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
  • Our FIRE Movement & Debt Free Goals

    August 2020’s Debt Free and FIRE Update

    August 31, 2020 / 0 Comments

    Good things don’t come to those who wait, good things come to those who go out and get things done. While we aren’t done yet, we feel lighter, more agile, and more dedicated to keep going.

    read more
    bshoemaker

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  • The RV Lifestyle

    Day 662 of RV Life

    August 24, 2020 / 0 Comments

    We continue to discuss our long term goals which have remained unchanged, but our short term goals continue to flex depending on what’s lurking around the next bend of 2020.

    read more
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  • Our FIRE Movement & Debt Free Goals

    Long-Term Benefits versus Short-Term Problems

    August 12, 2020 / 0 Comments

    We kept going because we understood the long term benefits beyond these short term problems. It certainly wasn’t easy though! Blood, sweat, & clogged black tanks have all been a part or our journey.

    read more
    bshoemaker

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  • The RV Lifestyle

    What It’s Like to RV During a Global Pandemic

    July 17, 2020 / 0 Comments

    Finding Scott’s RV toilet paper is damn near impossible. Seriously. Thetford makes a “softer premium” version that is supposed to be comparable, but it ISN’T. We usually get Scott’s at Walmart, but it’s always sold out.

    read more
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    Day 569 of RV Life

    May 21, 2020

    RV Life and Our Future Plans

    October 12, 2020

    RV Life and Expecting Your First Child

    October 19, 2020
  • The RV Lifestyle

    Thinking BIG, Living TINY

    July 5, 2020 / 0 Comments

    By default, RV’ers and Nomads do not conform to this world. Every RV’er younger than retirement age or older than has a story about a past life & their reason for choosing the RV lifestyle.

    read more
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    January 26, 2020
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drivingtowardsfire

👩🏻‍⚕️👨🏻‍💻👼🏻🐕 🐕 🐕 Nomads
🚼Raising a Newborn on the Road
🚎RV’ing Our Debt Free & FI Journey
💵DEBT Paid: $181,580.19 (27 Months)
🔜DEBT Left: $61,734.01

Brett & Meredith | $Coach-CRNA
I’ll give you 3 reasons why we love investing in I’ll give you 3 reasons why we love investing in real estate...

1.  Everyone needs a place to live.
2.  Everyone likes to take vacations.
3.  Your RE investments are tax shelters, income producers, and tangible assets you can enjoy yourself.

We’ll also give you 3 reasons what Real Estate isn’t...

1.  A quick ROI.
2.  Passive Income
3.  A place to leverage debt against

Anyone who tells you that RE is a quick return on investment isn’t being honest.  Equally, it takes roughly 3-5 years, depending on the type of real estate investment to become an income producer.  Meaning income after all expenses are paid.  Lastly, real estate is not nor will ever be passive income.  You will pay in time or money, but probably both.  Can you get to a certain point where your investment becomes a passive income producer? 

Absolutely, but you cannot rush it.

Furthermore, leveraging debt against your real estate investment can be done, but how comfortable are you carrying that debt should your investment stop producing income?  It can get uncomfortable really quick.  There’s so many strategies out there, but at the core of those who are successful are those who have liquid cash and emergency funds. 

Check out our vacation cabin in the Smoky Mountains ➡️ @alpenrosecabin
Putting the Leave in Maternity Leave... So you ha Putting the Leave in Maternity Leave...

So you have baby fever, huh?  FMLA has a prescription, but that prescription may not be enough & it certainly can’t be refilled...

“FMLA prescribes 12 weeks of unpaid leave for new parents but the average maternity leave often ends up being shorter. Approximately 70% of women report taking time off following pregnancy, with the average maternity leave lasting 10 weeks. Roughly half of new moms take at least five weeks of leave, while 25% take nine weeks or longer to stay home with a new baby”.

12 weeks are given, but 50% of new moms take only 5 weeks?  Why? Here’s the most upsetting percentage to me, “16%–only take one to four weeks off work following childbirth”.

1 to 4 weeks?  Ugh.  We feel for those 16%! 

Private Employers aren’t helping the situation either. “According to a 2018 Mercer survey, 40% of employers now offer some form of paid maternity leave, up from 25% in 2015”. 40% is good and we’re glad to see an increase even if it wasn’t that long ago.

Why do you think so many new mom’s end up cutting their maternity leave shorter that the FMLA standard 12 weeks? 

1.  They work for an employer that doesn’t offer paid maternity leave.  Emphasis on the paid.

2.  Debt.

3.  Large monthly expenses.

Here’s why we love the FI/RE Movement...

Since paying off debt, increasing our monthly savings rate, and minimizing our monthly expenses while increasing our income has allowed us to fully fund Meredith’s maternity leave of 6 months.  The FI/RE movement is more than just a set of numbers, percentages, or guidelines.  Each step, each progression, each milestone achieved gives you the ability to spend YOUR TIME on things you want. When you manage your finances, you allow yourself the ability to be removed from employer standards & societal standards on how to use your time.  Additionally, the burden of whether paid versus non paid maternity leave isn’t an issue. Having a plan financially puts you in the drivers seat and gives you control over your life. 

Thanks to our RV Debt Free Journey, the FI/RE movement, & living minimally we can spend so much quality time with Eleanor through so many milestones in her life.
Day 854 of RV Life... Celebrating baby Eleanor’ Day 854 of RV Life...

Celebrating baby Eleanor’s 1st week and we are reminded what a week it was.  Definitely memorable in absolutely every way possible.

Being a fulltime nomadic RV’er comes with so many pros it 1000% exceeds the cons, but let us tell you, after 28 months of fulltiming, the cons will test your patience.  Especially with over 10 inches of snow and 7 straight days of below freezing temperatures.  Winter in a RV is challenging enough, but you toss in that many consecutive days of below freezing, there’s only so much preparation you can do.  And we thought we were safe in Texas, but apparently Mother Nature had other plans.

