• BauerBender@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    My best friend lives in Pacifica, CA. Lots of people living in vans, and honestly it seems like a simple way to live.

    • Agent641@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      I did it involuntary for 3 years.

      It can be extraordinarily stressful and unpleasant, what with high temperatures, the toilet situation, and parking stealthily in an elephant sized vehicle that is the opposite of stealth. Getting messed with by gronks, and moved along by authorities.

      Having said that, your outgoing costs can be very, very low, the cost of travelling locally is low, and you have all the comforts of home wherever you go. It was a good way for me to save a shitload of money in a short amount of time

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      No they didn’t. Now they’re just called “#vanlife” and cost a lot more.

  • Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    I follow a few vanlifers and damn it looks tempting and I am thinking of doing so next year for a few months. Might even film it too.

    • IronBird@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      the secret of all these “nomad” lifestyles is to have enough passive income via investments and shit that you dom’t actually have to work that much (if at all) anyway, so you can just spend all your time traveling instead

      • Fredselfish@sh.itjust.works
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        16 hours ago

        Most ones I follow make all their money from YouTube and Sponsors. It’s pretty popular and doesn’t take much to get monetized and to get sponsors.

      • Zahille7@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        I visited my family who live in Encinitas, CA earlier this year. It’s honestly kinda gross how many “vanlifers” either live there or were visiting semi-longterm.

        Like I would walk to the beach almost every day, and I’d see so many vans that had been converted or in the process of being converted parked out front of multi-million dollar homes. And they were all brand new vehicles too.

  • d-RLY?@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    I was excited to quote the sketch when my friend decided to live van life a long time ago. But he was too young to know about it (I made sure to show it to him before he left). Then he ended up taking a job for a rafting/tubing company for the summer. He actually did end-up “living in a van down by the river.”

      • Lodespawn@aussie.zone
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        1 day ago

        Thanks, I dunno if that was particularly iconic but that’s definitely where this post comes from

    • MightBeAlpharius@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      It’s from an SNL skit from ages ago - I only know it because my high school band teacher referenced it enough that he had to show it to us so we’d get it.

      Chris Farley plays a motivational speaker whose whole schtick is basically “[don’t fuck up your life] or you’ll end up LIVING IN A VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!” Over the course of the skit, it becomes apparent that his angle is less “don’t fuck up your life and have to deal with a tough recovery,” and more “don’t fuck up your life and end up living in a van like I currently do.”

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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        15 hours ago

        It was a play on inspirational speakers and life coaches. Experts, who ended up as inspirational speakers and life coaches.