Finance
Home on Wheels:
Hitting the Open Road With Your Family
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BICKMEYER FAMILY
BY TRACY WRIGHT
In early 2019, Kristy Bickmeyer was at a Fleetwood Mac concert listening to this lyric when she realized she was ready to make a life-changing decision. Bickmeyer and her husband had been considering hitting the road in an RV with their two children, 8 and 6, for a yearlong road trip after visiting with friends who had done the same thing. While her husband was all in, Bickmeyer was on the fence. But once she heard Stevie Nicks sing those words, she realized time was running by, and she wanted to spend that quality time with her family. Bickmeyer’s family is one of many who decide to either take long-term road trips or even go full-time RV living. According to the RV Industry Association, more than a million Americans now live full-time in RVs. Once dominated by retired individuals, younger people and families are choosing to hit the road especially since the COVID pandemic. With air travel options limited, families chose to travel in a vehicle that allowed them to control their menus, sanitation and level of physical contact with other.
According to RVShare, more families are choosing RV travel and longer stays because of the unique family experience, the ability to spend quality time traveling and exploring the outdoors while still having the conveniences of the RV. More workplace and schooling flexibility has also convinced many families to hit the open road while still being connected to work or school. CONSIDERING FINANCES Once you decide to take that long-term trip, what should you consider in terms of finances? Bickmeyer said they had to consider their major expenses. Obviously, their home mortgage was first. If you own a home and are not planning to sell or downsize, consider renting your home, which is what the Bickmeyers chose to do. “I put our house on Zillow and had two calls come in almost immediately,” Bickmeyer said. “After they came and toured the home, they signed the lease within days. We actually ended up making a profit from renting the house since the rental fee was more than our mortgage. The rental market is actually so hot right now that this would be fairly easy for most families.”
PREPARING FOR A NEW COST OF LIVING After their mortgage they considered their cost of living with some major expenses being erased like their children’s private school tuition and activities like sports and dance. They sold Bickmeyer’s car which saved on a car payment, insurance and gas for the car. However, they also had to consider their sources of income. Kristy, owner of Twinkle Toes Nanny Agency, could work from anywhere, but her husband could not. They had to do their homework to see how the loss of some expenses and added income from selling both the car and another rental property could make up for that loss of income. They figured out how they could make it work, and her husband took a leave of absence from his job. But Bickmeyer said they also needed to consider their new expenses which included an RV payment, fuel (which can be considerable), campsite fees, entertainment and any costs of homeschooling. Most people who plan to work from home should also consider purchasing a hotspot for their phone to guarantee wifi connection. Bickmeyer estimated that the trip cost about $1,000 a month. She emphasized that it wasn’t about WELLNESS360 | MAY/JUNE 2021
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