Driving Towards F.I.R.E.

Traveling Healthcare Professionals On a Mission For Financial Independence Living and Working from our 5th Wheel RV!

Driving Towards F.I.R.E.
  • Our Story
  • Before RV Life
  • The RV Lifestyle
  • Careers
  • Our FIRE Movement & Debt Free Goals
  • Investing In Retirement
  • Nomadik Fitness: Fitness on the Road
  • Fulltime RV Life with Dogs
  • Campground Reviews
  • Places We’ve Experienced
  • Financial Clarity Coaching Blog
  • Our Story
  • Before RV Life
  • The RV Lifestyle
  • Careers
  • Our FIRE Movement & Debt Free Goals
  • Investing In Retirement
  • Nomadik Fitness: Fitness on the Road
  • Fulltime RV Life with Dogs
  • Campground Reviews
  • Places We’ve Experienced
  • Financial Clarity Coaching Blog
Investing In Retirement, Our FIRE Movement & Debt Free Goals

ETFs & Mutual Funds; Investing in Retirement Part 3…Resources…

Morningstar. (www.morningstar.com). Undeniably the best online resource and research tool for ETFs, Mutual Funds, & other stocks and bonds. Their analysts provide real insight that is frequently updated. They have…

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March 13, 2020
Careers, Financial Clarity Coaching Blog

Student Loan Crisis or College Tuition Problem?

We have a student loan crisis at the result of a college tuition problem.  

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September 24, 2019
Careers, Our Story

Old Dreams Versus New Dreams

Go to college, get a good job, buy a home, work hard, get a new(er) car, and the list goes on. Right?  That dream works for many people, but wasn’t…

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April 8, 2019
Our Story

RV’ing and Pregnancy: 25 Weeks and Day 176

We had our 24 week Ultrasound last week and found out baby is on a growth spurt! Weighing in at nearly 1.5 pounds!

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November 10, 2020
Financial Clarity Coaching Blog

What’s Your FI/RE?

Nowadays there’s new classifications of FI/RE and each one offers different goals, but the same principles. For those unaware, the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) Movement started making news in…

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March 14, 2021
  • Financial Clarity Coaching Blog,  Investing In Retirement

    BaristaFI/RE…FI/RE Strategies Part 4

    April 5, 2021 / 0 Comments

    BaristaFI/RE is also commonly known as “CoastFI/RE”. Both operate the same and are intended to help you “coast” through early ‘retirement’ from your primary career until you land at age 59 1/2 to withdraw from retirement without penalty.

    read more
    bshoemaker

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    Real Estate Investment Trusts, aka REITs

    April 2, 2021

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    July 27, 2020

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  • The RV Lifestyle

    Fulltime RV’ing: How to Setup a Tiny RV Nursery

    April 3, 2021 / 0 Comments

    For those looking to hit the road fulltime with a newborn or a toddler, we have 15 easy steps to setup a nursery inside your RV.  

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    RV Life and Expecting Your First Child

    October 19, 2020

    Drain Water Separator Part 2…

    February 6, 2021

    Day 108 of RV Life

    February 10, 2020
  • Financial Clarity Coaching Blog,  Investing In Retirement

    Real Estate Investment Trusts, aka REITs

    April 2, 2021 / 0 Comments

    Diversification is key with investments. You’ve heard people say, “don’t keep all your eggs in one basket” before. It’s vitally important that you diversify your retirement & investments to not rely solely on your employer. Employer 401ks are great, however they aren’t like employer pensions which are all but non-existent today.

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    BaristaFI/RE…FI/RE Strategies Part 4

    April 5, 2021

    The Secret to a Happy Life

    December 7, 2020

    How to ‘Win’ with Money, Part 3: Couples Edition

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  • Our Story,  Places We've Experienced

    South Padre Island, Texas

    April 1, 2021 / 0 Comments

    Last year we visited South Padre Island here in Texas for the first time and loved it. The sand isn’t quite the white sand you usually see in Florida, but the water was beautiful and the sunrise was amazing to see every morning.

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    RV’ing and Pregnancy: 35 Weeks Day 246!

    January 19, 2021

    Tumultuous 2020: A Recap of Our Journey Towards FIRE

    December 17, 2020

    I am the Master of my Fate, I am the Captain of my Soul

    March 21, 2020
  • Our Story

    Day 365 of Unemployment

    March 31, 2021 / 0 Comments

    For at least the last 6 months I’ve been locked in on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, & any other job listing website to find something. I’ve messaged past co-workers, team members, & anyone else I knew that might open a door...or two.

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    Authentic Kindness

    March 1, 2021

    Raising a Newborn on the Road: Officially 1 Month Old!!

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    Romantic RV Life

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drivingtowardsfire

👩🏻‍⚕️👨🏻‍💻👼🏻🐕 🐕 🐕 Nomads
🚼Raising a Newborn on the Road
🚎RV’ing Our Debt Free & FI Journey
💵DEBT Paid: $580,414.40 (30 Months)
🔜DEBT Left: $60,899.80

Brett & Meredith | $Coach-CRNA
Can you be a fulltime Healthcare Professional & Di Can you be a fulltime Healthcare Professional & Digital Nomad?

