Revisiting a Tiny House Retirement Plan

As markets tumble and retirement accounts begin to take a beating, the notion of holding real tangible assets comes to the front of many people’s minds. When money is in the bank, or investment brokerage, it’s subject to outside forces in a way useful tangible assets you hold yourself are not.

During good times some of these outside influences can be beneficial and you may see balances soar. During tough times you may see the opposite.

During the crash in 2007/8, we saw many people loose huge amounts of money, forever altering their retirement plans. We saw people loose so much equity in their homes it pushed them into foreclosure and bankruptcy. The big lesson learned is that outside forces are also sometimes outside our ability to manage comfortably. To avoid disaster, consider taking more control of your assets and hold them yourself.

For example, what if you had a tiny house in the backyard and a truck to tow it? You might have had to spend as much as $50,000 to build the house and buy the truck – but you’d probably be using those to possessions all the time too. The truck may not be your daily driver, but it earns it keep with the fun & work it can take you to. The tiny house may not currently be your primary residence, but you can use it everyday as a guest room, home office, kid’s play room, or craft studio.

In other words, having a tangible tiny home on wheels that’s paid off – and the means to move it – can be part of your backup retirement or unemployment plan.

With a tiny house as part of a backup plan you live with the comfort that in a pinch, you’ll have a roof over your head. Your expenses would stay low due to the lower cost of ownership of tiny houses. The most complicated part will be finding a place to park your tiny home, but there are websites to help with that and worse case scenario, hooking up at a mobile home park, friend’s rural backyard, or even a campground, can work in a pinch.

Is a tiny house retirement for everyone? No, but it can be an excellent transition plan for those that don’t feel they could make it work long term.

This is food for thought. It’s an option many people have considered and some have put into action. It’s also just one of the many tangible assets you might consider on days like today, when markets globally are in turmoil.

 

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