Accessing the situation: My options

[EastCoast315]

So I'm a year from graduating, just about 400 days left before I take the plunge. I'm trying to set myself up for the best departure possible (leaving with a little bit of money, new gear, learning as much as I can, picking up experience here and there), and I'm trying to decide how to spend my summer. There are a ton of considerations I need to take. I know that I'll be working up about $2000. But what I do with it is what I'm unsure of. My options:

1. My uncle has a 1974 winnebago sportsman in fully working condition, recently remodeled, for, get this: $1700! Could be a sick option. I'd have a place to live, a means of travel, and if I ever felt the need, I could sell it for more than I paid for it! However, in my home state, NY, you are required by law to pay insurance. So I would either have to suck it up and pay (which would require me to have a job) monthly. Or I could keep it for the year and live in it, and then when I move out, register it in neighboring massachusets without having to bother with insurance! It all seems like a hassle. Oh, and then there's gas. Ugh.

2. I could buy a nice bike/trailer and some camping gear upgrades and hit the road crosscountry. Could be HELLA fun! The main downsides; I wouldn't be able to hop trains or hitchhike (at least not without perrrfect conditions), however it would give me the freedom to move about the country, if slowly, without the burden of gas and insurance. Plus, it'd keep me in shape. And I could always sell it!

3. Buy a decent sized boat and outfit it to live in, haven't really looked into it.

4. Do neither, and plan on straight up vagabonding, hitchhiking, hopping trains, the like, I would just have a massive cowboy roll to fall back on ($3000). This would be a truly liberating experience, judging from the lives led by alot of y'all on stp. There don't seem to be many downsides to this idea?

Staying in the same building for this many hours generally corners me into thinking wayy too much about my future as a bum, as you can tell. Haha. Anyway, give me some imput or even new suggestions! Thanks y'all

 

[connerR]

Do 4, then 1. That's my plan, anyway.

 

[EastCoast315]

Thats an idea: Buy the 'bago FIRST, go vagabond, and then come home and take the camper after a year or two

 

[BananaPhuck]

I'm doing option 2 this summer, I might even stay out longer than the summer. Planning on going coast to coast, but can stay out longer, and go where ever. I figure I can do the ol' "Traveling, Broke, Hungry" sign, and get along fine. Right now I am trying to save up for some gear, then it is travel season!

 

[macks]

1. Sounds fucking rad, and like an awesome deal. The insurance you could just pay all at once if you can swing it. Like, pay 600-700 bucks for 6 months of insurance up front then when your six months is up, stop driving it for a while. That way you don't have to always have a job to support your insurance habit. Gas will be a pain in the ass though.

2. Never done it, sounds fun, not sure I have the dedication or patience for it but I'd like to try a shorter trip to find out. Not much to say here.

3. Getting a boat that's seaworthy and big enough to live in for $3000 is going to be a hell of a chore. There's a reason that mostly rich people have this hobby, it's fucking expensive. However, if you're really passionate about this you can learn how to sail and work on boats, etc and it can become more of a reality. My point here is that if you just want to celebrate being free and get the hell out, burdening yourself with a junker fixer upper boat and trying to learn how to sail it and work on it from scratch is going to be a long and tedious process.

4. Especially if you have a bankroll to fall back on, this is the shit. If you don't smoke a pack of cigs and drink a case of beer every day, you can go a very very long ways for cheap. And then when you get tired of moving around you can get yourself 'back on your feet' so to speak if you have some cash left over. After my last trip I came back broke without employment prospects in the middle of winter, it was a long slow winter.


These all sound like awesome plans only 9570 hours to go!