Leaving My Job for Vanlife is the Best Decision I Have Ever Made

Last summer, I did something that a lot of people might find a bit reckless: I quit my great job in New York City. More specifically, I quit my job and transitioned to a freelance career so that my husband and I could move out of our apartment in New Jersey and move into a camper trailer and travel the country for a year. My husband also quit his job, without having any ability to make money freelancing.

This whole quitting-to-road-trip-the-country thing wasn’t a decision we made lightly or quickly. However, now that it's been a little over six months since we embarked on this exciting chapter, I can confidently say that leaving my comfortable dream job for the uncertainty that comes with traveling full-time was the best decision I’ve ever made — for multiple reasons. But, before I get into that, let me explain how we actually landed on this decision.

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For a few years, my husband and I had talked about quitting our jobs to visit as many national parks as possible. At the time, we had been planning these sorts of trips piecemeal. We’d pick a week, book flights to somewhere like San Francisco; check our luggage; bring our tent, sleeping bags, and hiking gear; pick up a rental car; and then drive out to a national park to camp and hike for the week. It was expensive, especially for a vacation that should be relatively affordable — we’re talking about camping, after all!

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Several years ago, we offhandedly had a discussion about how cool it would be to take months off of "real life" to pack in a bunch of park time. At the time, it seemed like a totally laughable (and unrealistic) idea. Eventually, though, the conversation slowly morphed from “what if we did it?” to “what if we didn’t do it?” Ultimately, we knew we’d regret it if we pushed it aside and ignored our dream. We talked about how we wouldn’t want to do this hypothetical trip once we had kids. (Although many people travel full-time with children, we didn’t feel confident enough to do that.) And, while we had no idea how to drive (or let alone live in) a camper, we felt okay with making big mistakes since it was just the two of us. So, we decided it was now or never. 

However, it's not so easy to just up and quit your job to embark on a year-long road trip across the country. There were a lot of things we had to get into place — first and foremost, our finances. 

Full disclosure: My husband and I both had very good jobs. And, since it is just the two of us, we had a good amount of disposable income (and, therefore, the ability to save money). We feel really lucky that we were in a position to be able to build up our savings enough to feel comfortable quitting. I also work in an industry where remote freelance work is very normal, which allows us to have a stream of income (albeit smaller and less reliable than before).