Yup...

In fact, I’ll ask you why you wouldn’t!  Here’s the thing you need to ask yourself...”how can I maximize my career to benefit the lifestyle I want”?

Truthfully, that’s a question everyone should ask themselves!

Just about every healthcare profession offers travel work & in many cases, you can choose your hours, how you want to work, where you want to work, & the best part...how much money you want to make.  Those of us in healthcare know all to well how expensive our degrees were.  So many of us spend years if not decades slaving away to pay off our student loans. 

So why not take advantage now?
What if I told you that paying off your student loans could be achieved in less than 5 years?  Would you consider a travel position then?

We found the travel-healthcare-1099-Locums-contract-digital nomad lifestyle in late 2018.  Our primary mission?  Student loan debt.  The sad reality for many of us with healthcare degrees come at a heavy cost both in time and money.  Some employers and some rural areas offer student loan repayment options, which are great for many, but for us, we needed to do more to pay ours off.

You see, our student loan debt combined cost us $1800 a month.  Not a typo. $1800.  There’s a reason many millennials cannot afford to buy a home and if they do, it can be crippling.  Here’s the thing, most mortgages and rents cost on average $1,300-$1,600 a month.  Our student loan payments surpassed that.  How are you supposed to feel about your career when you are working exhaustively handing over $1800 a month?  Career Resentment starts to creep in.

We took a risk.
Jumped in with both feet.
Traveled to awesome places.
Lived a new lifestyle.
Spent quality time together.
Shared new experiences.

And paid off every penny of student loan debt in just 1 year.  1 year.  Had we stayed on our previous path, it definitely would have taken well over 10 years to accomplish. 

If you are a healthcare professional, have you consider travel work?  Why or why not?
Geoarbitrage FI/RE...FIRE Strategies Part 5... Ou Geoarbitrage FI/RE...FIRE Strategies Part 5...

Our most favorite and the FIRE strategy we are currently pursuing is our latest post for our FIRE strategies mini series.

We’ve talked about Geoarbitrage before, but what is it?

It involves leaving a high cost of living (HCOL) for a low cost of living (LCOL) area, while maintaining or increasing your high cost of living salary.  This particular strategy will become all the rage over the next several years with so many new remote workers leaving these HCOL areas now that they can work remotely.  Geoarbitrage can be accomplished in many ways and even in some cases, it can also create a way to build a real estate portfolio (but we’ll save that for a different day).

The concept of Geoarbitrage is nothing new...

First, you should know that there are two primary types:  1.  Domestic Geoarbitrage.  2.  International Geoarbitrage.  For today’s post, we’re highlighting Domestic Geoarbitrage. 

Many who pursue Geoarbitrage, typically rent (or in some cases buy) in areas where the cost of living is significantly less that allows them to maximize their income towards their savings rate.  Savings rate is critical for financial independence.  Most millionaires set aside more than 38% of their income every month. 

We opted to take it a step further...

So to really decrease our monthly expenses, maximize our income, and travel, we bought our RV.  Why?  Rent at campgrounds is much cheaper than rent at most apartments.  Only once on our journey did we pay $1,000 a month for a slip.  On average most campgrounds charge between $300-$700 a month depending on location and amenities.  Most months our savings rate averaged between 30%-55% over the course of 2.5 years.  The current average for most American households sits at 4% or less.  4!

Would you believe us if we told you...

That thanks to Geoarbitrage, we’ve completely changed our financial futures from a life riddled with debt to a life filled with financial independence?  More importantly, Eleanor will be introduced to a life filled with time spent together with both of her parents & she’ll hear our stories of our journey, but won’t have the struggle we once did.
Day 900 of RV Life... For Sale: 2018 Coachmen Cha Day 900 of RV Life...

For Sale:
2018 Coachmen Chaparral 391qsmb Low Mileage 5th Wheel RV.  42 Feet in length with Mid-Bunk slide out, 6 point auto-leveling system, 2 15,000 BTU Coleman Mack A/C units, King Bed, 14.7 cubic foot residential refrigerator.  We are the original owners that bought it new in September of 2018.

Price: $47,000

I know what you all are thinking, “no way”! Or maybe some of you are thinking, “I knew it was only a matter of time with baby”. The truth is, we have been planning our exit strategy from RV Life for quite sometime.  Even before baby, we knew it was time. 

We originally planned for a year...

And just like many other fulltime RV’ers, it turned into longer.  900 days as of today.  For those keeping count that’s 2 and a half years.  October would make 3 years officially.  The reality is, we are ready to have a home base again.  A place we can spread out, let the dogs roam on their own, and focus our time on what’s next for our family. 

RV’ing will...

Always be a part of our lives in the future, in fact we will likely take most summers and travel to show Eleanor this beautiful country of ours.  We’ll likely get something much smaller than this 42 footer.

