How Do You Make Money While Living on the Road?

How Do You Make Money While Living on the Road?

Realistic Ways Women Are Funding a Life of Travel

Spend a little time in any women’s RV, van-life, or solo travel group, and eventually someone asks the question we’re all thinking:

“But how do you make money while you’re living on the road?”

I understand the question because I’m asking it myself.

Right now, I'm still at home in Illinois. I'm refinishing wood floors, sorting through years of belongings, getting the house ready to sell and dreaming about the van I hope to buy.

Somewhere along the way, I realized I don't want a big yard anymore. I don't want to spend my summers mowing grass and pulling weeds. And I definitely don't want to plant another garden just so the raccoons can eat it!

What I'm looking for now is freedom.

Freedom to spend my time doing the things I actually want to do. Freedom to wake up and decide where I'd like to go next. Freedom to spend more of my life experiencing things and less of it maintaining things.

I suspect there are a lot of women feeling something similar.

Maybe you're tired of being chained to a desk five days a week. Maybe the cost of maintaining a home—and simply keeping up with everyday expenses—has you wondering whether there might be another way to live. Maybe your children are grown and you're looking around at all the stuff you've accumulated and asking yourself why you're still taking care of all of it.

Or maybe nothing is particularly wrong with your life. You simply want more freedom in it.

But freedom still has to be funded.

And that's where the practical question comes in:

How do you make money while living on the road?

Maybe We're Asking the Wrong Question

The obvious question is, What kind of job can I do from the road?

But before we start scrolling through lists of remote jobs, perhaps there is another question worth asking.

One of the reflection questions I included in The Sacred Road: A Guided Travel & Reflection Journal for Self-Discovery on the Road is:

What do you do that, when you do it, you lose all track of time?

Sit with that one for a minute.

What are you doing when you suddenly look at the clock and wonder where three hours went?

Maybe you're painting. Writing. Gardening. Taking photographs. Researching places to travel. Helping someone solve a problem. Cooking. Sewing. Working with animals. Teaching. Organizing. Designing something. Talking with people. Making jewelry. Fixing things.

Whatever your answer is, pay attention to it.

Losing track of time can be a clue that you've found something that deeply engages you—something that uses your natural interests, abilities or creativity.

And maybe the question isn't simply:

How can I make money while I'm living on the road?

Maybe it's:

What do I love doing—and is there a way for that part of me to help support the life I want to live?

That doesn't mean every hobby needs to become a business. Some things deserve to remain ours simply because they bring us joy.

And it doesn't mean we're going to quit our jobs tomorrow, buy a van and somehow make a living selling watercolor paintings beside a campfire.

But it does mean we can become curious.

Look at What You Already Carry

By the time we reach our 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, we've accumulated far more than possessions.

We've accumulated skills.

Things we learned in careers. Things we learned raising families. Things we've taught ourselves because we were interested. Things other people routinely ask us for help with.

Perhaps you've spent 25 years doing bookkeeping and could work with a handful of small-business clients remotely.

Maybe you're a retired teacher who loves helping people learn and could tutor online.

Maybe you make beautiful things and could sell them.

Maybe you're the person everyone calls when their computer isn't working.

Maybe you love animals and could combine travel with pet sitting.

Maybe you've spent years developing expertise that could become consulting, coaching, teaching or an online course.

Or perhaps you're going to discover something completely new.

The point isn't to find the answer today.

It's to begin looking at yourself differently.

Instead of asking:

“What jobs are available to someone who lives in a van?”

try asking:

“What do I already know how to do that could travel with me?”

What Does “Enough” Look Like?

Because freedom isn't only about how much we can earn.

It's also about how much we need.

If I'm maintaining a house, paying utilities, buying things for rooms I barely use, caring for a big yard, and planting vegetables for the neighborhood raccoons, my life requires a certain amount of money to sustain it.

If I deliberately create a simpler life, perhaps the equation changes.

That doesn't mean van life is free. Far from it. There is fuel, insurance, maintenance, camping, food, healthcare, emergencies and eventually a transmission that will undoubtedly have terrible timing.

