SOMEWHERE ON THE BUS

It’s A New Way Of Life - No Strings Attached

Welcome to our diary.  A personal blog made public following us;  Brad, Julie, Lola & Daisy recording the essence our life with a bus travelling, working and exploring all Australia has to offer.   The people we meet, places we go, things we do, income we earn.

It begins with the purchase and build of our bus (The Conversion) and continues through our life on and off the road and the lifestyle we live. 

The reason for sharing it publicly?  Capturing our memories aside, we hope to inspire other dreamers to "Just Do It" too.   Those who yearn this style of life but struggle to let go of expectations and commitments. That sense of security that comes with a home base of bricks and mortar. This is a glimpse of the good, the bad and the occasional ugly of choosing another way. Ours is “Roam if you want to - No Strings Attached”. 

We are a family of four plus Daisy the poodle, but only three of us become modern day gypsies.  Our adult son Jay chose to keep his life and work in Victoria - for now. Just a "normal" suburban family from the Cardinia region of Victoria with career, mortgage, school, family, friends and all the expectations of life. 

Julie on a solid six figure income with a progressing career in Business Information Management, harshly balanced by the 10-12 hour day sacrifice away from home and constant struggle with the old moral compass. Meanwhile Brad combined the pressures of home renovations and earning $ with the confines of the Mr Mum home and school schedule and it's associated demands. Loans with low equity, bank accounts with low balances, life with low excitement.

Stagnated. We were enslaved by the routine that is the daily grind.
Stifled. We very much lacked the feeling of freedom, imprisoned by the financial commitments we had established.
Awoken. We were horribly reminded through heart breaking loss of how easily this one chance at life can cease at any moment.   

2012 was the year we decided to do something about it - do what we want to do. It’s time for change!

So at 12noon on the 12th day of the 12th month of the year 2012 we rather spontaneously bought an old school bus for the modest price of $7,000.

A numerology side note: While it’s not really my thing, all of those 12’s simply can’t be ignored so a quick google on Numerology 12 Meaning this is what I found:

“OPPORTUNITIES TO TURN OVER A NEW LEAF, 12 is at the very end of the numerology spectrum, and it offers those who see it in their daily life the opportunity to turn over a new leaf by giving them a chance to wrap up a certain life stage and situation before moving forward to bigger and better things. This number is like a curtain call that allows you to get your affairs together so you can benefit from the windfall that the universe is about to bestow on you.”
Ref: http://numerologysecrets.net/numerology-12-meaning

A Labour of Love

And so we laboured incessantly for over a year to convert our bus to a comfortable apartment on wheels that is uniquely ours. Then “wrap up a certain life stage” we surely did! We shook off the status quo, packed up our old life and began a new and exciting one, with no regrets.

No storage units or home base for us . We sold some but gave away most of our household possessions, furniture, appliances, niknaks, gadgets, memorabilia, clothes, cars etc. Afterall, it is just STUFF!

Jay at 21 working full time and living at home is presented with options :
1. join us with some age appropriate conditions attached or
2. Consider this your 12 months notice to find somewhere to live.
He chose the latter, and finally moved out in the eleventh hour to become an independent young man (albeit with some minor ongoing abandonment issues).

8 year old Lola while not afforded choice, was offered a positive vision of the exciting future we planned and opportunities we would explore. At the same time, gently but fully forewarned of the sacrifices we would all make and the loved ones we’d miss. Her involvement and buy-in from day one as she helped in the design of her new home and plan the how to of keeping in touch with her family and friends. Our excitement and enthusiasm was contagious and she caught it. Not to say there aren’t times ahead where she loses some of that enthusiasm a little along the way.

Of course we still have to live, eat and wish to enjoy those certain comforts and conveniences of modern life. Quite the consideration especially being we are neither old nor financial enough to retire in our 40's. No we haven’t signed up for a tax payer funded “income ”. We are not on an endless holiday nor are we ticking off “The Big Lap Bucket List” only to return to our former life. We are absolutely not about to go totally barefoot living off the land on a diet of witchetty grub to survive.

