Meanwhile...Down On The Farm

I thought I'd put up a post on how me and my husband became mortgage-less. And how, for the first time in a long time, I'm not laying awake at night wondering how we'll survive one day when we retire.

First off, we left a big city and moved to a lake in a rural area where there are lots of farms and fresh food and hiking and waterfalls and gorges. So there's a lot of things to do and our small town puts an emphasis on culture so there's always plenty of food festivals and concerts, etc.

The people here are the salt of the earth and believe in helping one another. We have great neighbors and everyone here is very friendly by nature.

Best of all, you can buy a house for under $100,000. A good house, too, built when houses were built well.

First we bought a big lake house but five years into it we realized how expensive it was to maintain, and the taxes were ridiculous, so we found a little fixer upper for $48,000.

It's nearly a 100 years old, so parts of it needed to be gutted and it's pretty small, but we decided to make it into a romantic little cottage with ship lap walls and a great kitchen and new bathrooms.

We've probably spent $60,000 making it great and we still have landscaping to do but it's ours. And we have no mortgage payment. That's the greatest feeling ever.

We could have spent less redoing it, but we had to hire a contractor for most of the work. We wanted it done right so we paid for the skills of someone who really knew what they were doing. Things are cheaper where we live so it could have been worse!

It's got a great front porch, a nice little yard, and it's bigger than we imagined it would be to live in. Three bedrooms, one and a half baths.

Space is overrated anyway. We used to be slaves to big houses---- slaves to the bank, the tax man, the gas company and the electric company. Our bills are low now and our lives feel so much more manageable. You can't pay enough for peace of mind!

We had to change the way we looked at life----our expectations of what life should be and how we saw ourselves, but I like the new us. Living within our means has given so much of our lives back to us.

Hope you enjoyed my story! Happy to post pics if anyone wants to see the transformation.

a reply to: MRuss

welldone - the freedom of not being a slave to finance!

Great story and hope you guys remain happy. Paying off a house or even a car or a credit card is happiness.

a reply to: MRuss

We are in the process of gong the same route. Bought a tiny farm house with some land and looking forward to waking up in the small house. Just gotta sell this monstrosity first.

a reply to: network dude


Ah, good luck! The right buyer will come along! It just takes the perfect person for your house to walk in the door!

a reply to: MRuss

Pics or it didn't happen!

J/K Congrats!

That is my plan personally, I'm in school learning some trades to do this exact same thing.

If you have flowing water nearby, you can source some of your electricity as well

a reply to: MRuss
Congrats on your newfound freedom! And if you feel that you would like to share your photos that would be most appreciated. I love home makeovers! HGTV is my weakness so I would love to see the transformation.

Congrats OP for being completely free!!! If my wife and I didn't have kids we more than likely would be living off the grid also in a tiny house in the meadow of the woods somewhere with a truck and a bike.

Its vey difficult to give up the creature comforts of todays society with new tech and living improvments coming every year.

Wish I could do the same.

Do share pics OP.

I have done the same thing here in Australia. Capital city prices had skyrocketed beyond hope of me ever buying a home of my own and at the age of 43 I was ready to give up.

Then I too discovered that you can buy a really good home (on an acre in my case) for not very much. $125,000 AUD got me a 1950's home that is perfectly liveable (although extremely retro with the LOVELIEST carpet you have ever seen ) with somewhat overgrown gardens that include almost every type of fruit tree one can name.

For anyone prepared to roll their sleeves up and put some work in, there are many absolute bargains to be had in the country. The people are much nicer out here too. They actually want to stop to talk and get to know you.

a reply to: markosity1973

Do share pics OP.

+1

I was only semi-kidding when I said pics or didn't happen

a reply to: MRuss

Trying to upload pics to ATS on my iPad.it looks lke they upload but don't show up o pic page. Not sure why?

a reply to: MRuss

Once you upload a pic it will have a few codes underneath it, copy the top one and paste it into a response.

a reply to: MRuss
It sounds like the file size is too large for ATS. ATS has a file size (sorry I can't remember what it is) limit and if it's too large it won't upload. It goes through the full process but then just doesn't show up.

