Category 18; in which you can live cheap, no matter your income

 

• Sep 7, 2006

Category 18; in which you can live cheap, no matter your income

Buy an RV.
Move into a mobile home park with an empty space.
You get: a legal place to stay, as well as water, sewer, garbage, mailbox, (all paid for)
electricity, phone, cable, (you pay for - but electric bills in RV can be very small - $20 a month - because it is built to be efficient enough to run off of a battery for a week)

More space and privacy than a room - some larger ones have more space than a studio.  No sharing a bathroom or kitchen with roommates, or even walls with a neighbor.

$400 - $500 a month in the most expensive housing markets in the world! No income guidelines, no rent control, that is just market value for an RV space. 20 minutes from SF, and 20 minutes from Manhattan NY – where a one bedroom apartment can cost $1500 a month.   RV space rent is less than you would pay for just a single room in someone else’s home.
If you live somewhere cheaper, you can find spaces with hook ups for $200 a month.

You don't have to share walls, you're safe in an earthquake (built in shock absorbers), if you ever have to evacuate you can take your whole house with you! It is really easy to move if you want to, you help the environment with super efficient lighting / fridge / etc, it comes fully furnished, you can take it on vacation...

And, you actually pay less than a homeowner - never mind the down payment, closing costs, brokers fees, and the interest on the mortgage (anywhere from 50% to 200% of the purchase price!!!!!!) - you forgo homeowners insurance (full timers insurance is cheap), water / sewer / garbage bills, property taxes, any HOA fees, most home maintenance bills, large utility bills... but you still have a place that is all your own. 

[I compared what I pay now in rent with what it would cost me to buy a foreclosed fixer-upper in a not-especially-nice area (ok – a downright scary area), and I would most likely NEVER even break even, not even once the house was paid off and I sold it with.
People always say you should buy if you can, to avoid “throwing away” money on rent that doesn’t pay equity.  It may be true more often than not that buying saves money compared to renting in the long run, but it ‘aint necessarily so.  Take a look at the calculator here: 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html  

Plug in some variables and see the effect of adding in all the calculations that most people forget to include when determining if they really come out ahead with a home purchase - even if they sold before the housing market bubble popped.  If everyone had used this before, all that craziness would probably never have happened in the first place.]