How To Change My Residency With A Mail Forwarding Service

Mail. Bills. Voting. If you're a nomad wanting to remain all legal-like, y'all'll demand to take all these things into business relationship. How does 1 handle all of these logistical things when you don't have a physical fixed home accost? Answering questions about how nosotros go our mail is surprisingly one of our most frequent questions!

Information technology'south amazing how many mundane details in life are dependent upon having an address.

When contemplating becoming intentionally homeless and embarking on a life of travel, trying to muddle through all of these simple piffling details can begin to seem insurmountable. But never fright — yous don't have to let a fiddling cherry tape keep you tied downwardly. At that place's ever a way around, and it really isn't even all that complicated.

The starting time stride is deciding where y'all want to be "from". Smartly setting upward this "home base of operations" can give you a strong foundation to travel from.

Picking a Domicile State

Please note… domicile is a complex legal topic that you need to advisedly consider. We are not lawyers and the only advice we're giving here is that yous might need to seek one out to propose you. This is just our general understanding of the bug and considerations.

Virtually of the obstacles center around i critical choice — where will your legal permanent accost be if y'all're no longer maintaining a fixed habitation? Near everything you exercise, will require having a permanent address. For US citizens, you lot need a legal address to handle things like a commuter's license, vehicle registration, passport, banking accounts, credit cards, insurance, filing taxes so on.

Just before selecting that address, you need to first select which state yous desire it to be in . Since your legal address is no longer dependent upon your concrete location — you go to choose which state to declare your intentions of being domiciled at. The state y'all originate your nomadic journeying from may actually not be at all advantageous to you as a nomad – or it might be very advantageous, but hard to institute equally a new nomadic resident.

But first, let'due south talk about the difference between beingness a Resident and being Domiciled. This was summed upwardly nicely past the New York appeals court:

Residence ways living in a particular locality, merely abode ways living in that locality with intent to make it a fixed and permanent home. Residence simply requires bodily presence as an inhabitant in a given identify, while dwelling house requires bodily presence in that place and as well an intention to get in one's domicile.

Each states sets its own rules as to what constitutes 'bodily presence', leaving you lot with the task of proving your intent. And information technology'southward important to keep in listen – you are proving your intent not only to your new state, but too the state you are moving from – as well as any other state that may desire to merits you for revenue enhancement.

Depending upon your unique situation, different states will make amend sense for different people. If you're earning an income, a land without a state income taxation may be virtually appealing.

Of those, Texas, South Dakota and Florida tend to be the 3 most popular choices for their combination of benefits that support nomadic travelers and their ease of establishing your intent.

Only income taxes alone shouldn't be your sole deciding factor. Hither are some other considerations to fully investigate for your situation which may trump paying some taxes:

- Insurance rates & accessibility (be sure to check not only for the state, just for the specific null code – equally these tin can vary widely fifty-fifty within a state)
- Vehicle registration fees & requirements (ie. will your RV demand to registered as a commercial vehicle due to weight/length, or will commuter's demand a special license?)
- Spousal relationship, family unit, divorce and mutual-law rules
- Sales tax rates
- Tax on dividends, retirement gain, capital gains and not-earned income
- Property taxes
- Corporate taxation & fees
- Homeschooling laws (Here's a Book: Homeschool Legally While You Travel the USA)
- Time in land requirements (some crave you to actually be in the state a sure amount of the time a year.)
- Inheritance laws & taxation
- Trusts and estate problems
- Vehicle inspection rules
- Jury duty obligations
- Driver's license & tag renewal logistics (do you lot accept to show upwardly in person?)
- Where you lot ain property and accept existing connections
- My protestation on the courtsteps in SD over lack of 'spaces' in names.
  
  Availability of logistical back up (such as mail service forwarding services)
- What stage of your travels you're in (already own your RV or boat? Sold your house? Planning an imminent major purchase?)
- Where you plan to spend nearly your time
- Will their computer systems spell your name right? (I was quite upset to learn that Southward Dakota – the place of 'Great Places and Great Faces' doesn't permit SPACES in names on driver's license. Umm.. hello??)

