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Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 12:47 pm
by bryan
Stunning pictures! Looking forward to knowing what you favourites were in the future.

Maybe one solution for the appreciation/adaptation issue is always shooting for doing something more unique while in a new place. Or have a selection of things to do that you randomize over locations. What are you doing otherwise, mostly bicycling/camping?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue May 30, 2017 3:35 pm
by sky
Superlative site on the Colorado River, got any coordinates on that one?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 11:58 am
by C40
sky wrote:
Tue May 30, 2017 3:35 pm
Superlative site on the Colorado River, got any coordinates on that one?
Yep. I'll PM them to you

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 12:05 pm
by C40

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MAY 2017 - MONEY
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SPENDING

Image

Image




INVESTING

I want to do some investing work this month. I have ~$13k cash in my Roth IRA, most of it is from converting ~$10k from the Traditional to Roth. So I need to buy some stocks. Probably REITS. I’ll look at buying more O. I also need to research others. I also already own some DLR, HCP, and OHI. Of those, the only I’d think about buying more of is OHI, though I haven’t looked at many of the numbers for it yet.

I also may convert some of my Traditional IRA from Vanguard funds to individual stocks in order to get better yields.

Plus, I have some stocks in my post tax account that I’m going to think about selling. (VOD, MCD, NSRGY, the rest of my KMI, and - because the prices have more than doubled since I bought them - some of my RAI and MO). And before selling them, I’ll try to decide what to buy with the proceeds, or, at least make sure there appear to be some good things to buy out there.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2017 7:43 pm
by SustainableHappiness
Your story/journal is really cool (although I've only gotten the surface so far). Thank you a ton for sharing!

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 12:02 pm
by C40
Here's a summary of where I went in May.



New Blog Post: May 2017 Adventures
Image

Sedona, Grand Canyon, my favorite campsite ever (along the Colorado River, pictured above), and Zion National Park (maybe my favorite place ever)

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 10:07 pm
by Noedig
Great thoughtful blog. Like the bit about how people seize upon a positive experience and turn it into a personal Meaning Of Life for a while. I wish you inner peace and good encounters.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Sun Jun 11, 2017 11:51 am
by C40

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:17 am
by C40
HI FOLKS!



Image
Spending Update - Q2



I'll have a post coming summarizing my travels in June. I took a TON of pictures, so It's going to be a while to get through them...

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:01 am
by Viktor K
The vast majority of my income is from dividends
I meant to send you a PM about a month ago but I think I exited out of it because I was intoxicated and it seemed like a drunken ramble :lol:

I'm still curious, though. If I may ask, how is the blog income?

More generally if needed, would you recommend starting one with the intention to monetize it?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:00 pm
by Allagash
C40, I know you are not that long into the vandwelling life yet, but wondering if you have given any thought to the end game? Any initial thoughts on what part of the country you may decide to settle or what type of lifestyle/set up you might be looking for?

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:42 am
by C40
Viktor K wrote:
Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:01 am
The vast majority of my income is from dividends
I meant to send you a PM about a month ago but I think I exited out of it because I was intoxicated and it seemed like a drunken ramble :lol:

I'm still curious, though. If I may ask, how is the blog income?

More generally if needed, would you recommend starting one with the intention to monetize it?
Hello :-)

My blog income is non-existent. ZERO. Well, I've made about $10 Amazon commissions from people who followed affiliate links I had on some posts and then bought other random stuff.

My blog traffic is low. My SEO is probably horrible. My posts are just generic travel and personal finance updates. They aren't the kind of posts that people go looking for on the internet. I've considered starting to make some "how to [xyz]" posts, or if I really wanted to have a go at it, some "8 [xyz things] you must do [this summer]" posts. But I haven't ever felt like it.

For me, so far, Instagram is where it's at. The return on effort there has been WAY better than on my blog. For about 9 months, I was just dumping pictures there as an afterthought. As I saw my account gradually growing, I started putting some more thought into my pictures and the captions I write. I also started using a bot that likes and comments and follows accounts who are interested in the kind of content I post (this helps potential followers find me as it makes my account show up in their notifications).

I now have 14,000 followers there and my more popular posts get seen by about 7,000 people (well, accounts) and have about 1,000 people either like or comment or save the picture. On my blog, a more popular post might get 1,000 views over a week. The strength of Instagram (and other social media) is that it provides a platform for my content, a large population of users, and good ways for them to find me. My blog is basically the online equivalent of someone's physical art and writing that's sitting out at the corner of two rural roads that get little traffic.

I'm just getting to enough followers/engagement on Instagram that smaller companies are starting to ask to send me stuff for free with the expectation or agreement that the item will show up in my pictures and that I'll tag their accounts. So far I've received a really nice Ecuadorian alpaca wool Indian style blanket, and a back-country water filter. Since I don't have much need or desire for 'stuff', I'll be hoping that I can start featuring inexpensive products for some monetary compensation. I expect to start pitching to companies soon.

I have found writing captions for Instagram posts much easier than writing blog posts. I believe the two reasons are that the Instagram posts are limited to being fairly short (About the length of my reply so far), and that when I go to write a blog post, I feel more pressure to do it well and be complete, while an Instagram caption seems less important so I can just churn them out more easily. In one or two cases, I've copied and pasted these Instagram captions I've written over into blog posts.