But this is where the conversation becomes more interesting than “Here are 10 remote jobs.”

We can ask:

How much money do I actually need to live the life I want?

What am I willing to exchange for more freedom?

What am I not willing to give up?

How much of my life do I want to spend earning money—and how much do I want available for living?

Maybe that's where the real journey begins.

Instead of building our lives around the income we think we need, perhaps we can begin asking whether it's possible to build an income around the life we actually want.

Could Your Current Job Come With You?

Before you start looking for a new way to make money, there may be a much simpler question to ask:

Could the job you already have come with you?

Remote work changed the possibilities for a lot of people. Some jobs that once required showing up at an office every morning can now be done from almost anywhere with a laptop, a phone and a reliable internet connection.

If you're already doing work that happens primarily on a computer or telephone, it may be worth having a conversation with your employer before assuming that life on the road means leaving your job.

Could you work remotely full-time?

Could you move into a different position within the same company that is remote?

Could you reduce your hours and work part-time?

Could you become a contractor instead of an employee?

The answer may be no. But it's certainly worth asking.

And if your current job can't travel with you, your experience might.

Think about what you actually do every day rather than the title printed on your business card.

Maybe you've spent years working in insurance, accounting, customer service, healthcare administration, sales, marketing, human resources or another field where some positions can be performed remotely.

You may not need to start over.

You may simply need to find a different employer who needs the skills you already have and doesn't care which state your laptop happens to be sitting in.

Remote Doesn't Always Mean “Work From Anywhere”

There is an important detail here, though.

A job advertised as remote doesn't automatically mean you can work from anywhere in the country—or from a campground in Arizona one month and Colorado the next.

Some employers require remote employees to live in particular states because of payroll, taxes, licensing, benefits or other business requirements. Others may require occasional trips to an office or have rules about where company equipment and information can be used.

So don't just ask:

“Is this job remote?”

Ask:

“Am I allowed to perform this job while traveling between states?”

And if the answer is no, ask one more question:

“Would I be happy spending part of the year in the state where I'm required to work?”

Maybe you find a remote position that requires you to remain in Arizona. If spending your winters in the desert sounds pretty wonderful anyway, that restriction might not feel very restrictive.

Perhaps you work from Arizona for several months, earn and save, and then spend another part of the year traveling.

Remember, freedom doesn't have to mean being in constant motion.

It can also mean having more choice about when you work, where you stay and when you're ready to move on.

And Then There's the Internet

There's another practical reality that those gorgeous van-life photographs don't always show you.

You still have to get online.

If your paycheck depends on a video meeting at 9:00 Monday morning, that beautiful campsite with absolutely no cell signal may suddenly become considerably less charming.

Women who work remotely from the road need to think about dependable internet, cellular coverage, backup connections, power for their equipment and where they'll work when the campground around them is noisy—or when the weather keeps them inside a very small van all day.

None of those things make remote work impossible.

They simply make planning part of the job.

And for some women, keeping an established career while gaining the freedom to travel may offer the best of both worlds:

The work stays familiar. The view outside the window gets to change.

What If Someone Would Pay You for That?

Suppose you've answered the question.

You know what you enjoy doing. Maybe you're a great writer. You're good with numbers. You love graphic design. You're incredibly organized. You enjoy managing schedules. You know social media. You can build websites. You edit videos. You have a beautiful speaking voice. You're a whiz with spreadsheets.

Now comes another question:

Who needs what I know how to do?

The wonderful thing about working in today's connected world is that the person who needs your particular skill doesn't necessarily have to live anywhere near you.

Platforms such as Upwork and Fiverr connect independent professionals with people and businesses looking for specific services. Upwork, for example, currently lets freelancers search for projects, submit proposals and also offer predefined services through its Project Catalog.

Businesses hire people remotely for bookkeeping, proofreading, writing, customer service, research, data entry, social-media help, graphic design, website maintenance, video editing, transcription and administrative work.

You may even discover that something you've always thought of as “just something I'm good at” has value to someone else.

