First let me explain what a paradigm is. It is nothing more than a collection of beliefs that controls every aspect of your life. You will have paradigms about money, marriage, sex, raising children and just about everything in life. I also talked about this in my last post since I have come to understand that it is one of the major blocks that most people have to change in their lives.

So where do these paradigms come from? Well they come from our parents, teachers, television, radio and every other outside source imaginable. It is said that by the time we are 5 years old we will have acquired 80 percent of who we are going to be in life. In most cases this belief of how our life is going to be is so strong that we are trapped in its prison till we die. And the main problem with this is that most people never realize they are in this prison, and you cannot break out of a prison unless you realize you are in one.

For most people the paradigm tells them that they should have a house with a two car

Dream Or Paradigm?

garage, have two cars in that garage, a white picket fence, and 2.4 children. The bad part of this paradigm usually also includes a mortgage, a loan for the cars, and credit card debt. The paradigm is so deep that when the mortgage gets to the point where it is almost paid off, it is time for a bigger house just to get back into the larger mortgage.

If you ever try and move out of this lifestyle and do something different you will be confronted by friends and neighbors who are worried about you. They will think that since you are doing something different than them, there is something wrong with you. Most people will cave to this pressure, and thus reinforce the paradigm.

What if you could just escape and get into a different group of people who thought differently? Well this is actually the best thing that can happen to you, and in the case of the Full Time RV lifestyle, it is easy to do.

Currently there are an estimated One Million full time RV’ers. If you think slightly into your future and see yourself among them, then chances are things will start to change in your life. When you actually get among these people your paradigms will start to shift since you now have support instead of criticism. The thing that keeps paradigms in place is the fact that we keep reinforcing and empowering them. Being among people who actually do think different will start to shift your paradigm to be similar to what the people around you think.

This is a valuable piece of information to the prospective Full Time RV’er. Just by being around other Full Time RV’ers your paradigms about how your life should be lived will change. And the beauty of this is the fact that if you do it once, you will free yourself to do it again. You have broken out of the prison.

Welcome To Your New Life In An RV

In our own life we experienced exactly that. When we first started to Full Time RV we had our share of detractors. But once we were fully ensconced in the RV lifestyle and around other Full Time RV’ers we soon realized that this was the life for us. We tasted freedom. Then after 11 years we wanted to take it even a step further and this time easily moved up to our new Full Time Lifestyle on a Sailboat traveling around the world. Once you change a paradigm once, the next time is much easier.

Blow those paradigms clear out of the ballpark!

When I hear stories like this I would at times like to turn it around and say that under no circumstances would I ever live in a house. But sometimes taking the high road is the better alternative.

Many people cannot see things any differently than they have seen them their entire lives. In other words they cannot see things outside the Box (literally). Most people have been taught all their lives that they have to have the house with the two car garage, 2.4 children, two jobs, and be visiting the shrink once a week to deal with the stress.

There is nothing, no laws, no instructions in the Bible, Koran, or any other teachings that tell us we have to live our life in a house and be doing like the Jones’es next door. But yet like a herd of animals we do exactly that. We all talk about and want to be different, but when it really comes down to it about as different as we ever get is to buy a Volvo instead of a Ford.

Why is this? The answer is simple, we are deathly afraid of what others will think of us. Amazingly this is one of the most debilitating fears than most of us will ever have to face. When my wife and I first started to Full Time we faced the same thing from friends and Family. True some of them would say good for you, but then there would be the comments about not investing in a house, or the dangers on the road. It took me a while to realize that it was them that were afraid of Full Timing and trying something different. The reason they were trying to stop us was the fact that they would look bad if we succeeded at something that they were afraid to try. They were afraid of what others would think of them (tables reversed).

This realization was liberating. It came down to the fact that the problem was theirs and not ours. This realization freed us from the herd mentality and let us start to live life on our own terms. We broke free.

Another realization that happened very quickly afterward was the fact that we were not alone in our dreams. An estimated one million Americans and Canadians now live Full Time in their R.V.’s. We soon found that we had a new group of friends that thought just the way we did, and really supported us in our endeavors.

