Corporate job on the road - a new benefit of FT'ing for us - RV-Dreams Community Forum

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Corporate job on the road - a new benefit of FT'ing for us

manycats · RV-Dreams Family Member

Sounds great, enjoy. I'm still tied to a desk 40 hrs a week but my DH and I have Tue and Wed off so we can be out when most people are at work. He hates crowds and, even though I miss weekend fests, art shows and such, it has been good for us. You seem to have a great combination of "life" and work. Congrats.

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ruth,

I glad it just keeps getting better for the two of you.

Red

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ruth,

Your posts about your full-timing and still working are valuable to other too-young-to-retire people dreaming about the same. You have a very supportive, dare I say progressive, corporate employer behind you and Dale took his self-employment with him. It can be done. You add a valuable perspective to the variety of lifestyles we dreamers live.

Sherry

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:
Yes, we still work, yes I still have a M-F job that ties me to my desk, but it's a job I like, I'm a few years from retirement and really feel blessed that the work I do can be done from anywhere with good connectivity.

I was wondering if this was better or worse in a way so glad to hear it's better. I haven't decided yet how much I will be working on the road. The spectrum falls from bare minimum to make the bills or take all the steady work that comes and places in between. I was wondering if I would feel cheated at all because you were still working FT albeit in an RV rather than stick and bricks. It's good to hear that there are benefits even with working 9-5. What else do you like about it...besides the holidays :)

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Trace - I love working on the road! I have learned over the past 4 summers how to manage the job on the road, we've been traveling very regularly for Dale's art with tons of shows every summer. So I was already used to working in the RV, although the fact that this one now has a permanent desk and I don't have to clear the dinette each evening is wonderful. For me that was a "must have" in any FT RV, I don't share desk space graciously, when I get into my "heads down" mode for work the last thing I want to do is have to pick it up and reorganize it the next morning or have my husband looking for something he thought he left on the table.

Personally our benefits have been as follows:

More rapid saving for retirement which should enable both of us to retire before the official age
Having better weather year round makes weekends so much more fun and no yardwork to take up our time.
Having the ability to sit outside after work, watching the sunset, enjoying our campfire in a can!
No mad dashes across the state at 11 PM on Sunday evening after an art show to get me home in time to get up for the 7 AM conf call!
Discovering that I much prefer to work in the Mountain timezone vs. Pacific or Central, just my personal preference on when the day starts and ends in relation to all my co-workers who are across the US and we're always balancing timezones.
Getting a chance to meet more of my colleagues in person - drinks in Mesa with a colleague I've worked 4 deals with over 7 years but never met in person until last December, lunch with 3 team mates in the Bay area - had a great time bashing sales people, etc.
Ability to travel to visit family without using vacation time - we'll be in OKC and DFW for 6 weeks this spring, I'm using evenings and weekends to mostly visit our family and friends, vacation time is reserved for the Grandtwins spring break.
Travel for business can be easier when I'm not in the Pacific NW, getting anywhere via airplane from Seattle usually meant a long flight. A recent trip to Dallas seemed so much more pleasant when I only had a 2 hour flight instead of 4.

Those are just a few of the benefits I can think of off the top of my head. Some of my work colleagues think I'm crazy, others who want to RV when they retire have decided I'm their personal consultant. Ha, yeah right!

It was the right change for us and the right decision for me, you do have to be self-disciplined enough to work and get the job done. I had already been working virtually for several years and working out of the RV for several summers and other times for 1-2 weeks at a time for art show road trips, so the working from the RV FT was not a huge adjustment.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:

Getting a chance to meet more of my colleagues in person - drinks in Mesa with a colleague I've worked 4 deals with over 7 years but never met in person until last December, lunch with 3 team mates in the Bay area - had a great time bashing sales people, etc.

Hey....

....I used to be a salesman....and a sales/store manager.

I may have to plot revenge for that.

Terry

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

LOL Terry! Don't worry, I can take it, 7 years in my current job of "cat herding" for sales teams and I've gotten a pretty thick skin.

BTW, one other BIG item I didn't mention on the benefit of taking my full time job on the road is the reduction in change. Going through major events such as selling the house, selling / purging the vast majority of our "stuff", changing domiciles, moving into a 5'ver and going on the road was enough change for me personally. There was something that was nicely reassuring that the Monday morning after we left our driveway for the last time, I dialed into my conf calls from an RV park 100 miles away and my work life just continued like normal. In the end I think it reduced the stress in some ways, it did make it harder to do all the purging and house prep while working full time, but a lot of the financial stress that I hear others discuss was just not there. We knew that when the house sold we would be totally out of debt and still be maintaining our income, not a trivial benefit in any way.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:
Having the ability to sit outside after work, watching the sunset, enjoying our campfire in a can!
No mad dashes across the state at 11 PM on Sunday evening after an art show to get me home in time to get up for the 7 AM conf call!
Discovering that I much prefer to work in the Mountain timezone vs. Pacific or Central, just my personal preference on when the day starts and ends in relation to all my co-workers who are across the US and we're always balancing timezones.
Getting a chance to meet more of my colleagues in person - drinks in Mesa with a colleague I've worked 4 deals with over 7 years but never met in person until last December, lunch with 3 team mates in the Bay area - had a great time bashing sales people, etc.
Ability to travel to visit family without using vacation time - we'll be in OKC and DFW for 6 weeks this spring, I'm using evenings and weekends to mostly visit our family and friends, vacation time is reserved for the Grandtwins spring break.
Travel for business can be easier when I'm not in the Pacific NW, getting anywhere via airplane from Seattle usually meant a long flight. A recent trip to Dallas seemed so much more pleasant when I only had a 2 hour flight instead of 4.

