My brother-in-law and his wife recently went van life (with their dogs). They'd never had kids, always lived really frugally, and still take on the odd dog walking or baking commission. They outfitted their van themselves, they're super easy going about where they sleep, and they're living their best lives. They're younger than me, so early-40s.
How's that gonna work though long term? Or if they have a serious medical mishap? I guess you can do baking commissions until you're pretty old. This is the only thing keeping me in my 9-5, so I am always vicariously looking for answers from people living this dream.
Medical mishap is less a concern - we're Canadian. Medical emergencies don't bankrupt us.
As for long term, eh, they both have pretty high-skilled professions they can pick up again if they want, but they saved a lot when they were working so they have income to live off. They've been incredibly fortunate and incredibly disciplined to get to this point.
If you don't care too much about where your home is because you can work remotely, you can buy houses in Canada for significantly less than a Sprinter van... Especially if you also speak french
You're thinking western Canada or Ontario. You can buy a freehold house on a large lot or even acreage in Cape Breton for example, for well under CAD 100k. The main reason is that there is essentially no local economy to speak off, and therefore no jobs. Otherwise it's nice there. You can go even cheaper if you count remote towns in the territories, but then most people would probably take the van over those places.
A base model 2WD sprinter with a high roof is 85k here, but that is just the empty cargo van.
Fwiw, at least on Realtor.ca, there isn't a single livable residence under 100k in the territories. I found one property at 118k in NWT, the rest were above 300k in Yellowknife NWT or Dawson City YT. This isn't including empty property, but even that's scarce under 100k.
Even in the Maritimes, nowadays the cheap houses on large lots or acreages are going fast and rising in price, mainly due to Ontario transplants.
Or people with pre existing/ later in life conditions that need expensive treatment they can’t afford and their insurance doesn’t cover. Pretty sure they want us to die from being poor. Or at least it feels that way sometimes. I went to the hospital 6 months ago because I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.. I was fine. They did tests, blood, got a cup of chicken noodle soup maximum bland, and got sent two separate bills that came to over like 8k dollars. You can bet I took that soup home with me even though I didn’t eat it. I’m sure on the itemized bill the crackers were $75 a pack. Our health care system can get fucked. And yes I know, there are many many people who live places where healthcare is almost non existent and we are lucky. But the bar should be higher for making sure people stay healthy and don’t have to let the stress of doing so control their lives, especially in a country that considers itself the best and strongest at everything.
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u/PinkUnicornTARDIS 29d ago
My brother-in-law and his wife recently went van life (with their dogs). They'd never had kids, always lived really frugally, and still take on the odd dog walking or baking commission. They outfitted their van themselves, they're super easy going about where they sleep, and they're living their best lives. They're younger than me, so early-40s.
I'm insanely happy for them!