Patently, this can be a very circuitous decision with a lot of variables that yous'll have to counterbalance. We sum upwardly a few of the elevation reasons South Dakota, Texas and Florida are frequent choices of total-timers beneath – but this sort of information can quickly get outdated. For certain, do your research and be conscientious where you get your research. A lot of the resources you'll find on the web may be several years out of date.

The rules for establishing residency in a state volition vary widely by state, then it'south important to fully research the states yous are considering for your situation. Some are more hard than others, and the sequence of what you need to do first (get an address, driver's license, register vehicles, etc.) tin vary by quite a chip. New identification rules for getting a driver's license can make information technology more and more than hard for a nomadic person to see the requirements.

Only by and large, it comes down to intent, especially when talking near establishing a domicile. And the more you lot practice to establish the intent, the more bullet proof your residency is should it ever be called into question. It makes the nigh sense to utilize the same address for everything – identification, insurance, vehicle registrations, voting, tax filing, bills, bank & credit card statements, etc. The more you can cut ties with any other country (particularly the state you are moving from), the more than you are expressing intent of establishing your dwelling. It likewise makes sense to establish as many connections near your new accost equally possible to prove your intent should it e'er come into question.

What types of things might call your domicile into question?

Owning belongings and/or living in a taxation ambitious state if information technology appears your legal motility was to dodge those taxes past establishing yourself elsewhere.
Earning income in a state with aggressive income taxation laws
Vehicles registered in states other than your domicile
Non fully proving to your erstwhile country of residence that yous accept fully cut ties
Getting pulled over and telling the officer you're working locally (a common indication of being a resident, the state may desire you to register your vehicles)
and more

You need to also exist enlightened of what the local laws are for the places you actually observe yourself staying at and accept connections to. You lot may intend to be considered domiciled in, say, Due south Dakota – but if you spend well-nigh your fourth dimension in a more tax-aggressive state you may notice yourself unintentionally considered as a resident – and thus owing country taxes, or being ticketed for not having your vehicles properly registered (Here'south a guide from AAA that goes over vehicle registration rules for each country.)

If you're going to be in a state regularly and long enough to run across their residency weather condition, it may exist a expert idea to but setup your domicile there anyway.

Habitation is a complex topic that can have unintended consequences for you, and so don't take this lightly. Hither's the Escapees RV Club Guide to Domicile that we recommend post-obit upwardly with.

If you accept circumstances that are anything only straightforward – it's highly brash you consult a dwelling house savvy chaser or advisor for guidance. We recommend Loring & Associates (and so does the Escapees RV Club – really Shawn Loring is now the Escapee'south CEO) as a starting place – they even offer a gratuitous initial consultation.

It'due south also a good idea to browse many of the full-time RVing, traveling or cruising forums to come across what the experiences have been of others.

Picking a Legal Address

Ok, so now you've picked the country that it makes the most sense to be on your commuter's license and intend to call your legal home. Side by side step is to select what your actual address in that state should exist.

First of all – no, you can't apply a United states of america Postal Service PO Box as your primary address. Most states will non accept this on a commuter'south license, and many services you'll demand won't accept it either. They besides don't make a swell mail forwarding option either.

Here are some possibilities to consider:

Using the address of a family member or friend

If y'all have connections to someone with a physical accost in a state that makes sense for y'all, information technology may work out to ask a friend or family fellow member if you can 'live' with them. At least, legally speaking.

But be sure this is someone you lot trust to handle some of your legal affairs; as whatsoever official mail will likely be coming here – jury summons, tax notifications, legal documents, registration renewals and more. Talk over farther if you'll be using their accost for all of your mail service, and what they are to exercise with information technology when it arrives (agree it, trash it, forward information technology on)? As well, make certain they're in a stable housing situation – if they move, that also ways you accept to movement. And that can be a hurting when y'all're thousands of miles away.

Some other consideration is that you'll exist legally considered role of their household – which ways for any purposes of computing total household income will at present include yours and theirs. This could take negative unintended ramifications, such equally if your added income disqualifies your friend or family member from receiving regime benefits.