Maybe You're the Organized One

Maybe your answer to “What makes me lose track of time?” isn't painting or photography.

Maybe you genuinely love organizing things.

You're the woman with the calendar. The lists. The folders. The color-coded spreadsheet. You're the person everyone else asks, “Do you remember when that appointment is?”

There are businesses that need exactly that person.

Virtual assistants work remotely helping businesses and entrepreneurs with things like email, calendars, appointments, customer communication, research, document preparation and other administrative tasks. Some work for one employer; others build their own small roster of clients.

That kind of work can potentially travel wherever you have the equipment and reliable internet connection to do it.

Don't Start With the Website. Start With Yourself.

Upwork isn't the answer.

Fiverr isn't the answer.

Becoming a virtual assistant isn't the answer.

They're tools.

The answer we're looking for started several paragraphs ago when you asked yourself:

What do I do that makes me lose all track of time?

Once you've identified something you love doing—or something you're particularly good at—you can start investigating whether there's a market for it.

Search Upwork. Browse Fiverr. Look at remote job listings. See what people are actually paying others to do. Pay attention to how freelancers describe their services. Notice which of your existing skills appear again and again.

You don't have to quit your job.

You don't have to buy the van.

You don't even have to create a freelance profile today.

You're gathering clues.

And perhaps one of those clues will eventually become an income stream you can take with you when you're ready to turn the key and head down the road.

What If You Don't Want to Work Online?

Not everyone dreams of spending her new life of freedom sitting in a van staring at a laptop.

Fortunately, that's not the only way to earn money while traveling.

There's an entire world of seasonal and temporary employment built around people who live and travel in RVs and vans. You may hear it referred to as workamping.

Workamping generally means combining RV or mobile living with temporary or seasonal work. Campgrounds are probably the example most people think of first. They may hire travelers to help with campground hosting, reservations, office work, maintenance, cleaning, groundskeeping or other jobs during their busy season.

But workamping isn't limited to campgrounds.

Depending on the season and location, traveling workers may find opportunities with resorts, parks, tourist attractions, farms and harvest operations, seasonal retailers and other businesses that need extra help for part of the year.

Sometimes the arrangement includes a campsite as part of the compensation. Sometimes there's an hourly wage. Sometimes it's a combination of the two.

And this is where you need to pay attention.

A free campsite isn't necessarily the same thing as a paying job.

Before accepting any workamping position, find out exactly how many hours you'll be expected to work, what you're receiving in return, whether additional hours are paid, what the campsite normally costs, what utilities are included, and what your actual financial compensation will be.

Because the goal isn't to trade the desk you wanted to escape for 40 hours a week cleaning campground bathrooms in exchange for a patch of gravel.

Unless, of course, you genuinely love cleaning bathrooms. In which case, we may have just discovered your answer to the lose-all-track-of-time question—and we need to talk.

Work Where You Want to Be

There is something about workamping that I find particularly interesting.

Instead of asking:

“Where do I have to live because that's where my job is?”

you may be able to reverse the question:

“Where would I like to spend the next few months—and what kind of work might be available there?”

Perhaps you spend the summer working somewhere in the mountains and head south when winter comes.

Maybe you work intensely for a season, save some money, and then travel for a while without working at all.

Or perhaps workamping becomes just one piece of the income puzzle—something you do occasionally when it suits where you want to go next.

For a woman who has spent most of her adult life arranging where she lives around where she works, that's a very different way of thinking.

Seasonal Work May Be in Places You'd Never Think to Look

Workamping opportunities aren't always where you'd expect them.

Amazon, for example, became well known among RV travelers for its CamperForce program, which historically offered seasonal fulfillment-center work geared toward RV travelers. Programs like that can change over time, so always check the current arrangement before making travel plans.

And then there are the harvests.

Seasonal workers travel to agricultural areas where large numbers of people are needed for relatively short periods. One example familiar within the RV community is seasonal work connected with the sugar beet harvest in the northern Plains.

The work can be demanding, and it certainly isn't everyone's idea of retirement.

