Messaging like this is insidious. Presented with all these pictures of beautiful trailers in majestic settings, it’s easy to fall for the narrative that you can buy freedom. I know how easy it is: I’m a former Airstream dweller. And I was repeatedly flummoxed by Flett’s assertions about the economics of Airstream life. “Less of your finances invested in your home and more efficient use of the income that you do have can lead to a life of being debt-free,” Flett posits, only to later glorify the most expensive ways to live nomadically. “If you have the finances to cover it, getting a professional to be part of the project [of renovating a trailer] is ideal,” she writes, amid page upon page of beautiful interior shots and free advertising for the featured designers. Of course, these designers “charge a pretty penny,” she adds. Airstreams are already more expensive than most RVs and trailers. What other freedoms might a person sacrifice in pursuit of this high-end version of liberty? To her credit (though in conflict with her message about money-saving), Flett cautions against ambitious DIY Airstream renovations, a message I wish I’d heard before embarking on my own, which swallowed time and money and left me in debt – the best lesson I could have had in the wrongheadedness of freedom via spending.