When we sold our home initially, we sold most of our stuff and we put some of our stuff in
storage because we figured that we'll be back in a year.
Maybe rent another place, buy another home.
We weren't sure what to expect.
So we made it one year in the RV and I kid you not, I have no interest in living at
home.
I'm Karen Akpan and I'm 32 years old,
And I am Sylvester Akpan and I'm 41 years old.
We make around $81,000 a year traveling around the country in our RV.
And we are currently in Savannah, Georgia.
She actually talked me into selling the house and getting the RV.
It was two years ago.
We went in an RV for the first time and we took the kids out for a trip and we kind of
loved it. So when we got back, we figured it was something that we wanted to do and we
sold the house.
He makes it sound easy.
It was not that easy.
So after we got back, it just it was a lot, you know, with the bills.
California's really expensive.
Our mortgage, honestly, was really.
Like, it was like $4,200 to be honest with you.
It was a lot.
We were house poor. That's the honest truth.
It was not the best decision for us.
So I figured, "Why are we living this life over and over trying to keep up with all
this? Why not just sell the house and buy an RV and then pay off our debt?"
So we sold our home, bought the RV and then last year we paid off our student loans.
Paid off all our debt. And it's just been so freeing since then.
We started the blog because we wanted to tell people how we're able to share how we
traveled on a budget because we started doing a lot of international travel with our
son. And so a lot of people always ask, like, "How do you guys do it on a budget?"
So a friend of mine said, "If you have a blog," because I had no idea what a blog was.
She said, "If you have a blog, you can write it on there and then people can just go read
it."
And so I said, "Hey, why not?"
So I started writing about budget travel because, like, when we got married, we didn't
have a lot of money. And then after we had our son, we figured we had to show him the
world. And so the best way to do that was to do it on a budget.
So I started finding, like, the best deals and the cheapest ways to be able to travel
with him. And so it kind of grew into what it is right now.
So we make money several ways on the road.
One way is through ad revenue from our blog.
Another way is through ad revenue from YouTube.
We don't post as much. So it's a really a small part of our income.
I've done freelance writing for websites like The Points Guy as well as Campendium and
also Camping World.
So freelance writing around, like, topics like family travel, RV'ing with kids and
things like that. But our biggest is creating content for brands on Instagram.
TikTok also.
We didn't see this coming.
It just kind of fell into our laps and we just embraced it and kind of ran with it.
I was born and raised in Cameroon.
Growing up in Cameroon, nobody talks about money.
You know, families don't talk about money.
It's kind of like a taboo thing to talk about.
I moved to the US when I was about 15 years old.
It was kind of different coming here and then having to learn about, like, how the system
works in the US. So it was quite like a change for me.
And it was not something that I learned when I moved here or learned in college.
Finance has been something that I'm really passionate about, especially now that I
understand better and now that we have a son so that we can teach him everything that we
didn't learn growing up. We got married in 2011, and
then we moved into our first home, like on the outskirts of L.A.
About two hours out in Bakersfield.
We rented it out. We lived there for a few years and then we decided to buy another
home, which honestly was not the best choice because we bought an even bigger home with
more mortgage. So we just went deeper into debt, which was honestly, now that we look
back at it, not the best choice that we made, but it was a good lesson that we
learned.
It was the American dream.
You know what, though? We only stayed in two parts of the house.
Yeah. It was in the kitchen and the bedroom.
And the bedroom. The living room.
The living room. That's where we spent most o f our time.
Yeah. And then the kids would want to be in the same room with us.
So you have a whole big house and then it's like really not being used.
So when the idea came up to sell the home, right away we had to do it.
I was a little hesitant about it because, I mean, I felt like I was grounded in
California, spent most of my life in there.
We got married there. So she talked me into, like, getting the RV and hitting the road.
I kind of jump in.
So living in an RV for us has honestly been the most amazing thing for a family.
We spend so much more time together.
We're more relaxed.
Honestly, we're happier.
We spent about $300 a month on groceries.