But that's part of the point.

Not every income stream has to be something you do all year.

A woman might choose to work very hard for a few weeks during a harvest, earn a chunk of money, and then use that money to help fund the next part of her travels.

Other opportunities follow the rhythms of the year, too—agriculture and harvests, summer resorts and tourist destinations, holiday retail, campgrounds and other businesses that need additional workers during their busiest seasons.

Instead of thinking:

“I need to find a job I can do 52 weeks a year,”

you might begin asking:

“Are there times during the year when I'd be willing to work more so I can work less during the rest of it?”

Your work can have a season.

And so can your freedom.

Let Your Craft Determine the Road

If you make something with your hands, your business may be able to travel right along with you.

There are craft fairs, art fairs, farmers markets, festivals, flea markets, Renaissance fairs, psychic and metaphysical fairs, holiday markets and other events happening all over the country.

Perhaps you make jewelry, pottery, clothing, candles, soaps, artwork, leather goods or something wonderfully unusual that doesn't fit neatly into a category.

Or perhaps what you offer isn't a physical product at all.

Readers, healers, artists, photographers and other service providers sometimes travel from event to event, setting up a booth and offering their work directly to the people who attend.

Suddenly, the event calendar itself can become part of your travel map.

What if you followed the fairs?

Spend a weekend working an event, earn some money, stay awhile and explore the area, and then move on toward the next one.

Of course, there's some homework involved. Booth fees, applications, vendor requirements, sales-tax rules, insurance, local permits and the cost of getting yourself from one event to another all need to be considered.

But for the woman who loves creating something and enjoys meeting people face-to-face, this could offer something that remote computer work can't:

Your work could become part of the adventure.

Remember that question about what makes you lose track of time?

If your answer was “When I'm sitting at my workbench making jewelry,” maybe the next question isn't only:

“Can I sell my jewelry?”

It might be:

“Where could my jewelry take me?”

Your talent doesn't necessarily have to simply finance the journey.

It might help determine where the journey takes you.

Create Something That Can Travel Without You

There is another kind of income I've been discovering for myself.

What if you could create something once and sell it more than once?

When I began developing Sacred Sisters Travel, I knew I wanted to create a reflection journal women could carry with them on their journeys—a place to explore not only where they were going, but what they were discovering about themselves along the way.

I also knew that if I created it, I wanted to publish it.

What I didn't know was how much I would love the process.

I found myself completely absorbed in writing, developing the reflection questions, choosing the imagery and figuring out how all the pieces should fit together. Hours could disappear without me realizing it.

There's that question again.

What do you do that, when you do it, you lose all track of time?

Apparently, one of my answers is writing.

And that surprised me.

The Sacred Road: A Guided Travel & Reflection Journal for Self-Discovery on the Road began as something I wanted to create for Sacred Sisters Travel. But somewhere in the process, I discovered something about myself, too.

I really love creating books.

And now something I genuinely enjoy doing also has the potential to become an income stream I can take with me on the road.

I don't have to be standing behind a counter every time someone buys a copy. I don't have to carry boxes of books around in my van and personally mail every order. A book can be purchased and printed without me being in the same place as the person buying it.

And books aren't the only possibility.

Maybe you could create an online course around something you know how to teach. Maybe it's a printable, a sewing pattern, a workbook, photography, artwork, music, a digital guide, a template or something we haven't even thought of yet.

The internet has created ways for ordinary people to publish, teach, create and sell things that once required publishers, storefronts or substantial amounts of money just to get started.

And perhaps the most interesting part isn't even the income.

You may discover a part of yourself you didn't know was there.

Not Exactly “Passive” Income

You'll sometimes hear products like these described as passive income.

I'm not sure that's quite the right description.

Creating something worthwhile takes work. Publishing takes work. Building an audience takes work. Marketing takes work. And sometimes what you create doesn't sell very much at all.

There are no guarantees.

But there is an important difference between this kind of income and being paid only for the hours you work.

If I work one hour for someone and they pay me for that hour, I have to work another hour to get paid again.

