Making more than $50,000 a year, I deliberately sold my home and moved my family into a 30 year old singlewide mobile home.
This is the house as we first saw it, this is not our homestead.
Why?!
To sum it up in one word--freedom. To use more words: security, happiness, reality.
Freedom - The Backstory
Married and newly out of college, my wife and I purchased our first home: a nice 1-story ranch on 1/2 an acre of land in a small neighborhood. Life was good.
Fast forward 5 years and we were expecting our first child and discussing the future. Specifically childcare vs. stay-at-home-mom. We chose the latter, which cut our income by 40%. Our savings were chipped at over the next year and we were then faced to choose our priorities in life.
Things vs. Children
We could not sustain our living much longer. Either my wife would get a job and put our child into daycare, or we would sell our home and other property and change our living conditions. We chose "Children" and put our home on the market for sale. We were willing to give up material goods and socioeconomic status to ensure our son would continue his rearing in the hands of his parents.
Over the next year, we rented, then had the opportunity to build a place on family land, but that is a story for another post or series of posts. COMING SOON
Security - The Warm Fuzzies
I'm talking about financial security. The freedom to have an expendable income again, to afford a vacation or (dare I say) begin a savings again. These were all things that we could not do without selling our home. Downsizing our cost of living was key in maintaining our lives and sanity. Compromising on the home type, we gained on the financial side. Old mobile homes are not in demand, nor are they popular, so the cost of one was much lower than a dilapidated home.
Happiness - The Old Man's Secret
Hardly anyone likes feeling stressed out. And nothing stresses us out quite as much (or as quickly) as finances. High bills, low income... it's a place we hate to be, but too many of us find ourselves stuck in. This is also the place that rarely holds company with Happiness. We were in this place and were tired of feeling beaten down day after day, bill after bill, trying to cling to our material gains. Once it clicked that things do not make us happy, it was an easy decision and quite the enlightening one!
Reality - It Hits You Hard, Bro
As we migrated through the above mental steps, it became clear what our reality was and where it needed to go. Sure, it would have been great to just cry and beat our feet and our bills magically disappear along with all our woes, but this is reality. That stuff doesn't happen, princess. Being directly engaged with our finances (earning and paying), it was easier for me to see the writing on the wall than for my wife. After a little time and tangible pressure on things, she agreed and came to the same decision as I did. I was very, very lucky to have this. It would have been another thing entirely if my spouse was not on board with me or did not see things eye to eye.
That's it for this post, but I have several coming out on how we built our place, renovated it, and so forth. Stay tuned!
Part 3 Now Posted!
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