What is Home

I have established that I am a traveler and not a nomad, someone who needs a “home base.” Reaching that understanding is just the first step and leads to other questions: Do I want to buy cheap, raw land and start from scratch? Do I want to get a mortgage and have a real “stick and brick” place? Each choice has pluses and minuses.

I have enough money saved to buy a cheap piece of land but not necessarily a desirable piece of land in the area I want to live in (the Central Valley of California). Taking that option, I would need to build a small cabin and live off grid. I would also be in the middle of nowhere...alone. But, I would not be any deeper in debt and I would be a step closer to my goal of having property where friends and family could stay.

The other option involves getting a loan and buying an existing house (or condo or mobile home on land). It would be plug and play, no buildings to erect and dealing with everything you deal with when off grid (having power and water, most pressingly). Of course, this would put me deeper in debt than I’ve ever been while single. Not just due to the mortgage, but everything else that comes with a house like repairs and upgrades. I would also have to find a regular job and work it for at least six months to have sufficient work history. Oh, and the houses I could theoretically afford would not exactly be in “cultural hotspots,” they would be in faded backwaters and would need work.

Right now I am weighing those two options and determining what would work best for me. I have a problem with being in debt; my auto note and old consolidation loan weigh on me----and I am considering putting myself $125000 (or more) further in debt. Would that really work for me? Also, I would have to acquire a job and stay with it at least six months---could I find a job I could do anywhere? I don’t have a lot of “tech skills” so Option B may require me living in the same area for six months to a year. Decisions.

I have proven to myself that I can live and even thrive in a 38 square foot minivan; I have done it but I am ready to have a homebase, even a two hundred square foot cabin (or condominium or mobile home on a piece of land). How I make that happen is a whole other matter. This all falls into the concept or brand of The American Outback, deciding between options as I am trying to do---do you follow the easy path of financing a house and accept debt and being chained to a steady job? Do you take a piece of raw dirt and make it a home? Stay tuned.

Izk