SMI Visitor's Blog       

Welcome to the SMI Visitor's Blog where you'll find selected excerpts from our Member's Blog, plus occasional posts created especially for our visitors.

For SMI Web Members, click here to go to the SMI Member Blog.

« Blog Home

An "easy" way to reduce your mortgage

Wanna get out of debt? Start by looking at your biggest expenses and find ways to reduce or eliminate them. For many of us, that biggest expense is our mortgage.

But not for 45-year-old Jay Shafer of Sebastopol, California. Why? Cause Jay has taken downsizing to a whole other level. Jay lives in an 89-square-foot house he designed and named "Tumbleweed." Jay, a former grocery store clerk, now designs these houses for a living. And not only has his mortgage disappeared, his utilities are now under $100 a year. Here's his story:

To be honest, this lifestyle appeals a great deal to me. Not only because of vastly reduced expenses, but also because of the burden of choosing, maintaining, replacing, cleaning, and storing our "stuff."

That said, I wouldn't go near this lifestyle till we're empty nesters because of the following equation:

And even once the kids leave home, really, let's be honest, what's the likelihood?

Powered by Movable Type  |   Subscribe  |   Email Updates