There are a lot of people who are looking into the possibility of moving into a tiny house because of the financial benefits that it brings. The most obvious of which is that your expenses for the house drastically goes down. From the utilities to the upkeep and even the mortgage will all go down. This frees up a lot of funds in your budget which you can divert to other areas in your life.
You can start looking at your retirement fund and max out your 401k contributions every year. This can be a great idea, especially if the company you work for has a matching program. This is free money on the table you need to take advantage of. You just have to look at the vesting plan to make sure that you get to take full advantage of the program.
Getting a tiny house also lowers down the cost of maintaining the house. The sheer size difference from traditional homes makes tiny homes ideal for people who want to lower down maintenance costs. Reader’s Digest shares that small homes are typically under 400 square feet. The American Dream of owning a house is still alive, it’s just that some prefer to have smaller ones.
The other side of a tiny house
There are a lot of benefits to getting a smaller house but you always need to look at all sides including the disadvantages of a smaller place to live in. Here are some of the downsides in getting a tiny house.
The dangers of DIY
When you are getting a tiny home, one of the most tempting parts in the process is taking a DIY approach in some areas of the house. You might have plans for how the stairs need to look like or you want to execute your own idea for the loft bed in the house. You take off work for a few weeks to try and work on the house and everything seems fine.
This approach would work for people who have prior construction experience but for regular people, this could come out more costly in the long run. First, taking off work to build a part of the house means there is no money coming into the household. The danger also lies in the workmanship where one wrong move could cost you more when the time comes you hire real contractors to fix the problem on top of the actual construction.
Cleaning the house can be tricky
You might think that a tiny house will allow you to take a break from back-breaking cleaning chores since you will be cleaning a smaller space. One thing you might overlook is the fact that regular mess in a small house will be hard to ignore prompting you to clean it right away. This means that you could end up cleaning a lot more often in a small house than you would in a regular home.
Contractor cost
You might think that since you are building a smaller house, the cost to get it built would be lower. The surprising fact at how some contractors view this is that there are some who have a higher markup since the job is small. There could even be some contractors who would simply refuse the job outright. This could lead to trying a DIY approach on the house which could lead to higher costs. Business Insider shares that the average cost for a small house is over $59,000 so you have a big decision to make.
You need a big truck to move around
At the moment, you would a mobile tiny home is a good way to get around places at different times. You might want to be near the beach during the summer, be close to family over the holidays, or just at a campsite at certain months in a year. To move around, you would need to have a big truck to haul your tiny house around. This can add to your monthly payments because you might have to take out an auto loan and the added maintenance, insurance, and even gas for the truck should be included in your budget.
Meal preparations
One way to help you save money on food is to prepare your meals ahead of time so you do not spend every single meal preparing the food from scratch. When you have a small house, this might be a challenge since you do not have enough space to store prepared food. This would force you to buy ingredients more regularly, cook more often, or even force you to eat out more times than you want. This can also result in more unsustainable food packaging since you do not have a lot of space to store them.
Reasons to live in a tiny home
Now that you have an idea about some of the downsides in living inside a tiny home, you should always balance this with the good that you can get from it. Here are some of the good things you can expect from a small house.
It can make retirement a lot of fun
Buying into the tiny house movement is popular among retirees with the savings it gives them. You do away with expensive mortgage payment including high taxes and insurance on the house. Once you get to free up those funds, you can use them to help you enjoy retirement more. It might be enough to help you with travel plans you have in retirement. The money you save can also fund that hobby you want to pursue which could turn out to be an income-positive hobby as well.
You get the freedom to stay wherever you want
There could be times when you feel constrained having to stay in one place all your life. Living in a mobile small house gives you the freedom to bring your house wherever you want in the country. You can drive to the beach and stay there all summer or visit a campsite and meet new people for months at a time.
Feeling more in control of a smaller house
You may not realize it at first but staying in a smaller home gives you better control of everything inside it. If you need to move things around, you can easily reach most parts of your house without much need for ladders and other equipment. Every nook and cranny is within reach and you can easily take out and switch items around the house.
Repairs can be minimal and if you minimal experience, you might be able to do it yourself. Cleaning the house might have to be more often but you will notice that cleaning even for a short time gives you amazing results. Try doing that in a big house and it would take you the whole day to even see the difference from the time you started.
Moving into a tiny house can be a great financial decision for you since it can help lower down most of your expenses and free up your budget for other priorities you have. However, before you jump into the tiny home movement, you need to look at all sides including the challenges of a little house.
