Rent Poor

 

I did an online budget about 6 months ago.  At the time, I was renting an overpriced 2 bedroom apartment.  The budget assistant took my monthly income and all of my other expenses – Rent, utilities, food, gas, car insurance, etc, then deducted everything from my income.  The budget software alerted me to the fact that my rent was eating up more than 50% of my income every month.  I KNEW THAT!!  Thanks for the RED alert!

The website I used gave me a suggestion that I only pay about 30% of my monthly income towards housing.  If this is not an option where I live, where you live, what are we supposed to do?

I have been battling with this issue for years.  Moving from the over priced Bay Area in California to Oregon 8 years ago helped. But, I have noticed that trends seem to move to Oregon from California, and the rental market is no exception. When I knew we were getting close to our lease being up this last year in the apartment, I knew what I was facing.  I could not find anything that was in the area where I work for anything less than what I was paying.  If I wanted to move outside of the area where I work, I could find housing a bit cheaper.  But with a car that is not in the best shape, the commuting expenses would eat up what I potentially would be saving with cheaper housing.  I felt like I was in a loose-loose situation. Thus, the Trailer Project was put into motion.

I read an article the other day titled “Renting: Just about awful for everyone right now“.  This article was very alarming to me.  Mostly because I am so affected by the rental market where I live, but it made me feel so hopeless for others that must be feeling the same.  One of the pieces of data from this article that blew me away is that 90% of working folk like us is dealing with the issue of paying 50% of their income towards rent.  Isn’t that like, EVERYONE?  The article gives a number of about 11.25 million households are affected by the high rental market.  11.25 million people are paying 50% or more of their income every month on RENT. Holy Crap!!

How are single parents doing it?  People who are retired and trying to make it on social security?  What about the Millennials that are trying to pay back Student Loans and find jobs that are in their field of work that they went to school for? What about the underemployed?  People that lost their jobs during the recession and have not been able to climb back up the ladder to a higher paid position?

What is the answer?  Oh – Buy a house.  That is what I hear all of the time.  I mentioned about 6 months ago to a group of friends that my lease was up soon and the rent was going up about $250.  (Right?  I heard you gasp.)  “Oh, wow! Michelle – you know my mortgage is less than your rent?  You should just buy a house.”  Um.  Ya – why DON’T I just do that?  Let’s touch on that for a minute.

Divorce sucks = terrible credit.  This also means I have a ton of work to do before I can get to a place where anyone would even consider giving me a loan.

Being a single mom with no college degree and trying to work my way UP the ladder takes a long time.   I am finally in a job in Oregon that took me 8 years to find since I left California.  I am making now what I was making 8 years ago when I decided to move to Oregon.  8 years….

I don’t have any family with any money to let me borrow for a down payment on a house even if I had gotten my credit score under control.

I have been paying more than HALF of my monthly salary on HOUSING. How am I supposed to get caught up on debt and save for a house when I am barely eating and living?

I was discouraged.  I was hopeless.  I was drowning!!  Every month I was in the red. I don’t even know how I made it every month.  Doesn’t it make sense to eliminate the most taxing living expense in my budget and get the heck out of that apartment?  Honestly – I don’t think I even had a choice.  It was a no brainer for me. Sell everything we owned and buy a trailer – outright.  No payments – no interest. We paid cash.  Was it hard, terrifying and most days clearly impossible?  Yes.   But believe me when I tell you this – looking at my bank account and my bills every month prior to the Trailer Project was way harder.

We are paying off bills left and right.  We are allocating money to things we never could have before.  New tires for the car?  Ya, I got that.  The boy away at college is out of food – ya, I got that, too.  The possibilities for us are looking pretty good right now.  Oh, and that rent to income ratio?  I am at 10%.  I do have to park my house in a space, after all.  But you know what?  I got this.  I am proudly no longer RENT POOR.  I am Rent Rich.  And you know what else I am?  A future homeowner.  I could not have said that before.  I felt like that goal was completely unattainable.  It was totally out of reach and no where even close to being on my scope of goals to focus on.  It is now.

I know my lifestyle is not for everyone.  But if you can unwrap your head around the things that you are holding onto every month just so that you can continue to live somewhere that you are forking over more than half of your income to every month?  Why wouldn’t you?  Is that rental house or apartment THAT important?  For me, having a little bit of wiggle room in my budget every month is WAY more important to me.

I love my Trailer Project.  I love having little space to clean, just the things I need around me and my outdoor space is AMAZING.  I am good.  REALLY good.