Note: This is a post from Joan Otto, Man Vs. Debt community manager. Read more about Joan here.

Meet our automotive pride and joy – our fully-paid-for, 111,000-plus-miles, has-even-gone-offroading 2003 Ford Taurus SES.

This car is a beast. And, for the past six years (as of this past Sunday), it’s been put to the test – because it’s been our only vehicle.

In early 2004, I’d bought the Taurus for something like $13,000. When I got it, it was “almost new,” never having been titled and driven only as part of a fleet of cars leased to the dealership’s employees.

That car, by the way, marks THE biggest spur-of-the-moment purchase I’ve ever made; my mom was in the market for a new car, and I’d gone to the dealership with her to help her weigh the options.

She found a sage green 2003 Taurus that she loved… and when I test-drove it too, I realized how awesome it was when compared with the not-yet-paid-for-but-always-broken-down 1996 Dodge Stratus I’d been driving.

So I bought a matching one in red, rolling over my old car note and trading in the Stratus, which was in the running to need a LOT of work. Probably not the world’s sharpest financial decision, but at the time, as a single parent, I really needed and wanted a reliable vehicle.

Fast-forward a little; when we got married in May 2005, Chris had a two-door 1999 Ford Escort. He’d bought it several years earlier, and by the fall of 2005, we’d paid off that car loan and it was ours free and clear. The payments continued on the Taurus, to the tune of $250 a month.

With Sarah still in a booster seat, it was a LOT easier to take “my car” almost everywhere we went as a family. The Escort was used here and there… but not much.

Making the decision

In early 2006, the newspaper where Chris and I both worked full-time relocated its offices… to a half-mile from our home, through two blocks of residential neighborhood.

Suddenly, the infrequently-used Escort became the really infrequently-used Escort. At the same time, we started to get pretty serious about paying off our debt.

And we started asking ourselves: Could we be a one-car family?

We thought about all sorts of factors – positives and negatives. We were “side hustling” even back then, so there were places I, especially, needed to go besides the super-close newspaper office.

On the good side, we hadn’t merged our insurance policies quite yet, so this would help us simplify by dropping Chris’s auto insurance. And, of course, there was the bonus of a one-time influx of cash.

I do have to add one caveat here. My mother lives with us, and she has her car, the green 2003 Taurus I mentioned above. But Mom works and goes out with friends and to church and many other places, so her car is pretty much “busy.”

Very occasionally, I’ll take Mom’s car somewhere, or she’ll take ours, but in reality, we only have crossover when one car is in the shop, and then the three of us draw from the other car.

That said, knowing we had that backup became kind of a security blanket to help make the decision.

We also realized pretty quickly that even if we rented a spare car for the occasional times when we really needed it, that would cost FAR less than the maintenance, insurance and other costs that would come from us keeping Chris’s Escort.

So we sold the Escort for $2,300 on May 6, 2006, after placing an ad on Craigslist as well as in the newspaper classifieds. We asked well below Kelley Blue Book value in order to move quickly, and it paid off: We received dozens of calls, and the first “looker” became our in-cash buyer.

That money quickly went toward debt repayment, and within another year and a half (in the fall of 2007), we were enough ahead of the game to pay off the Taurus almost a year and a half early.

That baby is all ours.

Moving forward, we’ve committed to one big goal: We’ll never have a car payment again. We will drive this sucker into the ground, and whatever we can afford at that time – that’s what we’ll get as a replacement.

If that’s a $500 rustbucket, well, it’s lucky we pay for AAA. If that’s a $10,000 late-model used car, great. But either way, we will not take on a monthly payment for a vehicle.

The good parts

In six years of sharing a car with my husband, we’ve found an awful lot of pluses.

1. No car payments.

We have one car, fully paid off. If we’d kept the Escort, I’m not sure it’d still be drivable, and if we were committed to replacing it, we’d probably still have a payment on its successor.

2. Reduced insurance costs.

Since the Taurus is only titled in my name, Chris doesn’t even much “count” toward the insurance cost. We pay my mom’s car insurance as well, and for the three of us on both Tauruses, we pay $71.14 a month. Before, Chris paid that much alone, and Mom and I paid even more (through our former company!)

3. More consciousness about our driving habits.

You don’t tend to drive like a maniac in your vehicle when it’s the only one you have. (Or, at least, Chris and I don’t.) And since we know that errands aren’t just a “go whenever” proposition, we work harder to plan out our trips and avoid things like running to the store for just a few items.

4. More family time.

This wasn’t something that factored into our decision-making, but it’s turned out to be a great added benefit.

Chris and I spend a good amount of time driving each other places. “I’ll take you to tae kwon do, then go to the library, then pick you back up.” That sort of thing.

That gives us time to talk, and just to be in each other’s space. With two cars, we’d spend a lot of time doing the “you go your way, I’ll go mine” thing.

This goes for Sarah, too; she gets Mom and Dad time instead of being shuttled by just one of us.

5. We walk more often.

When I asked Chris what his thoughts were on why this setup works, his answer was simple: “It helps when you live within walking distance of a lot of places.”

Yes, we could walk with two cars. But we didn’t – and we probably wouldn’t. And the great thing is, we DO NOT live in a “city” by any means. We’re 100% suburbia.

Even so, there are grocery stores, convenience stores, parks, a tennis court, churches, our mechanic, a movie theater, restaurants, banks and more – all within an easy walk of less than a mile.

We’re considering changing banks – because ours is a mile away across a large highway, and we’d rather avoid it.

The less-good parts

Honestly, there aren’t too many things I don’t like about our one-car situation. That said, there are a few down-sides that are worth mentioning. Here’s Exhibit A:

1. I hate my driver’s side door panel.

It hasn’t stayed attached – despite repeated gluing attempts with every adhesive known to humankind – for about the past four years.

If you elbow it hard when you sit down, you’re usually good for about 30 miles, or until you open the door, but then it falls in again.

In the grand scheme of things, this ABSOLUTELY doesn’t matter, but along with the dents/dings/scratches/peeling paint etc., it does make me long for a nice, newish vehicle. (Even if I had to share it – newish would be nice.)

2. Maintenance issues.

This particular car has not been without needs in its first 111,000-some miles.

It’s not good on alternators (yes, plural). It’s soon going to need some transmission work, as you can tell when you try (and sometimes fail) to accelerate from a stop.

The water pump has been replaced. The suspension has been overhauled.

It’s not a money pit yet, but our biggest fear is that we’ll cross the “we shouldn’t put more work into this” bridge before we have the money saved up to buy a decent replacement.

3. Lack of hauling space.

If we had NO cars, and had decided to purchase only one for our family, we’d likely have chosen something with a little more room. The Taurus has pretty good trunk space, but it’s not good for moving even small pieces of furniture and what have you.

We’ve made it work pretty well, but it isn’t always the easiest.

4. Racking up the miles.

When we travel (and we do that a lot), all the miles go on one vehicle.

Now, that’s balanced out by our lack of commute – we average about 11,000 miles a year, which is REALLY low.

That said, we don’t have the option to, say, take the “better” car when we decide to road-trip to Vermont. It’s all Taurus, all the time.

Remember how I said we’ve gone off-roading in it? Yup, really. Dirt and not-even-dirt roads in upstate Pennsylvania are no match for this baby. (And it makes for a fun trip to the mechanic, because he starts off your inspection with the line “I have a really strange question to ask you… has this car recently been on a, well, an unimproved road?”)

So is it for you?

Look, I can definitely say that being a one-car family works for us – and barring any HUGE changes in our circumstances and goals in life, we plan to stay this way and probably even to drive LESS.

In a dream world, we’d keep beating this car up until Sarah, who’s 12 now, turns 17 and gets her permit. By that time, we’d be more than two years out from our final credit-card payment, and if we take even half the money we’re putting on the debt and save it for a vehicle in the interim, we’d be able to afford basically any later-model used vehicle we’d like. (That is, of course, dependent on this car making it five more years.) Then, Sarah could finish driving the Taurus into the ground, hopefully not literally.

We realize it’s not for everyone, though. We have friends who each commute an hour – in opposite directions – five days a week. It would be ridiculous to suggest they could become a one-vehicle family, at least not without a LOT of rearranging.

We’re lucky to live so close to all the places we need to go, especially because our town doesn’t really have a huge public-transit infrastructure. And we’re lucky – though I prefer to say blessed – that I can primarily work from home, which changes our situation drastically.

Finally, the biggest factor in making this work is that we want it to. We go out of our way to make it a success. I’ll ask friends for rides – in exchange for gas money, or in exchange for returning the favor at other times. We’ll rent a car when it makes sense, or rearrange our plans if that isn’t in the cards.

It would be pretty easy to say it “makes sense” for us to have another vehicle, but we don’t want one, and so we’ve built our lives accordingly.

I’m not asking you to sell your vehicle today. Far from it. But for many of us, transportation expenses are some of the highest we have, behind maybe only housing and food.

So I do challenge you to ask yourself this question: Is there anything you can do in the next month to save on transportation expenses? (Or anything you’ve already done?)

We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments… and if you’re led to becoming a one-car or NO-car family, well, I can tell you from first-hand experience that it’s pretty cool!

As you likely know, I spent most of February and March producing and filming a documentary on why we, as a culture, default into a life of complacency, instead of chasing our dreams.

I wrote an update from the road on our progress, what we had seen, and what I was feeling about the importance of the project.

Check out part one of “The Making Of” series if you missed it to get caught up!

I left that story with us in middle-of-nowhere Texas at 3 a.m. filming the untouched, starry night skies.

After catching only a few hours of sleep each that night, we continued to plow our way toward Phoenix, Arizona.

For anyone that’s driven across the entire state of Texas – you know firsthand how disheartening that can be. It takes a crazy number of man-hours to traverse that ridiculously large piece of land. And frankly, New Mexico isn’t much of a reward for succeeding.

Nevertheless, we pulled into Phoenix in the evening to my friend Pam Slim‘s beautiful house. (Pam, her husband, her kids, and her dogs graciously hosted a smelly, worn-out group of 5 guys for several days… can’t thank her enough!)

Not only was Pam’s family open and accepting of us for days, she also took time out to drop wisdom bomb after wisdom bomb into the camera in our interview for the documentary.

Afterward, we packed the set up and headed off to MMA class with Pam.

That’s right. I said we went to an MMA training class with Pam Slim. It was as fun to be a part of as it sounds. (Thanks to East West MMA for allowing us to film and being such great hosts!)

After watching Pam get slammed, tackled, knifed, strangled, and kicked – we decided to call it a night.

The next day brought insightful interviews with Joshua Becker (minimalist family man) and MJ DeMarco (against-the-grain financial advice for entrepreneurs), before we set off for the wonderful city of San Diego.

In San Diego we spent most of our time with the ever-so-lovable Pat Flynn and his family.