LOVE these thanks so much for sharing!!!

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:
Going through major events such as selling the house, selling / purging the vast majority of our "stuff", changing domiciles, moving into a 5'ver and going on the road was enough change for me personally. There was something that was nicely reassuring that the Monday morning after we left our driveway for the last time, I dialed into my conf calls from an RV park 100 miles away and my work life just continued like normal. In the end I think it reduced the stress in some ways, it did make it harder to do all the purging and house prep while working full time, but a lot of the financial stress that I hear others discuss was just not there. We knew that when the house sold we would be totally out of debt and still be maintaining our income, not a trivial benefit in any way.

Hi Ruth,

Don't mean to hijack your thread but it's so relevant to what happened to me yesterday I just had to add my thoughts. I have been paying VERY close attention to your posts because I think we are so similar. I was at work yesterday and a job opening was shared with me that would allow the travel flexibility that you have. My first reaction was the tense, scared pit in my stomach just relaxed bamm! This could solve everything. The bad news was it would be a major step down in both position and pay. The money would be more than adequate for the on the road lifestyle ($60K) but the work would be much less appealing than the job I currently have. Plus it would have some limitations as to where I was...it isn't 100% remote but the areas would be California and Vegas so not bad choices :) I came home and talked to Lee and laid out the pros and cons. After talking to him what I realized is part of the freedom of this lifestyle for me is the freedom of starting my own consulting company and taking jobs I want to do where I want. Yes I know I will probably end up with some jobs just for the money, but I am hoping I will be able to make some really cool choices. I spent years being underemployed, trading growth for safety and now that the kids are gone I don't want to do that anymore. I know this isn't your situation at all, but I thought you might understand. Unfortunately it's extremely unlikely that my current company will offer me the flexibility I need to strike out on my own as scary as it is. Turning down a guaranteed $60K a year with health insurance seems crazy...but this whole thing is crazy...so I guess as my grandma used to say...in for a penny in for a pound :)

Again, I really appreciate your perspective...keep posting...it's not one people talk about much and it's the closest thing I have found to resembling what my life will look like out there :)

Thanks so much, Trace

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Trace - thanks for your response. Please understand that I feel and know that I am incredibly blessed to have a job I like, a boss who really doesn't care where I am as long as I can get to an airport the 4-6 times a year I need to travel for work and get my work done, a group of colleagues who might think I'm crazy but some have admitted to being a bit envious, and at least for a few more years look forward to continuing this job while on the road.

Like you, I'm in my mid to late 40's (hate admitting I'm closer to 50 than 40), I had no desire to stay put in life anymore. I want to retire early, this life is actually helping us with that goal since I was able to take this job on the road. If for some reason, that doesn't work out in the future, we have contingency plans, we have nest egg and we'll figure out the next phase.

It's a huge lifestyle change that many people don't make until they retire, we didn't wait which has added some complications and logistics planning that we hadn't quite known about, but I have no desire to take a step backwards!!

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well I think it's great...my company is too conservative about remote workers and imho they will be missing out :) Actually it's good though...14 years there and 7 years in the company before that...it's time I spread my wings a little

spadiva · RV-Dreams Community Member

Great thread, my FT job is going to let me work from the road for a trial period for both of us, I hope it works out as well as it has for you. I'm in the middle of the packing up the house part right now, so I need inspiration for how nice it will be when we are actually on the road, so thanks!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Spadiva - best of luck in the trial period. Happy to answer any questions, connectivity has been the biggest challenge thus far, places I want to stay don't always have the best connectivity but we've managed to keep figuring it out. We're camped in a location where I'm happy to have an AT&T cell phone and a Sprint MiFi, Verizon is not working at all, first time we've ever had that happen, but since we have all 3 options, at least we worked it out. Some of my colleagues have started the "where's Ruth this week" question every Monday AM, knowing that I tend to move on the weekends, some of the reactions can be pretty funny.

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think I will always work to some extent.. No matter where I am or what I am doing.

I there are a ton of "jobs" that can be done remotely.

My brothers girlfreind has worked from home doing datatentry stuff in the medical field for years.. Never sees a office.

I just had a offer from the guy who is buying my ebay business.. to be a national buyer for him.. Will we work something out. But no my terms.. based on where we are. I won't be pinballing all over the country.

At this point, for me.. It's fun and relaxation first.. Job and money Second.. Unfortunately, The Job is also a ton of fun.. lol

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

That's a great point... Some of us have jobs we really like and don't want to give that up on the road completely . For me it's more than just the money I really like what I do and am trying to figure out a way to do it while traveling but more on my terms rather than someone else's.

BoAndRach · RV-Dreams Family Member

This information is fantastic and inspiring. Thanks so much for pointing me to it, Ruth. Everyone's perspective is so helpful and the benefits y'all point out are some that I had been thinking about, too. Potentially being in the same time zone as everyone else on a call will be cool. Finally meeting colleagues that I have worked with for ten years will be incredibly cool. And the possibility of driving rather than flying to some meetings will be the coolest.

So blessed to have the flexibility (and the support of a great company) to give this a go. And so grateful for the experiences of those who have paved the way before me.

Thank you for sharing!