Many people would think of Full Time RV’ers as trailer trash, but this is really not the case. Granted there are a number of this type of RV’er and almost every city has an RV park full of them, they are analogous to the slum dwellers in any city. But just like a city has premium housing also, many Full Time RV’ers are very affluent. They are starting to be referred to as the “Affluent Homeless”. These people have a lot of money in the bank, own properties, have investments and generally are well off. They are also the type of people who created this wealth by thinking outside the box. They have no trouble moving into an RV and enjoying their life.

One of the really interesting things that happened to us was the fact that the family and friends that tried to stop us at first were now asking a lot of questions and wondering how they too could start enjoying the lifestyle that we were enjoying. It is interesting that people will do something once someone else has succeeded at it. Sometimes you just have to be the first one. You have to be the leader, torpedoes be damned.

I have touched on this subject before in my blogging as well as devoting a section of my book to it. It is the one area that stops more people from breaking free and really enjoying their lives, instead of trying to be like everyone else and pretending they are having a great life.

George Bernard Shaw commonly stated that “Two percent of the people think, three percent think that they are thinking, and ninety five percent would rather die than think”. It is this ninety five percent that are your neighbors, family, and friends. These people let other people do their thinking for them, and are subsequently trapped in the same lifestyle as the people they are listening to, who usually are not thinking either.

Our RV On The Beach In Mexicl

Before you listen to others about what you should be doing with their life, take a really good look at the results these people are getting in their lives. Are they successful, are they really happy, do they have everything they ever wanted and are they where they really truly want to be? If not, why are you listening to them. You are the best judge of what you really want and what is right for your life. Step into your power and we will see you on the road or maybe on a beautiful Mexican beach.

The people in this lifestyle are the ones that have not bought into the American and Canadian Dream of the two car garage, 2.4 children, and debt to the eyeballs.

Boeing and McConnell Douglas in the U.S. commissioned a study a number of years ago that showed that the average number of pension checks that people who retire at 65

Retirement Age Vs Age of Death Graph

collect is 18. In other words the average life expectancy for a 65 year old retiree is 1 1/2 years or 18 months. So what happened to the American dream. You work to 65 and then you die at 66 1/2. This just does not sound like a dream to me. In doing the research for my book, this number of 18 months was confirmed by the Canada Pension Plan, and the Pension plan office of the large company in Canada where I used to work. To see one of the study results Click Here. There are many others out there.

Now the interesting part of this study also showed that people who retired at 55 lived an average 18 years or till they were 73 years old. People that retired at 45 lived to an average age of 82.

So why are they living much longer. My research showed that these younger retirees go out and do things whereas people who retire at 65 tend to become sedentary. Once you get in the habit of doing something, chances are you will keep doing it.

One of the great things to do is to become a Full Time RV’er. Full Time RV’ers on the whole really are the “Affluent Homeless”. Since they usually do not have the huge upkeep costs of homes, mortgages, two cars, property taxes, power bills, water and sewer bills, they quickly find themselves in a much better position financially.

People who would normally not see themselves retiring till 65 suddenly see a way where they can retire early and really enjoy the American dream  for a greater number of years.

But to really benefit you do have to retire early. Part of the research I did showed that people who did want to retire at 65 and do something like Full Time RV did actually buy the RV, but then since they were so accustomed to a certain routine, they ended up using it for 3 or 4 weeks and then parked it for the rest of the year. Their habitual way of living told them that a vacation was 3 or 4 weeks long and that was it. If you really do want to form a new habit for your retirement years you do have to start younger.  It is for the above reason that you can find so many good deals on very low mileage RV’s only a few years old. The people had the dream but their conditioning and age stopped them from doing it.

The interesting part is that people who start RV’ing earlier will continue driving and enjoying the lifestyle many years after they turn 65. The key is starting early.