If you're thinking about making a blog to monetize it, I'm not really a good person to say whether it's a good thing, but I'd say, only do it if you really are making it mainly for the purpose of monetizing it, and will be willing to research and create the kind of content that gets a lot of pageviews, and to keep focusing heavily on SEO, research, analyzing what works, etc. - And that you're willing to write content that is repetitive, or basic with mass appeal, and is not really useful for yourself other than for making money with the blog. In other words - only do it if you're willing to look at it mainly as work, and not as some kind of personal sharing or art.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 11:52 am
by C40
Allagash wrote:
Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:00 pm
C40, I know you are not that long into the vandwelling life yet, but wondering if you have given any thought to the end game? Any initial thoughts on what part of the country you may decide to settle or what type of lifestyle/set up you might be looking for?
I think about that some. I have a few options in mind for next life phases. Right now, they are:
- Move to southeast Asia or Mexico/ Central/South America for a few years
- Buy a little cabin/shack somewhere in the Western U.S. (or some land to put a yurt on) and live there (garden, do a lot out outdoors stuff, whatever else). Or maaaaaybe find a cheap/free way to live in a really expensive city like San Francisco or Seattle.
- Go live on property that my immediate family buy soon. Three groups of them are looking to buy property in a certain part of the country. They all hope to get a few acres each. That means room for me to park my van for a while and live there and help them with projects, or,.. land for me to build a shack, put down a yurt, etc. This would be nice as it would provide me with a long-term place to live every now and then between various life phases, but that I wouldn't have to worry about taking care of while I'm not there.

I'm not sure whether I will complete my Vanliving phase entirely and then go to the next thing, or if I will mix them together. The latter two options would lend to mixing the phases together well, while the first wouldn't, other than a pause for a few years.

I'm still enjoying the Van thing a lot, and have rough plans in my mind for at least another full year of it. But it's hard to guess how much longer I'll do it. There are moments where I sort of wonder what I'm doing and if this is really what I want, but most of the time I'm just enjoying it (a lot). So, could be another 6 months, could be another few years, or I could get killed in Mexico this winter. We'll see. I think If I spend a long time doing it, like 5 or 10 years, I'd really start to question if I'm missing out on other opportunities in life.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 1:16 pm
by C40

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JULY 2017
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MONEY
Spending: $693
Income: $1,143
Rolling 3 months avg income: $1,474
YTD Savings Rate: 55%



FAMILY AND SIDE TRIP

At the start of July, I’d just came into Colorado from Utah. I called my Dad to get input on where to go in Colorado. He told me about some places, and then said I should come out to Denver (where he lives) and go along with him out to Tennessee for a couple weeks. He’s thinking about moving there. My ~brother in law and nephew were also going to be going out there during that time. My brother and his girlfriend are also already out in that area. My aunt might be going too. On the way home, my BIL would stop at my Mom’s and Step Dad’s place for a few days. So… if I would just drive to Denver, I could tag along to the southeast U.S., and see all of my immediate family in one trip.

So, of course I went. I’d never been out there, so it was cool to see that part of the country. It was strange just tagging along with people and I felt a little bit like a kid at times.

I also hung out near and in Denver for about two weeks of time.

And that was the whole month of July.



PLANS
For August, I’ll be up in the mountain in Colorado for the rest of the summer, heading southwest through the state. Then after that, it’s further southwest and, I still hope, into Mexico for the winter.



CRAZY TATTOO PLANS
There’s an artist in Toronto that I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo from. I used to go there for work so I was trying to schedule time with her during one of those trips. She’s too popular, and her booking process is too tight for that to have worked out. But now, I’ve gotten in during one of her booking periods. I’m looking at going out there in October.

I am approaching this as a challenge to see how inexpensively I can travel across the country. I’d be flying out from either Las Vegas or Los Angeles. I have points from all my previous work flying so those will cover the flights - well, just to Buffalo. Bus tickets from Buffalo to Toronto are very cheap. Now I’m trying to sort out a place. I have a couple good prospects already (one guy from here on the forum, and one other I know through Instagram). I’ll also need to sort out whether to do the tattoo small enough to all be done in one day, or a larger one that takes two sessions and 10 days in-between to heal. The two-day tattoo would add more complexity between available booking dates, when it would work to stay with someone, and whether staying 2 weeks is actually a good idea



BLOG POST - JUNE TRAVELS

lots of pictures.. LOTS

Blog post - JUNE ADVENTURES
Image

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:27 pm
by slowtraveler
It's cool to see you living up your life while stashing.

I agree about blog income. That was one of the first businesses I tried to develop. Many weeks of work later I made my first 100 something dollars and hung my hat realizing I was working way too hard on something I didn't like to get less than minimum wage.

Instagram reviews sound fun. You could put in affiliate link in the caption to get some commission while you fine tune your pitch.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 3:21 pm
by bryan
One thing about a certain free-roaming van life is that you can reduce some expensive expenses by being flexible in time and place. For example, you can tour to Mexico for some healthcare or if you ever need to fly anywhere, you can be sure to depart from a cheap hub location (e.g. find those crazy cheap flight deals that are only available from certain airports).

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:13 pm
by C40

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2017 9:06 pm
by BRUTE
yea, Zion is pretty fucking amazing. way better than the Grand Canyon.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 4:58 am
by fiby41
Felipe wrote:
Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:27 pm
.

I agree about blog income. That was one of the first businesses I tried to develop. Many weeks of work later I made my first 100 something dollars and hung my hat realizing I was working way too hard on something I didn't like to get less than minimum wage.
Same here but it was only 17 USD for me. :(
Felipe wrote:
Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:27 pm
.
Instagram reviews sound fun. You could put in affiliate link in the caption to get some commission while you fine tune your pitch.
AFAIK links in instagram captions (and even profile bios) are unclickable.

Re: C40's Journal

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2017 4:11 pm
by Jason
I first heard of Zion Canyon when watching a documentary on Warren Jeffs. It looks really beautiful but I'd be scared of running into chicks with those really big foreheads that inbreeding seems to bring about.