Vanlife & making money online: here's how to do it

We are Stef & Eef and since 2023 we travel around Europe in our motorhome together with our adventurous cats Luna & Willy. We have completely changed course to follow our hearts. Along the way we have all kinds of adventures, spend a lot of time in nature and experience all kinds of things. We earn our money in different ways and have experienced that the most important thing is not money, but time, and therefore freedom.

From burnout to the freedom oflife

In the distant past, we both worked at large corporate companies in good management positions. We had busy weeks filled with work, sports, seeing friends, volunteer projects, housework and more work. By the weekend we were completely wrecked and on Monday the routine started all over again. Promotion after promotion, a nice house to buy, nice friends and everything you should have by the norm to be happy; yet something gnawed at us. We were so lived.

At one point I (Eef) sat at home with a severe burnout and no longer had any idea who I really was. When Stef also sat at home sick, the switch flipped. “What are we actually doing? Is this really how we want to live our lives?”

We sold our house and completely changed course. We also really wanted to take the cats with us, but traveling with a backpack and cats is quite something. When we met other adventurers who were traveling with their cats in a camper van, we thought: we want this too!

By the way, these were vanlifers Chantal and (cat) Ollie, read their story here in the guest blog they wrote for Working Remotely.

Taking your home on a trip

It is so nice that you always have your own home and belongings with you and can still get to the most beautiful places. We often sleep at wildlife spots in the middle of nature. We love that peace and quiet, the cats also go very well with it. They turn out to be bigger adventurers than ourselves and are constantly out and about. The first year we suffered a bit from travel fomo, seeing, experiencing and ticking off everything. That is not sustainable, you really get ‘travel tired’.

Now we travel much more quietly. In fact, the best moments are the unexpected surprises; sitting by a fire under the stars, hiking with the cats or a cold splash in the sea. Life has become much simpler but therefore much richer.

Making money online during your RV trip

Lets talk money. Let’s start right away with the fact that our costs are much lower than when we owned our own house in the Netherlands. Fortunately we were able to sell it with a surplus value which gave us a nice buffer. We are both self-employed and do all kinds of things. So nice not to limit yourself to one thing but to experience what you are really good at and what gives you energy.

I turned my greatest passion into my job and retrained as a photographer. It had been my great love for years, but I always thought it was just a hobby and that you couldn’t really make money from it. Truly an incorrect and limiting belief! Along the way, I capture other entrepreneurs and digital nomads. For their website, branding and content. I also get to capture special moments like a pregnancy, engagement or families on vacation. Because we travel this is always in a different place, which makes it super fun (and also challenging). I actually enjoy capturing nature the most, unfortunately the animals don’t pay that well yet, but fortunately the prints are yielding more and more.

Stef works primarily as a copywriter and transcriber. He is super good with language. He loves being able to proofread books; he finds a few mistakes in every book he reads. We also work with companies for content creation, affiliate marketing, blogging and visuals. I have a lot of experience with negotiations from my previous work and occasionally help women with their salary negotiations and (job) coaching.

Our office changes every week. Sometimes we work overlooking the sea, sometimes in the middle of the mountains and sometimes just in the Lidl’s parking lot. Along the way we also hope to work at a campsite or farm or in the next few months and gain experience. We think it would be great to work a little more with our hands.

How do you start such a vanlife life?

For this piece, I am stepping back into my recruiter role for a moment. Please let go of job titles right away. Focus on your core value, get clear on what you actually want and it’s okay if this changes. Buy a notebook and make this your holy-I’m-gonna-make-my-dreams-reality bible.

Start brainstorming:

What am I good at? What do I get energy from?
What do I not like at all?
What did I always do as a child? What comes naturally to me, what is so normal for me and not for others?
How much money do I need?
How many hours per week do I want to work?

Put it away for a while and do it several more times on other days. Also ask those around you. Highlight the most important things, what comes back often and what do you think is most important? Hold that thought. Now start searching online for those terms. You’re going to see that there are lots of possibilities. Take a course, talk to people who are already doing this and just try it.

Go do it, and know that it takes time to grow. You’re not going to make 10K overnight. Give yourself time to grow as an entrepreneur or digital nomad. We are all just doing something and you learn as you go. But, you just have to start. Start growing in your role and gathering feedback and reviews. Start, and keep walking.

What you need in any case to succeed as a digital nomad

A laptop, sand between your toes and a coffee or cocktail right?
Internet is most essential, though. We buy a local SIM card in each country and always schedule online work appointments in places where we are sure we have good coverage.
Noise canceling headset. The camper van is small and especially on days when it’s raining and we’re working inside together, you don’t want to hear the other person and be able to focus on your own work.
Patience, self-compassion and perseverance.
A cat on your lap for extra coziness and motivation to stay seated working instead of going on an adventure.
Your favorite tea or coffee in your favorite feel-good mug.
A good network. Network is everything, keep telling people what you do and how you can help them. If necessary, hang up a sign. When we are at campgrounds I do this sincerely, put up a sign that I can capture vacation memories. Most of my clients come our way spontaneously or through social media, the other day I had a branding shoot by the pool that way!

When do you start your vanlife?

“Later, when I have made a lot of money, later when I have done this, later when I have more time…” But what if later never comes? How bad would it be if you put all your dreams on hold only to find out they would never leave that place? Follow your dreams. There is always a path. It’s not easy, you’ll have to leave things behind and it’s undoubtedly uncomfortable, but it’s worth it!

We are so often told that people would want this too and that we were lucky. “I want this so badly but for me it’s not possible because… ” Yes, we are indeed lucky to have grown up in the Netherlands and have privileges that other people (in other countries) don’t have. We are super grateful for that. But we also had to leave a lot for it, step out of our comfort zone and accept choices and consequences.

Our family was really not all excited. You don’t want to know how many tears were shed. How much fear it evoked in us to leave our “safety” behind. Life is not a Disney movie and following your heart brings so much uncertainty. But it is worth it. Should you want to change course yourself, trust yourself.