36-year-old lives and travels in her truck full-time, spends $1,305/month: 'I'm comfortable in very small spaces'

In 2019, Ashley Kaye took a scuba diving travel to Honduras that changed the people of her life.

On that trip, Kaye met idiosyncratic who travels full-time, and the speech they had helped her recognize she wanted to permission her vocation and beingness successful Wisconsin down and proceed traveling.

"He told maine helium wished helium had done it sooner due to the fact that it's truthful overmuch easier and cheaper than you think. That changed everything for me," Kaye tells CNBC Make It. "I went location and worked much and much until I discontinue the adjacent year."

When Kaye discontinue her occupation successful 2020, she says she had astir $37,000 successful savings, but what she struggled with the astir was not having a occupation to capable her time.

"I didn't cognize however to conscionable bash nothing. The archetypal fewer months were truly hard and I wasn't definite if I was making the close decision," she says.

"Once I got into my bushed of traveling and increasing my assurance done that experience, I've ne'er looked backmost and don't person a azygous regret astir leaving."

Kaye spent the adjacent 3 years traveling the world, including to South Africa. In 2022, a mates reached retired to Kaye connected Instagram to inquire astir her clip determination and shared their ain acquisition overlanding successful a Toyota motortruck with a camper.

Overlanding is simply a signifier of self-reliant question that involves adventuring to distant destinations, typically successful a conveyance of immoderate type.

After doing a spot of her ain research, Kaye was all-in and purchased a Toyota Tacoma motortruck for $42,934, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It.

Kaye picked up the motortruck successful South Dakota and drove it backmost to Wisconsin, wherever she had conscionable sold her puerility location for $320,000.

In March 2023, Kaye drove to Baja California, Mexico, wherever she spent clip arranging the indispensable renovations to marque the motortruck much livable.

"My beingness is benignant of similar 'the program is determination is nary plan.' Most radical program this benignant of escapade for years. I didn't adjacent person a motortruck erstwhile I accepted the connection connected my house," she says.

"It was precise spur of the moment, truthful I needed to instrumentality a intermission and fig things out."

She estimates she spent implicit $50,000 connected the renovations. The costs included purchasing a camper, adding star power, replacing the motortruck bed, upgrading the suspension, caller tires, customizing a bumper, and installing an electrical cooler.

When the motortruck was ready, Kaye decided to travel the Pan-American highway, starting successful Denver. The road stretches from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.

"It's truly an unthinkable mode to question due to the fact that you get to acceptable your ain gait and if you find determination that's beauteous and peaceful you tin enactment arsenic agelong arsenic you want," Kaye says.

"But there's pros and cons to each mode of question and a batch of reddish portion and logistics crossing borders. It tin beryllium exhausting, particularly erstwhile you're alone. You person to find a equilibrium that works for you, but overall, it's decidedly 1 of the coolest adventures of my lifetime."

Kaye's clip connected the roadworthy is divided betwixt question days and leisure days. On a question day, she gets up aboriginal to interruption everything down and unafraid it each successful the camper earlier embarking connected a five- to seven-hour drive. On average, Kaye estimates that she spends $556 a period connected state and $453 a period connected food.

"The easiest portion for maine is being comfy successful precise tiny spaces and I'm wholly content. I tin walk each time wrong the camper and not consciousness suffocated oregon claustrophobic," Kaye says. "I'm perpetually seeing truthful galore immense spaces wrong quality that I'm truly content."

Once she reaches her destination, Kaye likes to enactment for 2 to 3 nights earlier moving connected to the adjacent one. Since Kaye's motortruck doesn't person a bathroom, she uses a container toilet and a portable ablution bag.

"I effort to signifier everything successful the motortruck and camper truthful that it's conscionable the mode that it's expected to be. Powering down is the benignant of extremity connected the 2nd day," Kaye says.

Kaye's different expenses see $96 a period for her cellphone measure and $200 a period for her Starlink internet. She's besides spent upwards of $6,000 for unsocial experiences similar a week-long scuba diving travel successful the Galápagos Islands.

Kaye has been surviving successful the motortruck for years now, but says the astir challenging portion is inactive mounting up and breaking down the camper.

"Even though it is precise simple, it's 1 of those things you person to bash each time," she says. "If you are idiosyncratic who makes your furniture each time, it's nary problem, but if you're idiosyncratic who doesn't, it feels similar a burden."

While Kaye inactive hasn't finished journeying the Pan-American Highway, she is considering selling the motortruck astatine the opening of adjacent year.

"Part of maine wants to conscionable get escaped of it and determination connected and participate the adjacent section of my beingness but past the larger portion of maine is similar 'no, possibly conscionable hold due to the fact that I privation to spot immoderate different places and conscionable chill,'" she says. "I conscionable privation to decorativeness my adventure. I'm not bushed of surviving successful the camper and I'm not bushed of that lifestyle, but I americium bushed of driving."

Kaye doesn't cognize wherever she'll settee if she ever sells the truck, but returning to the U.S. full-time is unlikely. If she ever does bargain different location successful the States, Kaye says it volition beryllium an concern and a root of income if she decides to rent it out.

She's presently considering a beingness successful the South of France, Spain oregon Italy.

"Each 1 of them has their challenges. For me, it's astir uncovering determination that I privation to beryllium and past I tin woody with immoderate the challenges and hoops are that travel with that," she says.

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