Many people would say “But I cannot Afford to retire early”. My question is can you afford not to. If you really take a close look at what you are actually living on after you pay all your bills, taxes, mortgage, car payments, and everything else, and I mean really study it, you will probably find out you live on a few hundred dollars a month. Now if you can sell your home, one of your cars, and just about everything else and then buy a good used RV for 50 or 60 thousand, 100 thousand for a really nice used RV. What would you have left

Our New Home The Day We Purchased It

to live on then. We purchased our 36 foot A class RV for $30,000 and lived in it comfortably for 11 years. That works out to less than $3000 per year. RV parks when we actually used them were about $500 a month. But there are many that are much more reasonable especially well away from major

Modern RV By Fleetwood. You Can Easily Find Units Like This Used. But They Are Also Quite Reasonable New

cities. I have a friend in Canada who pays over $5000 a year just in property taxes on his couple of acres of property.

Knowing the numbers I retired from my job at 55. I was able to take a reduced pension that still allows me to live comfortably in a Full Time Lifestyle. My wife and I also have a business set up on the internet and I sell my “Full Time in an RV” Book. This extra money is just icing on the cake. In some of my previous posts you will see information on how you too could make money on the road.

Just because all your neighbors and friends are trapped in their vision of the American dream, does not mean you have to be. People will try and dissuade you from doing something like Full Time RV’ing. But let them do it their way and die at 66 1/2 while you go on really enjoying your life for many years. Always remember that the main reason that someone will try and dissuade you from doing something like Full Time RV is the fact that they are afraid to change their lifestyle and do not want to look bad since you are not afraid to change yours.

Don’t just take my word for it. There are many websites, and blogs about this lifestyle that give you a lot of information about how nice it really is as well as ideas of how they were able to afford to do it if they did not have a house to sell or a pension to support them. There is also a lot of information in my book “Full Time in an RV” on how to accomplish this lifestyle and how to calculate the costs.

As you may know from earlier blog posts our current RV is a Sailboat. Once the mobile lifestyle catches hold of you, you will find that you will never want to go back and you will try different versions of it also. It may be difficult to convince someone to give up the American Lifestyle and try something like Full Time RV Living, but believe me it is almost impossible to convince them to go back to the Brick and Mortar lifestyle once they embrace the Full Time Mobile lifestyle.

See you on the Road.

We have been watching for more income opportunities to share with our readers, and one just fell into our lap that is custom made for the Full Time RV fraternity. I have actually watched this in action and can swear that it works.

While we had our sailboat in La Paz Mexico we ran into a fellow named David who invented something called the Glide Cycle. The way this came about is the fact that David was an avid runner and sports enthusiast who started to have a lot of trouble with his knees like a lot of baby boomers do. Well as it turned out his doctor told him that he would never run again, and that he would probably have to have knee replacement surgery.

Well not being the complacent type, he decided that these options just did not work for him. He set out to discover a way to continue running and also avoid knee surgery. What he invented was called the Glide Cycle. The Glide Cycle is an arch type frame with a couple of wheels set up a little bit similar to a Bicycle but with no bars between the legs, and no pedals. The unit supports any percentage or your weight that you set it for and allows you to run.

What David quickly discovered was the fact that almost anyone could use it. Amputees could run again, as well as obese people and people with a number of major medical conditions. In fact a number of orthopedic and medical professionals are now recommending the Glide Cycle and its cousin the Glide Track to their patients.

David (The Inventor) Showing my Wife Marilyn How to Adjust The Glide Cycle

But the key to all this was the fact that even healthy people loved the Glide Cycle and he started to sell a large number of them to healthy people who wanted to do something new and different in the way of sports. He personally sold about a quarter million dollars worth of them just riding around Ashland Oregon where his factory is. This lead to the idea of having distributors buy a Glide Cycle and then just riding them around to advertise and sell them. As I said I saw this in action here in La Paz. We were walking along side him as he was just strolling in the Glide Cycle. We could not go more than a few hundred feet and someone would stop him and ask questions. In the first week he had it with him here in La’s Paz he sold 5 of them, and that was just by going out running with it in the mornings. So we know the business model works.