No, rest assured we have not relinquished all responsibility nor checked out of society just yet. We have simply relinquished the pressure of expectations of “the norm” and chosen to uphold our responsibilities in a differently way. No longer enslaved to “assets” on a 60-70% debt ratio, we feel free on the 0% ratio we now intend to maintain. We have a little tow car to be mobile, our apartment on wheels providing a clean and functional roof over our head with a cosy bed at night, shower, loo and food in the fridge wherever we may be - albeit smaller and with much less stuff!

Do you realise just how much INCOME you DON’T need to earn when you don’t have debt and so much stuff?

Do you realise just how much STUFF you DON”T need when you don’t have such a large space to fill it?

Free to Roam

Simply put, our new lifestyle is about being mobile - free to roam if we want to. Roam aimlessly at times or head in a general direction fixed only on a particular State, Territory or compass direction. Just drive until we reach a cross road and if nothing takes our fancy then Lola will flip the proverbial coin to determine with heads turn left, tails turn right. We stop to live and work where we want to, when we want to and for as long as we want to with no strings attached.

Ok so it’s not always quite that free and easy. As with all life responsibility, sometimes it’s stop and work somewhere because we need to (educationally, financially, socially, emotionally). But the beauty of this life for us is that if we become stagnated or stifled, the flexibility and freedom to get up and go, do something different, is always there for the taking as desired or required.

It’s about the freedom to live and explore from place to place.  Absorb each community's way of life, living and working in places and ways we never have before, and boy are we doing that.   Always knowing that whether it's in two weeks or two years, when the time is up we will be ready to start up the bus and move on to the next adventure.   

We’ve lived and worked on drought stricken farms in country NSW and SA. Transitioned to life in the remote Central Desert region immersed in the rawness of indigenous community life and culture. Enjoyed unique and interesting characters who are the tapestry of the great Northern Territory. In vast transition, absorbing in the fresh and glorious waters of the Indian Ocean in the stunning South West WA and the challenges of developing a new career path.   It's always something new, interesting and exciting.

East, West, North and South we’ve met, lived and worked with some truly inspirational people in exceptional places along the way and made some new life long friends. Sweltered in 50+ degree desert summer and crooned with dolphins among idyllic aqua waters and crystal white sands. Been stranded on the edge of the Stuart Highway for days awaiting a tow truck and served our old fashioned roasts and stews to the Alyawarr and Anmatyerre people of NT’s Utopia region. Frozen stiff in the winter icicles of NSW Orana region amongst the sickly smell of the gidgee tree. Converted a shipping container to living out of old farmhouses steeped in the family history of farming generations and being welcomed as part of their family.

We’ve lavished the Fleurieu Peninsula and the Limestone Coasts and endured the onset of Ross River Virus together with broken trailer axle crossing the arid country that is the Nullarbor Plain from SA. From an audience to Bindi & Bob at Australia zoo to a family road trip swimming in the Millaa Millaa Waterfall in the North QLD rainforests. There’s so, so much more……

I was asked again the other day "Do you think you guys will ever buy a house again and settle down?".  Without even having to think about it the answer was a rapid and emphatic NO!  I couldn't think of anything worse!  My feet are now permanently itchy and our long term visions involve our fabulous bus and the fabulous debt free life that comes with it. 

No it's not always easy. As with life in general, everything has it's sacrifices and compromises.  But for me personally, it’s worth every second.  If you don’t believe me, go to our blog page and flick through our family albums, scan our journals and sense our transition from the 9-5 grind of 20+ years living in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne to just a few years with a bus where the true diversity of Australia is now our backyard.

If money is still a main driver for you, then take heart in this fact: we have simultaneously earned less money per year than we ever have in our 31 years together, yet we’ve managed to save more money than we’ve ever managed - that’s the simple life for you.

What about our financial future? Well who knows, of course we could be dead tomorrow. Regardless of whether we were to own a nice big house we’d lived in for the past 50 years by the time we reach our retirement, or we own our old funky bus (whether it drives or not) - we will still have a comfortable roof over our heads and the freedom to Roam If We Want To.

So are you thinking about doing something similar?  Then as I always say (and I think a little company called Nike once said it too) - JUST DO IT!   

We hope to see you somewhere on the bus :)     

Julie Ann