Adulthood isn’t an easy phase of life, especially if you know you don’t have a retirement plan prepared.
Not everyone has a retirement plan. In fact, “go with the flow” seems to be the norm these days.
With such a rocky economy and expenses piling up left and right, it can be pretty challenging to set up a retirement fund and really commit to building it.
But there are some dedicated individuals like MJ who refuse to waste time. She claims to be able to live on just $75 per month despite being a mother and having responsibilities.
In 2014, a single mom of two college-aged children, Michelle “MJ” Boyle, decided to make the move and create her tiny home. MJ is a strong single mother of two who has had a few challenges along the way. Playing both mom and dad hasn’t been easy. It wouldn’t be easy for anyone having to run a household, pay all the bills, and ace all the parenting duties.
But because you never know how strong you are, until it’s the only option on the table, MJ managed to sail through. MJ, tough as she has always been, embarked on a mission to build herself a home that she terms “her empty nest.”
MJ commented on her mission, “My life has been a series of unfortunate events. I have been divorced twice. I have built two houses, and I lost the houses basically in my divorces’ carnage.”
With both her kids depending on MJ for college fees and upkeep, the single mother couldn’t afford to set aside money for retirement. But she wasn’t going to let her current situation disable her dream of owning a retirement home.
She built her own home in 2014 after deciding that she didn’t want to spend her life working for anyone else or being dependent on another person ever again.
She moved in right after her youngest went off to college – hence the “empty nest” in the name. This helped her cut down her monthly rental payment, so she could shovel more cash into her children’s college funds.
“Building anything with your own hands is one of the most rewarding experiences,” she said. “In my case: I’m not only building it, I designed it.”
A year before MJ was able to make her dream of building a tiny home for herself come true, she was actually paying $1,600 a month for a home she was renting in Sherwood, Oregon.
Because of renting, she was never able to save up and lived from paycheck to paycheck.
Now, from paying $1,600 monthly to living in a charming house with only $75 in monthly expenses, MJ is more than happy with the change she made.
“I built my first house, this house, basically using cash and sponsorships to make sure that I have a paid-for nice, comfortable house when I retire. Now I’m building a few more tiny houses that I look forward to renting like on Airbnb or a try it tiny or other VRBO kind of platforms and create some income so, that’s next.”
Transitioning from renting to owning a small home, and consequently being able to save up to build even more homes is definitely a bold move.
Watch the video below for more details:
Source: AWM