At the ripe old age of 24, I am meeting a lot of resistance when I discuss skirting the "responsibility" of buying a house, holding a mortage, and holding down a "real job." Wanting to avoid debt (especially to avoid a full-time job) seems to be an immaturity or even a moral failing on my part. "There is good debt and bad debt," I am told. "We need good debt to keep our country running." I understand that debt can be accrued for good and bad reasons (education versus excessive partying, for example). However, no matter how I look at large-scale, real-job-inducing debt in my personal life, I can only see it as bad. Very, soul-killing, paralyzing bad.
Home-owning is at the core of what it means to be responsible, middle class adult in our culture. Now, in all my other lessons about personal finances, I have been taught that is responsible to save money and not accrue a bunch of credit card debt on stupid piddly junk, like booze, hookers, and gambling. Or clothes, shoes, and jewelry. Whatever. However, all this thrift and restraint is apparently not to keep you out of debt and enable to live a free life of following your bliss, but so that you are a financially viable candidate for the yoke of a mortgage.
Today, I was talking to an acquaintance who happens to be a real estate agent. I've mentioned to him before that Brad and I are mildly interested in getting a small plot of land out here (in theTexas
True, I do want a LOT of land someday, many consecutive acres, as much as we can handle. But I want it for cheap, and I want it to be beautiful, fertile, and even have a water source, and be a part of a good community. Of course, that's a bit hard to do here. I'm thinking more along the lines of not-in-the-United-States.
However, I would also like to have a home base to come back to during the in-betweens, rather than living off other people and keeping my cherished journals and pictures boxed up in a storage unit for...indefinitely. I want my own space to decorate and host parties and overnight guests and leave messy when I feel like it. These (and more) are not liberties you can take when it is not your house.
So anyway, this acquaintance said, "I wouldn't even bother for less than three acres if I were you." Of course, the three acres he had in mind ran a cool $90,000. He helpfully reminded me that we were young and could pay on it...indefinitely.
I said, "But we don't want to pay on it. Then we'd have to get real jobs."
He laughed pretty hard at this and said, "Yeah, that's what you gotta do, that's what people do."
"Well, I had a real job the last couple years, and it turns out I'm not cut out for that, actually," I said flatly.
"Huh," he said. "Yeah, real jobs do suck."
Vested interest aside, I'm sure he's not the only person who gets the eco-friendly, non-wasteful thing about natural building but still has trouble with the idea of NO DEBT HOUSING. We, Americans, are indoctrinated with the beliefs that: you must buy a house, you must hold a mortgage to have a house, and you must faithfully work at "real job" to pay the mortgage...indefinitely.
As a kid, I remember more than one teacher exasperated with the classic classroom stalling question--"Why do we have to learn this? When are we ever going to USE this?"--answering with, "You need to learn this so you can go to high school and make good grades, so you can get into college and get a good job and buy a house (and a car) someday."
Really? All this algebra and state history somehow all boils down to shelter?
Because this answer narrows the view of all the things education can provide, I'm sure many educators would agree that it is the wrong answer, or at least incomplete answer, to give children. True, education level is a very good indicator of quality of life, so I see the connection to nice houses. However, I do not believe that "real jobs" and "nice houses" are the sole purpose of my life (or education), nor do I believe everyone who has a real job and a nice house is abundantly happy and fulfilled. In fact, I think a lot of well-intentioned, hard-working middle class Americans are down right miserable.
For me, happiness is tied strongly to being able to do what I want to do. We'll call this freedom. Because what I want to do is often subject to change, I prize my mobility more than any house or job. Proponents of home-owning like to remind you that paying rent is throwing your money away when you could be putting it towards owning your own place. Last year, I "threw away" exactly $375 a month in rent, plus bills, inWashington Texas
Because that $375/month seems a high price to pay, I'd prefer most of all to purchase my own place to OWN OUTRIGHT. As in, "Here is my $10,000 for this land, I'll pay my annual property taxes, but otherwise, we're through here." The vision is to then build a DEBT-FREE HOUSE, due to the low, low cost of natural building materials (as in, the dirt that you dig out for the foundation becomes the cob walls, the shelves, the furniture...). You've already paid for that hunk of earth--so make a shelter out of it! And if you can pull off this magic trick for less than the cost of a year's worth of rent, you are the most free you can possibly be. You no longer have to pay for housing. You can grow a lot of your own food. You can still work if you want and buy your food. You even can go work a 9 to 5 inCalifornia
So NO, I don't want to "pay on" 3 acres for however long it takes me to make $90,000 three times over (hello, COMPOUNDING INTEREST) at a "real job." Overspending does NOT make my life more legitimate, mature, or responsible. It doesn't have to cost a $35,000+ annual salary for one person to live, not even to live comfortably, and certainly not to live adventurously. When you separate the needs from the wants, and avoid taking out loans to finance the wants, you need very little to live on.
