Buy a smaller home, earn career freedom

If you feel held hostage by your job, it may because of the mortgage you are carrying.  I watched one client brave a 2-hour commute, each way, to work, just so she and her husband could afford their home in the San Francisco Bay area.  I'm sorry, but that's nuts.  Spending four hours a day, five days a week in your car, just so you have have the so-called American dream of owning a home?  Shoot, she had very little time with her husband and they were constantly stressed out.  They both felt fearful that they would lose their jobs, because they knew that meant they could lose their homes.  It's awful to be tied to your job just so you can keep a roof over your house that happens to have your name on the title.  What ever happened to renting?  What ever happened to reasonable living accomodations?

Do you want to unleash yourself from an employer or a job you hate?  Your ticket may be in downsizing your home.  I know.  I've done it.  When I was married, my then-husband and I owned a 4-bedroom, 4-bath 2400 square foot house in a chic San Francisco neighborhood.  Did we need that much space?  Well, we figured that we'd have kids, eventually.  Sadly, we split up instead.  But now, I rent a home with less than 900 square feet.  It's a 2-bedroom place where one bedroom is my office.  But I could live in much smaller quarters, and not just because I'm petite.

I'm always appalled when I go to visit my parents in the Phoenix area.  The homes near them are monstrosities.  My parents home, at 3000 square feet, is the dwarf in the neighborhood.  I even saw one mega-mansion under construction there during my last trip.  It was three stories high, with one story built underground to circumvent the local restrictions on building more than two stories.  I hate to imagine how much power it takes to air condition such palaces in the midst of the desert, and how much work it takes to keep the manicured lawns looking good.  Excuse me, but this excess does not take into account the long-term impact on our economy.

Fortunately, the financial craziness we're experiencing has lots of people getting creative and scaling back.  I especially love the movement to smaller homes.  It's good for the economy, it's good for our sanity, and it's good for the environment.

CNN ran a story on living in 100 square feet of bliss.  I invite you to consider this move to less -- for giving you more.  I know I am.  And, I'm also looking into co-housing, a movement of bringing people together in communities.  They own their own homes, plus a common space, and they all spend time pitching in to cook and do other things for each other.  In our age of isolation, this is a solace, and one that can often be more affordable.

What other options are you considering to untether yourself from the ball and chain of a mortgage that's keeping you tied to work that you don't enjoy?

Pondering with you,

Susan

Dr. Susan Bernstein
Coach, Speaker & Author
www.WorkFromWithin.com
Work From Within, LLC

Comments

[raines]

It's great that you're looking into alternative housing options, Dr. Bernstein. By coincidence, I just spoke with Jay from Tumbleweed Tiny Homes yesterday about his online communications strategy; I'm a longtime fan of the small-home and voluntary-simplicity movements and I think they can help people co-create new options.

What really caught my eye in your post, though, was your interest in cohousing. As a Cohousing Coach and Northern California Cohousing Regional Organizer, we've spoken with a lot of folks, including many around Marin, who share the vision of combining community with privacy, creating new options especially in retirement.

There's a bus tour starting in Oakland this weekend, and an event in Berkeley that may be of interest to you, professionally as well as personally: The Positive Aging conference, where in additional to national speakers like What Color is Your Parachute author Richard Bolles by satellite, we'll have local speakers specifically looking at new options for community living and spiritual eldering.

You can learn more on our website:
http://www.PositiveAgingCA.org/

I'm looking forward to seeing you there.

[Dr. Susan Bernstein]

Thank you, Raines, for the great resources! I'm actually going on that bus tour on Saturday, and perhaps you'll be there? -- Susan