Pat broke down the painful details of how he got fired from his job after pouring every ounce of himself into the career for years and doing everything “by the book.” But even more importantly, he shared his remarkable journey to build himself back up to a transparent income of over $50,000/month now.

Pat’s realization that geting fired may have been one of the best things to ever happen to him and his family was amazing to listen to and capture on film.

We then spent time filming Pat playing with his (incredibly smart for his age) young son – and following him and his wife on one of their “Thursday Date Nights” in downtown San Diego.

After much fun with the Flynn family, we continue our trek about an hour north to a small music studio between San Diego and Los Angeles.

There we met Craig Zarkos and Kevin Page. Two musicians with different life paths (and professional music paths), but who are now partners in bringing to life a shared dream.

After squeezing what we could out of Craig and Kevin, we got to stay around to film a band come in, setup, rehearse, and then record live in their studio. Pretty cool experience (especially for Dustin, Bryan, and John – who are all huge fans of all kinds of music).

The road wasn’t waiting for us, though, and after a long day we still had to finish the drive to Los Angeles.

Let me take a brief moment here to be honest with you: I hate Los Angeles. In fact, of all the cities in the world we’ve visited (not too many, but a decent chunk)… I hate Los Angeles the most.

There’s just something about it that doesn’t vibe with me. I can’t stand the traffic, the layout, most of the buildings, much of the culture. It’s the only city where the majority of people I know that live there – don’t want to.

Okay, okay. I’ll lay off L.A. for a while. But I figured you’re reading this for my opinion and experience on the road – so I might as well be honest!

Our director of photography, Bryan, calls L.A. home (and likes it, strangely enough) so we had a blast filming from some of the best locations in the city – and everyone got a little rest as we had an extra day or so in the city.

One of the special personalities we got to talk to in L.A. was Josh Orem. Josh and I grew up together in a small town in Indiana and have known each other since we were just a few years old.

Josh has spent his last few years after college volunteering, despite the cultural pressure to “get a real job” and “settle down.” Josh spent a year in Africa (which he detailed in depth during our interview), before volunteering with People Assisting The Homeless (or P.A.T.H.) in Los Angeles. After a year volunteering, he now works in a more full-time role for the organization.

Josh had great experience on the cultural differences of Africa and the U.S. and on society’s view of what we “should” do and what is “safe” vs. “dangerous.”

Our next stop took us to a track outside of Los Angeles where Lewis Howes was working out with a gold medal decathlete. Lewis is currently recording a video series where he challenges the world’s best athletes at different events – and while we were there we got to snap Lewis and Brian training for the long jump event.

They can both jump about 10 times farther than I can (that’s not much of an exaggeration - it’s remarkable to watch)!

And finally, we wrapped up L.A. by paying a visit to Eric Handler who runs Positively Positive community (over a million strong on Facebook). Eric spoke about the power of positive thinking, affirmations (which I was skeptical of before we spoke), and of removing negative influences from your life.

And don’t let me forget my friends Neal Frankle (a wicked smart CFP) and Amy Clover (who shared her emotional story of finding her passion after hitting rock bottom). Simply put, there were too many amazing people to chronicle!

And, no, we aren’t even close to done.

Next came San Francisco for a few days, where our most memorable time was spent on… boats!

First a houseboat with Vanda Marlow, whose story is essentially the British version of “Eat Pray Love” before it was a book or movie! Vanda left behind a high-powered job and scripted lifestyle decades ago to find herself around the world.

She ended up in a houseboat in Marin Bay outside of San Francisco (a houseboat she still keeps for a creative writing space). Did I mention she volunteered for 8 years at the San Francisco Zen Center with the dying?

Vanda was one of my favorite interviews due to her wisdom, cultural reflection, and life experiences. We could’ve talked to her for hours.

Next, we jumped ship (literally) down to a sailboat owned by Jeff Mendelsohn. Jeff’s a Sustainable Entrepreneur. Actually, I’m not sure that’s a term he’d use – probably he wouldn’t. But he’s an entrepreneur who focuses on green businesses and sustainability. So I coined that term for him (maybe).

Jeff spoke about never having really fallen into the “traditional life script” – a circumstance he fully credits to how his parents raised him and his siblings. Jeff now lives on a sailboat where he kayaks over an hour to work on many days. (How cool is that?)

As a side note, our interview with Jeff was interrupted by cannon fire from a pirate ship. True story.

After dodging the pirate ship, the crew would return to dry land and start the long haul to Portland, Oregon.

Portland was a blur, mostly due to the fact that so many brilliant people call it home.

Among them, we spoke to Chris Guillebeau, J.D. Roth, Charlie Gilkey, Tammy Strobel (and her Tiny House), Jonathan Mead, Mark Silver, and Shane Ketterman. Each contributed a very different life story, world view, and perspective into the issue of dreams vs. complacency. It was a brilliant two days!

Our trip then became international (at least for 24 hours or so), as we crossed the border to visit Danielle LaPorte in Vancouver.

On the way into Canada, we were selected as one of the vehicles to have to pull over and walk inside of Customs. I can’t possibly see why. A huge van, full of $30,000 in customized equipment, five random Americans, three with brand new passports, only visiting for a few hours, with wires and random machines thrown all over the place… what’s suspicious about that?

After a few normal, everyday conversations (“Says here you’ve been charged with a felony before…” “Yeah, that was *charged* not *convicted*”…), and maybe 20 minutes of waiting – we were free to explore mighty Canada.

Vancouver seemed cool enough for the hour or two we were in it – but most importantly, Danielle herself did not disappoint one single bit. Danielle has an uncanny ability to speak in what I call “tweetables” or “quotables” or “knowledge bombs.” I think we got enough sound bites in an hour to make a separate short film!

Sleep?

There wasn’t a whole lot of it at this point. After our eventful border crossing, and long setup and interview, we had an all-nighter of driving to get us to Boise, Idaho, by the morning.

It was rough, but we made it in one piece.

We were in Boise to visit “Family on Bikes” – better known as Nancy Sathre-Vogel and her husband (John) and two sons.

Talk about opting out of the traditional life; Nancy and John quit two teaching jobs to bike from Alaska to Argentina with their two sons! Yikes!

Technically, they biked much longer (and on several different trips), but the most impressive of those was down the entire west coast of the Americas. Nancy and John shared the story of how they decided to undertake the ride, how they feel education has changed, and how they view their lives differently now.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without getting some great footage of the family riding down to a local park. Hanging out the back of the bus, in a slight drizzling rain at times, we got some really fun footage!

Exhausted, but seeing the homestretch, we continued on to Jackson, Wyoming – a beautiful town nestled in the mountains.

We spent the morning with a local friend (who ended up being a guide to the best spots) shooting the relentlessly beautiful landscape.

But we weren’t just there for pretty scenic pictures (as tempting as they were). We had caught news of a family of 8 (that’s 6 kids for those counting) that lived for 18 months in a converted bus.

As it turned out, the story was even more remarkable then that.

We met Joe and Yvette and their six vibrant, energetic kids at a small patch of land in a rural part of Wyoming. Years earlier, Joe was working a six-figure job that had him traveling the far majority of the working week. Away from home for long stretches from his 6 kids, Joe and Yvette finally decided that no job was worth that commitment.

They hatched the idea to quit the high-paying and prestigious job, convert a bus to fit all 8 of them, and move out to a ranch in Wyoming where they would live and eat in exchange for working the land and helping with the animals.

They still have the bus, but have now moved into a small rural home where they keep their own chickens, chop their own firewood, and are stockpiling resources (since they are now debt-free) for their next big adventure. After working minimum wage, basic labor jobs at first, Joe has now found another great-paying job where he routinely turns DOWN promotion that would require too much of his time away from his family.

We packed up the bus (with all the warm bodies) and headed down the road to a river campground where all the kids could run crazy and play. It was an inspiring sight to see a family choose this path – and the kids were amazing sports at being filmed (movie stars in the making)!

It was nearly midnight before we let the family get to bed and said farewell – and once again we found ourselves driving the majority of the night toward Madison, Wisconsin (it’s a long, long way across this country).

In Madison, we spent quality time with another great family, Kim & Jason Kotecki.

Kim and Jason teach the world to fight against “Adultitis,” which they describe as a disease that infects the far majority of our current adult population. They are wonderful examples of how to keep the spirit of a child around in your everyday life.

After diving deep into a multitude of topics, we spent the evening having a dance party and baking chocolate-chip cookies with their two kids. (You know, the typical “official duty” tasks that someone has to do.)

Saying goodbye to the Kotecki family was hard, but by now we were experts at saying goodbye to amazing people!

Next up was Chicago, where we met with another remarkable woman named Karen Putz.

Karen is a sponsored barefoot water skier, mother, writer, speaker, and positive ball of energy. She’s also deaf.

Karen’s family has a gene that makes them all hard of hearing. However as a young girl and teenager, Karen was able to hear with the assistance of a hearing aid. That was, until she tripped and smacked the water as a young adult while barefoot water skiing (her favorite passion).

The accident left her deaf. And for the next two decades she gave up her favorite passion.

A few years ago, after decades off, she finally got the will to take back up the mostly male-dominated sport. She now skies, speaks, writes, and encourages everyone she meets to chase their passions now – while they still have the chance.

Listening to Karen talk about how rediscovering her passion has changed her marriage, how she parents, her health, and her happiness was a wonderful experience. And to think she lip-read me for the entire hour-long interview (incredible)!

The next morning, the crew would spend time barefoot skiing with Karen, her friends, and even trying it themselves (I was sent some funny iPhone picture of some epic crashes).

Notice, that I said “I was sent pictures.”

Well, this was because the night after finishing Karen’s interview, the boys drove me to the airport, where I caught a flight down to Asheville.

The entire trip we were playing it close – with Courtney being just a few weeks away from her due date. Toward the end of the trip, Courtney was having a hard time sleeping through the night, was incredibly sore, and having to handle Milligan, the house, and all our other life responsibilities herself.

After talking with the team, we knew the right decision was for me to fly home – and for them to finish the last day and a half without me.

Courtney’s doing great – and happily – we still have no early news of the baby yet (but expect her any day now).

The guys finished the last shoot and successfully made the 6-hour drive back to Wilmington, Ohio – where the adventure started 6 weeks earlier.

We made a complete loop around the United States, some 12,000 miles, on an average of maybe 5-6 hours of sleep per night.

We met so many incredible, life-changing people – and had to pass up meeting many times the number we did simply because of timing issues.

I’ve said this before, but I know at the end of the day none of our lives will be the same.

And now we have the wonderful excitement of condensing this amazing journey – and the thousands of hours of knowledge into an experience we can share with you this summer.

That specific job looks like it’ll take us to San Francisco.

It’s about 95% confirmed, but Courtney, Milli, Charlie (new baby girl), and I will likely spend May and June in San Francisco finalizing the film with an amazing studio there.

The other day, after coming home, I saw a note I had forgotten about hanging in my office.

It read “Freedom 2.0″.

