Here Are 9 Reasons Frequent Fliers Should Downsize At Home
Adventures are fun, but sometimes, they’re impractical. If you have a large home, you’ll constantly find yourself torn between cleaning and maintaining the house while planning for your next overseas journey. Downsizing provides a perfect answer to those woes. You’ll have less house to take care of, so you can prioritize what matters most to you: traveling to new lands and experiencing new things.
1. You’ll Have Less Maintenance
With a larger home, it seems like things go wrong more often. When you swap to a smaller home, you won’t have as many things that could need repair. You’ll still have all the same appliances, but you may not have to worry as much about repainting a room or sealing cracks as much as you would in a larger home, with more space for possibilities to go wrong.
By downsizing to a shared building, like a condo or apartment, you might not even have to keep up the maintenance yourself. You can always rely on the property’s maintenance crew to help you fix something. Since they’re always a constant and you won’t have to worry about paying out of pocket for maintenance, you might feel more at ease.
2. You’ll Be Happier
When you have fewer items and less to look after, you’ll be saving money — which means having more disposable income and a little more ease in your budget. In turn, having that leeway in your budget can make you happier. You feel freer when you can do more with your finances. If you travel consistently, you just need a place to spend your time between your adventures. You don’t need all the extras to make a house a home — especially if your home feels like it’s elsewhere.
3. You Can Sell Possessions You Don’t Need
When you downsize, you’ll inevitably start running out of space for the things you’ve collected throughout your life so far. That’s okay — you can always give them away to people who need them or sell them for a profit. With those profits, you can have a greater experience on your future travels or save up for a desired financial goal.
You might also consider selling your car. If you don’t plan to use it for travel, then it might just be sitting there collecting dust when someone else can benefit from it. You can put the money you get from selling it immediately into your emergency savings or toward any debt that you’re having difficulty paying down.
4. You’ll Pay Off Debt
If you have any debt holding you back from traveling to the destination of your dreams, downsizing your home can help you place those extra funds elsewhere. The money you make from selling can go straight into your debt, so you can make fewer monthly payments and instead spend on the destinations of your dreams. Figure out a way to plan to pay down your debt, and you can contribute a majority of your profits from selling your larger home to the debt with the highest interest rate.
5. You Don’t Have To Worry
When you have a larger home and grander possessions, you might worry if everything will be safe while you’re traveling. You can spend thousands of dollars on security measures to protect your stuff while you’re gone, or you could downsize. Downsizing might make your home look like less of a target for criminal activity, and you won’t need to waste your time traveling checking on camera footage from your phone.
6. You Can Spend On More Important Things
When you want to make a life out of traveling, you need better equipment and experiences, not a better home that you don’t visit often. When you don’t spend as much on home goods and other house-associated expenses, you can prioritize your gear for adventurous escapades or upgrade future flights to be more comfortable. If your priorities are with your travels, then you should be able to spend most of your money on the things that make you happy.
7. You Can Achieve Rewards
If you have an airline credit card, you’re likely on the lookout for rewards you can get. These rewards could be anything from free flights to upgraded seats. These rewards often have financial obligations tied to them, though. By spending less money tending to your home, you can contribute more finances toward achieving those rewards. That way, you’ll purchase what you love and need while working toward an upgraded experience.
8. You’ll Pay Less For Utility Bills
When you’re not at home as often, you’ll save money on your utility bills without doing much. However, if you also downsize, then you’ll save money while you’re actually at home. A smaller home means less space to heat. One of the best ways to save money while at home is to use the sun to your advantage — whether that’s to heat a room or utilize natural light.
Some of the money you received from downsizing could go toward more energy-efficient appliances. By buying energy-efficient appliances, you’ll support the environment while having an upgraded appliance that works well and saves money. When you’re at home, you won’t have to worry about maintenance as much as you would with an ancient model.
9. You’ll Benefit The Environment
With less space to take care of, you’ll benefit the environment more than you know. As long as you travel responsibly, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint. You won’t be at home as much, so you won’t waste as much energy or water. As a result, you could benefit the environment by living in a smaller space. Downsizing also means you likely won’t be moving into a new construction but adopting an older home — thereby saving on construction-related carbon emissions.
Downsize for a Happier Life
Downsizing looks different for everyone, but for travelers, it provides an inherent benefit. Your “home” is probably amongst your travels, not the house your snail mail goes to. Still, you want to have a nice place to rest your head in between your adventures, so downsizing can bring you the best of both worlds. When you downsize, you’ll have so much money to contribute to future travels or securing your financial future. It’s all up to you what you do with your newfound funds.