My wife and I have now gone on board with David’s company and are setting up an

Marilyn. Normally a Non Runner. Look At The Smile On Her Face

affiliate marketing system. It is going to be set up in a couple of tiers. First of all is the typical affiliate system you find on the internet. It will not cost anything to join, and anything that you sell on your website will give you a commission. But the real money maker is having a bike and riding it around and letting people stop you to take orders. In the case as above, 5 bikes will give you about $1500. in commissions.

The idea is that the affiliate will do the sales and training, and Glide Cycle does the shipping. You will not have to handle inventory. The business would be set up similar to a standard drop shipping company.

Now for an RV’er this is great. Their entire business expense would involve buying oneself a Glide Cycle, or one each for themselves and their Partner, they would also need a computer and some way to connect to the internet. That is about it. We would take care of training you at no cost to you, and even this part is easy as it involves mostly watching some videos and learning how to adjust the unit for different riders. I have also had some professional sales training and can help with giving some training in that area. David said that even larger numbers of people stopped them when he was riding together with his partner Cindy. So having two Glide Cycles and riding together is advantageous.

You can see the Glide Cycle in Action at www.glidecycle.com. We will have the Glide Cycle affiliate website running very soon also. But for now if you are interested in joining us, just email my wife Marilyn  at marilyn@glidecycle.com

A Glide Cycle snaps apart and fits into a bag a little larger than a suitcase. So it is even easier to carry along on or in the RV than a bicycle is. It can be taken apart or reassembled in a couple of minutes. It is also easily carried along on an airplane as baggage.

David has the Glide Cycle fully patented so there is no worry of cheap Asian knockoffs flooding the market. He is also trying to keep a large percentage of the manufacturing in North America.

The Glide Cycle is looking to be the next Skate Board Phenomenon. Everyone that sees it wants one. And if you watch some of the testimonials from people in the videos on the website and the Glide Cycle Youtube channel you will see that this is not a passing fad. Peoples lives have been changed. I personally watched a stroke victim get on and run, although his normal walk was quite labored. David just received an email from a very obese woman who was telling him that she could not even walk before and was now doing 3 miles a day on the Glide Cycle. She was also going along with her grand children for walks.

So I know there is a business opportunity for RV’ers here. Imagine paying for your entire lifestyle just by getting out your Glide Cycle in the various places that you stop at and then taking orders. When you see the Glide Cycle in action on the web site you will understand the curiosity.

The first thing I might mention is that you may not even have to quit your job. An RV is a home on wheels, and it is not difficult to start the RV lifestyle by purchasing an RV and

Modern RV's Are Great To Live In

parking it in an RV park close to where you work. You probably commute as it is right now and it would be no different to be able to commute from the RV park. Once you make this first step the rest is easy. Just think every weekend, holiday, and your vacation time can be spent traveling in your RV. You are not tied to a house, and house honey do list.

The next option is to take the skills that you have and move around the country practicing them. It could be something like a First Aid Teacher, or a Compliance Teacher. Every company has to keep their employees various certificates up to date. This is the type of job that can be done anywhere. There are also many other options where you use your present skills to become an inspector or consultant. I have met a number of people on the road who do just that.

One of the easiest ways to create an income on the road is on the internet. There are any number of pages available on the internet that show you ways in which this can be done. My wife and I use this method. I build web pages, something I learned to do over the last

An Office in an RV

while, and my wife does editing work, and office virtual assistant work. I have also written the book Full Time in an RV which I sell on line using my own website, Amazon, and affiliate sales. I am currently also finishing off my next book for first time buyers and renters of RV’s.

To do something like this does take some discipline, but if you think about your present job and look at the number of hours you put in, probably at least 9 or 10 per day when you add in commuting and getting ready for work. Then thinking about stopping all that and disciplining yourself to do 4 or 5 hours of work per day, with a beautiful view of a lake, a beach, or the mountains out of your window, it may not seem that bad at all.

There is something out there that fits the Full Time RV lifestyle perfectly and that is Drop Shipping. There are companies that stock all kinds of products and make them available for individuals to sell. When you sell them they ship them. You look up a drop ship company and set up an account with them. Then you pick products to sell and build web pages for them. You make the difference between what you decide to sell the product for and what the Drop ship company charges you. Making websites that sell only one product and are targeted toward a niche can be very lucrative. The products are usually very simple things like candles, or bakeware sets.