(If you opt for this route, don't forget to thank your friend with an advisable gift for the service!)

Mail Forwarding & Domicile Services for Travelers

IMGP2838 — Chris 'moving' to S Dakota by sending in his notarized mail forms in 2007.

In many states that are pop domiciles, there are services specifically setup to back up usa total fourth dimension travelers. They deed as both a legal accost for use on commuter'southward license, federal & local taxes, vehicle registration, voting, insurance and more — and a mailing address that can forward your mail service to you. Most of them can accept packages from all of the delivery services, making them quite practical. Some of them volition scan and transport you your mail electronically, provide yous an online mailbox, notify you when you lot get an certificate you were expecting and even assist y'all in establishing your domicile (such every bit registering your vehicles remotely.)

The fees for these services are quite reasonable, by and large starting at under $ten/month for a basic packet. To institute them, you only accept to sign & notorize some forms giving the service authorization to have mail on your behalf, and perchance a limited power of attorney to handle your vehicle registrations.

Patriot Act Warning: Using a commercial mail forward service does have a downside. All financial institutions are required by the Patriot Act to have a residential address on file for their account holders, and the rules specifically disallow mail forwarding services & PO Boxes. So if you change your address (or open a new business relationship) using your mail forwarding accost – you will likely at some point be asked to provide it. Not doing so can lead to accounts being restricted or suspended from transactions (nosotros've had this happen, even on accounts we've held for over x years using mail forwarding addresses). You are legally allowed to apply a 'next of kins' address, even if you don't alive in that location. Have a residential address, preferably within your state of habitation, ready to get. Don't try to explain to the institution your situation – they're just filling in blanks, or it could raise red flags (we tried this in one case, thinking we'd carve a path for RVers, and it resulted in them non accepting our family fellow member's address without proof we lived at that place.)

For more information on this, bank check our article on: Treatment Money & Finances on the Road

In the 3 well-nigh popular states, here are some of the most frequently recommended services:

S Dakota:

Advantages: No income tax, depression vehicle excise taxes (3-4%), easy exemption from jury duty, no vehicle state inspections, lower insurance costs, can renew driver's license (every 5 years) one fourth dimension remotely.

Disadvantages: RVer friendly medical insurance policies are of very express availability – pretty much only those who qualify for Medicare tin go affordable coverage with an ACA compatible program that covers them exterior of the state for anything simply emergency care (check RVerInsurance.com for the latest), annual vehicle registrations are charged past weight (adds up for motorhomes), must present campground or motel receipt when obtaining driver's license and you must render in 5 years to renew your license (later on that, it tin be renewed online every other 5 years). Cold in the wintertime if you demand to establish residency and so or return for driver's license renewals!

~~My Dakota Accost – In Madison, SD. This was our service when we were domiciled in SD – we were very happy with them, and many others seem to be well served by them besides.~~ July 2018 Update – My Dakota Address went 'out of business' with just 4 days discover to their customers.
America'southward Mailbox – In Rapid Urban center, SD. An reward to this service, they also operate a campground and guest house, which might make it easier for showing a receipt of address when yous go to get or renew your driver's license (a newer requirement in SD – us transients have to show a lodging receipt).
Alternative Resources – In Sioux Falls, SD. This service is also frequently referenced on various RVing forums every bit being a reliable service that folks are happy with.
Escapees RV Club – Through their 'Home' service they now offer abode back up in Due south Dakota. Your mail is even so forwarded from their TX location, only they provide a SD address that tin be used for things like driver's license, vehicle registrtion and such.

Florida

Advantages: No income tax, no vehicle country inspections, can renew driver's license remotely once (every eight years), multiple RVer-friendly health insurance options on and off the substitution, almanac vehicle registration is a flat per vehicle rate, all vehicles registered as an RV are covered with your bones driver's license class, great Florida residency discounts at theme attractions and for seniors, country parks campgrounds.