It was written on a sticky note, back in August, as a reminder to consider the idea of making a documentary (that was our codename for it). It sat in the way for months and months as a reminder before we took any action.

But when we took action… we REALLY took action.

I’m proud we finished what we set out to do (record this puppy) and excited for the even bigger challenge of producing a story from it in the coming months.

Last August, I put that sticky note up on my wall.

By this August, you’ll have a chance to see the movie yourself.

If you’re still reading at this moment, do me a favor…

Take a Sharpie and a sticky note and write a big, hairy, audacious goal. Stick it on your wall, your mirror, or your ceiling above your bed.

And between now and this time next year… Make. It. Happen.

I can’t wait to share the first clips of the movie with you in the coming months!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

With great power, comes great responsibility.

Cliche?

You bet.

But honestly, three weeks and some odd days into our documentary-filming road trip, it’s how I feel.

You see, we’ve interviewed at least 30 people so far, from a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences, and opinions. We’ve interviewed them on life, work, complacency, fear, social pressure, society, security, commitment, and a whole bunch of less serious topics.

The process has been exhausting, but extremely rewarding. We’ve been blown away from the powerful responses during many of the interviews and humbled by the challenge we have to mold them all into a coherent story and purpose.

We’ve had some people cry, some laugh uncontrollably, and some nearly jump out of their chairs in excitement when answering our questions.

I’ve cried twice during interviews, and I’m the one ASKING the questions…

I’ll be honest, many days I wish our interviewees just gave us unpassionate, crappy responses. Without good material, we could always fall back and say “well, it just wasn’t that great of an issue” or “well, we tried, but couldn’t get any good responses.”

Unfortunately for the scared part of my brain, people have poured themselves into the camera. They’ve really opened up. They’ve given us everything we had thought and more.

And now the burden is on us. We’ve got no excuse. We have the material – even now at our halfway point – to create a documentary that will radically inspire and change people’s lives.

Whether or not we do that… is now solely up to us.

If you’re new, our crew of 5 dudes left several weeks ago on a cross-country trip across America to film a documentary on “complacency” in everyday life.

That’s us, in the picture above. On the left is Grant Peelle (Director), followed by me (for my good looks – or “Producer” as they say), John Cropper (Camera Op), Dustin Koester (Sound), and Bryan Olinger (Director of Photography).

Behind us? That’s Karl Malone. He’s our 15-passenger van that has become the mobile locker room for the 6-week voyage. Karl is no RV, but is a straight-up beast in his own right.

Click here to “Like” Crank Tank Studios on Facebook. The crew occasionally posts pictures, updates, and random notes from the road there.

As I write this post, we’re currently bunked in not-so-beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our remaining stops are:

• Los Angeles (a few more days)
• San Francisco
• Northern California
• Portland
• Seattle (maybe)
• Vancouver (quick stop)
• Boise, Idaho
• Jackson Hole, Wyoming (maybe)
• Madison, Wisconsin
• Illinois (maybe)
• Indiana (maybe)
• and back to Ohio

We’re still actively looking for people who want to be considered for an interview!

We don’t bite (hard), and we’re a super-fun group (most of the time).

We’re especially looking for:

• Older generations of people whose lives have been affected by complacency.
• A wider variety of cultures, heritages, and belief systems.
• People who believe complacency isn’t all that bad. Who live life on the “scripted life” path by choice.
• People who are stuck, exhausted, and fed up with their current choices, but haven’t changed yet.
• Anyone else who feels compelled to share their work-life journey with us.

Click here to fill out our form to nominate yourself.

Remember, we can only entertain people from the cities and states still left on our tour!

Where have we been?…

It’s been a whirlwind, but I’ll give you the short version of what we’ve been up to the past few weeks.

Our journey started in Wilmington, Ohio, hometown of Grant, John, and Bryan (although Bryan lives in L.A. now). For a week and a half leading up to the launch of the road trip, Grant and I set up shop in a converted office in downtown Wilmington.

We stacked together about 10, 16+ hour days of all-out planning, organizing, and decision-making.

Here’s what I learned during that time… we have a certain skill set that helps, and a passion that fills in any gaps, but honestly… we have no freakin’ idea what we are doing.

I’ve never produced anything in my life, let alone what we are doing on this scale.

We’re shooting what most people do in two to three years in 45 days.

We’re editing what most people edit in another year or two in 90 days (after the tour).

We’ve bitten off way more than we can chew, which is a weird combination of exhausting and exhilarating.

*****

We started our journey with several test interviews in Wilmington, Ohio, in the days before we left. We tried half a dozen different styles on different people (thanks to several great friends and community members in Ohio who were willing to be test subjects!).

We shot interviews all day and reviewed the footage all night.

We ended up scrapping our first half-dozen style choices in favor of a new direction only a day before the trip actually began. While none of the interviews we shot in Wilmington, Ohio, before we left will make the documentary – they were the most important interviews of the entire process for us!

With a few days of experience under our belt, we left for the greater Buffalo, NY, area, where a Man Vs. Debt community member had organized a couple dozen people for us to interview. Once again, this experience proved to be an amazing experience for the team.

We set up an interviewing area and cycled through all these amazing people for the next 3 hours. Deb and Joe (our amazing hosts) were patient and invaluable to us as we went through the process. During the interviews, one particular woman really stood out to the team.

Her name was Paula.

It was at least 11 p.m. by the time we arrived back to Deb and Joe’s home, but we couldn’t resist the urge to film more footage with Paula. So we did what any rational person would do… we phoned her up around midnight to ask if we could come to the horse farm she worked at around 5 a.m. – the next morning – to film her with the horses at sunrise.

Sure enough, she was game.

The next morning, on a few hours of sleep, the team rolled into a rural horse farm to film Paula’s morning routine. It was an absolutely stunning backdrop. I’ve never been a huge fan of horses, but it was hard not to be charmed by the environment and the animals.

After filming for most of the morning, it was time to move on. We filmed the story of our host family in the afternoon and left for the Big Apple that night.

The next three days were spent navigating the maze that is New York City in a series of amazing interviews.

We started with Nik Tarascio, the young CEO of a family-owned charter flight company outside of the city itself. Nik was an absolute blast to spend time with – and was amazing enough to take part of the crew on a flight up and down the Hudson River to get unbelievably cool footage of NYC from the sky.

Over the next few days, we interviewed 7 people in two days (including 5 in one single day). Each one with a different set-up, and each person bringing a totally different perspective to the film.

Grant and Nik flying the friendly skies over NYC.

The sun sets over Manhattan… beautiful.

Me interviewing Jonathan Fields, one of the 7 people we interviewed in New York!

With little time to rest, we woke up the final morning in NYC to repack Karl and head toward Washington, D.C.

In D.C., we spent the morning filming another Wilmington, Ohio, personality named Sam. Sam has worked in and around Washington politics for decades and had an amazing perspective on complacency in both personal life and government. It was one of my favorite (and one of our most unique) interviews up to that point.

The rest of the day was spent shooting the city itself until the sun went down once again. With our natural light all but gone, it was time for another 8-hour night drive to Asheville, N.C.

Of course, as many of you know, Asheville is my home for now – so the drive went quickly for me as I sped to get back to Courtney and Milli.

But Asheville wasn’t all rest and family time. We interviewed our friends Matt and Betsy Jabs (who recently moved down close to Asheville) about their experiencing breaking free from two unrewarding jobs and an upside-down house.

Next came Steve Kamb – another good friend – who flew into Asheville after leaving a cruise ship just to spend a day filming with us.

The team once again woke up early to film Steve exercising on the side of an Asheville mountain as the sun rose (at 3,000 feet). But we weren’t done with Steve yet!

Next came trail-running off the Blue Ridge Parkway (complete with Grant chasing Steve with a camera through the woods as he ran). And finally, kayaking down the icy French Broad River.

It was certainly one of the most physically exhausting days, but one of the most fun for the crew. Steve’s philosophy on making exercise and fitness fun – and making use of nature – was in full swing.

It was midnight, after our packed day with Steve… and once again it was time to hit the road. 20+ hours to Austin, TX, to make it in time for SxSw.

It wasn’t a fun drive – and it did include a 3 a.m. nap at a rest stop – but we made it.

Tired, smelly, and moving slow, we pulled in around midnight (that’s 24 hours in a van for those counting) to our host family’s house outside of Austin.

SxSw was a blur (as it usually is), but what stands out for me was another half-dozen great interviews, a couple amazing parties with great conversation, and the beautiful and kind nature of Victoria (our host) and her husband and daughter.

It’s hard not to fall in love with Austin as a city, especially in the early spring. It’s got a wonderful culture, welcoming people, and plays host to an amazing conference once a year. If I could manage the heat in the summer (I can’t), we would definitely consider a base of operations here!

One of our many SxSw interview setups (this one with Max Spiker).

After our amazing time in Austin, the crew reluctantly set off for another all-night 18+ hour drive to Phoenix.

This time, however we stopped in the middle-of-nowhere western Texas for a special 3-hour shoot. As it turns out, when you get into western Texas there isn’t a lot of… anything. Which means you can actually SEE the stars in the sky when you pull off the interstate for a mile or so.

As I napped in the van, the other men set up time-lapse footage of one of the most beautiful night skies I’ve ever seen. It won’t be a big part of the documentary, but the few seconds of footage we use will make the 3+ hours of filming in the middle of the night all worth it!

For now, I’ll leave the story here… on an abandoned Texas road looking up at the sky.  But trust me, there is a lot more to our adventure. I’ll do my best to update you again in a week or so!

Until then, my apologies for being all consumed by this project. It’s the most difficult and challenging creative project I’ve ever taken on. But that’s a good thing.

We’ve unlocked a deep, deep issue here. A universal struggle with our culture right now. One that deserves to be explored and shared with the world.

We’ve unlocked something powerful. And now it’s our responsibility to complete the journey and share the story with the world.

I’m convinced that none of the 5 crew members’ lives will be the same when we return. I know mine won’t.

I only hope that we can share this experience with millions of other people – and affect the same change in them (and you).

Until the next time!

Follow the documentary crew on Facebook for more of the play-by-play!

Xoxoxoxo,

-Baker

“What the hell are you doing, son?”

The words sounded muffled in my head. I sat frozen – gripping the steering wheel on the side of the dark, empty interstate.

“Shut your engine off, get your license, and put your hands back where I can see them.”

I did as I was told, silently.

Upon glancing at my license, the office immediately glanced up and locked eyes with me.

Starting at the beginning, I told him everything…

Story #1: The $10,000 Wake Up Call…

I was addicted to gambling.

Now, this was before getting back together with Courtney (before we were married) and far before Milligan was even a thought. We have to go back to the period between me failing out of college – and getting my life back on track.

At this time in my life, you’d be hard-pressed to find me awake and not sitting around a card table or in a poker room.

We lived and breathed it. We played most of the day – and when we weren’t playing, we were organizing tournaments and cash games (or dealing them for addicts).