To me, there is a responsible and an irresponsible way to do just about everything. You can buy a house and mortgage and have a real job the responsible way: buy a house within your means (seriously downsize your notion), pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible (I'm talking 1 to 10 years, not 30 to 50), and seek out a job that you actually care about. The irresponsible way, you owe too much, you work too much, maybe even hate getting up in the morning for work, and you are adding undue poisonous stress to yourself and your family. Raising your children in a "nice" house is all good and well, but if it's an unhappy nice house--well, what's the point?
Taking a pass on the whole mortgage thing seems to get me branded: IRRESPONSIBLE. I admit there is quite a few irresponsible ways to get around mortgages: mooching, drifting, stealing, coercion, squatting, and so forth. Couple those images with my love of furry creatures and penchant for vegan baked goods, and I see why you might suspect a little nasty free-loading hippie in me. However, as anyone who remembers the days of Amber in tears over a "B" on her report card can attest to, I am probably one of the most neurotically responsible people you'd ever meet and still consider being friends with. The responsible ways I pursue my mobile lifestyle is to a) pay the price (literally, in rent), b) find a creative solution that is not a burden (such as volunteering in Peru in exchange for room and board, and now living with Brad's parents who are so excited to have us back and working on projects for them), and hopefully, wonderfully, c) owning our own place without incurring life-altering debt by purchasing land within our means and building with natural and salvaged materials.
These principles are already in use by many responsible low-income people. Of course, many are renters (though this doesn't translate to "freedom" as much as it does for me), but also many double- and triple-up with relatives in a mutually beneficial living situation (childcare, etc), and, well, even "c" has been done with the help of Habitat for Humanity, though not as cheaply as could be done with natural/salvaged materials. While good credit and mortgages mean the the middle class doesn't NEED to use any of these budget-savvy techniques to obtain shelter, they might WANT to think about it for their life's sake.
This whole hippie dippie venture is actually an exercise in responsibility. I'm thinking about the impact of my home will have on the environment, the greater community, my partner, and, yes, on my personal well-being. Sometimes I feel I am making a terrible affront to a lot of responsible, respectable people in our society. However, I refuse to give into ye old Puritanical guilt complex, and I hope to shake others out of it before they trap themselves in mortgages (and jobs they don't love). I am trying to intentionally create a life that makes sense, that I can be happy in, and not one I will be emotionally and financially paying for...indefinitely. Wish me luck.
Home-owning is at the core of what it means to be responsible, middle class adult in our culture. Now, in all my other lessons about personal finances, I have been taught that is responsible to save money and not accrue a bunch of credit card debt on stupid piddly junk, like booze, hookers, and gambling. Or clothes, shoes, and jewelry. Whatever. However, all this thrift and restraint is apparently not to keep you out of debt and enable to live a free life of following your bliss, but so that you are a financially viable candidate for the yoke of a mortgage.
Today, I was talking to an acquaintance who happens to be a real estate agent. I've mentioned to him before that Brad and I are mildly interested in getting a small plot of land out here (in the
True, I do want a LOT of land someday, many consecutive acres, as much as we can handle. But I want it for cheap, and I want it to be beautiful, fertile, and even have a water source, and be a part of a good community. Of course, that's a bit hard to do here. I'm thinking more along the lines of not-in-the-United-States.
However, I would also like to have a home base to come back to during the in-betweens, rather than living off other people and keeping my cherished journals and pictures boxed up in a storage unit for...indefinitely. I want my own space to decorate and host parties and overnight guests and leave messy when I feel like it. These (and more) are not liberties you can take when it is not your house.
So anyway, this acquaintance said, "I wouldn't even bother for less than three acres if I were you." Of course, the three acres he had in mind ran a cool $90,000. He helpfully reminded me that we were young and could pay on it...indefinitely.
I said, "But we don't want to pay on it. Then we'd have to get real jobs."
He laughed pretty hard at this and said, "Yeah, that's what you gotta do, that's what people do."
"Well, I had a real job the last couple years, and it turns out I'm not cut out for that, actually," I said flatly.
"Huh," he said. "Yeah, real jobs do suck."
Vested interest aside, I'm sure he's not the only person who gets the eco-friendly, non-wasteful thing about natural building but still has trouble with the idea of NO DEBT HOUSING. We, Americans, are indoctrinated with the beliefs that: you must buy a house, you must hold a mortgage to have a house, and you must faithfully work at "real job" to pay the mortgage...indefinitely.
As a kid, I remember more than one teacher exasperated with the classic classroom stalling question--"Why do we have to learn this? When are we ever going to USE this?"--answering with, "You need to learn this so you can go to high school and make good grades, so you can get into college and get a good job and buy a house (and a car) someday."
Really? All this algebra and state history somehow all boils down to shelter?
Because this answer narrows the view of all the things education can provide, I'm sure many educators would agree that it is the wrong answer, or at least incomplete answer, to give children. True, education level is a very good indicator of quality of life, so I see the connection to nice houses. However, I do not believe that "real jobs" and "nice houses" are the sole purpose of my life (or education), nor do I believe everyone who has a real job and a nice house is abundantly happy and fulfilled. In fact, I think a lot of well-intentioned, hard-working middle class Americans are down right miserable.