Disadvantages: Typically higher vehicle insurance rates, jury duty exemption not every bit proven (merely has a loftier snowbird population), requires VIN inspection of your vehicles for initial registration (can be verified by an police enforcement officeholder in state withal).

St. Brendan'due south Isle – In Green Cove Springs, FL (Dirt Canton), this is a service that is highly regarded in the cruising community and also assists travelers of all kinds. When nosotros legally moved to Florida in early 2013, this is the service nosotros used – and are extremely happy with them. They scan the front of the envelop as our mail arrives, and give usa options to manage our mail service online. We tin can even instruct them to open the envelop and scan the contents to read online – which is very time saving.
American Dwelling Base – In Pensacola, FL, this service is besides long established and frequently referenced every bit reliable. It's also ofttimes referred to as the 'Practiced Sam' postal service service.
My RV Mail – In Crestview, FL, this service is affiliated with the Passport America camping order, and is also used past quite a few nomads based out of Florida.
Escapees Dwelling house offers use of an accost at their park in Bushnell, Florida as your legal address if you'd similar to use their postal service service in TX and exist domiciled in Florida likewise. Just your domicile related mail volition use this accost and and then will be forwarded to Texas to your box. All of your regular mail should go to your Texas address to avoid forwarding fees. This does allow you to switch home between TX, SD and FL a fleck easier if needed.

Texas

Advantages: No income revenue enhancement, can renew driver's license remotely once, multiple health insurance options, apartment annual vehicle inspection charge per unit, reasonable vehicle insurance rates, Escapee members in particular tend to take easier jury duty exemption.

Disadvantages: Requires annual vehicle inspection (exempt until you enter the state of Texas), for RVs over a certain weight you need a special commuter's license class that requires an exam.

Escapees – In Livingston, TX. 1 reason Texas is so pop especially amongst total-time RVers is the Escapees RVing club. They've been effectually for decades and offer all sorts of services for RVers – from a network of campgrounds, discounts, a magazine, active user forums, rallies, partnered services for insurance and more. They likewise do a lot of work to protect RVer'south rights in domicile, voting and more. They too offer a mail forwarding service that is highly regarded to their members and you tin selection Texas or Florida every bit your state of domicile with them. (They are more than just a mail service and home accost however – and worth joining regardless!)
Texas Home Base – In Wichita Falls, TX. An alternative to Escapees that caters to travelers of all sorts.

Full general Mail service Box Services

Some folks opt to utilise a general personal mail box service that isn't specifically geared to travelers. Places such equally the UPSStore or individually endemic 'pack and mail' locations can provide you a mailbox to receive mail and packages at, and some might even be able to package them all up and forward them on to yous. Practice be sure to talk and/or see the people in charge and make sure they actually become your lifestyle. Every bit these places aren't specifically setup for us travelers – information technology could exist hitting-or-miss if this is a workable state of affairs for you lot by location. Simply an reward, particularly among a place similar the UPSStore, is that you can receive packages at any UPSStore location equally you roam.

There'due south also general virtual mail forwarding services out there – such as EarthClassMail and TravelingMailBox.

Personal Banana / Attorney

If yous have a lot of mail or logistics to keep on top of as you travel, such equally running a business, it may brand sense to rent a personal banana to have care of it for yous. This person tin receive and sort your mail, handle your incoming electronic mail, deposit any checks that come up in, answer telephone calls and other such things – forwarding on just the important stuff that needs your attending. If yous've already vetted the individual out as someone you lot want to work with long term, you lot may even exist able to utilize their address as your own.

Additionally, if you have a personal or business attorney, their part may be able to provide domicile services with an address and amanuensis to receive any important documents on your behalf. They can besides serve as your registered agent for whatever business legal stuff.

