Our last story on frugal living, “The Secret to Living Well on $20,000 a Year,” stirred up some heated comments, many of which argued that $20,000 a year represents a king’s ransom. “Someone should do an article on how to live on less than $10,000 per year. I am a single mother who is doing just that,” wrote Rici of Wyoming.
An anonymous commenter from Texas wrote, “[I’m] not impressed. I live on $8,796 a year.” “I am retired and living on less than $1,000 a month [from] Social Security,” wrote Liz Ortiz of Colorado. Glenn Morrissette, 42, wrote in to say that he lives on just $11,000 a year, and he does it by living full-time in an RV.
As a result, he pays no rent, needs no car, and can live wherever he wants. Unlike Joseph Fonseca, the writer we profiled in our “Living Well on $20,000 a Year” article, Morrissette has health insurance. A professional musician, he can work by computer from any location.
He might not have a family support, as the teacher living on $40,000 a year does, but we thought Morrissette’s story was interesting enough to share. We spoke with Morrissette, who is currently in New Jersey, about his lifestyle, which he also describes on his blog,
To Simplify. Excerpts:
Why did you decide to live in an RV
I had an apartment in Burbank and was the typical Los Angeles apartment dweller. I started to feel a strong desire to simplify my life. I had a garage full of stuff I never used, my closets were full, and I started to see that it was costing me money to have an apartment big enough to hold all the stuff I never use.
My initial plan was to scale back and move into a smaller apartment. Before long, I realized I didn’t need too much to be happy. I could fit into a small space. That’s when the RV idea occurred to me. I was just sitting in traffic and an RV pulled up. I said, “I could probably fit in that thing.”
The more I looked into it, the more I realized how practical it would be. For what I was paying for rent in LA, I could own my “house” free and clear and not pay rent, and own my car as well. How do you stay under $11,000 a year?
The two key things that make it possible are not having rent or a mortgage payment. I own my RV, so that was an initial expense [of about $14,000], but I have no house or car payment. Gas is controllable; I don’t drive if I don’t want to. Most months, I spend less than $300 on gas. I estimate that I save about $1,000 a month compared to what I was spending in La. What do you eat?
Read therest of the story here: http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/alpha-consumer/2011/10/19/the-secret-to-l...
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