Saving for Your Dreams
When we decided to make the leap to living in a van, we were excited at the idea of saving on all our stick n’ brick overhead, such as rent, utilities, commuting, etc.... Our plan was to simultaneously build out our van while still living in our apartment meaning we’d need to pay for van and buildout costs while still paying all our monthly overhead.
On an airplane over Greece, discussing how we should build out a van and travel all the time! We got on the same page with our finances right away and it was a big part of our success.
Our Strategy
Set your intentions
You have a dream. That dream costs money. You make money. You spend money. If you can spend less money than you make, over time you can save money. If you can save more money over time then you (barring emergencies) can get closer to your goal and can achieve it.
The above example works best when you can turn up the volume on some of the factors. Increasing income, decreasing expenses, increasing time or decreasing goal cost. We set financial goals and then pulled as many of these levers as we could during our build out.
This is the percent of our income we saved by month of the year. We started out strong in our first 6 months. Once we started increasing our van-based expenses, the amount we were saving each month decreased.
Know your numbers!
We got very cozy with our expenses. Each and every cent we spent was logged and reviewed. We knew that there was room to trim, but it was important to track our expenses and see our recurring trends to make decisions about where we could cut and what was essential.
We made several trackers to help keep our expenses in check.
In the Build Out Budget Vs Actual Tracker, John listed out each section of the van and priced out the materials we planned to purchase. Once the items were purchased he logged the cost paid. Sometimes this was less than we’d budgeted, so we had more to apply somewhere else. Sometimes it was more and we had to cut costs to stay on budget. Feel free to download it/make your own copy and use it to start cataloging your estimated build costs.
In the Build Out Cost Tracker, Jess entered all expenses related to the build, every last screw and bolt. This tracker captured the value and detail of what we built for our insurance agent. Feel free to download it/make your own copy and use it to start cataloging your build and personal items that will be accompanying you on your travels.
Talk about your numbers!
Talking about money became an essential part of our plan-to-van conversations. It wasn’t easy and it often was a little awkward. We had different incomes, ideas of how to use those incomes, and habits we’d formed in our financial lives that we hadn’t checked together against a dream like this. Jess has been a penny pincher since the tooth-fairy days -- always saving for that rainy day. John sees the rainbow beyond the rain and is more of a live-for-the-moment type. Reconciling these differences was challenging, but rewarding. Using consensus we tightened our budget in some places but didn’t neglect enjoying our last year in NYC while we did it.
Here are some things we found really helpful in our conversations:
Plan a time to talk: sharing that “our restaurant budget is way high this month” wasn’t always a hit. Knowing we had protected time where we were going to be present and talk about money meant we could mentally prepare for conversations about saving so we could achieve our goals.
Come prepared: have your numbers available and be in a place where you feel secure logging into your financial accounts. You won’t want to speculate when you’re coming to consensus on what you’re going to budget to spend on costs for your project. It’s good to be grounded in facts when talking about how much went to bars/restaurants/lunches/clothing subscriptions/whatever your potentially nonessential weaknesses are.
Set goals: we set savings goals, spending goals, and goals for cash in hand when we launched. These goals helped us calibrate our financial plans.
Get ready for new habits: talking about expenses made us more conscious of our spending day-to-day. Because we were downsizing our apartment at the same time, we practically stopped spending on any new physical items. John also added more work to his schedule which meant more income. All of these things had a positive impact on our savings goals.
This is how we tracked our savings to meet our savings goal in July
Review your current financial tools and institutions.
Your Bank: We had both been ready for a banking change for a while and planning for a life of national/international travel made that even more urgent. Ultimately we went with an online credit union. Online banking can offer some really great perks because of lower overhead costs. We went with Alliant Credit Union and enjoy their higher savings rates, easy online banking, and their ATM refunds on any ATM charges -- really helpful when you know you will be traveling to different regions of the country.
Your credit cards: Amazon was an affordable place for us to find a lot of our van home materials. We went all in with an Amazon credit card to gain more points on each purchase that could be redeemed for more dollars. Finding or maximizing a credit card that works for you can really help you earn points/dollars that cover other parts of your expenses. We earned over $500 worth of points that we applied to our van buildout.
While you are at it consider using a platform like Credit Karma to learn more about your credit score across all loans and credit reports and get recommendations for credit cards.
Bonus Points
Drop: It’s an easy to use app where you can earn points on expenses with partnered vendors regardless of what credit card you use. You can select vendors you use frequently -- like Amazon or Trader Joe’s. Every 1,000 points you earn is equivalent to $1.00 and the dollars can be redeemed as gift cards for various vendors -- similar to points redemption for your credit card. We redeemed our points for purchases related to our van to help save on costs. **Yes, this is your data that’s being used to make money for others. Drop does say that to help personalize offers to their members that they “may share anonymous aggregated information” with their affiliate partners. In total we redeemed $180.00 from Drop that went straight to buildout expenses.
Amazon.com: If you cart an item but do not purchase it, Amazon will notify you if the price changes on that item in the hopes that you will purchase it. We carted items months in advance and waited to buy them when they went on sale.
camelcamelcamel: Once you get past this silly name, this free price tracker can be an essential tool for price shopping on Amazon. You can sign up for email alerts when prices change on products you are following or even for specific price thresholds. Pairs well with the van Buildout Budget vs Actual Tracker above.
Sell your stuff: It’s likely that you have items in your current home that you can do without. Whether it’s because you are seeking the extra cash or downsizing to fit in a van, the money generated by selling your stuff can offset some of the costs for your plans or provide a cushion for when you launch into your new adventure.
How’d we do?
We saved 37% of our combined monthly income over the 14 months that we planned and built our van.
We spent 20% over our original build out budget but we are happy with the additional investments we made. A lot of the extra money that we ended up spending on the build came from the money we made from selling our home furnishings and wares.
We moved into our van with around 4 months worth of savings. It was imperative to us that we started our journey with an emergency fund. This fund was dedicated to van repairs or unexpected changes in our employment status.
Success — after a lot of hard work!
Overall, we are really pleased with how we saved for our dream and built our van home. We learned a lot more about our finances, each others spending habits, and where we have wiggle room if we have an emergency. We are using the skills we learned on financial planning to travel in a fiscally responsible manor and to prepare for our future dreams!
Contact Jess about helping you reach your dreams with some personal financial coaching.
