The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: unplugged on March 21, 2013, 08:54:24 AM
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I believe this couple somehow managed to get a doctorate degree while also drastically downsizing. Has anyone here downsized their home "just because" or to build their wealth?
http://www.budgetingwiththebushmans.com/2011/09/dont-laugh-its-paid-for.html
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I'm strongly considering it. I won't be able to get anywhere near $13k without a crazy commute but I'd like to get into something smaller if only to save on taxes, maintenance, and utilities.
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Sort of.
We went from "normally priced 2300 sqft house in the suburbs" to living in a 600sqft workshop in the country outside a smallish city.
For us, this wasn't really a move to save money. (Small towns can have a higher cost of living and lower salaries than large towns sometimes.) It was a move to:
* move close to aging family members -- both to spend time while we could and to be near in case they needed help here and there
* life in the big city for a verylargecorporation was getting to me. I needed a change -- even if it meant lower wages.
This was our second "paradigm shift". Our first was going from 2 incomes to 1. In both cases I found that "a 40% reduction in income is a raise." Seriously, it is. The retooling and rethinking can make it such that the amount you actually put in the bank and save is more after the reduction than before. If only I was smart enough to make those adjustments BEFORE the reductions.
That said: living in the workshop was a temporary (6 year) thing. We did eventually build a house.
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Right now my life is extremely home based, and the home I'm in really fits our needs, but husband and I talk quite seriously about small/carbon-neutral type homes. I suspect when youngest is out of HS, in 16 years, we'll sell our big house and build something inspired by solar decathlon homes. I guess thats "normal downsizing" though.
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My boyfriend and I live in a 400 square foot studio together, after each having our own places that were bigger. It's taken a few months to fully downsize and settle in but it means we live in the middle of a high cost city (San Francisco) while spending a lower fraction of our income on rent than most of our friends.
One consequence is that I no longer own any printed books, and we had to scan all of our papers so there's no need for filing cabinets or tote boxes of receipts
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having more of my own space (though still in a shared house) than ever before i am more determined than ever to keep living in as small a space as possible, mainly for the sake of cleaning and heating but obviously general costs help too.
however, i couldn't do a studio. i work from home and i also need my own space, i think all day and night in one room may drive me mad!
my ideal would be a small house with a large garden. which is unfortunately rather rare but never mind!
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If I spent all day in the studio with my BF I would probably go crazy, but we both work outside the home, and I'm quite social and active in volunteering, etc. so in the end we probably average 3-4 waking hours each day at home together, which is not much when you consider how much of that is spent doing things like showering, getting dressed or preparing food.
I too would like a garden somewhere, but the closest I'll get is a community garden plot. Can't have it all when you want to live in the middle of a big city!