There are places on the internet like Etsy where you can sell arts and crafts. Home made arts and crafts of any quality at all can make a handsome income. People want things that are different than what their neighbors have. Things that cannot be purchased at WalMart are in demand.

Also remember that living in an RV can be much less expensive than living in a brick and mortar home. You will not need near as large an income to support it. We ourselves bought a ten year old used A Class when we started. It cost us about $30,000 and we lived in it comfortably for eleven years. That works out to less than $3,000 a year for the RV and Pad rental averaged about $500 a month when we were using it. But we were set

Living Off The Grid

up to spend long periods off the grid so there were many months where we did not pay anything at all for pad rental.

When we started to Full Time RV it was actually to follow my job around. My living out allowance actually paid for the RV and pad rental with lots left over to spare. The beauty of this arrangement was the fact that even when I was working out of town, I could be home with my wife every evening. It was during this time that my wife started doing computer work for other people so that she had something to do during the day when I was working.

We have now been in Mexico almost continuously for a year, with only about a week out of the country to do our taxes in Canada and get new visas. Before that we have probably put in another year in the form of 1 to 3 month RV visits. We have never had a problem, and have never met a person who had a problem, or even heard about a problem.

The killing that is going on in Mexico is mostly between the drug lords, as they fight for their share of the drug trade. There is also quite a bit of fighting between the drug lords and the government, in the form of the police and military.

There are at any one time approximately one million Americans in Mexico. Many of them living there. There are also at best guess a couple hundred thousand Canadians. You know that if an American or Canadian gets killed in Mexico, it becomes headline news. Be honest, how often do you actually hear of an American or Canadian actually getting killed in Mexico. Consider that for one million drivers in the U.S., 125 will die in a given year. 50,000 thousand total in the U.S. per year. And that is for an activity that the average person only does for about an half an hour per day. If 125 Americans died per year because they were in Mexico, there would be outrage. The number is closer to 5 per year, and those are usually involved in the drug trade in some way.

A Mexican citizen told me the drug lords consider the tourists as customers. In fact a lot of drug money gets laundered by building resorts. This same citizen told me that if a Mexican does something to a tourist, he had better hope that if he gets caught that it is the police that catch him and not the drug lords. With the later he will never be seen again.

True their are places in Mexico that are better avoided such as Ciudad Juarez. But the biggest danger there is getting caught in the cross fire. Consider Canada, it is viewed as one of the safest countries on earth to travel in, yet just a short time ago there was a gun fight between two gangs on a main Vancouver street, where ten gang members where shot. And in the smaller city of Abbotsford where I grew up a recent gang war resulted in over 700 shots getting fired. This happens everywhere. The truth is that if you considered all of North America from Canada to Panama, probably some of the most dangerous places to travel would be American cities like East Oakland California, Chicago, Washington D.C. and even Philadelphia.

The following is an Except from Lectronic Latitude, the blog connected with Latitude 38 Magazine. This is a magazine for boaters out of San Francisco.

“Here’s something you may want to ponder. Juarez has the highest murder rate in Mexico, yet it’s lower than that of tiny St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgins — “America’s Paradise” — where all the cruise ships pull in. Curious that you never see that reported in USA Today, isn’t it?”

At the moment the economy in the U.S. is making it difficult for Americans to spend time in their RV’s. So why not head south of the border to Mexico where the prices are great, there is lots of sunshine, and the people are friendly.

Always remember that the news papers and TV news shows are there to make money. So if they can sensationalize something they will.

George Bernard Shaw said: ~ “Two percent of the people Think. Three percent of the people Think that they Think. And Ninety Five percent would rather die than think”.

The ninety five percent let other people and the media do their thinking for them. If you are really thinking you would be asking “Show me the murdered tourists in Mexico”.

So this morning I volunteered to fly up to B.C. and help her if she needed my help. I am waiting to see what she says.

To see what all the excitement is about just visit our book  WEBSITE

Full-Time RVing in Canada

The Full-Time RVing in Canada site has gone live.

