I used to dream of owning a beach house. A place at my favorite place where I could go anytime I liked.  It would’ve been awesome!

But I gave up my dream many years ago.

It’s ok though; don’t cry for me, offer condolences or the name of a good therapist.

I gave up my dream for something better….a cheaper dream!

I’m going to live like I own a beach house while never actually owning one.

In fact, I’ve been doing this for the past few years and so far, it’s worked out great!

How?

Well, say you actually did buy a beach house. Let’s say it’s in southern Delaware (I’m an east coast guy so my beaches are in the Delaware/New Jersey/Maryland area). Let’s say you found one in an excellent location at a phenomenal price of $500,000.

According to Google, you would need a downpayment of at least 10%, or $50,000.  Then, your monthly mortgage would be roughly $3,000- most likely more. 

So that’s $50k up front, and then a total of $36k (3k x 12 months) each year in mortgage payments, in order to have the luxury of going to the beach whenever you want and for as long as you want.

How often would that be?

Well, my wife and I are still working, and our schedules are often opposite (she’s more free on the weekends and I’m more free during the week).  We have all the typical life stuff that everybody has, which also tends to fill up a lot of space on the calendar. 

We would definitely still find plenty of time to use our beach house, but……

We don’t have $50k for a downpayment.  We also don’t have an extra $3k per month to pay the mortgage, and we don’t have as much time as we would like to chill at the beach.

But here’s what we do have: an insatiable desire to go to the beach whenever we feel like it (planned trips, spur of the moment adventures, long stays, short jaunts, any season) without going broke.

So we just do that.  We go to the beach any time of year, sometimes on a whim for just a night or two.  We try to be reasonably frugal but we don’t fret over whether or not we “should spend the money.”  If it’s not sending us to bankruptcy court, we do it.

After a few years of this, our beach attendance has really only increased somewhat over our ‘normal” amount; a few trips per year beyond our usual. But it seems like we’re at the beach much more often. The spontaneous “extra” trips we’ve added seem longer than they really are.

Financially, our total beach spending is a very far cry from the amount involved in a beach house downpayment or mortgage.  So the whole thing seems like a cheaper, better, and less “all-in” version of our original beach house dream.  And we love it!

So don’t be afraid to live your dream, even if you have to alter it a little to make to work.

Hey- don’t forget to read this fine print…OR……I hate self promotion but……..

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