A little over three years ago, I was just like many of you. I had two car payments, a mortgage payment that I could barely afford, a semi-secure job...etc. I had no savings, felt unfulfilled with my lot in life, wished I could move but was chained to my house because it was worth much less than I owed on it, and I pretty much just went through every day thinking, "This is as good as it's going to get.... and I don't like it!".
My wife and I lived that way for several years and then our lives changed dramatically. You're probably expecting me to tell you about some get rich quick scheme I discovered and how you should jump on board too. But, that's not what this story is about.
In Feb. of 2013, I was fishing with my son and his friends in our neighborhood when my wife called me on the phone. I couldn't make out what she was saying at first because she was crying uncontrollably. She had taken my 8 week old daughter to her 8 week wellness checkup and the doctor didn't like the fact that my daughter was still jaundiced. So, he drew some blood and told my wife he'd call her if anything was wrong. Well, a couple of hour later, the doctor called and asked my wife to come back to the doctor's office. He needed to discuss something with her. My wife asked to be told over the phone but he insisted she come it.
So, my wife went to the doctor's office and explained that my daughter had a rare childhood liver disease and that he had already reserved a room for her at the hospital. He explained that my daughter would need surgery first thing in the morning. This... rocked... our... world.
The next morning my daughter had a life saving surgery where they removed her gal bladder, and rerouted her intestines so that her liver would drain. They explained that this was not a permanent fix but that it was to hopefully put off the need for a liver transplant until she could get a little older. In Feb of 2015, we got the call that my daughter had a donor match available and she got a liver transplant. She's doing amazing and we are so thankful.
What does all this have to do with living like your rich for penny's on the dollar? Well, I'll tell you.
We spent over 10 months in hospitals, many times out of state, between the time of my daughter's initial surgery and a few months after her transplant. It hurt us financially - really bad. In fact, we lost everything in bankruptcy. Sounds bad right? Well, in a sense, it was. Going through bankruptcy is not fun and the feelings of failure were hard to deal with as well.
But losing everything, including our debt, was freeing. We were no longer stuck in one place because we no longer had a mortgage. We could live anywhere we wanted to. And, after everything we'd been through, we needed a change of scenery for a while.
I had read a book by Tim Ferriss called the 4-hour work week where he talks about how the "new rich" live. He talks about how the "new rich" prize mobility, freedom, and experiences over money and possessions. And, I loved the way he explained it. He says that we don't want to be rich just so that we can have millions of dollars in the bank. We want what we believe the millions of dollars in the bank could afford us to do. We work and work for years and years hoping to one day retire with enough money to enjoy ourselves. But, there's a few problems with this mentality. We don't know if we'll live long enough to get to retirement, we don't know if we'll be physically fit enough to enjoy retirement and get to do the things we want to do, and we don't even know if the world economy will allow us to ever retire anyway.
Who's richer?
Tom works 80 hours a week for a corporation in an office downtown and makes $100,000 dollars a year. He has no time to play golf or travel and misses many family events like his kids sports and birthday parties. He hopes that one day, when he's 65 years old, to be able to have enough money to do all the things he always dreamed of doing.
Bill works 15 hours a week working for himself and makes $35,000 a year. He spends his free time traveling with his family, playing golf, and learning new languages. He doesn't care if he ever retires because he loves his job and is doing all the things he wants to do right now.
So how do we live like the "new rich"?
Choose to do what you want to do and do it now. Enjoy your life now instead of deferring life's greatest experiences until retirement. Here's how you can do it...
- You have to be able to be mobile. Either by working for yourself or convincing your boss you are more productive working remotely.
- Sever ties to debts that lock you down to one location (preferably by paying them off).
- Play the slow seasons with rental homes.
So... once we realized we had nothing holding us where we were (no house payment) we decided to go somewhere else and try something new and experience something different. I started searching the web to understand where the slow seasons were and what times of year they were for different regions of the country.
I learned that fall through the end of winter was the slow season for rentals for many states from South Carolina northward, so I started looking at properties on VRBO.com. After a sifting through a few hundred, I found one I liked. It was 3500 square feet, on an enormous lake, with a dock, a bonus room, 4 beds, three baths... etc. During the slow season, it was $1,600 a month including utilities. During the peak season, it was $4,000 a month. I snapped it up for all the slow months.
Then, because I knew that the slow rental season in Florida was the summer, I found a condo on the beach for the summer months so I could come back and run fishing charters (I've been a fishing guide for 11 years). Even though summer was slow for rental houses, it was peak season for my charter business. For the past 11 years, I've made 75% of my annual income in the summer months. The condo rental was 45 minutes closer to the marina than the house I previously owned, it was on the water, had an awesome pool, and it was cheaper than my mortgage used to be. $1,800 a month for May-July, including utilities. If I were to rent it in the winter, it would have been $3,800 a month.
The houses are amazing and the prices are super cheap, but the best part is, we can go somewhere else if we want to. There's nothing keeping us in one spot. No mortgage holding us hostage. I could go to Colorado in the summer, Tennessee in the winter, or any other number of states - and I can live in homes that I otherwise would never be able to afford.
You don't want millions of dollars in the bank, you want the freedom you think those millions could afford you. If you're after the freedom, you can have it now. It's just takes a little lifestyle design and planning.
I highly suggest checking out Tim Ferriss' book, The Four Hour Work Week. I'm not associated with it in any way, I just think it's a really interesting read. He goes into great detail about how to "live like the new rich". Check it out.