Category Archives: downsizing

Figuring Out What Affordable Housing Means for You

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, downsizing, Simpler Living Tagged , , ,

Last time I touched on how to figure out what affordable housing in your middle and old age will look like for you. The first step is determining what you have and what you spend.

So how much money do you have? If you don’t know, you should. Go through all your paperwork and make a list of your bank accounts and balances, PayPal accounts and balances, rental income (if you’re a landlord), current value of stocks and bonds you own, money in your IRA or other retirement accounts, cash in your wallet and cash stashed in your sock drawer.

That’s a start. Now let’s look at your net worth. If you own your house, add its value to the total from the previous paragraph. If you own your car(s), include their approximate values (Kelley Blue Book online is a good source for that). The same goes for campers, boats, motorcycles and ATVs.

Total those items, then subtract from them what you owe on them, if anything. Use your current mortgage balance, current car loan balance, etc.

So, are you still in the black, or does your calculator show a negative number?

If it’s negative, you need to become debt-free before you think about retiring. But if it’s positive, pat yourself on the back.

Now that you have a rough idea of what you’re worth, next time we’ll take a look at what you spend.

 

How to Avoid Living in Your Car

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , ,

Over the past ten years or so, our country has seen an increase in homeless families. Some now live in their cars, even in traditionally affluent areas like Seattle. Avoiding this by being proactive is especially important if you’re not young anymore; younger people will (hopefully) have opportunities to bounce back in the future.

The only way to NOT end up living in your car (or worse, in a homeless shelter) is to secure affordable housing as soon as possible.

The first step is finding an affordable place to live (see last week’s post). There are many options for affordable housing. Renting may be OK if you can find a place where you’re pretty certain the rent won’t go up a lot. Living with someone else, like a friend or relative, with whom you can split costs is an excellent idea if you currently live alone.

The ideal is buying a small house with cash, something all on one level that can take you from your current age into old age without forcing you to move. Small houses have smaller-than-average utility bills, maintenance bills and property tax bills, so buying a small house is a good way to invest in your future retirement, helping you stay financially solvent even though you may not have a lot of retirement income coming in.

If you’re middle-age or approaching retirement age, dealing with long-term underemployment, or all of the above, you need to know how much money you have and how much money you spend each month so you can determine how much you can afford for housing. See the next post for details.

 

It’s OK to Give Up Birthday and Christmas Gifts

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, My Books, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , , , ,

Often, after a birthday, or the holidays, we’re left with more goodies than we really need. That’s why we need to go through the gifts we received, deciding which are keepers and which need to be moved along, so we can remain clutter-free, or at least somewhat clutter-free.

Of course, some gifts are absolute keepers: the scarf your daughter knitted for you, a book you’ve been wanting to read, a bottle of your favorite wine. But what of those gifts of a more generic variety? Items like:

  • A shower kit with a cheap plastic “loofa” and bubble-gum scented shower gel,
  • A box of cheese and sausage snacks from someone who isn’t close enough to you to know you’re vegetarian, or
  • A sweater (with no gift receipt or tags) in a color combo that hasn’t been popular since the 1980s.

These gifts are easy to pass along to someone who you know will want them, or to simply donate to a thrift store or charity that takes items to resell. Make the time to do that now, rather than move them around for the next few months before you finally become fed up and do something with them.

Then there are the wonderful gifts which replace something you already owned. For instance, someone once gave me a lovely pair of woolen slippers. They were sturdy, practical and quite expensive, I later learned. So why did it take me months to start wearing them and to throw out my old, ratty slippers? Emotional attachment is the best explanation, I suppose. But I tripped over the box containing the new pair for ages before I finally made myself do the trade and pitch the old pair.

Duplicate gifts are a bit easier to deal with. If you received two of something, and it’s not consumable, share one with someone else you know who might need it, or pass it along. Why try to make space for it when you already have one?

As you go through your gifts and decide which are keepers and which need to go, let the momentum that builds up carry you along so that you take anything else you happen to see that’s no longer useful to you and move it along, too. You’ll be surprised how that momentum works.

If you need help making the tough decisions about which gifts to keep and which gifts to get rid of, see my book, The Sentimental Person’s Guide to Decluttering for tips on moving along a variety of gifts, including heirlooms and expensive gifts.

 

Where Should You Go When You Downsize Your Life?

By Claire Posted in downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , ,

For some, downsizing their life is simply a matter of finding more affordable and smaller digs within commuting distance of their job. But if you don’t have a job or you’re about to lose yours, it’s possible you may need to find a new town to live in, possibly even a new state.

Yes, I’m aware of the increasing number of ex-pats out there (people who have left the U.S.), But I’m assuming most people, like me, want to stay in this country. They just need to know how to find a good place to live that doesn’t cost as much as where they live now.

I shared a great tool for discovering your perfect new town in Downsizing Your Life for Freedom, Flexibility and Financial Peace. Now I have two great links to share, which I’ll probably have my publisher add to my book, but that you can check out right now.

First off, here’s a wonderful document (PDF) that lists all the metropolitan areas of the U.S. in order of affordability. What a find! It starts with the most expensive areas. We moved from page 1 to page 5, making our lives so much more affordable in the process. Find your current town in the document and start looking further down to see where you might go to make your life easier, financially and otherwise.

Then, if you’re wondering where other people are moving, check out this interactive map, which shows who’s moving where and what the per-capita income is in every single county in the country. Be warned, though, you can waste a lot of time playing with this, it’s so interesting!