| Early retirement planning often assumes that you will | | | | stuff that you have now. You soon find out that you |
| live in the same house upon retiring. This may be fine | | | | do not need it in the first place. |
| for some folks; others are looking for ways to | | | | Downsizing to say a one-bedroom condominium from |
| reduce spending in order to retire. For those more | | | | a large house should not be that difficult. You can |
| frugal retirees make sure you take a good look at | | | | only watch one TV, sit in one chair while doing so. |
| downsizing. | | | | Think how much space you use when you are eating |
| We know it can be done, and you do not have to | | | | cereal for breakfast...it is not much. |
| go to the extreme we did. In 1994, we swapped our | | | | Walk around your house and look at your formal |
| 1800 square foot house for a 35-foot sailboat that | | | | dining room, formal living room and spare bedroom. |
| had about 50 square feet of standup living space; | | | | How much carpet wear do you notice? You will |
| remember we are talking curved walls on a sailboat. | | | | rapidly see how little of your home you use on a |
| We quickly adjusted to getting by with a miniscule | | | | daily basis. |
| amount of the "stuff" we had in the house...you can | | | | So when doing early retirement planning do not |
| too. You can only wear on set of clothes at a time. | | | | assume you have to heat, cool, and maintain the |
| We found t-shirts/cover-ups over swimsuits did not | | | | same house you have right now. You can get by |
| take up a lot of space. No car, no problem...we used | | | | with a much smaller space so plan accordingly. There |
| buses ashore like the locals do. | | | | are so many ways you can cut costs and |
| Point being you do not utilize a vast portion of your | | | | retire...every one of them beats working. Enjoy. |