18. Tiny Home Living.
Thanks! Yes we consider ourselves very fortunate. We bought this place back in 1991, and have been working very hard ever since then. What changes we have seen (and what views we have)! But doing the work (almost all) yourself, and mostly paying for it as you go, has paid off. And we did it all as a team.
It is not a small place. As you live life and think about the future, retirement is always on your mind, especially when you have a view of things the way we do - that is to say, "don't forget to live for today, but plan for the future first". Not "too", but "first".
Balancing income against outgo is paramount, and setting up a savings plan that works (pay yourself first). All those years driving used vehicles - fixing cars until midnight so you can drive it to work in the morning, planning food use - less waste, cook once eat three times (planned-overs), not hiring labor - learn to change your own oil, learn sheet-rock finishing in a "small room project", don't fall for marketing traps, wear out your clothes, don't buy a smart-phone plan until you have these other things set-up and moving along on cruise-control, etc. It really works. YOLO is a cop-out, I have no sympathy. Don't ever get "house poor" or "car poor". Learn what a healthy budget is supposed to look like, and then stick with those similar percentages.
And those early visions never pan out exactly. Who knew back then, downsizing was cool? Who knew we need a better balance of power by including way more women in our institutions. We could EASILY go smaller on our home, but now we're stuck. We can't sell out and move anywhere and have what we've created here, for anywhere near the same cost. So we stick it out living in bigger digs than needed. But we can downsize RV styles! We can press toward more inclusiveness in our world. We can use reason over emotion. These are simply examples of a better balanced life! And who doesn't want that? For everyone?
Today I'm going to open up a several day's post about what we've come to learn about tiny home living - in Lil' Queeny. Some is simply honed from 10 years of experience with our pop-up Truck Camper, but as you age, things evolve too. A lot about tiny home living is staying as healthy as possible, and keeping your body in a state that can endure smaller spaces, and greater movement and agility, etc.
Just like financial planning for retirement, building a retirement home out of your current residence, etc., keeping in shape (and we are not perfect with that by any means) requires that same year after year commitment.
My meat and potatoes diet (never a fruit or vegetable shall cross my lips) attitude has greatly shifted over the years. That's thanks to DW. She is the long-suffering and patient cause of my conversion to a more healthy diet. It doesn't hurt that her career was in nutrition education, and that she learned as a young woman, how to cook in a steakhouse club from a certified Chef (the owner), not to mention her own natural talents and attributes leaning her in such a direction.
We only ate out once on this trip, at the Bug Sur State Park Restaurant - the Fish and Chips. Okay, and once in Santa Rosa at a diner, just because it was convenient. But we don't enjoy those places as much as we used to, because DW makes up such fine food in the camper! That's a learned skill too, we'll discuss.
When you consider your body, times two, requires "that" much space to exist, then you make your private world just a little bit bigger, you can make the rest of the world your oyster!
By doing that, we can say, "we have some ocean front property in California, from our dinette you can see the sea...
And if you buy that we'll throw the Golden Gate in Free".
;)