It's just both of us and then our 8 year old.
And then our niece and nephew join us.
So when they join us, sometimes we go over our grocery budget.
For us, the typical week varies a lot.
If it's a week that we travel, we're usually in a new state or a new city.
When we visit, we explore.
We find out what are the best places to eat because we like to try like local foods or
what's kind of like in the area.
So we'll do that and then we'll find something to do that the kids like to do or
that we enjoy doing. We'll get out, do some hiking, biking.
We love to do outdoor activities a lot.
I feel like living in an RV has made us, you know, like love the outdoors even more.
Then we also do some work.
And, you know, we have an 8 year old who's homeschooled.
There are times when I feel like, you know, I'm working and I'm like, "I can't get
anything done because I'm getting distracted. Because Aiden's here like jumping
around and then, like, Sylvester is here, like asking me a question.
So sometimes I'll just like, you know, go somewhere like maybe like a coffee shop or
maybe like the front desk of the RV park and just sit down there, get work done.
Or I just sit outside.
So our business has several expenses.
We have a virtual assistant that we pay that helps us with like, you know, like admin
stuff.
We also have, like some writers.
We have subscriptions too that we sign up for.
One of them, like I love a lot's like Boomerang, which helps us with our emails.
Adobe. We love Adobe. So we pay for Adobe on a monthly basis.
We use Lightroom a lot to edit our photos.
So it's like super important for us.
We have a 401(k) account through Fidelity and then we also have a brokerage account, our
Roth IRAs, as well as some money on Robinhood and Weeble.
Our goal this year was to max out our 401(k) accounts because we didn't have any 401(k)
accounts, which honestly that really stressed me out a lot because I felt like
we're starting late. I felt like people at this age already have like so much money in
their 401(k) accounts. So that was for me this year, was focusing on making sure that
we can fully fund our 401(k) accounts.
So we found an RV on Facebook marketplace.
I think he had it listed for about 15 or so and we talked him down to $14,000.
And so we went there, saw it, and then just like paid him the money and then took the RV
without, like, really knowing anything about it.
So we spent like a couple of thousand doing renovations on site.
Like painting, changing the countertops, microwave oven, AC.
We also bought a lifetime membership pass for a Thousand Trails, which allows us to park or
RV in any other Thousand Trails parks.
But we have to move every three weeks.
We spend about $600 on gas a month.
Yeah. And then we have a Jeep that the RV tows.
So when we're driving the RV from place to place, we're only driving the RV.
But when we get to where we're going to, we unhook the car and then drive the car around.
When we travel out of the country, we leave our RV at the RV park.
So we just lock it up and then we leave and then come back.
And we've never had any issue at all.
Most RV parks are gated community and they have security that drives around, so it's
pretty safe.
Every month I would say we spend, like, maybe like $3,000 on travel.
But good thing that some of it is counted as a business expense.
So that kind of helps out a little bit.
We don't have like an insurance plan.
So for like medical care or dental care, we do go out of the country.
Sometimes it makes me nervous not to have insurance to be honest with you.
I've looked at plans. We've considered getting it just kind of getting a lower plan
and then kind of paying for it.
Just in case. Just in case we need it or something happens.
In 10 years, I see us retired.
Also watching Aiden grow.
He is our main focus, so we want to see how he blossoms and what direction he chooses to
go in life if he wants to continue RV'ing or I mean go back to a regular home.
Oh, my God.
That's right. He'll be 18.
I just realized that. Oh, my God.
So I mean something to watch for.
So I'm hoping that in 10 years we can retire with at least like $2,000,000 in assets.
And Aiden. He says he wants to be a millionaire when he turns 13.
I don't know how possible that is, but he has a Roth IRA because he works at the company as
well. So we're able to put money away for him.
He also has like a UTMA account where he can put money away.
So. And he has stock too.
And stocks too.
That he buys by himself.
That he buys.
So we're really believing in the power of compound interest that kind of work in our
favor to get us to where we need to get to.