But if I spend the time to create a book, course, pattern or digital product, that same creation has the possibility of being purchased more than once.

And that makes it particularly interesting for someone trying to create a life with more freedom.

Maybe the goal isn't to find something that magically makes money while we sleep.

Maybe it's to ask:

What could I create today that might continue working for me tomorrow?

Don't Forget What Your Paycheck Is Paying For

There's one more piece of the equation that's easy to overlook when we're dreaming about leaving a traditional job.

Your paycheck may not be the only thing your job is giving you.

If you're employed, your employer may also be contributing toward health insurance, retirement, paid vacation, sick time, disability insurance or other benefits.

Those things have value.

So if you're currently earning $50,000 a year, replacing that job doesn't necessarily mean you simply need to find a way to earn $50,000 on your own.

You need to look at the whole picture.

What will health insurance cost if you're paying for it yourself?

Are you currently receiving an employer contribution to a retirement plan?

How will you save for retirement when you're self-employed?

What happens when you take two weeks off to explore someplace wonderful—and no one is paying you for those two weeks?

What happens if you're sick and can't work for a while?

For women who are already retired or eligible for Medicare, some of these questions may look different. But for a woman in her 30s, 40s or 50s who is considering leaving traditional employment, they can be a significant part of the decision.

None of that means don't do it.

It means:

Know your number.

If living more simply reduces your housing costs and other expenses, you may discover that you don't need to replace every dollar you earn today.

On the other hand, once you account for benefits you'll need to provide for yourself, you may discover you need more income than you originally thought.

Either answer is useful.

Because freedom feels a whole lot more like freedom when you're not lying awake in your van at 2:00 in the morning wondering how you're going to pay for it.

Dream about the life you want.

But take the time to understand what it will actually cost.

Once you know what your life costs—and what benefits you'll need to replace—you have something incredibly useful:

a target.

And you may discover that you don't need one job to hit it.

Maybe It Doesn't Have to Be Just One Thing

There's another possibility we sometimes overlook.

Maybe one thing doesn't have to pay for your entire life.

For years, many of us have been accustomed to the traditional model: one job, one employer, one paycheck.

But a life on the road may lend itself to something different.

Maybe you have retirement or Social Security income that covers part of your expenses, and you supplement it with freelance work.

Maybe you work remotely a few hours each week as a virtual assistant and spend part of the year working seasonally at a campground or resort.

Maybe you do bookkeeping for three small businesses, sell something you've created online, and occasionally take on a short-term project when you want some extra income.

Maybe you teach, consult, write, photograph, design, create, organize—or do some combination of things that changes throughout the year.

Your income can have seasons, too.

There may be months when you want to work more and put money aside. There may be months when you're traveling somewhere extraordinary and deliberately choose to work less.

And perhaps that's another kind of freedom.

Instead of asking one job to provide everything, you can begin creating multiple streams of income—some predictable, some flexible, some small, and perhaps one that eventually grows into something much larger.

You don't necessarily need to replace your old life with a mobile version of the same old life.

You get to ask whether there is another way.

Start Before You Turn the Key

And if you're dreaming about life on the road but you're not there yet, this may be the best time to experiment.

Start now.

Create the freelance profile.

Offer the service.

Take one client.

Try the online class.

Make the thing you've been thinking about making.

Investigate remote jobs.

Put $100 into a separate account because you earned it doing something that could travel with you.

You don't have to know today whether it will become your livelihood.

You're simply discovering what works.

That's where I am, too.

I'm still in Illinois. There's still a house to prepare and sell. There's still a van to buy. There are a lot of things between where I am today and the life on the road I'm imagining.

But I'm beginning to build pieces of that future before I leave.

And perhaps you can, too.

One More Question for the Road

We started with:

How do you make money while living on the road?

But maybe the better question is:

How do I create a life I love—and build enough income to support it?

Those are two very different questions.

And somewhere in your answers to What makes me lose track of time? What am I already good at? What do I really need? What does enough look like?—you may begin to see your own road forward.

You don't have to have the whole map.

You just need to find the next turn.