Ah, the romantic, nomadic life. Everything seems so simple. You pack your bags and hit the road, exploring to your heart’s content.  But wait, what about all my stuff, how could I possibly do this? If the nomadic life is part of your dreams, you can make it more than just a dream. Here is where to begin starting right now.

Becoming nomadic can be a major life change, and it should be. Take time to think, and talk with your partner / family / friends about what’s most important to you, including your values. Values change with circumstances over time, and understanding what you can do to build a life that maximizes the things you value is the place to start.

As you go through these explorations, look for the things that really resonate with you, or you and your partner if you have one. Focus on the recurring themes in your day dreams. The more you focus on what your dreams are telling you, the more assumptions of every day life you’ll start to question.

While you’re dreaming of days spent living in exotic locations, begin to think about how you’ll structure your new life. What changes will you need to make to your spending and finances? Will you work remotely for your current employer? Is building your own business, so you can work for yourself as you travel, in your future? What impact will health, family or other issues have on the new life you create?

Start with where you’ll reside

It seems counter-intuitive, but one of the first questions you’ll need to decide when setting off to create your new nomadic life is where you want to reside. “Wait, what? I thought the idea was to give up my permanent home to travel about?”

Well, it is. However, most of the laws we live under are state and local laws. This includes laws and regulations concerning taxes, medical / automobile insurance, vehicle registration, driver licensing, and voter registration among other things. These are all things that future full time travelers should consider.

As a full-time traveler, you can reside wherever you want. You can pick the best state based on your current circumstances; then, if those circumstances change, you can change your state of residence again, as long as you follow the requirements of your chosen state. Given that, where would you love to live?

Establishing residency takes some work. States consider a “resident” as someone who lives in the state at least part time, and this can make establishing residency a challenge for people who travel constantly. All states require you to have a legal physical address to acquire a driver’s license. The good news is that there are various ways to make this work and even several states that cater the needs of permanent travelers.

What to think about

Regardless of whether you want to be a full-time traveler, live in your RV, or have a part-time residence, it’s important to evaluate your state options to determine which state best meets your needs. Below are four critical factors to consider when evaluating potential “home” states.

• Ability / Ease of establishing residence: The requirements for residency vary greatly from state to state. Understanding candidate state’s requirements for things like getting a driver’s license, voting and using any other state services you foresee needing is an important first step.
• Insurance: The impact of your choice of state of residence on insurance costs is often an underappreciated decision factor. If you research and evaluate your insurance needs and what’s available in your short-listed states you could save thousands of dollars each year and ensure your medical needs will be adequately addressed. Insurance is a big topic, which I cover what you should be think about.
• Mail Servicers: Probably the single most critical factor in establishing residency is having a valid legal mailing address. Therefore the availability of mail management services is a factor you’ll want to consider. Selecting a service to receive, handle, and forward your mail while traveling about is key.
• Tax Implications: Florida, Texas, South Dakota, and the other no-income-tax states are popular with full time travelers. Why pay taxes to a state where you won’t be most of the time? Consider taxes on earned, unearned, retirement, Social Security, and inherited income, as the rules vary from state to state.

Our Process

Our approach was to prioritize each of these factors and define our critical requirements. Below is the order we used to begin narrowing our list of potential states of residence.

1. Taxes – Our first criteria was to maximize our finances by minimizing income and other taxes. States with friendly tax laws, particularly those exempting retirement and investment income from income taxes, made the first cut.
2. Ability / Ease of establishing residency – There are a handful of low- or no-income-tax states that cater to full time travelers. They have simplified processes for acquiring driver’s licenses, registering to vote, etc.
3. Medical insurance – As travelers we need our medical plan to include national access to in-network physicians and care. Insurance options and costs vary immensely between states and even by county within many states.
4. Mail services – We needed a vendor who could not only handle our mail, but also provide a legal address that was acceptable to the state and financial institutions.

And the winner…?

We ultimately decided to move from California to Florida, establishing residency in Okaloosa County. We leverage MyRVMail in Crestview, FL to manage our physical mail. To learn more about our process, click on links above or go to separate posts detailing our evaluation approach.