During one six-month period, I worked one day each week (a 20-hour shift) dealing one of the largest cash games in Indianapolis. I made around $60/hour in tips and would take home anywhere from $1,000 to $1,500 in one sitting.

I did this every Monday night – and spent the other 6 days playing video games and online poker with my two roommates (neither of whom had their own job).

This was the most “stable” I had been in years.

*****

A few months later, I found myself pulled over on the side of the interstate – convinced I was about to be violently arrested.

I had just passed a police car going 130 m.p.h. at 3 a.m.

You see, I had just worked the entire day, taken my overpaid cash wages, and sat down at the poker table. A couple hundred dollars quickly became a thousand, then $3,000, then $10,000.

At 21 years old, I wasn’t content with $10,000 for two hours of work. It wasn’t real money to me. I wasn’t content unless I had every chip at the table. I wasn’t content until I sent every degenerate at the table home to their mortgages they could no longer pay.

Over the next 90 minutes, I lost the $10,000 as quickly as I had amassed it.

I don’t remember leaving the poker room or getting in my car.

*****

“What the hell are you doing, son?” The officer’s words echoed in my head.

Upon glancing at my license, the officer immediately glanced back up and locked eyes with me.

“Adam *Baker*… you wouldn’t happen to be ______’s son, would you?”

I swallowed. “Yes sir, ______ is my father.”

“Adam, what the hell are you thinking?”

He listened to all of it, before giving me a breathalyzer (I hadn’t been drinking).

The next thing surprised me the most… He let me go.

No arrest, no ticket, not even an official warning (although he had plenty of words for me).

At one of my darkest and most irresponsible times, I was pulled over by the only state police officer in Indiana that had grown up with my father.

Coincidence? I’ll let you decide what to call it.

On the rest of the drive home – moving a good 15 m.p.h. under the speed limit – I fought back tears as I vowed to finally change the direction of my life.

Story #2: Trapped in the Most Beautiful Place on Earth…

Flash forward five years.

“Get Milli and crawl slowly out of the car…”

I should’ve been scared, but for some reason I wasn’t. Even so, I wasn’t about to move.

Through the passenger door, I saw the waterfalls that were streaming down the mountain side and I took in the bluest sky I had ever seen.

As I turned to my left, gravity pulled my head toward a mangled mess of tree branches.

I squinted to make out what was beyond the branches.

… nothing …

Only a few trees stood between me and two hundred feet down the side of the mountain.

As I snapped back to reality, Courtney was twisting her body to unstrap a dazed Milligan from her car seat. She was fighting gravity to try and lift the rear passenger door and climb out.

I didn’t dare move.

*****

We had come to New Zealand 8 months earlier on a last-second decision from Brisbane, Australia. We had spent the last few months living in Auckland as Courtney taught a few semesters at a local elementary school.

It was one of the most freeing times of our life.

We had spent the last two years transforming our financial life. We had paid off $18,000 in consumer debt, sold all of our possessions, and set off to backpack Australia.

Somehow our journey had now brought us to the side of this mountain outside of Milford Sound on the South Island of New Zealand.

I didn’t dare move…

*****

After what seemed like the longest minutes of my life, I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Courtney and Milli climb out of sight to where we had slid off the road.

“I guess it’s my turn,” I thought.

I moved as slow as I could given the awkward angle. The car was nearly on its side.

As I stretched to try and force the passenger door open, I thought for sure the trees would snap under my shifting weight.

Luckily, they didn’t budge. Not a single inch.

As weak as they looked, the trees grouped together to form a safety net that had kept us from sliding down the mountainside.

Up on the road, we pulled out our cell phones and confirmed our suspicions – absolutely zero bars. We were 90 minutes from the nearest town on a road that is sparingly traveled that early in the morning.

We had no choice but to sit on the side of the road and wait.

Irony hit us hard as we soaked in the visualization of being trapped in the most beautiful place on earth.

*****

48 hours later, I found myself talking to an old man that owned the closest tow-truck company.

An Israeli family had found us stranded on the road – and had taken us to the only lodge within two hours of the sound. I rode in the back with their groceries. Milli rode on Courtney’s lap.

The lodge was booked solid for months, so after 18 hours of discussion (to make a long story short) we finally shared a single bunk bed with the employees of the lodge for a few hours of sleep.

I had spent hours on the phone over the last two days, trying to coordinate police, rental companies, and tow-truck drivers from a city 90 minutes away from the accident site.

*****

“Well, this isn’t going to be pretty…”

The seasoned tow-truck driver almost felt sorry for me through the dollar signs in his eyes.

He poetically laid out all the expenses he had incurred in retrieving the car.

Earlier it had been carefully explained to me that since I took responsibility for the accident that we’d have to cover the tow-truck charges ourselves (though the rental company would cover the damage to the vehicle).

“Yeah, I was there”…  I mumbled back to the tow truck driver.

I remembered waiting several hours for the driver to wind his way through the mountains.

I remembered the driver and I blocking the road for 45 minutes as we tried to figure out a way to rip the car out of the trees it had nestled in.

I remembered the gas, the after-hours calls, the size of the truck that was needed to do the job.

I knew all along the price tag of this operation would sting.

We ended up negotiating it to around $800 New Zealand, which was around $600 in U.S. dollars.

Keep in mind we were camping in a broken tent to save money at this point in our road tour. An $800 tow charge at this time was extremely demoralizing after all our frugal hard work.

But here’s the difference between the two stories…

We paid the tow-truck driver in cash.

There was no negative thought, no added stress, and not an ounce of worry.

As shitty as that 48-hour moment in time was… I was proud.

It was the first time in our life we had a fully-funded $5,000 emergency fund, and the first time we had to use it.

In the first story, money controlled me. It controlled my actions, my emotions and my relationships.

In the second story, we controlled our money. It didn’t dictate our actions in this emergency. It didn’t change much of our emotions at all.

As I handed the old man $800 in cash… I was proud.

How much worse would this situation had been without an emergency fund?

How much extra stress, arguing, and worry would have come with it?

I lived my life for years like that, and I don’t even want to think about it.

So we did the only thing there was left to do.

We buckled back into our mangled rental car (with deep gashes running down the left side and no front bumper) and finished our driving tour of the South Island of New Zealand.

We weren’t going to let sliding down the mountain keep us from finishing what we started.

*****

Taking back control of your financial life doesn’t prevent this kind of stuff from happening.

It doesn’t keep you from getting into situations where you are trapped.

But when shit does hit the fan, having a flexible financial life makes all the difference in the world.

Trust us, we know.

The goal isn’t to make it through life without any scars…

The goal is to empower yourself to break free, heal, and bounce back quickly.

The goal is flexibility.

The goal is freedom.

*****

Note: Up until now, I’ve only shared these two stories with our You Vs. Debt students. Several of those students pushed me to share them publicly… thanks to them for the nudge. The next You Vs. Debt class starts next week (January 23rd). More info soon!

*****

I’ve written a lot about our own journey to redefine freedom over the last few years. But this community is so powerful because it’s made up of thousands of stories of people chasing their own dreams.

We’ve shared some of these stories before – and I’m always ecstatic to shine the spotlight. I’ve got another great story for you today.

Dustin Koester (in the picture above) has been a long-time member of the Man Vs. Debt community. In fact, he’s been around longer than any of you!

You see, he was part of the community before it even started. Dustin’s a life-long friend of mine – and responsible for almost every graphic (including the very first logo) and design you see on Man Vs. Debt or our guides/courses.

Dustin’s great at graphic design and helping as a creative consultant on projects, but that’s not what he was born to do.

Dustin was born to play the drums.

In elementary and middle school, that’s an acceptable dream. All of us encourage it, foster it, and support it. You want to play drums? Great… go for it… do it!

So throughout this time, Dustin played in a band with his friends from middle school. Their parents helped fund the gear. They played after school all evening. They even recorded and burnt CDs of their first “album”. Dustin was widely known for his talent as a drummer amongst his peers and fellow students.

But as we get older, high school rolls around. In high school, playing drums in a band can be “cool,” but we’re slowly taught that it’s not realistic to try and play drums to make a living. There’s still a fading glimmer of hope left… the possibility of trying to get into a specialized college or program still exits.

Dustin continued to play in a band throughout High School and played drums in the marching band, jazz band, and show choir competitions. His talent was obvious for anyone to see, yet there was still an underlying force pushing Dustin away from drumming.

Society’s real message was clear: Keep playing drums for fun, but it’s time to find a career or job that’ll pay the bills.

As we graduate high school and move onto college, that message is pounded over and over to us. The dreams that were acceptable and encouraged as kids are now shoved to the back burner. “It’s the responsible thing to do,” we tell ourselves.

Dustin went along with everyone else to college (Indiana University to be exact). At college, Dustin struggled to find that “responsible career” he was suppose to be working towards. As he was pushed and pulled from one focus to another, there was one consistent factor in the chaos…

Drumming.

Dustin joined the respected “Big Red Basketball Band” and continued to play in a college rock band at the bars and clubs on the weekends. When life got hectic, scattered, or confusing… drumming was Dustin’s constant.

After college, Dustin did what everyone else does – tried to find a job. He worked several, from Barista to Graphic Designer, from Security System Installer to Substitute Teacher. He got an apartment, bought some things, and tried to “settle” in.

But something wasn’t right.

This life path he was on didn’t feel like his own. He was trying to do everything he was suppose to. Get decent grades. Go to college. Find a career. Get a steady job. He was doing his best, but none of this was what he really wanted to do.

He really wanted to drum.

It was a simple realization, but one that changed the course of his life.

Not too long after, a friend of a band he was playing in mentioned his brother was a talent agent who booked musicians for cruise ships. With a spark of interest, Dustin asked for more information – and two weeks later he was auditioning for his first gig.

Over the next few years, Dustin would travel the world doing what he loved… playing the drums. He lived and played on cruise ships with destinations all over the map:

• Italy
• France
• Greece
• Turkey
• Portugal
• Spain
• Egypt
• Tunisia
• Sicily
• Monaco
• Ukraine
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Malta
• Alaska
• Canada
• Mexico
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• Panama
• Bahamas

All along the way he was housed (more on this later), fed, and paid to travel the world and perform.

It’s not an opportunity for everyone – Dustin’s the first to admit that. He had to get rid of a lot of his stuff and start focusing on his finances to make the shift possible. For him, he welcomed the added flexibility to chase his dreams.

In between cruise ships, Dustin also was given the opportunity to travel the US and fill in on the Jesus Christ Superstar Nat’l Tour. He’s met hundreds of fellow professional entertainers, musicians, and industry professionals along his travels.

His journey to chase his dreams and follow his passion for drumming is just getting started. But his mindset about what’s possible has completely changed.

More from Dustin’s Point of View…

How long have you been drumming?

I started playing drums in 5th grade when my dad bought himself a drum set. Although I played guitar at the time, drums quickly stole all my attention.