For me, happiness is tied strongly to being able to do what I want to do. We'll call this freedom. Because what I want to do is often subject to change, I prize my mobility more than any house or job. Proponents of home-owning like to remind you that paying rent is throwing your money away when you could be putting it towards owning your own place. Last year, I "threw away" exactly $375 a month in rent, plus bills, in
Because that $375/month seems a high price to pay, I'd prefer most of all to purchase my own place to OWN OUTRIGHT. As in, "Here is my $10,000 for this land, I'll pay my annual property taxes, but otherwise, we're through here." The vision is to then build a DEBT-FREE HOUSE, due to the low, low cost of natural building materials (as in, the dirt that you dig out for the foundation becomes the cob walls, the shelves, the furniture...). You've already paid for that hunk of earth--so make a shelter out of it! And if you can pull off this magic trick for less than the cost of a year's worth of rent, you are the most free you can possibly be. You no longer have to pay for housing. You can grow a lot of your own food. You can still work if you want and buy your food. You even can go work a 9 to 5 in
So NO, I don't want to "pay on" 3 acres for however long it takes me to make $90,000 three times over (hello, COMPOUNDING INTEREST) at a "real job." Overspending does NOT make my life more legitimate, mature, or responsible. It doesn't have to cost a $35,000+ annual salary for one person to live, not even to live comfortably, and certainly not to live adventurously. When you separate the needs from the wants, and avoid taking out loans to finance the wants, you need very little to live on.
To me, there is a responsible and an irresponsible way to do just about everything. You can buy a house and mortgage and have a real job the responsible way: buy a house within your means (seriously downsize your notion), pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible (I'm talking 1 to 10 years, not 30 to 50), and seek out a job that you actually care about. The irresponsible way, you owe too much, you work too much, maybe even hate getting up in the morning for work, and you are adding undue poisonous stress to yourself and your family. Raising your children in a "nice" house is all good and well, but if it's an unhappy nice house--well, what's the point?
Taking a pass on the whole mortgage thing seems to get me branded: IRRESPONSIBLE. I admit there is quite a few irresponsible ways to get around mortgages: mooching, drifting, stealing, coercion, squatting, and so forth. Couple those images with my love of furry creatures and penchant for vegan baked goods, and I see why you might suspect a little nasty free-loading hippie in me. However, as anyone who remembers the days of Amber in tears over a "B" on her report card can attest to, I am probably one of the most neurotically responsible people you'd ever meet and still consider being friends with. The responsible ways I pursue my mobile lifestyle is to a) pay the price (literally, in rent), b) find a creative solution that is not a burden (such as volunteering in Peru in exchange for room and board, and now living with Brad's parents who are so excited to have us back and working on projects for them), and hopefully, wonderfully, c) owning our own place without incurring life-altering debt by purchasing land within our means and building with natural and salvaged materials.
These principles are already in use by many responsible low-income people. Of course, many are renters (though this doesn't translate to "freedom" as much as it does for me), but also many double- and triple-up with relatives in a mutually beneficial living situation (childcare, etc), and, well, even "c" has been done with the help of Habitat for Humanity, though not as cheaply as could be done with natural/salvaged materials. While good credit and mortgages mean the the middle class doesn't NEED to use any of these budget-savvy techniques to obtain shelter, they might WANT to think about it for their life's sake.
This whole hippie dippie venture is actually an exercise in responsibility. I'm thinking about the impact of my home will have on the environment, the greater community, my partner, and, yes, on my personal well-being. Sometimes I feel I am making a terrible affront to a lot of responsible, respectable people in our society. However, I refuse to give into ye old Puritanical guilt complex, and I hope to shake others out of it before they trap themselves in mortgages (and jobs they don't love). I am trying to intentionally create a life that makes sense, that I can be happy in, and not one I will be emotionally and financially paying for...indefinitely. Wish me luck.
How's the building coming, friends??
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY! Hope you're continuing to move in the direction of your dreams. BTW, that $375/mo you paid on rent in Washington was probably less than what you would pay on interest on a $90,000 loan to buy land in Texas. Paying interest sucks -- and the money is gone for good. It doesn't build up equity, and equity is what everyone is going on about when they talk about buying a home as a good "investment." Oh, and the supposed tax benefits of owning! You do get to write off interest on a home loan, but only if your itemized deductions are greater than the standard deduction you are eligible to take (which a renter can take). Also, even if you can write off the interest, all you wind up saving is the tax amount you would have paid on that portion of your income. That might be 15%. So 85% of those interest payments are still gone, and just went to enrich some banker. If you're paying less in rent than you would be interest on a mortgage (which is what my hubby and I do), you're NOT "throwing away" any more money than you do on a mortgage. And you still get to claim your standard deduction.
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you.