Buy Property

Some folks just don't trust that having a personal mailbox somewhere is enough to establish their residency. And some Patriot Human action and tax aggressive state (your current state may exist quite resistant to letting y'all go without yous fully 'settling' downward somewhere else) consequences reinforce this. One case is financial institutions are supposed to now have a physical residential address on file for all of their customers, and more and more of their computer systems are rejecting personal mailboxes (as they're technically at a business location). Having an address handy to use if you always go caught in this loop tin come in quite handy to avert getting your accounts locked out. Just buying an empty piece of land with a concrete mailing address should suffice (but then wouldn't a relative or friend'southward accost – just exist cautious of muddling in a tax aggressive land that may desire to claim you as their ain.)

When choosing your residency address or service, consider which features and costs make the most sense for you lot. You can likewise combine the options above – such as using the address of a relative for all your legal stuff, and then getting a postal service forwarding service to exist your general mailing accost (once again, it's not brash to take multiple states involved).

When selecting a paid service, inquire questions such equally what the succession program is? Some smaller organizations run past ane person could put y'all in a lot of frustration if they get sick or need to get out the business, without trained staff to take over. At that place take been enough examples of mail forwarding services just spontaneously going out of business, leaving their customers in quite a lurch to get their nerveless mail and so scrambling to 'move' to a new service.

Receiving your Mail while Roaming

Ok, then now y'all have an address to telephone call abode, and an address where your mail service will exist collected.

Kiki receiving her mail! (She always knows which ones are for her.)

A logical adjacent step is to minimize the corporeality of mail service y'all receive before you offset traveling. Catechumen bills and statements over to electronic, and make sure y'all're setup to pay online – either past online neb pay or payments going to a credit bill of fare. Get off mailing lists and cut out subscriptions. Encourage friends and family to engage in online communication, as opposed to snail post.

Regardless of the circumstances, mail is going to to accept extra time catch upward to y'all if it's existence forwarded from another address. Brand sure y'all're on top of what bills come up due when – such as renewals for insurance policies. Sometimes you're just going to have to exist pro-agile to keep everything up to appointment.

For really receiving your mail equally you're traveling, options include:

Local Friends & Family – If you're going to be visiting a town where you know someone, ask if you can utilise their accost to accept your mail sent. If they're agreeable, notify your post forwarding service with their address, and make sure you requite them plenty of lead time for the mail to reach you lot before you motility on to your next location. This is our default – fifty-fifty if we're not staying with them. Some of our friends even beginning learn nosotros're heading into town because our mail starts showing upwards before we do!
Electric current Location – Most of the places you are paying to stay at are happy to let yous use their accost to receive your mail. Whether this be a campground, hotel, hostel or guesthouse. Information technology definitely helps the proprietors of the property get your mail to you lot if you conspicuously bespeak your name and unit number in the shipping address. Some delivery services even evangelize right to our RV's doorstep, and some campgrounds provide an actual mailbox for this utilize. We've fifty-fifty received packages shipped UPS or FedEx at campgrounds by noting our site # and RV description in the address.

Tip: When having a parcel sent to y'all, always specify your proper name and unit number, along with a c/o of the location yous're receiving the postal service at. This will help make sure the package actually gets to you. For instance:

Cherie Ve Ard, Site 16
c/o My Current RV Park
111 Anywhere St.
Anytown, NJ 00012

The c/o office is especially important for anything shipped USPS – as unless you are officially registered to receive mail at the accost you are aircraft to, the post function can return the item as undeliverable due to postal regulations.

Renting PO Boxes. If you're planning to stay stationary for extended periods of time (peradventure more than a couple months), you may find it easiest to rent a PO Box at the local post office or a personal postal service box place. It'south fairly cheap, and then y'all simply need to utilise that accost for annihilation y'all plan to receive. This can get tricky tho when yous move on, equally you'll need to remember to modify your accost, and determine how you'll handle forwarding anything on that arrives later on you leave.
Commercial Receivers – Some businesses, such equally Fedex Office or UPS Stores, will too receive packages for yous. Particularly if y'all are their customer. Call and ask at the function y'all want to receive at as to the procedures and policies.
General Delivery. Y'all can really receive post at the primary post office in a given city or boondocks without having a PO Box, by having the mail addressed to:

Your Name
General Delivery
City, State, Zip+9999

The post office will concur your mail service for up to 30 days (although you lot're probably best to pick it up within a few days of delivery, non all mail service offices will hold information technology that long), and you can merits it past presenting your ID. This organization of mail predates even the telegraph, and savvy travelers have been taking advantage of this forever. Only be sure to research beforehand which post offices in the location actually accept general delivery, every bit not all do, especially in large cities. The USPS website location finder normally specifies if General Delivery is accepted, and it'south also a good idea to telephone call ahead and verify.