When did you realize drumming was your biggest passion?

Honestly, not until recently. It’s always been an interest of mine, but it’s taken a while to realize the severity of my involuntary dedication. There’s an indescribable feeling – It’s the only place in the world where I feel completely confident, and the notion of time just disappears. At the risk of sounding like a hippie…it’s like I’m in another dimension.

How did you get started with the Cruise Ship opportunity?

I was sitting in with a friend’s cover band and after the gig we were all hanging out & talking. A friend of the band mentioned that his brother was a talent agent who booked musicians for cruise ships. About 2 weeks later I got in touch with him, he got in touch with his brother, and I had an over-the-phone audition scheduled for the next week to join my first ship later that month.

What’s your favorite part of the process (traveling and drumming)?

I really enjoy the traveling aspect of the cruise gigs. It makes me feel on top of my game when I’ve got a company flying me from place to place and staying in hotels all around the world before joining the ships. It’s also part of that surreal period where I’m realizing ‘I’m about to live on a ship for X months…again.”

What’s your least favorite part of life on a Cruise Ship?

My least favorite part of the cruise life is the housing. The rooms are quite small, but that’s to be expected, I guess. In general, what goes on behind the scenes on a cruise ship would turn a lot of people off to the cruise industry. It’s like any of your large Vegas hotels – it’s all glitz and glamour on the floor, but behind the scenes it’s business as usual.

Would you recommend it to another entertainer/musician/crew member?

I would recommend it to anyone who has a passion for traveling…and not everyone does. It’s certainly a different lifestyle for a musician onboard a ship and some don’t prefer it, but if you want to see the world and get paid while doing so, cruise ships are a great introductory way to do that.

How would you suggest someone getting started… do you have any tips for someone wanting to do this?

The best way to get started is to audition with an agency. Mine is Landau Music, Inc. which operates out of Pasadena, California. Larger group auditions are usually held at Universities and sometimes auditions can be held over the phone. The best way to be prepared for an audition is to have your sight-reading skills to a point where you’re very confident going in, and to also be familiar with a lot different styles.

What made you submit to be in the Queen Extravaganza Contest?

The curiosity, really. It’s an ongoing internal conflict, wondering how you fare against other players…and I thought this would be a great contest to experiment with. I love Queen’s timeless music and my genre of choice to play has always been rock – big moves, heavy playing – its what has come most naturally to me over the years. So I thought…”What the hell. Let’s see where it takes me.”

4-Hour Workweek Giveaway…

Lastly, I have 5 more copies of Tim Ferris’ best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek, Revised and Expanded Edition that have been sitting around for nearly a year.

It’s time to pass them along to those of you looking to chase your own dreams!

What dream have you been pushing to the back of your mind?

What passion have you been sacrificing?

What dream do you want to chase?

Leave a comment below!

*****

Yes, this headline is for real…

Last week, Courtney and I had the pleasure of crossing paths with another family on the road… The Denning Family.

Like us, the Dennings are on a road trip as a family.

Unlike us, they have 5 FREAKIN’ KIDS with them! Holy moly. And they aren’t just going around the U.S. – they are in route from Alaska (where they lived for a year) all the way down the west coast to… ARGENTINA.

To top it off, they are pulling this off in a veggie-powered truck (read: paying nothing for gas) and a rooftop tent to sleep in.

We were so impressed and inspired by our short time with the Denning family – I wanted to share their story with you.

Below, I sit down with Greg and Rachel – while Courtney wrangles 5 kids total (thanks honey!).

Additional information and video summary:

• Follow the Denning Family here: DiscoverShareInspire.com // Twitter // Facebook
• [00:00] - Introduction to Greg and Rachel
• [01:15] – Where the Dennings have been as a family (Mexico, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, India, Canada, Alaska…)
• [02:05] – Ages of their five kids that travel with them (All under 8!)
• [02:50] – I ask the Dennings if they’re crazy – and if the lifestyle feels “strange” to them.
• [03:35] – Details on the Veggie-Powered Truck they are using for their roadtrip.
• [05:55] – How the Dennings can afford to travel (different from what we do)!
• [08:00] – Rachel and Greg’s top parenting tips for managing 5 kids on the road.
• [10:40] – What is the primary goal for the road trip?

Full transcript of the entire interview…

Hey everyone. This is Baker from Man Vs. Debt, and I am honored to be joined today with Greg and Rachel Denning, who—we’ve met a lot of people while we’ve been traveling along this road trip. But maybe—these guys have maybe the most unique story of them all. So I wanted to get them on camera while we’re spending a few days here in Redding, California, or outside of Redding, and share their story and get some of their expertise for what they’re doing.

So before I let them talk, I’m going to do so more talking. And that is, we get a lot of people that email or message us and say, “Hey, with so many people that are traveling and young, we really appreciate that you guys share your travels as a family.”

And so we’re very flattered when we’re able to do that, and sort of help other families realize that it’s possible. But even we need inspiration, and when we turn for inspiration, these are the type of families and the type of people that we turn to.

They don’t have just one kid. Not two kids, not three kids, not four kids. But they are doing this with five kids.

A family of seven, with five kids. And I guess, Greg, if you would, give us a quick recap of the last few years. We’ve talked about it, but I want to hear in your own words of where you guys have been. Just the quick version.

We got excited about travel, and Rach and I had a quick trip to Mexico. We both went, “Wow, we want to do this.” And so after our fourth child was born, we drove from the States down to Costa Rica. Lived there for a year. Then we moved and lived in the Dominican Republic, out in the Caribbean, which was fantastic.

After that, we ended up in India, and just loved that experience. Flew back from India while Rachel was pregnant with our fifth, and drove from Atlanta, Georgia, up to Homer, Alaska, where we spent the last year. So now we’re on our next adventure, which is Alaska to Argentina, to Tierra Del Fuego.

Yeah. So that’s why I wanted to get them on camera, for that specific reason. With four kids through most of that, now with the fifth, little baby Atlas, who is so cute. And what are the ages now, Rachel? What’s the breakdown?

Our oldest is Kyah; she is 8. And then Parker’s 7. Kimbell is 5, almost 6. Aaliyah’s 4, and then Atlas is eight months.

8, 7, 5, 4, and eight months. Correct? Wow, that is—I guess the follow up question to that is, “Are you crazy?”

Yes.

Serious question. Do you get that a lot?

Sometimes.

Do people really ask you? Do they see you, hear about what you’re doing, and they really—Honestly, do they check in to see if you’re a little loony?

Yeah. I think people think we’re a little strange sometimes.

It’s just so unconventional.

Is it really that strange though? So let’s get into this, ’cause I want to talk about this. We have people ask us this question too, and it’s not even close to the same scale of what you guys are doing. Does it feel strange, in day to day life for you?

No. To us it’s just, you know, you get up in the morning. You have breakfast, you get dressed, you—Except for us. Then we go to the beach or we go to the Redwood Forest, or we—

To Mt. St. Helen’s, or Rainer. Or today, up to the lake.

And I think that we’ve run into that same thing too. And I keep telling people, with life in the RV, because I want to get into what you guys are doing this most recent tour in. But people ask us all the time, when they see the RV, is “Can you do this for a long period of time?” And I always tell them, “After the first month, it was just life. And you adapt, and you learn how to live and operate in a small space, like the RV.”

Or even a smaller space, because you guys are actually doing this in a truck that has benches in the back for the kids, and a rooftop tent. So picture this: a truck and a rooftop tent. We think we need the RV, which is 31.5′ with a slide-out, a bathroom, kitchen sink. And here they are, making it happen, all the way from Alaska to Argentina, in just the truck. And not only is this a truck with a rooftop tent, this is a veggie powered truck, right?

That’s right, yeah.

Tell us a little bit about that, Greg. What—How in the world—We’re spending $1,000 to $1,500 in gas. And we just went to Shell before we got here to meet you guys, and filled it up for whatever, $220. Tell the Man Vs. Debt readers where you guys went to get your fuel before you got here.

So yesterday before we got here, we stopped at a restaurant. I walked back to their veggie bin. They had over 300 gallons of veggie. I took what we needed and what we could carry.

Well, explain what the veggie is.

It’s waste vegetable oil. They take it out of their fryers after they’ve cooked the fries or the chicken, whatever they’re doing. They take the waste vegetable oil, they throw it in their bins, and then we recycle it, put it in the truck. It costs me zero, in dollars, to get that. There’s an exchange rate. I have to work a little bit for it. Took me a half hour to get 30 gallons. It was the slow way, but we—

We filled up for $220. You stopped by a restaurant with half an hour of work and did the exact same thing.

Right.

And a lot of people, I hear—I hear about this a lot. But it really—the vision, my mind comes up with two hippie-type people going around to restaurants. It doesn’t strike me as a family of seven actually pulling this off. Where’d you get the idea from? Or have you always been passionate about this issue? Or did you just jump into it?

No. We bumped into it. And our whole life has been like that. We just meet great people along the road, and new ideas. And once your mind’s expanded to a new idea, you grab hold of it. And we had been toying with this idea of a long road trip, and we kind of solidified it: “Hey, Alaska to Argentina.” And then the idea came across, if you can do this on veggie. We thought, that’s thousands and thousands of dollars.

Yeah, probably approaching at least $10,000.

Yeah, it’s going to be huge.

I don’t know. I’d like to see the math on that. But yeah, that’s a huge thing. So let’s do. Let’s talk more about the finances. ‘Cause one of the questions I get a lot is, how you guys afford this lifestyle. And I work, work way too much, as a lot of Man Vs. Debt readers—I go back and forth. But we’re working and living on the road. While you guys have a slightly different system of—Well, I’ll let you guys explain it. How are you affording this trip?

I think our main philosophy is that we eliminate everything that we can that’s not essential for us. So that we free up the time and the money to do what we really want to do. So—and that’s why we went with the rooftop tent option and everything, is because we’re eliminating rent, we’re eliminating accommodation expenses. We can basically—

Eliminating gas.

Right. Basically living in our truck, but it gives us the freedom to go all the way to Argentina.

Yeah. And so primarily I guess what you did is, you guys—stage one is just to be ultra frugal, and to realize what’s important to you guys, spend money on that. Which we’ve talked about as well. But also just to eliminate these sort of expenses that people think are necessities when they’re traveling.

Like I said, we’re spending almost $1,500 a month. And it had Courtney and I scratching our heads to be like, “Wow, maybe we should’ve thought more about this” or “Maybe there are more ways that we can stretch ourselves,” when we heard about your guys’ story.

See, and we love to ask that question: “Is there a better way?” And you start questioning—We take our living expenses, and we’re like, “Is this the bare minimum?” And then you figure out, no it’s not. You can squeeze it, squeeze it. And so you give up some luxuries, some comforts.

But for us, with our priority—Hey, the trip’s our priority. Family time’s our priority. I can skip a little bit of comfort, luxury, here and here. Personally, I can give that up in order to say—[CROSSTALK]—time and other things so we can do what we really want to do. So we’ve gone totally frugal. And so our living expenses are cheap. So now when you find a way to cover those expenses, you get to do what you want to do.

