This is my first real post on a web forum ever... but I had to share my little ER "secret" with all you folks. Love the forum, but haven't seen this single biggest ER trick shared on the site... Without it, there’s no way I would have been FIRE’d at 30. It was the single best financial decision of my life.
What I did was buy more house than I needed (5 bedrooms), and I used a home equity line to get every single toy and feature I wanted for it. Usually, that would be a bad idea for ER, but I rent out all 4 extra rooms, and having a dream home with every feature, toy and gadget greatly increases the amout of rent I can charge each of my housemates. I raise the rent every time I have a vacancy and I am amazed that there are always people willing to pay more to live in such a full-featured house.
Its good value for people who don't have any "stuff" because they get all the stuff and toys they could ever want, included in the price of rent--and EACH person is willing to pay the same additional premium even though I only had to buy the gadgets and feature once. I collect more in rent than the monthy payment on the loans and other house expenses, so I essentially get paid to live in my dream home. And with our monthly expenses shared 6 ways, my girlfriend and I basically get an 83% discount on our housekeeper, utilities, DSL, gamefly, netflix, etc. Plus, when we travel the world for more than a few weeks at a time, we can rent out our room as well (if we want) to help out even more with the travel costs (god bless craigslist).
I've met some really cool friends this way too. One taight me to rock climb and wakeboard. Another taught me secrets of budget world travel. Never had a bad experience from a roommate, in part because I have so much demand for spots in the house that I get my pick of the crop. My latest roommate showed up at the interview with a top 10 list of reasons I should pick her to pay me to live in my dream house. It's insane.
Anyhow, I never write on forums, but I thought that any ER forum would be incomplete without this tidbit of experience. I tell people about my situation all the time and try to convince people to do it for themselves, but they never do. Hopefully one of you out there will do it!
Worried about privacy? Most of the time, people are out working or on the computer or TV in their room. There are almost twice as many rooms in the house than there are poeple, so it is statistically impossible to not have a place for privacy. And its nice to have the option to have nice folks to go and hang out with if I want. I've become such close friends with so many quality, hand-chosen people that I wouldn't trade that for anything. Even my girlfriend likes having housemates because she knows it is the key to our FIRE. (In the interest of full and fair disclosure, my first girlfriend was more shortsighted about it, so I had to lowercase-fire her.
Worried about theft? I've never had any problem with my pick of the crop roommates... but anything over your deductible would be covered by insurance, and anytning less than that is chump change in comparison to the rent and expense savings you get each and every day. With the amount I bring in, someone could walk off with my flatscreen TV every week or a full load of groceries every day--and I'd still be better off financially. But again, I've never had any problems at all.
Worried about a messy house? Try an 83% discount on a housekeeper. I couldn't afford a housekeeper on my own, but when I only pay 1/6 of the cost, we can have a houseekeeper to keep the place spotless. I also only have to do 17% of the remaining chores... and if someone doesn't do their share, so what? 33% or 50% of the chores is still less than 100%.
Worried about a problem housemate? Boot them out. You're the landlord. Its your house. I've never had to do it, but its nice to know that I could if need be.
Worried about having other people around your kids? Its certainly better (in so many ways) than leaving your kids with a babysitter or daycare or alone all day while you're out working to pay the mortgage yourself. Use rent to get FIRE'd and you can actually spend time with your kids yourself. Why would your kids be home alone if you're FIRE'd? And unlike day care or a babysitter, you live with the people who are around your kids, so you have a better opportunity to judge their reliability. If you even have one shred of doubt about whether a housemate would be good around your kids, why the heck would you select them to be a housemate when you have the pick of the crop?
Don't like people? Like to walk around naked outside of your bedroom at all hours of the day? I can't help you.
Hope this helps someone out... good luck!
What I did was buy more house than I needed (5 bedrooms), and I used a home equity line to get every single toy and feature I wanted for it. Usually, that would be a bad idea for ER, but I rent out all 4 extra rooms, and having a dream home with every feature, toy and gadget greatly increases the amout of rent I can charge each of my housemates. I raise the rent every time I have a vacancy and I am amazed that there are always people willing to pay more to live in such a full-featured house.
Its good value for people who don't have any "stuff" because they get all the stuff and toys they could ever want, included in the price of rent--and EACH person is willing to pay the same additional premium even though I only had to buy the gadgets and feature once. I collect more in rent than the monthy payment on the loans and other house expenses, so I essentially get paid to live in my dream home. And with our monthly expenses shared 6 ways, my girlfriend and I basically get an 83% discount on our housekeeper, utilities, DSL, gamefly, netflix, etc. Plus, when we travel the world for more than a few weeks at a time, we can rent out our room as well (if we want) to help out even more with the travel costs (god bless craigslist).
I've met some really cool friends this way too. One taight me to rock climb and wakeboard. Another taught me secrets of budget world travel. Never had a bad experience from a roommate, in part because I have so much demand for spots in the house that I get my pick of the crop. My latest roommate showed up at the interview with a top 10 list of reasons I should pick her to pay me to live in my dream house. It's insane.
Anyhow, I never write on forums, but I thought that any ER forum would be incomplete without this tidbit of experience. I tell people about my situation all the time and try to convince people to do it for themselves, but they never do. Hopefully one of you out there will do it!
Worried about privacy? Most of the time, people are out working or on the computer or TV in their room. There are almost twice as many rooms in the house than there are poeple, so it is statistically impossible to not have a place for privacy. And its nice to have the option to have nice folks to go and hang out with if I want. I've become such close friends with so many quality, hand-chosen people that I wouldn't trade that for anything. Even my girlfriend likes having housemates because she knows it is the key to our FIRE. (In the interest of full and fair disclosure, my first girlfriend was more shortsighted about it, so I had to lowercase-fire her.
Worried about theft? I've never had any problem with my pick of the crop roommates... but anything over your deductible would be covered by insurance, and anytning less than that is chump change in comparison to the rent and expense savings you get each and every day. With the amount I bring in, someone could walk off with my flatscreen TV every week or a full load of groceries every day--and I'd still be better off financially. But again, I've never had any problems at all.
Worried about a messy house? Try an 83% discount on a housekeeper. I couldn't afford a housekeeper on my own, but when I only pay 1/6 of the cost, we can have a houseekeeper to keep the place spotless. I also only have to do 17% of the remaining chores... and if someone doesn't do their share, so what? 33% or 50% of the chores is still less than 100%.
Worried about a problem housemate? Boot them out. You're the landlord. Its your house. I've never had to do it, but its nice to know that I could if need be.
Worried about having other people around your kids? Its certainly better (in so many ways) than leaving your kids with a babysitter or daycare or alone all day while you're out working to pay the mortgage yourself. Use rent to get FIRE'd and you can actually spend time with your kids yourself. Why would your kids be home alone if you're FIRE'd? And unlike day care or a babysitter, you live with the people who are around your kids, so you have a better opportunity to judge their reliability. If you even have one shred of doubt about whether a housemate would be good around your kids, why the heck would you select them to be a housemate when you have the pick of the crop?
Don't like people? Like to walk around naked outside of your bedroom at all hours of the day? I can't help you.
Hope this helps someone out... good luck!