We’ve been RV’ing fulltime since 2018, traveled to 14 different states, met some incredible people, changed our financial futures, strengthened our marriage, learned a whole new lifestyle, ate some delicious food, and started a family.  Amazing what you can accomplish by stepping out of your comfort zone.  Although we’ll be sad to see our RV pull away to make new memories with a new family, we’ll smile because of the path it took us on.  It’s been nothing short of special.

So what’s next?

I guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to find out! 😉
Tomorrow... Makes 2 months since we’ve become p Tomorrow...

Makes 2 months since we’ve become parents.  2 whole months of learning a whole new life, new routine, new skills, & new patience.  All happening in our tiny home on wheels.

We’ve not posted much over the last several days, mostly due to, well...life I suppose.  Creating content takes time & effort and most days we just put that time and effort into our family instead of spending hours drafting the right post and picture.  Yes, HOURS.  Most of you know that our posts consist of long captions and it’s amazing how much time it takes to draft something that fits in under 400 characters.

Over the last week, baby Eleanor has really started to interact with us.  One morning, as I woke up to take over for Meredith as my ‘shift’, I walked in and greeted Eleanor by saying, “good morning hunny bunny” (that’s her nickname), she looked right at me and bashfully smiled.  I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life.  Never.  I was half asleep, tired, etc and that moment made my day.  Being a new parent is undoubtedly a worthwhile challenge and most days you are just trying to figure things out.  Little moments like this make every second worth it.  30 years from now, I have zero doubt that we’ll look back on these months that we were both home to care for Eleanor.  It’s been a blessing to share this experience together. 

We attempted a date night last night on a busy Saturday night and with good intentions it didn’t quite workout.  We even dressed up nicely!  We learned three lessons last night...
1.  Date nights should happen on Tuesdays and not Saturdays. 
2.  Fancy restaurants with extended wait times are a struggle with baby in tow.  Maybe Newks and Panera Bread are more our speed right now. 
3.  Even though it didn’t workout, we still spent time together and each time we all get ready to go somewhere is simply practice for us to get ready.

I feel for those dads (and moms) that don’t have the opportunity to spend as much time with their newborns as they’d like to.  I feel connected with her, I understand the routine, and without family nearby, I’m glad I’m here to help Meredith as much as I can because so many dads aren’t.
Big 💜 Tiny 🦶 “Sometimes the smallest thi Big 💜 Tiny 🦶 

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart”

So true.  Nowadays, it feels like our hearts make up half of our total body weight and we have baby Eleanor to thank for that. 

Yesterday we finally made it back to the gym after 8 weeks off and let me just say, maybe coming back to a workout with the assault bike might have been a little advantageous, lol.  If you’ve not experienced the assault bike, let me just say that no matter how fit you think you are, every time you get on that thing, it will remind you that you aren’t.  It felt great to be back though, it felt great to sweat, & it felt great to elevate our heart rates.  Not that Eleanor hasn’t done this already, but you get the drift. 

Thanks to bouncing Eleanor for the last several weeks, she’s kept our shoulders nice and strong.  We want her to grow up knowing how fitness is essential and how vital eating healthy is, but most importantly, we want her to be proud that we’re her parents.  Parents that do all things, like chasing her around the yard, climbing on the monkey bars with her, and anything else sports related she wishes to pursue. 

I want her to say, “oh yeah, watch what my parents can do”!! 💪🏻💪🏻🙏🙌🏻
Home. What does it mean to you? For some, it’ Home.  What does it mean to you? 

For some, it’s a place to relax and unwind after a long day at work, for many, it’s a place to watch your kids grow up, movie nights, birthday celebrations, and quality time with your significant other.  For others, it’s a place to retire to and maybe even a combination of all the above. 

Having a home has always been synonymous with the American Dream, right?

You know, parents, grandparents, teachers, etc told us growing up that the American Dream consists of buying a home & raising a family complete with the white picket fence.  The path to reach the American Dream sounded so easy and if you are like me, I never question why the path was the same for everyone.  Until I got older.  Much older actually.  I’ve spent the greater part of my 30s questioning many things we were taught growing up. 

What about today?  Is this still the American Dream? 

Yes I believe it is, however, the path to get there is not the same as generations who’ve come before us and it’s certainly not as easy as it’s told and undoubtedly it isn’t the same for everyone.  Today, the American Dream is what YOU decide it to be for YOU.  There isn’t a generic script for us all to follow.  In fact, all the things taught to me growing up as the American Dream has been accomplished right here in this 42 foot 5th Wheel RV.

Would you believe me if I told you...

That we pursued the generic American Dream, complete with a picket fence, but it wasn’t a dream.  It quickly became a nightmare.  One filled with struggles, financial stress, long hours, overtime, lack of time with each other, & worse...the thought of having a family wasn’t even a reality.  Even though we had a 5 bedroom 2400 square foot home and thought we made it.  I mean, we followed the path others came before us, took the advice from our parents and teachers, but the dream was too harsh of a reality.  We left our home at the age of 35 years old, typically when most people consider settling down. 

Yes, this might be a “Recreational Vehicle”....

But for us, it’s been our “Realization Vehicle”. It’s paved the way for us to realize what our dreams really are.
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