Why We Sold Our Stake In The “American Dream”

The “American Dream”; to climb the ladder, make lots of money, own many houses, cars, property, businesses, the best fashion, latest styles, 2.5 kids and a picket fence.

They have sold us a never ending list of consumer items that comes with a really big bill of debt that keeps us tied to the system.

The “American Dream”

Back in 2021 and prior, we were just another family chasing that “American dream”. While, yes, we were in Canada, it’s all still the same goals set for adults in western society. We had a house we owned, we had two cars, three kids, two dogs. We had children competing in sports, participating in community activities. We attended church regularly. We had met the goals, in short.

We had always purchased the latest and greatest to ensure we were still part of this ever changing technological world. We dined out and traveled to show we had enough “extra” cash in our career efforts to splurge. We had a house full of things that needed replacing or fixing as they aged. We had met the consumer goals, as well.

Nothing Seemed To Be Enough

But yet, nothing seemed to be enough. We felt like something was always missing or that we wanted more of something… just couldn’t put on finger on it. We noticed that all these *things* became time-consuming and spending every day managing our stuff and our time. We always had something to do to keep busy and on the go, whether it was heading out to meet friends or tackling another reorganization in the house of our things. To others, it looked like we had it all and had it all together, when in truth, we used everything to create that fun and exciting – new and shiny – feeling because something was missing.

We always had grand dreams of buying another house here or buying land there, traveling to far off places, but our home commitments and budget never seemed to line up.

Then 2020 hit. 

2020 Changed Us, GoodBye “American Dream”

The shock of 2020 was a rude awakening to our limitations and our ticking clock here on earth.  

We were hit with job loss, income loss, demanding debts. Every thing we had wanted something from us. We felt paralyzed as we couldn’t just fix it.

We lost my dad in May of 2020 to pneumonia.  He had always reminded me to just get out there and live! After all, he was given 8 years extra after a life debilitating accident that should have killed him, but instead made him a quadriplegic.  He always said that his life wasn’t ruined, it redefined what he needed to do and his purpose. This reminded us that WE really needed to redefine our purpose as a couple, as parents and as a family.

But what could we do? 

We knew we needed to make some changes.  Based on the current affairs of the time in Canada, we opted to look at finding a way to be in the US. With the cost of housing skyrocketing, we needed a smaller solution. Over the years, Mike and I talked a lot about RV life full time after I’d watched every episode of Keep Your Daydream and Less Junk More Journey on YouTube. We weighed pros and cons and determined that going selling it all and going small was just what we needed.

While listening to a podcast during my drives, they spoke of an RV School in Texas. While the borders were still considered closed, at the time we learned that schooling would allow us to cross. We called the school and learned they strongly supported our journey and would help in any way they could to ensure our crossing would not be an issue. We both registered for school, as this would require the whole family to cross (and our RV, it’s RV school after all).

But we had to sell our house?! What about our stuff?

We had a hard date for school starting and we needed to have our ‘road day’ in pen. We contacted our friend and local realtor to help us start the process of listing our home.

This was a process! We had a hard cut off date to be at the school, but we also knew we would need time to decompress after crossing the border. This made May 28, 2021 as the date we needed to close at the latest.

It was time to start downsizing. The catch, nothing was open and no garage sales were allowed. We did one anyways. Did we ever enjoy having friends gather and join together in great May weather outside! We downsized and sold a fair amount. We donated lots to friends who needed items and the rest went into storage until we knew we could come back to sort through it and donate what we didn’t need. (Still waiting to be able to freely cross the border and its a year later. May 2022).

New Home, New Wheels

All while listing and emptying our home, we needed to trade in our cars for a truck and purchase our new tiny home on wheels. We purchased the 5th truck in cash as every other truck was being sold from under us as the market was crazy. Huge thank you to Nicole at Wayne Pitman Ford for her help. We purchased a 2019 Ford F-250 Lariat 4×4.

Next up was the RV. We called and search so many RV Dealerships within 6hrs of our home and came up with only 2 RVs that had bunks for three kids. Both were bumper pulls. Not at all what we were looking for, but it was our options. We purchased a new 2021 Grand Design Imagine 3250BH. A whopping 280sqft from our 1800sqft home plus double garage and massive 350sqft shop.

Talk about downsizing!

We took delivery of both a week before we closed on our house.

Everything Started To Move Fast

Once we knew what our plans we, everything started moving, and fast!

The house was listed, sold and closed all in less than a month. We sorted through everything we owned and downsized within 6 weeks. Every single debt we had was paid. Owed nothing to anyone. We headed out and in less than 24hrs later, we were in the United States of America!

Now the real work began. We had to decompress and sort out ourselves leaving Canada. While both countries seem so much alike, they are actually very different. Then add on top the different ways the pandemic was dealt with.

We landed at our vacation spot for the week at a Jellystone in Missouri. This spot was planned on purpose so we could be at a fun and busy resort to enjoy people and spaces without the extreme restrictions still in place in Canada.

It was almost surreal to be walking into places and seeing faces. Surreal to not be asked status and refused services. Such a big adjustment to not have every person, everywhere we went ask our status and react negatively when we wouldn’t share it.

We had to re-learn how to live in a free society.

What Did We Learn

As we’ve moved through the last year, school, travel, meeting new people, we’ve learned that living free and on our terms, isn’t such a crazy thing!

We’ve met families who travel in their RV full time to experience life more with their families and see all the things. Families who homeschool to teach their children their values and build strong bonds. Other families who put God first and follow what is directed in the Bible as the structure of a home. Some families who live in the country who are self sustained by growing their own food and animals. There’s been families who work 9-5 living in a standard home making sure they spend every moment they can with their children seeing sites and exploring, not shipping them off to sports and camps away from family.

What we learned is every family has the different goals in their homes and some are striving to step out of the busy of life and the standard construct of the “American Dream” and put as much focus as they can back into their homes.

They are living their lives with purpose, on purpose.

Living With Purpose, On Purpose

Making all these changes in your life won’t always be easy and won’t come as clear and concise. Many take years to find their purpose and some take a life altering change to be pushed directly into it.

We are constantly learning and figuring out what is our defined purpose outside of the broad scope of leaving the “American Dream”. What we know, we needed to be debt free, and not feel stuck in a country that didn’t feel like home anymore.

As we are learning more and more about how to live free of the supply chain. How to prepare for disasters, outages and shortages. We are learning how to be business owners and all that entails. We are learning a lot!

What we learn, we will be sharing with you.

While we don’t feel we have all the answers, I don’t think any one person does. We can learn from each others strengths to build an amazing community that is free to live life on their own terms. Live their life with purpose. Live their life on purpose.

What To Expect

As we navigate this journey, we hope you will come along with us. It won’t always be easy, it won’t always be perfect. We are constantly be learning to readjust and un-learn our hold habits.

Along this journey, we will share with you what we learn for both career and family life. Sharing what has worked for others and how they have learned to live with purpose and break free from the “American Dream”.

As we all navigate to leave the standard construct of the “American Dream” of things and status, I hope you’ll share with us and the community what has worked and what hasn’t worked for you and your family.

We would love to hear what your thoughts are and how you’ve re-directed your family to live with purpose. Please share below in the comments what is something you’ve had to learn to break free of the standard “American Dream”.

If you ever want to reach out to us directly, please don’t hesitate! All the details can be found on our Contact Us page.