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We're planning to amble around the Norwegian fjords, take in a glacier or two, get some sea fishing done and generally chill out. Bring on September!

We tried a few ways of making cash online, but to be honest we're a bit old and scared of digital nomad work, and were wanting as much freedom as we could possibly get our hands on. Instead we ended up going for the old-fashioned approach: earn cash in the UK, invest it instead of spending and live from the returns. Not easy, takes a huge amount of cash to generate reasonable returns, but it is another way of looking at the challenge.

I wrote a free ebook (various formats) about how we did it - it's here for anyone interested. Good luck with whatever approach you take, the freedom of the van life is intoxicating.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/632284

Cheers, Jay

Hi folks

We're Julie and Jason, and pooch Charlie. We're one-time full-timers, now doing long trips in a Hymer and we take our hats off to all you self-builders out there - respect - we managed to fit LPG and a SOG unit, at that's about the limit of our build skills!

We blog at ourtour.co.uk, and have so far posted from 730 locations across Europe and North Africa, all from our van (map here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uBrPgdRbmrxy92GWWIazxSPW0uk&usp=sharing). Costs, GPS, stories and a few photos and videos which might whet your appetite or bring back some memories?

We're currently heading south through the Norwegian Arctic, heading for the fjords and hoping to catch more haddock on the way. We love the van life, we've done a total of almost 3 years now and have no plans to stop any time soon. This winter we're back off to Morocco for some fun in the mountains and deserts.

Take it easy folks, keep on truckin'!

Cheers, Jay

Hi Badger

Jason here from ourtour.co.uk. Thought I'd throw in a bit of info after our blog was mentioned on this post. As Kryten says, there are stacks of variables, and we might not be representative of most folks, but we aim to spend £15,000 a year on travelling - which includes one-off costs (insurance, breakdown cover, van servicing, MOT, tyres etc), day to day costs (food, overnight costs, fuel, ale, ferries, museum entry fees etc, but neither of us smoke) and allows us to accrue some cash to account for van depreciation, breakdowns, need to buy new tech etc. Be a bit careful comparing costs - some don't include van depreciation, repairs or insurance - try and include everything and be realistic with yourself.

It's VERY, VERY possible to spend a lot less. One chap told us he was doing fine on £5k a year (another family we met were closer to £35k). We've aimed for an income to allow us to live how we want to - so we can travel the expensive countries like Norway and Switzerland, buy ale and meat, not worry if the van conks out or if we have to pay £30 to stay somewhere cracking. We also wanted a budget which would suit a long-term plan - so we deliberately spend more than the essential to get the comfort level we wanted.

You can get an idea of our lifestyle on our blog - we try and tell it like it is - so if we're having a grim time of it we say so. But really we're living a pretty goddam luxurious awesome life! I'm writing this overlooking at Norwegian Sea up at Bodo. I'm on a 3G connection, warm, well fed, plenty of space and am gearing up for another 6 weeks ambling south through the fjords.

There's also a link on the ourtour.co.uk to a free mini-guide I wrote on how we generate our income - we don't work on the road as a rule but have done it through investments back in the UK and by getting into a low-cost-high-experience mindset.

Cheers, Jay