Situation Guide · Planning

How Much Money Before You Hit the Road

A realistic look at startup costs, monthly expenses, and how much savings you actually need before leaving a stable income behind.

The Question Everyone Asks Wrong

Most people ask "how much do I need?" when the better question is "what are my actual monthly costs going to be?" You cannot answer the first without answering the second. The number you need in savings is a multiple of your monthly burn rate. If you do not know your monthly burn rate, any savings target you pick is a guess.

This guide walks through the actual cost categories, gives you honest ranges where they exist, and flags where the numbers vary too much to generalize. At the end there is a simple framework for doing your own math. The goal is not to give you a number — it is to give you the tools to find your own.

Vehicle Costs

Purchase price

The range here is genuinely enormous. A used cargo van in decent mechanical shape might cost $8,000–$20,000. A used Class B camper van (factory-built, like a Winnebago Travato or a Pleasure-Way) runs $40,000–$80,000 used. A used Class C motorhome might be $30,000–$70,000. A new Class A diesel pusher can easily exceed $150,000. A used travel trailer that you tow behind a truck you already own might be $10,000–$30,000, but then you need a truck capable of towing it.

The purchase price is a one-time cost, but it shapes everything downstream. A $10,000 van that needs $5,000 in repairs in the first year is a $15,000 van. A $60,000 RV that depreciates 20% in two years has a real cost of $12,000 per year just in depreciation. Neither is wrong — but be honest about the full cost, not just the sticker.

Insurance

Vehicle insurance for a van or RV used as a primary residence is different from standard auto insurance. You need to tell your insurer how the vehicle is used. Rates vary significantly by state, age, driving record, and the insurer. Rough ranges: $100–$250 per month for a van, $150–$400 per month for an RV. Get actual quotes before you budget — these numbers can surprise you in either direction.

Registration and domicile

If you are living on the road full-time, you need a legal domicile — a state where you are a resident for tax and registration purposes. South Dakota, Texas, and Florida are the three most common choices among full-time nomads, partly because of lower registration costs and no state income tax. South Dakota in particular has a straightforward process for establishing residency without owning property. Research the current requirements before you commit — the rules change.

Maintenance reserve

Budget 1–2% of your vehicle's value per year as a maintenance reserve, and more for older vehicles. A $30,000 RV should have $300–$600 per month set aside for maintenance and repairs. This sounds like a lot until your water pump fails in a campground in Nevada and the nearest RV service center is 80 miles away and has a two-week wait. Repairs happen. They happen at inconvenient times and in inconvenient places. The reserve is not optional.

Monthly Living Costs on the Road

Campsite and parking

This is the most variable cost in the entire budget, and it is the one you have the most control over. Free camping on BLM land, National Forest land, and dispersed sites costs nothing. A full-hookup site at a private RV park in a popular area can run $50–$80 per night, or $1,500–$2,400 per month. Most people land somewhere in between — a mix of free camping, state park sites ($15–$35 per night), and occasional private campgrounds when hookups are needed.

If you have a van or small rig that does not need hookups, your camping costs can be very low — $0–$300 per month is realistic if you are strategic about where you go. If you have a large RV that needs electric for air conditioning or medical equipment, your camping costs will be higher and less flexible.

Fuel

Fuel cost depends on your rig's fuel economy and how much you drive. A diesel Class A getting 8 miles per gallon, driving 1,000 miles per month at $4 per gallon, burns through roughly $500 per month in fuel. A cargo van getting 20 miles per gallon, driving 500 miles per month at the same price, costs about $100 per month. Most people drive somewhere in between. If you are chasing seasonal work across the country, your fuel costs will be higher in transition months and lower when you are parked for a season.

Food

Food costs on the road are roughly similar to food costs off the road if you cook most of your meals. The kitchen in a van or RV is smaller, which means you buy less and waste less — some people find their food costs actually drop. The danger is eating out frequently because cooking in a small space feels like a hassle. In tourist areas, restaurant prices are higher than you are used to. Budget what you actually spend now and adjust from there.

Phone and internet

Reliable connectivity is not optional if you are working remotely or need to stay in contact with employers. A realistic budget for a solid setup: $100–$250 per month. This might be a high-data phone plan with hotspot capability ($80–$120/mo), plus Starlink ($120/mo for the residential plan, though RV and mobile plans vary — check current pricing). Some people get by with a single carrier's unlimited plan; others need multiple carriers for coverage redundancy. Do not underestimate this cost if connectivity matters to your income.

