A vacation home on a lake! How marvelous! How Expensive! It was fun while it lasted.
Living the Vida Loca was a lot of fun, for a while. But like a lot of folks my age, I found out that having a "nice lifestyle" while fun, was costing a lot of money. And it was costs that I didn't really realize until I stopped paying them. I am still adjusting to the idea that I don't need to be running like a hamster on a wheel all the time, just to stay in one place.
Selling off a lot of "things" I thought I had to have, and learning to live on less and be debt-free is turning out to be far more relaxing.
So what are the savings? Just off the top of my head, I can come up with:
Interest Not Paid: $18,000 per year
Property Taxes, New York: $6,500 per year
Boating Costs (Riparian Day 3): $5000 per year*
Boating Costs (Riparian Day 2): $2000 per year*
Cars: (BMW Concertibles, Pickup truck, Jeep): $3000 per year*
Lawn Care (5 acres of lawn): $500 per year
Utilities, New York: $2000 per year**
House Maintenance, New York, $2000 per year***
Total: $39,000 per year.
*storage, insurance, gas, repairs
** adjusting for increased costs in Georgia
*** includes gardening, improvements, service contracts, winterizing
Hoochie-Mama! That's a lot of dough. Now consider this, in order to make the same amount of income, with taxes, I would easily have to increase my income by at least 50% or more. So, in other words, a savings of nearly $40,000 per year ends up being equivalent of getting a raise of $60,000 a year - more than most people make.
Ouch. Yea, having a lot of toys was nice. But Geez Louise, it was breaking my back!
Not working is better than working hard so you can own stuff.