And that’s great. And I want to now dive into what you just said about the family time. Because honestly, we’ve encountered this again in both the positive and negative of traveling families. And I might offend some people here. But a lot of times when we have—when we meet home schooled families, or we meet a lot of traveling families, at times the kids can be less than social. Or the parents themselves can be less than social. There can be some barriers there that we’ve seen in different families, and that we help—we’re taking strides to make sure that we’re healthy in that aspect.

But your kids—Seriously. This is not just because you’re sitting here—are so curious and so well-behaved, and really just amazing kids. So Courtney and I are looking at you guys, looking for parental tips. How do you guys travel, live so close together, and give the—What are your top parenting tips, is what I’m trying to get at. Because I really look up to you guys in that instance.

I think that one thing I always try to focus on with the kids is just personal responsibility and being concerned about being the kind of person you want to be. So if there’s some type of issue, I really focus on, “Are you acting how you want to be? Are you doing the kinds of things that are going to make you the person you want to be? And how do you feel right now? Do you feel good when you’re fighting with your brother or”—That’s my area of focus, really.

And is there one that sticks out for you?

Yeah. Rachel and I are really passionate about personal development, and trying to be our best selves. We’re aware of the stigma of social retardation or whatever. “Oh, no, you won’t be social. You’ve got this recluse.” You imagine this person that can’t communicate. We’re on a quest together. We’re passionate about personal development, and trying to make the most of ourselves. So we go about it with passion, and the kids follow along.

I was just going to say that.

And we encourage them. We’re outgoing. We love to meet people from all cultures and places and backgrounds and ages. And be able to interact with all of them, and learn from them, and grow and learn in every situation. So we’re passionate about education. We’re passionate about being people of influence that can make a difference in the world and just try to be good people.

Model that for your kids. Lead by example.

And they follow along.

Yeah.

And obviously this is a softball. But you guys believe that travel enhances that in your kids? And enhances that in yourselves?

Undoubtedly.

Which we do too. And again, I said that was a softball. But that’s sort of what Courtney and I keep coming back to, is I think that we think in general that travel is leading us, and then by in return Milligan, in the direction of where we want to grow as people.

Absolutely.

So that’s really great. So let’s talk a little bit of shop. Let’s talk a little bit about your guys’ site, ’cause I really like it, and that is discovershareinspire.com. Is that right? What is the goal now? Let me ask you this.

What’s the primary goal of your trip? Have you thought—That’s a tough question for us. What’s the primary goal of the trip from the West Coast, and literally the West Coast of the entire hemisphere, I guess. That’s what it is right?

The entire West Coast, yeah.

That’s awesome. What’s your guys’ primary goal?

It just started as what—we thought, “What do we want to do?” Based on the travel we’ve done, based on the experiences we’ve had, what are we really passionate about? And our thing is discovery. It’s really about that. We love going to new places and seeing what they have to offer and learning from it. But then we really tend to get bored after we’ve been there for too long. So we realized that we love that change. We love to—exploring new things. So when we thought about it, we were like, “Well, let’s just drive and keep driving”—

And just keep going south.

And keep going, yeah.

And share all the great things that the world has to offer. But if I can step back, it’s all priority. Our main focus is family closeness. We want a tight, close, growing, loving family that we become well-rounded, developed people and stay tight as a family. And so that priority’s important. That’s the basis of this discovery, sharing, and this travel. Hey, we’re going to do this trip, but the goal is just a solid family. So often, so many of us get distracted by work or other pursuits or hobbies or whatever it is. And so our main priority is that. How can we really do that and then tie in discovering, a desire to share. Always experience and then share it.

Yeah. So let’s take that. And Rachel, you’re I guess the primary writer, or the primary face of the website itself. How does that tie in? You guys have this personal message of family first and then evolving. Together as a family, evolving, is what I’m deciphering from you guys. How does the site tie in to that? How does the site—What’s your goal with the site?

With the site, I just like to share our experiences. So I’m writing about what we’re doing. I’m also offering tips and advice about how to do it. How to manage education and where to go and everything.

Sure. It’s almost like a megaphone for your guys’ experience. Get those out to other people that may be looking at, “Well, it’s nice if you want to travel, but I have three kids. I could never do that.”

Right.

Absolutely.

Emails I get all the time. People who say, “When you guys have your second child, things will change.”

We hear that all the time.

So when you guys have your sixth, it’s definitely going to be different. I love that, because I think that we need more megaphones from people who break down barriers, who break down excuses. And I think—I’m flattered that we get to do that for a very, very small group of people with one kid.

But it’s awesome to be able to share your guys’ story, to say, “Hey, there is almost no excuse. You can make it happen. You can be frugal. You can go with five kids. You can realize whatever is your priorities, and you can make those happen.” So that’s why I’ve enjoyed having you guys on and I enjoy sharing your story.

So I always finish up, wrap up these sort of interviews. And I haven’t told you guys this before. So this is a little bit of a surprise. But I want you guys to ask a question of the Man Vs. Debt readers. You guys have to come up with a question. You ask, and we’ll get the feedback from the readers. Either one of you can jump in, and I know it’s—I love surprising people with this question. If you could ask one thing, what would you ask?

Tough.

That is tough.

There are no wrong questions.

A question for your readers.

I would think, “What is it that holds people back?”

You’re on the same page. Go with it.

“What is it that holds people back from doing what they really want to do?”

If I—I may even be able to evolve that a little bit. ‘Cause I love this question. When it was asked to me one time, I think it literally changed my life. “What’s the #1 thing that’s holding you back?” Right now, what’s the #1 thing that’s holding you back?

And eliminate that, and then your next #1, and move that one.

Yeah, keep moving it on. If you guys can help all of us out by listing out what the #1 thing is holding you back, and again, Greg and Rachel, thanks for joining me today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And it’s an honor to be able to share your guys’ story and spend a couple days here with our families together.

Thanks.

The Dennings Ask: What’s the #1 barrier that’s holding you back from your own goals?

What a great question!

What’s the number one hurdle – right now – that’s keeping you from your own vision of the life you want to lead?

I hope you are as inspired by the Denning family as we were! Follow them here!

xoxoxo,

-Baker

One of the most common questions I get from people (when they find out we work/travel full-time in an RV right now) is… how?

How do I work on the road?

What do I use for internet?

How can I stay up with my business?

What kind of gear or gadgets make this possible?

To be honest, it’s really not that complex. Over the years, I’ve refined the minimal amount of stuff that I need to carry around to ensure I can handle just about any work situation that may come up.

Everything I need is stored in my laptop bag at all times – which means within 30 seconds I can be packed up and on-the-go without worrying that I forgot something that I’ll need.

In the video, I go through every item in my simplified ready-to-go work bag.

For those of you that can’t watch it, here’s a quick list of every item (w/ amazon links) ranked by importance:

• Brenthaven Prostyle II-XF Laptop Case - This is the glue that holds it all together – or at least the bag that holds it all together. I really enjoy it.

• 15″ MacBook Pro – This is my primary weapon of choice. I love this computer. I also carry around the charger of course.

• (2) Moleskine notebook – All my ideas, concepts, blog posts, or projects start in these notebooks. It’s essentially what I use (in combination with gmail) as my productivity system. Again, I really enjoy these notebooks.

• Pilot G-2 Pen [3] - My favorite “everyday use” pens to jot down those amazing ideas.

• iPhone 4 Black – The amazing Chris Jourdan sent Courtney and I new iPhone 4s earlier in the year! I use the apps Yelp, Mailchimp, WordPress, Paypal, Chase, and Skype for business on the road all the time. The charger comes with me, too.

• Virgin Mobile MiFi - This gives us wireless internet anywhere we can get 3G. It’s $40/month with NO CONTRACT which is why we initially got it! Still works pretty well.

• iPhone headphones - Still stuck with the very basic headphones. Looking for an alternative that is more comfortable for multiple hours of use.

• Jawbone ICON bluetooth headset - I use this to take calls or do interview while driving in the RV. I’m not convinced it’s really that great, but I guess it does help reduce external noise a bit.

• Spare set of business cards – Just in case I meet someone who needs some more information!

• A Deck of Cards - Always need a deck of cards – you just never know.

• BodPod paperwork - I keep the “BodPod” bodyfat measurements paperwork I got at the beginning of my weight loss journey with me (as a reminder to stay focused).

That’s it! As always, I’m more than willing to answer specific questions in the comments below!

*****

I’ve told you *what* I use to work, but nothing about *how* I build my business while on the road. That would simply take too long to do in blog post format!

Which is why early next week, Corbett Barr and I are opening the doors on what we are calling “The Hustle Project”.

It’ll be a series of webinars (twice per month) with insights into the exact step-by-step tactics and strategies we used to build momentum in our online businesses. Along with live Q&A sections, audio downloads, full transcripts, and accountability profiles.

Here is our theory, boiled down into a simple formula:  Action + Accountability = Momentum

This project will only be for online entrepreneurs who are serious about building something sustainable, it’s not meant to be for hobbyists, people deep in debt, or casual businesses. Sorry!

If you are interested in the “do what you love” part of my message (and are serious about it), sign up here to be notified early. If you aren’t interested in building an online business, that’s cool too – back to regular programming next Thursday.

xoxoxo,

-Baker

Each month, as part of an ongoing transparency project, I share the income, expenses, and master plans of my pursuit to earn a living online. This includes many of the expenses related to our RV lifestyle.

Personal finance should not be a taboo subject in our society. The more light we can shed – and the more examples we can share – the better off we are!

April’s Business Income/Expenses…

Sell Your Crap income:  $1,261.64

You Vs. Debt income:  $5,107.60

Additional Income:  $1,368.89

• Travel Hacking Cartel:  $503.37
• Consulting (off the market):  $385.19
• Pocketsmith:  $183.80
• WhitePixel:  $82.07
• Unconventional Guides:  $80.58
• UYF Sales (off the market):  $47.50
• Amazon Affiliate: $37.63
• Language Hacking Guide: $33.50
• Bank Fee Refund: $15.25

Direct Expenses:  -$6,734.12

• YvD Launch Consulting:  -$4000.00
• WDS Conference Tickets: -$610.84
• YvD Graphics: -$501.25
• Affiliate Payments:  -$393.77
• Food/Meals: -$289.31
• Cell Phone (final): -$175.32
• Website tech work: -$130.00
• YvD Transcriptions: -$112.15
• AppSumo Deal: -$99.00
• Premium Web Cart: -$79.97
• Optimizely: -$79.00
• Aweber:  -$49.00
• Virgin Mobile: -$40.00
• Rebel Strength Guide: -$39.00
• Cloud Blogging Guide: -$37.00
• Wufoo: -$29.95
• Travel Hacking Cartel: -$25.00
• MailChimp:  -$15.00
• E-junkie:  -$10.00
• DropBox:  -$9.99
• Domain Name: -$8.57

Net (Income – Expenses):  $1,004.01

Over the last 13 months, this brings the average net to: ~$5500/month.