It is such a wonderful feeling not to have mortgage payments. Still have the taxes twice a year and the house insurance once a year, but it isn't bad. We slowly detoxed from the rat race. Now we have a food pantry in our home and our excitement is going out and buying things to save money on food. It gives us the ability to buy nutritionally better quality foods at the overall same price as the commercial foods. We do a lot more cooking from scratch now, making most of our breads and buying real meats and preparing things ourselves.

We don't have a microwave anymore, that was one of the best things we did. We don't have any car payments anymore and we have decent vehicles. Buying things you do not really need is what causes hardship. We have been led to believe we need things that we really don't.

We don't skimp on toilet paper anymore.

a reply to: MRuss

Congrats. Been there.

He's to ya...

A wonderful story, thanks for sharing! I am very happy you have found a way of life that suits you perfectly, enjoy!

We've decided to do the same. Im burying my confessions in your thread... by the way

Getting rid of my MUUUCH loved historic home ( aka awesome cool money pit) and moving on land. The husband and I arent originally city people, and even in a small town being "in town" is too city really. I want to do what we love most at this time in our lives... be together in the woods. I knew it was time to pull the trigger on this when I started taking more and more time to myself in the woods to "recharge" myself... hunting, fishing, being barefoot and not worrying about my horrible personality flaw of vanity. I am not feeling well or right in the city anymore. Something is wrong that I dont know the reason for.. but Im spending way too much time alone away from the family ( not due to them, but due to the environment) and getting lost in myself and where Im most happy.. among the trees and mud. I had a NIIICE Charger w the hemi.. and traded it in on an f150... to haul my kills or gear. I abandoned my family for 2 months last year, threw a blow up mattress in the bed of the truck, threw a tarp over the top, grabbed the dog.. and lived by myself in the woods... cant do this much. I have a LOT of responsibilities. Im becoming increasingly short tempered with people.. I mean I never really was good at suffering a fool, but the idiocy of others is making me feel violent. Time to withdraw... for myself, the family... and others who I might turn on. Its embarrassing to admit I am becoming more feral than civilized lately... and at this point in my 2nd half of my life, I shouldnt be carrying around several of my attys business cards.. just in case.

Ive decided after this season of charity fights, Im retiring. Ive been in all of the weight classes I can do.. safely.. and Im old. I dont really have any opponents who can beat me anyway, and its getting to be more of a chore than fun anymore. With my ratio, I dont get the good bets anymore so less if given to charity on me.. unless theyre betting for a win, but the points arent good.. unless Im fighting a much younger person... but its just not what it used to be. Im about to get myself in trouble at my job.. Im upset about the ridiculous way the law is applied and how criminals and abusers have more rights than the victim. My temper tantrums arent helping anyone. I decided Im selling off my arachnid and invert stock... and selling the business and website. That was a huge decision.. cause I love the critters! Its just time to do a total retooling of my life.. again.

Ill wipe my slate for the 3rd time in my lifetime and be someone new.. perhaps actually be someone I was deep inside. Pursue things I love, but werent lucrative. The death of Masqua made me think about creating again. To leave something of myself to people who love me. Ive thought abut how wonderful it was to see the outpouring of love and admiration he received.. its something I would like to have myself.. for more than my physicality. Id like to give folks little pieces of myself.

I envy you OP and my dear, you are in a wonderful place in your life. Live it fully and be thankful for every minute of it!! Be inspired!!! I plan on joining you as soon as I possibly can..

a reply to: Advantage
You have mail...

a reply to: MRuss

I'm glad you paid-off your home.

Unfortunately in America, we can never own the land underneath the home.

We have to rent it for eternity in the form of property taxes.

If you dont pay this "eternal rent", our public servants will take your land and your home.

SMH

originally posted by: gladtobehere
a reply to: MRuss

I'm glad you paid-off your home.

Its unfortunate that we can own a home but never the land that it sits on.

Or the water.. or the minerals..