Hint: If yous need to 'trick' Amazon into shipping USPS for General Delivery, some take had success using 'PO Box General Delivery' every bit the street address.

There's also the question of do you lot have everything sent to your permanent mailing address you institute? This really depends on how fast you're planning to change locations, and what the post is.

Most online retailers are more happy to let yous ship anywhere while nevertheless using your permanent address as your billing address. So if we know that we're going to be somewhere, we almost always take stuff nosotros society online send directly to our current location. This saves on bundle forwarding fees from our mail forwarding service, and saves a heck of a lot of time.

Amazon.com's Prime service is a remarkable companion for US-based travelers, equally they'll ship annihilation they themselves carry for free via 2-night service. This actually helps predict reliable delivery times – and you tin social club a wide array of appurtenances from them – from books, movies, groceries, RV parts, gadgets, clothing and more. If 2-days isn't quick enough, affordable & discounted overnight options are offered besides. 1 difficulty of Amazon.com is that you lot don't take specific control over how your items are shipped (UPS, FedEx or USPS). If yous don't have a shipping address (such every bit a campground or friend's business firm) to receive any delivery at, and want to use the USPS Full general Delivery – i pull a fast one on is to use the address of "PO BOX Full general Delivery" (instead of just 'Full general Commitment) as the street address, which will strength Amazon to use USPS for the delivery method. Yous can also have them ship packages to their lockers or retailers located in many locations for easy pick-up.

We've as well found Netflix'southward disc shipment service to be very nomad friendly. As long every bit you change your address by the fourth dimension they receive your last return disc, they'll ship to your new address. As they accept distribution centers all over the US, new discs usually arrive with as lilliputian as three-day turn around time. This has been a neat way for us to watch Television receiver serial and new release movies (in addition to using RedBox centers as we roam.) This even worked while nosotros were in the Virgin Islands!

There are annoyances and challenges from time to fourth dimension. Deliveries are not guaranteed to always arrive someplace when y'all are all the same around, or aircraft mistakes get made such that items may bear witness up a twenty-four hour period or two later than expected. This tin can be a problem if you're planning to motion on, and you may have had to adjust your departures to wait for a package.

We usually endeavor to plan all our packages to arrive a couple days before our anticipated departure, and if a package seems delayed – we become tracking info to investigate what is going on. Some aircraft services, such equally UPS, will let the sender to re-direct delivery, which we've certainly to had to pull the trigger on before.

Handling Things Remotely

DSCF6799 — Selling my house.. from thousands of miles away!

When you're on the roam, you may encounter times when you demand to handle some logistical paperwork matters and it's simply impractical to testify up in person. This is when having some tech in identify tin can assist tremendously.

Hither are some suggestions of things to make sure you accept a solution for earlier you hit the road:

Signing documents electronically. More and more official documents are sent via eastward-mail in either a Give-and-take or PDF format, and can exist sent dorsum the same way. I've handled paperwork for selling my house remotely, signing business contracts & modifications, buying & selling cars/RVs, handling insurance matters and more this way. We utilise Preview in Mac OSX, which has an awesome signature capture characteristic to add into PDF files. Nosotros'll too occasionally apply a iPad app for this, simply haven't institute i we really similar enough to recommend.
Printing. While something may come to you digitally, sometimes you but have to fill it out by hand. Nosotros bear a compact printer from Canon for just such instances. If yous don't have room to carry a printer, many places offer printing services – such as function supply stores, FedEx Function or fifty-fifty a hotel role.
Scanning documents. Some companies merely don't get this electronic matter, and insist on sending you a paper contract to sign. But they will take an e-mailed digital copy in return to initiate a contract (pending the hard copy following). For this, you'll need a way to convert a physical document into electronic. At that place are some great modest scanners and multi-function printers that might be workable if y'all have the infinite for them. For us, we just apply our iPhones or a camera to image capture them, and then assemble multiple pages into a PDF file in Mac's Preview. Saves a lot on equipment needs!
Electronic Faxing. Surprisingly, faxes yet exist. Information technology baffles my listen, but it does. And for some reason, some organizations consider a fax to be 'real' but an e-mailed signed document not to be. For these times, y'all may demand a way to send a fax from your computer. Solutions like eFax.com and others provide services to help with this. If those fail, you tin nevertheless accept a piece of newspaper downwardly to a FedEx Function location and pay to fax it.

