Comments By Harvest

Hi Harvest,

I was just self employed in the mortgage industry so I can tell you that you need to squirrel extra money away for taxes . As a 1099 contractor you are considered self employed and are responsible for both shares of your social security tax (normally the employer pays half in a W-2 situation). Save any receipts that could be considered business expenses and be prepared to hire a CPA to file a Schedule C tax return for the tax year.

Please note that If you stay on this path and want to buy a house, you may not qualify for a home mortgage until you have 2 years of self employed income taxes with adequate usable income. Typically expenses like depreciation and depletion can be added back BUT if you have a really creative accountant, it may impact your ability to buy a home (if it matters at all to you)

TurboTax Self Employed Tax Center

Hope this helps and best of success!

Thanks, yeah I knew about the tax situation. And saving any and all receipts to write off as much as possible. But I wonder about insurance and everything else. Like are their specific questions I should be asking before I am hired on?

I've ran with a small company for a little bit that was 1099, the company owned the truck, paid all the expenses. Nothing came out of my pocket, just like a normal W2 job. The only thing that was different in my eyes was no benefits and I had to do taxes; I didn't stay there too long, as I stopped driving after I was rear-ended in my personal vehicle... A friend I made back in CDL school 4 years ago messaged me about how he is running his own operation now. And has a few trucks, told me I could work for him when I get my CDL again if I want. Guarantees me $1500 a week and home once a week. What am I missing about these types of jobs? Are there certain questions I should be asking? Like insurance policies or anything like that at all? They almost seem too good to be true, and I feel like I am missing the catch.

With me considering going OTR again, I am making a checklist of things I will want once I am solo. One big thing is a navigation device. Most companies I've worked for have navigation in the qua-com but it was never really reliable. I want something that I can put in my trip plan in, or be able to add a truck stop along my route, preferably of course, hands-free. I am also considering getting an iPad mini with cellular, and maybe using the trucker path app service for navigation. Since I used to always use that app to find parking. I also plan on keeping an actual road atlas in my truck as well to just cover my bases. So what do you guy's use?

I could be wrong, I never pulled those types of trailers. But I think you are in general supposed to avoid railroad crossings in trailers that sit that low. The only way I could see to avoid it, is to do more in-depth trip planning if you have a trailer sitting that low.

First time I ever felt extreme wind was my very first time in Wyoming on i80! That was the first time I was truly afraid while driving. I forget how heavy my load was. But every few miles I saw a semi that was rolled over. And I could have sworn I was going to roll. But I couldn't just stop on the shoulder. I was white-knuckling it until I found a truck stop to sit for awhile. After that, I was always sure to check for wind advisories and plan my trip accordingly.

The only time I don't do all the cooking on the truck is when it's in the shop. I eat anything I want to try and I eat very well. No poptarts, hot pockets, peanut butter sandwiches, or ramen noodles here.

How do you do your dishes? I want to cook my own food if I do OTR again. But always wondered how you keep everything clean.

Hello Harvest, Yeah I have heard that staying out of truck stops is a good choice given their cost and that most have a lot of junk food. I guess a better way to phrase this question would be to ask: After groceries and cell phone/data are there any regular expenses that you see living out of the truck that have a sizeable impact?

From my own experience at least, there isn't much. Make sure you keep a good amount of work gloves on you, I was caught without a pair one time and it takes forever to get that grease off, especially clothes. The biggest thing is learning to pack well too, keeping basic tools, gloves, and duct tape in your truck. Extra clothes, and groceries you get at an actual supermarket. Things like showers are pretty much free with you getting fuel at your company's truck stop of choice. You also get quite a bit of free food that way too, so if you do get caught with not enough from the grocery store, you can save money that way too. Should buy a decent CB radio as well with an antenna, been awhile since I saw prices, but id say around $150. Keep a few hundred set aside in case something on your truck is busted or broken. Like a mudflap, headlight and such. You purchase it yourself, but you would be reimbursed by your company. But from my own experience, if you are a company driver, the biggest thing is just food.

Hello, What is a ballpark monthly figure for living OTR as bare bones and minimally as possible? Assuming cooking/eating in the truck, groceries only, no dining out, hotels, excursions etc. I know it can vary a bit but what is a reasonable range?

I do not have exact numbers right now, but this is majority reliant on you. How much do you normally spend on groceries? After the initial cost of getting any cooking supplies, microwave, and fridge. It would just be reliant on how many groceries you normally buy to survive. Now I will say this, and a big mistake I made, was not finding the time to get to a Walmart or other grocery store. Eating solely at truck stops will eat a big hole in your pocket, and its mostly super unhealthy food.

What do you guy's use to get high speed internet while on the road? With me considering going OTR again, this would be a major thing I would like to figure out. I want to bring my laptop with me, do normal internet browsing, watching Youtube, streaming shows, all like at home... I see that some carrier have hotspots, however all the ones that I have seen have data caps on them. And it is so easy to hit those data caps quickly. Considering Starlink, but just does not seem practical. What other options are out there? Just seems like there should be SOMETHING out there that is a reliable decent speed, and unlimited for at least a reasonable price.

Hi, I’ve not been here for a while, just been busy with life I guess. Still driving, going on my third year and I’m thinking it might be time to do it full time. I pay $1200 a month for rent in my house and I spend an average of 3 nights a month there. The rest of the time, I’m either in the truck, visiting my parents or at my girlfriends house (which is literally two houses away from mine. My biggest concern is with storaing my stuff. What does well in a house, probably won’t do well in a storage unit. I don’t want to sell my furniture, beds, etc for fire sale prices and have to buy it all again later. My plan is to lose the house payment, utilities, insurance etc and save about $50k a year for 2-3 years and then buy a house and go local. Storage is $100 a month, or I can use my parents garage for free. Stay with my gf on the weekends (she’s 100% with this plan as it benefits us both and she is also actively saving similar amount so we will be able to buy a $2-300k house in cash in just a few years. ) Thoughts from people that have done this?

I don't owe a home, but why not actually purchase a property? Housing will most likely keep going up unless we have a crash. Set aside that 1200$ a month to start paying a mortgage. Rent the place out, and then have a place you can someday retire to, or if you ever wanted to stay local. Renting out comes with its own headaches. But at least to me on paper, would be the best investment.