Want to know even more details? My friend Corbett Barr (from ThinkTraffic.net fame) and I will be hosting a live Q&A this coming Wednesday on “Building Momentum for Your Online Business”. We’ll leave no questions unanswered, but there are only 100 spots on the webinar. Here’s the link to save your spot if interested.

As you can see, we successfully launched the very first private “You Vs. Debt” course behind-the-scenes last month. We’re in the middle of the course now, tweaking and testing the content, gathering feedback, and helping people radically change their financial approach.

It’s thrilling to see the first group of people take the course, as I’ve never before approached my courses/eBooks in this manner. I can already see the impact it will have on the eventual public release (likely late next month).

Even still, there is a lot left to do – the grunt work is far from over as far as the course is concerned!

You may also notice a $4,000 payment to a team member. Keep in mind this actually represents several months of hard work – and is an investment in a piece of my team that I want to play a core role for years to come.

As always, I’ll answer any questions below!

RV Tour Updates… Keep Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’…

April saw us visiting and hosting meetups in the cities of Phoenix, San Diego, and L.A.

The Phoenix meetup was especially fun – as we had a BBQ out at a local park – and 30-35 people, including several families with kids were able to swing by. This was a welcome unique-twist to our normal gatherings!

In San Diego, I was interviewed and featured in the San Diego Union-Tribune (which was fun). Our meetup had a smaller, but very mighty turnout – featuring what ended up being mostly other entrepreneurs and bloggers!

We also had a great time while staying with friends in Hollywood, Los Angeles. We had a strong showing of personal finance industry folk and bloggers turn out and share some great tamales and stories at the meetup.

Let me pause here to share that at each step of the way our sponsor, Adaptu.com swooped in and bought free food for everyone – at each meetup.

To be clear, this isn’t something they are supposed to do. Nor is this something I’m required to talk about here. I’m just extremely fortunate to have found and created a really great relationship with the team over there.

They’ve been a fantastic company to work with – and offer a valuable service that is completely free. Thanks again to Adaptu for help making this tour a great experience for us so far!

Next stop: SAN FRANCISCO!

May brings us into San Francisco (where I’m writing this as of now), for the first couple of weeks.

In mid-May, we’ll spend a week driving through northern California and southern Oregon. We hear these areas are especially beautiful for driving.

Ultimately, we’ll pull into Portland, Oregon toward the end of the month – and are looking forward to a couple weeks with good friends and allies before the World Domination Summit in early June.

RV Expenses/Lifestyle Cost…

Speaking of the tour, here’s a glimpse at the expenses related to our RV lifestyle (for April).

Gas: $605.03 (-58%)

Whoo-hoo, down over half! While gas prices have continued to go up, up, up… we’ve driven less, less, less.

Essentially, we drove only two legs: from Phoenix to San Diego and from San Diego to L.A.

Campground Fees: $489.50 (-13%)

We stayed the far majority of the time at campgrounds this time, but did benefit a small amount from having cheaper parking with friends in the Los Angeles area at the end of the month.

As it seems moving forward, $500 appears to be a realistic and comfortable budget for us. We *could* do it on much smaller incomes, but we also could easily spend more as frequently as we are moving.

Hotel/Hostel/Lodging: $0 (0%)

Once again, we’ve avoided any extra cost from lodging outside the RV – making two months in a row now.

This isn’t much of a feat, but early on we had several circumstances that forced us into more expensive lodging.

Propane: $35.06 (+100%)

We only had to fill our propane tank once in April (after not filling it at all in March).

It appears as long as we stay out of cold weather, propane won’t add any significant pain to our budget. It’s actually fairly affordable.

Tolls/Parking: $0 (-100%)

April didn’t see any toll roads, parking garages, or miscellaneous fees that we encountered on the road.

We did get stopped along the Mexican/U.S. Border – but all they wanted to know was if I was a U.S. Citizen. Check.

Repairs: $ 55.25 (-40%)

As with last month, we only had one very minor problem with the RV or Jeep this month.

It came to our attention that we had the wrong size of “hitch ball” that we were towing the Jeep with. While it had still towed several thousand miles, it was starting to warp a bit – and wasn’t the most safe option.

In addition, the wiring jack that connects the RV lights to the Jeep lights when we were towing was shorted out (this is important so the brake lights and such work on the back of the Jeep when towing).

I’m proud to report, I fixed both problems myself with a trip to AutoZone. Now, these are the most simple problems in the world for anyone who works on… well, anything. But for me, splicing the wires and installing the proper trailer hitch are HUGE accomplishments!

I’m very happy with our expenses this month. We saw reductions in nearly every category. We live a VERY comfortable RV lifestyle (and a fairly mobile one) and our expenses are becoming much more controllable.

Hoping to keep it up!

*****

As always, I’m willing to tackle any questions you may have in the comments below.

I’m excited to have you along for the ride – and to have a community where I can share so openly.

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

A winding tunnel through a mountain in North Carolina…

Courtney, Milligan and I are rounding out our third full month living and traveling in our RV.

The first leg of our journey has been full of ups and downs, but for the most part – life seems normal. As normal as it can be driving thousands and thousands of miles across the country hosting meetups and visiting friends.  :-)

In the past, I’ve written extensive “travel updates” chronicling some of the day-to-day activities and sights. Instead of catching up on that for the entire East Coast, I’ve decided to share our journey in a different format.

Below are 10 truths that I’ve come to learn through our first few months on the open road. Embedded in between the truths are some of Courtney’s greatest photos from Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Texas.

Note: Special thanks to our amazing sponsor Adaptu.com for their help making the first leg of the road tour a success. Stop by and take our “Crush $1000 in Debt” pledge.

*****

Milli rides behind as her great-grandmother bicycles in Venice, Florida…

Truth #1: Most things in life are way easier than you think.

With the exception of a few bigger things like weight loss, marriage, and parenthood – most things are super easy.  :-)

5 months ago, we knew nothing about RVs. We were still learning the difference between Class A and Class C – and whether diesel was better than gasoline engines.

We weren’t sure how or where we were going to find an RV – nor how to drive, operate, or live in one full-time.

And now we do. Well, we know just enough to get by. All those months of worrying and stressing were wiped out when I bought the RV at auction, drove it home, and started asking questions. (Special thanks to Chris & Cherie at Technomadia for answering many of those!)

Look, I know that people go through incredibly tough times and overcome things I will never have to. But I also know that most of us make things way harder than they need to be.

If you want something – anything – bad enough, it’s usually not that hard to figure it out. You’ve just got to get out of your own way.

*****

Up close with the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania…

Truth #2: The United States is freakin’ huge.

Holy cow is this country big. You really don’t get it flying around in a plane. I’m convinced you can’t fully grasp it until you sit at 60 miles per hour for days upon days at a time.

My first longer-than-it-has-any-right-to-be drive was from Washington D.C. to Wilmington, Ohio. It really shouldn’t be that long… I’ve seen a map many times. They look fairly close… turns out there are some mountains in the way. Mount Negro to be exact.

Ever try to drive out of Tampa, Florida around the panhandle?  No?  Don’t.  Just trust me.

And don’t even get me started on Texas. Every place in Texas is 45 minutes away – even when it’s in the same city. And I swear it’s a 6 hour drive from any city in Texas to the next state. I know that seems impossible, but that’s how it feels.

Of course, our nation’s size is also one of its largest benefits. We are incredibly diverse in not only geography, but in people, community, climate, and values.

*****

Milligan runs through a stone cloister in New York City…

Truth #3: The ability to adapt is still the best currency in the world.

I’ve talked about this many times before – but it still rings true.

Nothing has gotten me farther in life than the ability to quickly adapt to a new situation. By default, we train ourselves *not* to adapt. We strive to build a situation that is static.

We design our work lives, financial lives, family lives, and every other part of our identity around this “stable” life.

But in doing this, we limit our ability to adapt. We restrict our flexibility when crap hits the fan. When we lose a job or someone close to us. When an once-in-a-lifetime really does appear, we aren’t trained to take it.

Learning how to dive into something head first – and adapt – is a universal currency. It’s worth millions and millions of dollars over the course of your lifetime – and even more than that in happiness.

I have no data to prove it – but I’m confident that happiness in life isn’t tied to stability or comfort nearly as much as it’s tied to the ability to quickly adapt to a new situation.

*****

The RV buried in snow outside of Baltimore, Maryland…

Truth #4: Weather changes everything.

I’ve never fully appreciated the changes in climate and weather as much as I do now.

Note:  As I’m editing this post to publish – it’s snowing here in ARIZONA of all places!  How fitting.

Weather doesn’t just cause changes to daily plans – but can deeply affect everything from your mood to your financial life. We’ve been exposed to weather our entire lives, so it’s easy to take its impact on our daily life for granted.

In the RV, if it’s cold at night – you feel it much more than you do in your home. If it’s muggy during the day – you feel that, too. Traveling full-time and living in a thinner shelter means we’re much more in tune with Mother Nature.

On a more positive note, our new lifestyle allows us to take much more advantage of the times where the weather does cooperate. It’s easy to stay cooped up in a 3,500 square foot house regardless of weather. In a 31ft RV, you welcome being forced out into the weather (on most days).

*****

Our first glimpse of the freshly wrapped RV inside a random warehouse in Washington D.C…

Truth #5: I want to “work” with people.

The hardest part of living on the road is finding the time and creative energy to “work”. Keeping up with email and daily tasks is hard enough – but by nature, I’m at my best when working on large, audacious projects.

These type of projects are complex enough when you have a designated work space and team in place. Try doing them in and out of random coffee shops and in an RV with your family running around beside you. It’s definitely a “first world problem” – but it’s a real problem nonetheless!

I used to pride myself on the ability to work from anywhere in the world at any time. And I still do enjoy that freedom.

But I’ve also matured to realize that I *want* to work surrounded by other people. And you know what? I wouldn’t mind an office. You know… a place where I go to work and come home when I’m done.

Also, I like having team members working on projects with me – it helps motivate me (and is much more fun).

So over the next few years, I see myself transitioning to a single top-secret location (with a passionate team in place) for intensive creative work periods – maybe one to three months – and then taking off to travel during the times in-between these large projects.

*****

Milligan outside of the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World…

Truth #6: Food and drink connect everyone.

I’m going to share two secrets with you.

Everyone eats. Everyone drinks.

As we visit different parts of the country and meet new people, sometimes we have a lot in common – and sometimes we have very little.

But the one surefire path to a passionate conversation is to talk about food. What food do you like? What do you enjoy cooking?  Do you cook? What is your favorite restaurant?  Favorite meal?  Favorite dessert?

Everyone really does eat. And many people and cultures identify a part of who they are in the food they prepare, share, and consume. The same is true for different forms of drinks, too.

