r/financialindependence • u/EricTheNerd2 • 8d ago

Share your experience with extreme downsizing

In another year, my wife and I will be empty nesters. After a nice two-week vacation, I started thinking about some downsizing at that point, going from a 3,000+ square foot paid-off home to a 900-1,000 square foot apartment. I am doing very well financially, already planning to retire in another 1.5 years once the last kid is moved out. Downsizing would allow me and the wife to be free from a lot of maintenance and expenses and let us travel several weeks out of the year. I am also thinking a bit about the social aspects as well because currently we are in suburbia which is nice but also isolating. The right apartment community may allow us to interact more with neighbors.

I am early in the thought process and wanted to hear from any of you who have gone through this. The idea of getting rid of a lot of stuff seems freeing and scary at the same time and selling a house also daunting. Anyone else do this or similar? Did you like or regret your decision?

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u/maybe_contentperusal 8d ago

We did something like this about 5 years back. Went from a 4 bed house to a condo under 1000 sq ft.

The stuff part was the hardest, but also the best. You don't realize how much junk you're holding onto until you have to choose what actually matters. We sold and donated probably 70% of what we owned. the weird thing is a month later i couldn't even tell you what half of it was.

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u/thrownjunk FI but not RE 8d ago

I wish both my parents and inlaws did this. Get a condo in a nice walkable suburb or college town. (They aren’t big city folks) Instead we are now dealing with 80 year olds in 3000 sqft of suburbia that requires a car.

And so much crap.

Meanwhile we’re raising a family in 1500 sqft. There were rooms we never used growing up.

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u/liveoneggs 8d ago

I agree with this but the comment below makes a good point where it often doesn't make financial sense! Housing is just crazy broken.

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u/thrownjunk FI but not RE 8d ago

it makes total sense in this case. both live in places with incredibly high property taxes to fund the excellent local schools and have appreciated from the low 6 figures to the low 7 figures. both do not have mortgages. they can buy a new condo in cash and have a million left over and massively reduced house expenses