Full-Time RVing in Canada is now available for sale. This comprehensive guide shows you what you need to know to be a Canadian Full Timer. Health Care, Taxes, Voting and Province of Residency are some of the topics that are discussed. Then the rest of the book is devoted to the how to, where to, what type of rig, along with a lot of the technical information that you need to know.

There is a free download on the site that will give you an excerpt from the book along with the covers and table of contents.

To get your copy just visit Full-Time Rving in Canada now.

You can take a sneak peak at the new book at http://full-time-rving-in-canada.ca/?cat=5

What this means to the Full Time RV’er is very high speed internet almost everywhere. I have read articles that claim up to 25 megabit download speeds, which is 5 or 6 times faster than high end DSL. It is also much faster than cable, since cable sometimes claims speeds up to 10 or 15 megabit, but most of my friends who actually have cable internet say they have never seen these speeds. It is usually slower than DSL.

I am currently in Mexico, and have purchased the Mexican version of an internet stick. I am sitting in an my sailboat in an anchorage on the west side of the Baja near a town of a couple of thousand people. Yet I still have good internet service via the internet stick. Here in Mexico you can purchase the internet stick for about $50 dollars U.S. and it comes with 3 gigabytes of internet access. Additional blocks of 3 gigabytes cost about $30 dollars U.S. About the only way that I will use more than 3 gigabytes in a month of use, would be if I started downloading movies, or a lot of music, so for most people 3 gigabytes is about all you would ever need.

I do not have current pricing for Canada and the U.S. but the latest figures that I did have were about $50 to $60 dollars for 3 gigabytes. There are also other plans available with more or less gigabytes per month.

One of the problems in the U.S. and Canada is the fact that they usually want you to sign a contract of some type to get your internet stick for free. It is usually better just to buy the thing and then pay monthly for the service that you require. Another option is to buy an unlocked internet stick on ebay and then just get a simm card for it from you favorite cell provider. On ebay just type “3G modem” into the search line. An unlocked 3G internet stick can be used in many countries around the world. You just have to buy a local simm card in the country you are visiting. This save you from spending a fortune in roaming fees.

Be aware though that not all cell companies provide 3G service. Before you buy an internet stick you may want to inquire if your favorite cell company does provide it. Some cell companies are still using EVDO, and while this is quite fast, it is not as fast as 3G. If your company uses EVDO, you will need to get an EVDO internet stick.

If you do buy an internet stick, it is also a good idea to buy the longest “High Quality” USB extension cable that you can find. This is so that you can put the internet stick out doors, or even on the roof of your RV if you happen to be in a remote area with weak cell signal. Some internet sticks come with a short USB cable and a stand to allow you to set the stick vertically and move it around. Since most cell phone signals are vertically polarized, you will get better results if the internet stick is also vertical. If your extension cable does not work, it may not be of high enough quality.

Internet Stick and Quad Band Unlocked SciPhone

Another communications option for the full time RV’er is something called an Unlocked Quad Band Cell Phone. You can purchase these on Ebay, and then get a simm card from a cell provider in your area that gives you a local phone number along with credit for long distance and airtime.

The beauty of these phones is the fact that you can use it all over the world to get a local phone number for the country that you are in. That way if someone wants to call you they are paying the long distance charges, and you do not get stuck with a huge roaming bill. I have purchased a Quad Band Phone called a SciPhone. It is almost an exact copy of an Iphone, and most of the Iphone apps work in it. They also have their own app store.

The SciPhone cost me about $80. dollars delivered. Here in Mexico it cost me 150 pesos or about $12. to get set up with a local telephone number and some minutes to start with. Now I can go to any reseller in Mexico to buy extra minutes for my phone. About the only downside is the fact that everytime you travel to a new country and get a new telephone number you have to email your new number to all your friends.

If you want one of these phones just type “Unlocked Quad Band Cell Phone” into the search bar on Ebay. Then just look for one that is GSM and/or 3G compatible. Almost all brands of phones are represented, and you are sure to find one that will suit your needs.