And it’s tough to find a more powerful (and neutral) meeting opportunity than sharing a meal or a cup of coffee. Like it or not, food plays an essential role in our existence as humans.  

Food is an incredibly powerful way to connect with other people.

*****

Thousands of bats fly into the night from under a bridge in Austin, Texas…

Truth #7: You consume and produce a lot of resources.

Another benefit of living in an RV – your consumption habits are put into the limelight.

Suddenly you start noticing how much water you use when you have to pump it into the tank every time it runs dry. You notice how much energy you are using when you live a few consecutive days on batteries.

And I promise you are much more conscious of the gasoline you use when you get 7.2 miles per gallon of gas.

Want to get even more personal?

Try realizing just how much waste comes out of your body over the course of a week. Or think about what happens when you use too much waste water before dumping your tanks (hint: it comes up into the shower).

Consumption of all forms – like the weather – is something that is difficult to be conscious of. I’m not sure what changes lie ahead for us in this area, but I’m glad to have had the opportunity to tangibly see and measure the amount of energy we consume and produce.

*****

Me helping Milli find a walking stick on a hike through the Carolinas…

Truth #8: I do not miss television. Not one bit.

I occasionally miss things about having a single location, but I’ve never once missed having our television. Not once.

Even when I wanted to watch the Green Bay Packers dominate the playoffs this past season – I actually appreciated having to go out to watch the game. I watched one game at a local restaurant – and three others along-side friends in different cities.

And I may be the most excited person on the planet for the upcoming HBO series “Game of Thrones” – but once a week I’m sure I’ll be fine taking a break to watch from my computer (without missing a 60-inch television every night of the week).

Look I won’t beat this one into the ground – I’m just making a personal observation for my life. I don’t miss it!

For more on this, check out: 11 Reasons to Ditch Your Television.

*****

The hustle and bustle of Times Square in New York City…

Truth #9: The faster you travel, the more it sucks.

Nothing new on this one, but we’ve continued to confirm it over the last few months.

We are traveling slower than we did through Australia and Thailand – but we’re still keeping a decent pace. It’s tough to find a good balance. Travel too quickly and you’ll burn out and miss out on many amazing things. Travel too slowly and you can limit some of the people you can meet and events you can take part in.

Ultimately, we’re still trending to slower and slower travel times. Over the next leg of our trip, we’ll be spending multiple weeks in most of the major locations as we’ll have a bit more flexibility and time.

Even still, I believe we’ll shift to a model of staying in one location for 3-month or 6-month blocks of time as we continue. We aren’t ruling out having a single home-location either – it’s all part of the exploration of what we want.

Remember, there are no “nomadic rules”. The point of building a home, growing into a community, or traveling across the world is to live consciously – to choose deliberately what you want to do and where you want to live.

Right now our journey is taking us to slower and slower forms of travel.

*****

Milligan runs the catwalk outside of the Men With Pens house in Austin, Texas…

Truth #10: Your life swells to the parameters you allow.

When you buy a large house – your life will swell to fill it.

When you sell everything you own, start from scratch, and limit yourself to two backpacks – your life will fill the backpacks – but no more.

When you decide to live in a 31 foot RV, your life will fit inside the walls.

For better or worse, our natural tendency is to fill the boundaries that we give ourselves. The trick seems to be that most of us live based on the boundaries that are provided by our culture. We choose the default life of our peers – whether or not that truly reflects our values.

My takeaway from this is that we can really live within whatever world we desire if we are willing to immerse ourselves in it. I have no doubts we could live our life in a backpack, in a mansion, in an RV, in a sailboat, in a third world country, or on a tropical island.

It all starts by tearing down the default walls that have been put up around us – and then putting up our own restraints based on values, needs, and wants.

*****

Thanks for joining us on our journey!

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West coast here we come!

Xoxoxo,

-Baker

Each month, as part of an ongoing transparency project, I share the income, expenses, and master plans of my pursuit to earn a living online. This includes many of the expenses related to our RV lifestyle.

Personal finance should not be a taboo subject in our society. The more light we can shed – and the more examples we can share – the better off we are!

First, let’s look back at February (by the numbers):

February’s Business Income/Expenses…

Unautomate Revenue (off the market):  $272.00

• Total Guides Sold:  16

Sell Your Crap Revenue:  $1074.00

• Total Guides Sold (all versions):  22

Shut Up & Hustle Revenue:  $225.00

Additional Income:  $2154.50

• Consulting (off the market):  $1593.75
• Freelance Writing (off the market):  $226.05
• Unconventional Guides:  $186.15
• Amazon Affiliate: $69.05
• Host Gator Affiliate: $50.00
• Language Hacking Guide:  $29.50

Direct Expenses:  -$3145.00

• Food & Drink: -$521.79
• Virtual Assistant:  -$482.50
• You Vs. Debt Filming:  -$450.00
• Wishlist Plugin: -$297.00
• Affiliate Payments:  -$229.77
• Website tech work: -$240.00
• Cell Phone: -$175.59
• eSellerate Cart: -$99.00
• Products/Research:  -$96.25
• Domain Renewals: -$88.72
• Team Member Gifts: -$75.30
• You Vs. Debt Clothes: -$73.77
• Paypal Fees: -$65.31
• Aweber:  -$49.00
• Virgin Mobile: -$40.00
• Wufoo: -$29.95
• Travel Hacking Cartel: -$25.00
• Bank Fee: -$25.00
• iStock Photo: -$18.50
• Cab Ride: -$15.00
• E-junkie:  -$10.00
• MailChimp:  -$10.00
• DropBox:  -$9.99
• Paid Internet: -$9.89
• Domain Name: -$7.67

Net (Income – Expenses):  $580.50

Over the last 12 months of monetization, this brings the average to: ~$5500/month.

As you can see from the “net” and the numbers above – this month was about investing back into the machine. I spent thousands of dollars this month on building a team and investing in the next big project.

I’ve also invested my “time” and “energy” by manually choosing to cut off several income streams. The consulting and freelance writing trickled in from money that was owed (I took on no new clients or writing gigs).

At the beginning of the month, I had a team of four people converge on a single location to help strategize, film, and plan. I took care of meals, travel, etc… which inflated my expenses, but which I predict I’ll look back on and realize was the smartest money I’ve ever spent.

As most of you know, up until the last several weeks it’s been me (and only me) keeping the ship afloat. It’s scary to bring new people (and the expense) into the equation – but I know it’s right.

We’ll all make mistakes, but in the end – it’s going to rock. I feel it.

You Vs. Debt…

All of this extra time and investment is being poured into creating “You Vs. Debt” – the single most amazing premium resource on fighting back against debt.

Most of March will be spent organizing, writing, designing, compiling, and tweaking the course framework. This is no eBook launch – let’s put it that way. We want an environment that really pushes people to make the necessary shifts required.

Debt is emotional. It’s silly to pretend it isn’t. Environment, presentation, motivation, community… this stuff matters when you are digging yourself out of debt. I’m not going to leave any stone unturned.

In fact, I’ve just got the first rough edit back from the video we shot in February. It’s not polished enough to be public yet, but if you want to see a “sneak peak” of what one of these videos will look like, sign-up below and I’ll email you a link when I get it uploaded:

The Tour Rolls On…

Last, but not least (in terms of business updates) – our tour is not slowing down.

We’ll finish up this week in Florida, hopefully getting to spend some time with my brother and his fiance. Early next week our friend Norcross will hop in and we’ll all ride towards Austin, TX.

We’ll make small stops in New Orleans and Houston, but will make a strong pace to hit Austin in the middle of next week for the infamous SxSw conference.

If you are going to SxSw, mark the morning of March 14th on your calendar. I’m still waiting for 100% confirmation, but it looks like we’ll be having a morning meetup at a coffee shop – complete with RV tours, great conversation, and all the proceeds going to charity: water.

Whoo-hoo!  I’ll be sharing the exact details on Twitter and Facebook when they happen – but if you’re in the Austin area for SxSw stay tuned!

After Austin, we’ll be heading toward Phoenix via way of the Grand Canyon (with several stops along the way). We’ll likely finish out the month in that area somewhere.

If you’d like to meet us, fill out this quick form so we know where you are!

Speaking of touring…

RV Expenses/Lifestyle Cost…

Aside from the business, here’s a glimpse at the expenses related to our RV lifestyle (for February).

Note: Courtney and I use Adaptu.com to pull in our debit card spending and automatically separate the “RV Expenses” into our manual categories below.

Gas: $1289.39 (+137%)

As expected, our gas expense took off as we did. We covered a lot of ground in the first 3 weeks of February – and I expect that this will be a more average number in the months ahead.  Yikes!

Remember, we make an active choice to be mobile. If we wanted to spend several month in a location – we could seriously slash this down.

Campground Fees: $156.69 (-76%)

Also, as predicted, our campground fees shrank when we made it to a much warmer climate. We’ve ditched our $35 and $45-per-night winter campground in the Northeast for $10, $15, and $20 campgrounds here in the South.

We’ve also spent the last week with a friend here in Tampa – again lowering our costs.

Hotel/Hostel/Lodging: $268 (-23%)

At the very beginning of the month we stayed several nights at a AirBnB house while the RV wrapping was being finished. Since we’ve got the RV wrapped – we’ve yet to stay anywhere else. I’m planning for this number to be extremely low the rest of the trip.  :-)

Propane: $73.90 (-60%)

Another benefit of spending most of the month in warmer weather… no furnace running!  :-)

I expect that this will continue to drop even further, helping offset the other fuel costs (gas).

Tolls/Parking: $5.60 (-90%)

We only hit one little ‘ole toll road (here in Tampa) and had one small parking fee in Washington, D.C. Whoo-hoo!

Repairs: $358.59 (+23%)

We had two mechanical problems in the month of February – the first being that the circuit board that controls the RV turn signals, windshield wipers, etc… burnt out (well, first it shorted – then it burnt out).

It only took one time of driving 20 m.p.h. in the mountains of Tennessee without wipers in the snow to realize that this was going to be a top priority.

In addition, the driver’s side window in our Jeep fell into the door when Courtney tried to roll it down. We paid someone to take it apart and look at it – we eventually got it to stay up – but decided not to spend the additional $125+ to fix it right now!

The last three weeks of the month were uneventful – and we’re hoping for a month or two without minor repair costs (although, we are prepared to pay more).  :-)

*****

Overall, I’m not too disappointed in our RV expenses this month. Most of the categories went as we anticipated (the point of trying to budget) – and the majority of them did trend downward.

Time will tell whether we’ve adjusted our planning appropriately, but we feel ever-more-confident as we continue the journey.  :-)

The best is yet to come…

I told you there was a lot of transition coming – and I wasn’t joking.

As always, I’m willing to tackle any questions you may have in the comments below.

I’m excited to have you along for the ride – and to have a community where I can share so openly.

Xoxoxo,

-Baker