And sometimes, you'll just need to observe a public notary who can vouch for your identity and signature, and send the documents back.

Voting

Giving up your physical home in no mode takes abroad your government representation — you still get to vote! Your legal domicile address may be able to serve as your address to register to vote if you choose to. However some states, in particular Florida, require your voting address be a residential address. Some mail forwarding services don't qualify for this, and others have made arrangements to employ a RV Park / Marina's address for these purposes.

Of course, you likely won't be showing upward in person to vote, so yous'll need to brand arrangements in advance to become registered and go an absentee ballot in enough of time for any elections you want to participate in.

One matter to get used to is that now you're voting on a lot of ballot items that are related to a location you lot likely have barely fifty-fifty visited, nevermind live in. It's ok to bypass over the ones that don't have a direct bear on on y'all.

Our Logistics

DSCF2849 — Chris arriving to SD to go his driver's license.

Chris lived in California earlier he hit the road, and I lived in Florida.

From 2007 – 2012, Chris and I claimed South Dakota for our dwelling house. Nosotros had all our personal stuff based out of in that location — our driver'southward licenses, vehicle registration, cyberbanking, insurance, etc. Due south Dakota is a popular pick for those planning a major vehicle purchase equally they but charge a 3% excise tax. This was our deciding factor at the fourth dimension, and as we purchased iii vehicles and 2 RVs while domiciled there.

Nosotros had all of our regular mail sent to our MyDakotaAddress.com address, and one time or twice a month nosotros contact the service with an address to forward our mail to.

However, our business, Ii Steps Beyond LLC, was registered in the land of Florida – as nosotros have nearly of our business relations based at that place. Also both of our parents live in Florida, which creates a very real necktie for us to the land.

Starting in 2013, we too legally moved our personal abode back to Florida for a variety of reasons – namely that we tend to spend a lot of fourth dimension there anyway because of family and it is the most likely identify we would settle down at. In 2013, our SD commuter'due south licenses were up for renewal, requiring a trip back – which is what tipped the edge for united states. This too turned in our favor when most nationwide PPO health insurance options became non-nomadic friendly in South Dakota (as of 2019, there still remain options in Florida.)

We're now using St. Brendan'due south Isle every bit our mail forwarding service, who are only simply fantastic – nosotros love handling our mail service online.

Hither's a post that goes over all the reasons, costs and steps of setting up our abode in Florida.

What happened to the eBook version of this series?

Great for those gearing upwardly to RV – RV Honey'south new volume that goes over EVERYTHING!

We used to offer an eBook version of this content on a 'Pay as you lot Wish' basis. That book got then out of date and we accept no time to proceed information technology updated – then we took it down.

Nosotros do our best to upkeep the segments in this weblog series, but realistically tin can't come across republishing the book edition.

In November 2018, RV Love released their brand new (professionally published) book – Living the RV Life. Information technology goes over a lot of like content to this series (and more) on RVing. We highly recommend picking up a copy!

You're of course welcome to browse the No Excuses: Become Nomadic series online for more than of our tips & tricks on the logistics of nomadic travel.

If you exercise appreciate this series or the content on our web log, nosotros always Honey hearing your appreciation – leave a comment, leave a tip (link at bottom of every page) and/or share this mail service. Cheers!