Health insurance

If you are not covered by an employer's plan, health insurance is one of the largest and most variable costs in the budget. Individual marketplace plans vary enormously by state, age, income, and plan type. A rough range for an individual: $300–$600 per month for a mid-tier plan, though this can be higher depending on your situation. If you qualify for ACA subsidies based on income, your actual cost may be lower. This is worth researching carefully before you leave a job that provides coverage — the gap between employer-sponsored insurance and individual market insurance is often larger than people expect.

The Savings Cushion Question

A common rule of thumb in the nomad community is three to six months of expenses as a cushion before you leave. That is reasonable but incomplete — it assumes you will find work quickly. If you are going into a season with a job already lined up, one to two months may be enough. If you are going in without work, six months is more honest.

The cushion is not just for emergencies. It is for the time between when you leave your current income and when your road income starts. It is for the vehicle repair that happens in month two. It is for the campground fees you pay while you are figuring out where the free camping is. It is for the month when the seasonal job ends two weeks early because the campground had a slow season.

This is a rule of thumb, not financial advice. Your situation is different from everyone else's. The point is to have a number in mind and to know where it comes from.

The Income Gap

Most seasonal and workamping jobs do not start until April or May. If you leave a job in January, you may have three to four months before income starts. This is the gap that catches people off guard — not because they did not know it existed, but because they did not plan for it explicitly.

If you are targeting a summer camp host position or a national park concession job, those positions typically start in late April or May and run through September or October. The application window is January through March. If you leave your current job in February to prepare, you are looking at two to three months of expenses before your first paycheck.

Plan for the gap explicitly. Add it to your savings target as a separate line item, not as part of your general cushion. "I need $X per month and I have a three-month gap before income starts" is a cleaner way to think about it than "I need six months of expenses" as a single undifferentiated number.

What People Underestimate

Vehicle repairs. They happen, they happen at inconvenient times, and they happen in places where your options are limited. A transmission problem in a small town in eastern Oregon is not the same as a transmission problem in Portland. Parts availability, labor rates, and wait times all vary. The $500 repair that would take two days at home might take two weeks and $1,200 on the road.

Propane. If you are heating with propane in cold weather, you will go through it faster than you expect. A 20-pound tank lasts a few days in cold weather if you are running a heater regularly. Budget for it.

Campground fees in tourist areas. Free camping is great, but it is not always available where you need to be. If your route takes you through popular national park corridors in summer — the Tetons, Glacier, the Oregon coast — you will be paying for campsites, and the rates near those areas are not cheap.

The cost of being in tourist areas generally. Groceries, gas, and restaurants all cost more near national parks and popular destinations. If you are spending the summer in a high-traffic area, your food and fuel costs will be higher than your baseline estimates.

What People Overestimate

The cost of food, if you cook. Cooking in a van or RV is often cheaper than cooking at home because the smaller space forces you to buy less and waste less. You are not buying a full week of groceries and throwing out half of it. You buy what you need for a few days and use it.

Entertainment. The outdoors is free. Hiking, swimming, exploring — the activities that fill most of your time on the road cost nothing. You are not paying for a gym membership, a streaming service you barely use, or weekend activities that fill the time you do not have when you are working a regular job.

The complexity of the transition. People often imagine the logistics of going full-time as more complicated than they are. Storage unit for the stuff you are keeping. Mail forwarding service or a family member's address. A domicile state. A bank that works well for travel. None of these are hard — they just require a few hours of research and some lead time. The logistics are manageable if you plan them.

A Simple Planning Framework

List your fixed monthly costs: insurance (vehicle and health), phone and internet, any subscriptions or debt payments you are carrying. These are the costs that do not change whether you drive 100 miles or 1,000 miles this month.

Estimate your variable costs: fuel (based on your rig and your planned travel frequency), food (based on what you actually spend now), camping (based on your rig's needs and your target areas). Add a 20% buffer to the variable costs — you will be wrong about some of them, and the buffer absorbs the error.

Add fixed and variable together. That is your monthly burn rate. Multiply by your target cushion months — three months if you have work lined up, six months if you do not. Add the income gap explicitly if you are leaving before the season starts. That is your savings target.

It is not a formula. It is a starting point for your own math. The people who run out of money on the road are usually the ones who skipped this step, not the ones who did it imperfectly.