All parts memorable, some parts forgettable...

Here’s some things that occurred in Texas’s worst snowstorm in a century that will be a memory we’d be happy to forget:

⚠️ Frozen Water Spigot and no running water for 5 days...with a newborn.
⚠️ Roads completely impassable.  The drive home from the hospital took us over an hour, which normally takes us 20 minutes.  Thank God for 4 wheel drive.
⚠️ Frozen Sewer lines.  Fortunately our campground has a shower house we could shower at and fill a large bucket with water to bring back to the RV.
⚠️Boil water notice.  This usually wouldn’t be a big deal, but we did run out of propane.  We were forced to use our electric griddle (which took forever) to boil our drinking water.
⚠️ Due to the roads, we couldn’t pick up Meredith’s pain meds after delivering Eleanor.  She went without for 4 days until the roads improved and places opened back up.
⚠️ Sewer pipe connected to a grey water tank split and burst.  Ugh, we attempted to make all the necessary arrangements before we went to the hospital, but...$748 later this was our most expensive issue.  Fortunately we found some mobile RV repair guys that came quick to resolve this for us.  We weren’t alone with this issue.  6 others in the campground had similar issues.
⚠️ Ran out of propane.  We refilled both tanks prior to leaving for the hospital, but by Day 4 of leaving the thermostat at 60 and the heater continuously running, it was gone quickly.

Undeniably, it was quite a week.
It’s been one week... People have said soak up It’s been one week...

People have said soak up each and every minute because they go by so fast.  This must be true because it feels like we blinked and it was already a week since baby Eleanor joined our nomadic lifestyle.

A good friend commented recently...

“You won’t even remember how you used to spend your free time”. Yep.  Our free time consisted of dog walks and going to the gym, which hopefully we’ll resume again soon once Meredith has healed and recovered.  But as for the other free time?  No clue what we used to do.

Yesterday was our first in-person Pediatrician appointment and getting there on time was certainly a challenge!  Although we were also in the middle of getting the RV drain pipe fixed too.  We made it and the doc gave Eleanor a great report!  Yay for her and us as new parents! 

Making a schedule for a baby...

Is no small feat.  Setting a schedule that works for us and baby is our current challenge.  We setup shifts every 2-3 hours so that one of us gets some rest, but in many instances, Eleanor will decide how the schedule will be on any given day.

Onward to Week 2 ✌🏻
Can you believe it’s been a whole year since thi Can you believe it’s been a whole year since this dude showed up on our doorstep as a stray here in Texas?!?

Blue found us roaming the campground on 2/22/2020 dirty, thirsty, and Heartworm positive shortly after returning from walking our pups at a nearby state park.  We made so many attempts to find his family over the course of the next couple of weeks, but were unsuccessful.

Then COVID happened...

Unsure what to do after calling all the local vets, animal clinics, and posting in several lost dog Facebook pages, we decided to bring him with us to our cabin in Tennessee when both Meredith and I lost our contract jobs due to the Pandemic.  He loved Tennessee! 

Over the next 60 days...

His personality came out and made his place inside our existing pack.  He and Duke our GSD became a formidable duo sharing the common ground of their heritage. 

After 8 months of treatment...

He was no longer heartworm positive, neutered, and officially a member of our family.

In 12 months, this guy has landed a new family with doggy friends, received much needed medical treatment, and now is a protector of his newest human member of our pack, Eleanor!  He’s given us so much love already and we’re all glad he’s apart of our family!

Happy-former-stray-turned-domesticated-gotcha-day, BLUE!
Let me tell you about how unbelievably amazing thi Let me tell you about how unbelievably amazing this new momma is...

This weather created so much chaos and so many change of plans, it was hard to keep up.  Our heads are still spinning from this busy and stressful week.  We knew that Eleanor would make her arrival on either Sunday or Monday and she decided to be a goal getter and show up on a Monday.  I (Brett) was also born on a Monday!  We have no doubts she’ll be as motivated as both Meredith and I. 

What a week to be brand new parents...

Not at all how we pictured it, but if life has taught us anything, you better expect the unexpected.  Especially as fulltime nomads and RV’ers.  We’ve done exactly what we always do when things get tough...we turn to each other and work as a team. 

Even if one of us is in significant pain...

The hospital was concerned about us traveling back to the RV after Eleanor was born and after all necessary tests and exams to ensure all is ok with mom and baby, we were able to go home late afternoon Tuesday 2/16.  This was to help us get home before the second wave of this Texas snowstorm hit on Wednesday. 

We made it home safe, but...

All the pharmacies closed early that day leaving us unable to pick up Meredith’s pain meds.  Everything shut down and the roads became completely unsafe to drive, leaving her to manage without her meds this entire week.  She’s unbelievably strong, but each day post delivery the pain increases.  I simply don’t know how she manages.  Today the temps are supposed to be in the high 30s so we hope to finally pick up her meds from the pharmacy. 

What a week it has been.  Despite the chaos, we found peace knowing that Eleanor arrived safely and healthy.
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Recent Posts

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    Top 3 Reasons to Invest in Real Estate

    February 28, 2021
  • Putting the Leave in Maternity Leave

    Putting the Leave in Maternity Leave

    February 27, 2021
  • Day 854 of RV Life

    Day 854 of RV Life

    February 24, 2021
  • Raising a Newborn on the Road:  It’s Been One Week!!

    Raising a Newborn on the Road: It’s Been One Week!!

    February 23, 2021
  • Happy Gotcha Day Blue!

    Happy Gotcha Day Blue!

    February 21, 2021
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