Want to live two different lower cost housing lives at once? Homes in the 20’s (no I didn’t forget a zero).

There’s a secret the seniors are not sharing with the rest of us. Their reasons aren’t to keep the younger people out as much as it may be to keep their lifestyle in the awesome category. (do seniors say “awesome” or just gen Xers?)

Summary: many 55+ communities may actually be “Age Qualified” which might allow a percentage—up to 20% —of residents to be 40+ year old. Or more specifically, 80% of the units must be occupied by someone >=55.

I know you’re thinking, why would a 45-year-old want to be in a nursing home/retirement community? Here’s the reason; these aren’t nursing homes. There are many communities located in vacation areas that have small/very nice trailers for great prices. Many of these communities have “park models” which are mid size trailers <400 sq ft, some are even two story ‘loft’ models. These are pretty much permanently placed homes which may also have side expansion rooms. These communities have a monthly space rent, and some may let you buy your lot.

Many of these associations have onsite activities such as game rooms, clubs, and agreements with local companies. At some point, you will understand me when I said ’50 is not old.’

Here’s some math for you that works in Arizona.

• You can buy a little summer home trailer in the mountains for $20-40k, pay $3000 for summer 6-month rent. Enjoy many activities in a great small town with lakes and trails and temperature in the 70-80s.
• You can have a “winter” home/trailer in southern Arizona or Texas, even the California desert area. These winter homes may be in the $30-60k range and their rent may be in the $1000/mo range for the year. There may be many of the same activities and discounts you enjoy at your summer home. The weather in the winter may be in the 60s-70s.
• Now if you add all of this up, you have 50-100k for the home purchases, then around $15k/yr for your space lease. That is not a bad deal for having two homes, two groups of friends, living in the 60s-80s year round for about $1200/mo estimated average rent. Imagine a $300k home, where you put down 20% and finance $240k, your payments may be pretty close to having two trailer homes. It’s just another option.

You can adjust the amount of the trailers and space rent by the desirability of the location. It is definitely more expensive to have a beach location, but in that case, you may only need one small home.

Maybe you just want to escape to the mountains for the summer, or for a week every month in the summer. That may be possible for little more than a tow behind trailer and definitely less than an RV.

All communities handle their age requirements differently. It’s important to know about this crazy alternative lifestyle because I know dozens of people who just love the flexibility of having a trailer as a second/vacation home.

You can look up the laws using: Housing for Older Persons Act (HOPA), The Fair Housing Act.

Any day, any time, anything I want.

Yesterday after my morning workout (9-10a) I was walking around a little to cool down and realized, I can do anything I want for the rest of the day. I absolutely own my schetchle today—actually most every day.

If you’re not FIREd, let me tell you, this is one of the magical moments—those moments you feel your freedom. Freedom all the way to your core. Yes, it’s obvious that almost every day I have my choices on what I want to do, but some moments it just hits you how special life can be.

Of course, we do not have kids, so there are no demands on our time from children. I’m sure there are blogs to help you optimize your time while raising/having a family. Those ideas must be extremely important for a life balance.

So for my day the immediate choices we something like this:

• Hang out on my deck reading, relaxing, trying meditation (napping), enjoying life.
• Tuning out and having a movie day and just relaxing (recovering from my exercise).
• Walking around the neighborhood or on the beach for a while. Sitting on the beach and doing some of the above “deck-type” activities.
• Using the computer to read and learn. Read my magazines or newspapers.
• Take my scooter for a spin along the California coast.
• Go shopping, run errands
• Clean house/organize my life better.
• Visit with neighbors who happen to be around.
• Have a cocktail combined with activities above (safe activities)

So what did I do? It turns out all of the above except napping, vegging with the TV, and shopping. No need to waste away my time in front of the TV or waste my money entertainment shopping.

I rode my scooter around a little. I looked at the ocean for a while, I sat on my deck and read a little— both equal relaxing. I organized some of my stuff, I completed my Rubik’s cube using the web instructions, I visited with half a dozen neighbors in our trailer park (trailer life can be AWESOME). We also took our dog for a walk around the neighborhood. My wife joined me on many of my activities.

At the end of the day, I was tired from all my freedom—but in such a special way.

As you live your life toward FIRE, never forget—EVERY day is a good day. Enjoy as much as you can.

Oh, total cost= about 50 cents in scooter gas and $3.39 for an in/out burger (sometimes you just have to live it up a little.