Why we Decided to go Tiny Vol. 2: Economic Freedom

We decided to go Tiny, and we are so excited for what the future has in store for us.  However, living in a pint-sized home was not always how we thought our lives would unfold.  Having a diminutive living space has its lifestyle perks such as forcing you to shed the dead weight of superfluous material possessions in your life. Yet, if we had a bank account that was a bottomless pit, it would be very difficult to say that we would still prefer to live in a Tiny House rather than a conventionally sized home.  Having less space just for the sake of having less space was not enough to convince us to make the plunge into Tiny living. 

It was not until we started crunching the numbers that the abstract idea of living in a Tiny Home seemed like a more approachable reality.  As soon as we knew we wanted to leave Atlanta and move to a much smaller city, we began researching what part of the country would be a good fit for our lifestyle.  We spent countless hours researching living costs in dozens of small cities across the country.  Although there is always a bargain waiting to be found, after finding real estate markets inflated in one town after the next, our hopes of owning our first home fizzled away.

We did a road trip in Oregon to check out potential candidates for a town that we could see ourselves settling down in. You should definitely visit before blindly making the plunge!

It has been a goal of ours for a couple of years to buy our own place.  Owning a home would give us a fantastic platform to build a future together. Unfortunately, there are several massive obstacles that must be overcome for us to call any type of permanent home our own.  First of all, I am terrified of debt, in all of its inconspicuous forms.  The idea of a massive 30-year mortgage loan looming over our heads like a thunderstorm sounds entirely torturous.  I know for many people this approach is completely normal and it works out great for them.  One day, we might join most people into taking that plunge, but at this point in our lives I cannot imagine taking the burdening weight of a mortgage upon ourselves.

Then there was the option of renting.  We have rented for years, and it has worked out fairly well.  Moving in together under one roof could even save us a bit more money than we have spent living separately in Atlanta.  Although from this point of view, renting seems like the more sensible option, I do have one glaring issue with it.  While you still make sizeable payments every month, none of that money goes towards ownership of where you live.  I find the promise of perpetual payment to be rather uninspiring. 

When I think of what it means to be an owner of something, pride is one of the first things that comes to mind.  Think of the first sizeable possessions you may have owned in your life.  Your first bike as a kid or your first car as a young adult may come to mind.  For most of us, it did not matter if that car was an absolute beater.  That car was something you could call your own, and you may have even affectionately named it.  Being an owner of something means that the longevity of that very thing is directly intertwined with how you care for it.  Owning a house, albeit a Tiny House means we would be able to take on improvement projects as part of a continued effort to make the house uniquely our home.  It may seem like I am romanticizing the idea of ownership, as it also comes with heaps of responsibility, but that is precisely the type of responsibility that I look forward to taking on.

I would not mind owning a piece of land with a view like this!

After careful consideration (and finding the rental market in Bend, OR to be absurd), we decided to break into our savings to purchase a home that will likely sustain us with shelter, warmth, and memories for years to come.  The initial plunge into this investment has required many long talks over a few glasses of red wine to determine what exactly we wanted from a Tiny Home, what we were comfortable spending, and what we were willing to sacrifice so that we could afford a home that we could still live in comfortably.  

One of the most significant recurring themes in our discussions of whether we should go Tiny or not was comparing what we could afford on the housing market to what we could afford in a Tiny Home.  With a relatively modest sum of money, we could afford a mobile home with a miniscule footprint that has many luxuries, such as hardwood floors, Maple Countertops, and a tiled shower.  In a larger and far more expensive home, we would have been stripped down to the basics, likely with aging living spaces crying out for upgrades.  Although we are both practical people, we do enjoy nicer things and at the end of the day we prioritized portability and some luxuries over square footage.

I do not want to come off as some privileged buffoon by carelessly claiming, “everyone can afford one”.  However, I do believe that downsizing the living space does open up a lot of affordable housing options that can appeal to a range of people such as families looking to simplify, empty nesters looking to downsize, young couples like us in their financial infancy, and even people relying on government housing to get by.  With a growing range of sizes and luxuries available in the Tiny Home market, you can find shrunken Chateaus available for upwards of $200,000, or you can take on a DIY project of constructing one yourself for under $10,000.  As Tiny Homes become increasingly accepted in cities and suburbs around the country, attractive financing plans have even become available to make this form of affordable housing accessible to more people.

With this blog post, as well as with many of the posts we will write down the road, I can assure you that one thing will be universal: prioritization and sacrifice are two of the most critical elements in making such a dramatic lifestyle change.  For us those priorities are reflected in our desire to live in a space that takes part in defining us as a couple who enjoys not only spending more time outdoors than indoors but also more time with people we love and less time with things that do not make us happier.  If along the way we can save a buck or two, then that will make it all even sweeter.

Backpacking and getting deep into the wilderness is one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes I have to convince Lauren that the physical challenge is all worth it to get views like this