necessarily glamourous but it is comfortable and doable and less expensive than paying rent in most major cities these days.
Urban Van Life Can Save Money for the Future
Maybe you’re like me and you need to work your job a bit longer while you build your own little online empire or start your restaurant or tech company or whatever business you’re working on. You need transportation to get to work and a place to sleep and you don’t need a giant Queen-sized built-in bed to do it in.
Or maybe you are ready to take to the road full time and you have enough remote income to survive but you just don’t have the dough to build a fancy sprinter style van or skoolie right now.
Minivan life is not so bad. In fact, I absolutely love having my freedom from paying exorbitant rent here in Silicon Valley.
I was in your shoes. I kept stalling on buying the sprinter van or short bus because it looked like I would have to put in the spray foam insulation, flooring, fancy built in cabinets, sink, bed and cute little matching sofa-bench thingy to hide all the elaborate complicated electrical and solar stuff under. It was too intimidating.
What if you didn’t need an elaborate set up to get started?
Finally, I was forced out of my affordable housing work-trade situation, and I got really uncomfortable sleeping in my car. I just couldn’t stand the idea of paying 2 or 3 thousand a month to share a bathroom with a bunch of strangers in a housemate situation again.
After a month of making do with car camping I traded my Toyota corolla for a Toyota Sienna minivan and had the seats removed, which was harder than you might imagine.
I put down carpet and got a single sized Ikea bed frame and a comfortable mattress. I got a drawer unit that fit from Walmart and had a place for my clothes. Everything was simple, organized, and beautiful. I even had room to stretch out on the floor when I needed a break from computer work.
Later I added a high-end cooler and a small battery, and I was set. I still needed to be in the city for work for another year while I built my dream empire. I wasn’t quite ready to quit my day job.
Another problem with all that build it stuff in those fancy Sprinters and skoolies is that you can’t move things around easily if you decide you want a different set up. It is better to get moveable stuff and bungee cord it into place. That way you can rearrange things as you go along.
Get all the details about how to set up a minivan for comfort:
What about heating and cooling?
I got a propane heater and a mini air conditioner though in California I have barely needed to use either one.
Depending on your power needs you can start small and slowly add on later to keep your initial costs to a minimum.
After the initial fear of stealth camping in the van and figuring out how to deal with taking a dump or an early morning pee it has been awesome. I have not looked back.
I have internet and power enough to build my business with two laptops, a drawing tablet and a smart phone.
And now I am not under the thumb of an opportunistic landlord. And free from dealing with the filth and noise of housemates. What a relief!
Just the freedom to have your own space can take off a lot of pressure you didn’t even know you were holding.
I was able to cut back on my work hours enough to carve out time to build my own little empire on Etsy and start building niche sites of my own and build my tech skills.
I have transportation without having a shuttle bus, RV or sprinter style van that guzzles gas.
Free yourself from clutter with van life
Some of my belongings are in a small three by 4-foot storage space and I trade things out for seasonal use. But you will be surprised at how little stuff you really need.
It is genuinely surprising how little you need to live comfortably.
I didn’t even miss the stuff that was in storage. After a few months I took even more things to the thrift store and moved the few things I had left into a smaller storage unit. Can’t give up that iMac with the giant screen after all!
Do it now and build that fancy sprinter van later
Eventually I will probably add a tiny house or a short bus to my lifestyle and keep the minivan for short trips and daily transportation or I could sell it to another newbie van dweller who wants to get going.
But for now, I am amazingly comfortable and much happier now that I don’t have to worry about rent.
Sure, I cannot stand up or do yoga in my van or install a Pilates reformer. I have to exercise and shower at the gym.
But I am saving money now instead of waiting to get into and elaborate sprinter van or RV or skoolie situation to start my nomadic life of adventure and travel.
You can do this with a minimal amount of money, and I can show you how.
Full course coming soon…
What’s included in the course?
- Buying a minivan makes sure the floor is flat and ready to put carpet down on.
- Removing the seats check to make sure the seats are removable with a minimum of effort and cost.
- Resources for power to run your laptop.
- Furnishing your minivan
- How to get power and internet
- How to go to the bathroom
- Getting rid of your extra stuff should you rent a storage space?
- Where to stealth camp
- Where to work on your business in your van during your time off from your job
- Where to shower and work out.
- Where to do your laundry
- How to handle eating
- Keeping your van clean and pleasant smelling
- Dealing with isolation how to find other van dwellers to compare notes with.
- Resources for trading up to a Skoolie, Sprinter style van or RV without building it yourself.