Thursday, February 26, 2009

Beverly Hills, 90210 to Green Acres


An article on CNN Living intrigued me; it is about a couple who were making over $100,000 a year living in a 1,400 sqft apartment in Beverly Hills to living in a 300sqft Airstream. Why the sudden change? The husband had lost his job and since they were running out of options (and money) they bought an old Airstream and moved out to his parent's farm in Oregon and parked it on 5 acres. Apparently the wife, Leah, still had her job but they figured this was the best way to save money. You can read the rest of the article here.

This couple was smart in my opinion to just say "See ya L.A." when they knew they couldn't maintain their old lifestyle. It is also extremely nice of the husband's parents to let them move in while they get on their feet. Boyfriend would be insanely jealous and would love to work outside doing some manual labor, living it up on five acres. Seriously, he would be thinking, heck yeah, I could do that the rest of my life. To me, doesn't sound all that bad either! I wouldn't mind taking care of some animals, not having to worry about hair and makeup, or if my outfit is pressed for work.

One thing I don't understand though is with a salary of over $100,000 a year (and being 48 years old) how can one only have savings classified as "meager"??! That just seems crazy to me to be 48, making that kind of money, and have little to no savings. Had they been prepared with their Emergency Funds, they probably could have lived off of her salary and their EF while husband found a new job. I think this life change will be an eye opener for them and when/if they return to La La Land, they'll realize the expensive art and furniture they spent their money on really wasn't worth it, look what they had to sacrifice.
In any event, I found it interesting and thought I should pass on the article for your reading pleasure (or not). Would you have done the same thing if you would have been in the same situation? What are you doing to protect yourself in this economy? This is a really good lesson on why Americans need to focus on beefing up their savings accounts and not their material goods.

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