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Sam Mitchell, 64, says he lives “totally comfortably” on less than $30,000 a year from Social Security.
He lives half the year in a 100-square-foot “tin shack” on the side of a road in upstate New York and the other half in a trailer home at the end of a dirt road in Florida — a very different lifestyle from 15 years ago, when he was working in real estate in Austin, making six figures and owning five homes.
Last year, he made a “staggering” $15,000 from his Airbnb business in the Finger Lakes region, all of which he reinvested back into the business.
He believes his way of life is not so out of reach for people his age.
“I have friends who are 80 years old and still working because they’re afraid they won’t have enough money. I say, look at me, everybody,” he says. “I’m making a quarter of the money I made in 2008, and nobody does that.”
Sam Mitchell built many tiny houses in Ithaca, New York.
Sam Mitchell
Across the country, many peak baby boomers — those who will reach retirement age 65 between now and 2030 — are worried they won’t have enough saved for retirement. Some told Business Insider they may never be able to retire, while others worry that rising rent and food costs will mean their Social Security benefits won’t be enough to cover basic living expenses.
But Mitchell said people’s definition of “comfort” may be too idealistic.
“I call it the ‘C-word,'” he said. “Peak Boomers’ definition of comfort is why they’re so scared and feel FOMO. It’s called getting out of your comfort zone, but people are so scared they can’t do it. They have no one to blame but themselves.”
Abandon luxury
Mitchell was born and raised in Atlanta and went to the University of Florida, then worked as a journalist in Santa Cruz, California, for several years before becoming a real estate agent, a move he describes as “totally stupid.”
He had worked for Keller Williams on and off in the Austin market for 20 years. He said he would “save a ton of money” in a year, then take a few months off in a country like Costa Rica and start all over again. He was also a landlord, buying up rental properties across the state.
He recalled attending lavish parties with musicians performing at South by Southwest and Austin City Limits, and he also owned luxury cars and trucks, and estimated that by the mid-2000s he was spending about $80,000 a year on expenses.
“The life I was living in South Austin in 2008 was probably the life that 95 percent of people on the planet would have been happy to have,” Mitchell says. “I was living in a beautiful four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on the South Austin Greenbelt. I owned five homes.”
At the time, he had a goal of owning 40 homes in Austin by the time he turned 65, then selling one every six months until he was 85. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of a friend who was a real estate investor.
But that year, he gave it all up.
“I decided to get off this career hamster wheel,” he said, noting that he began selling assets in April of that year. “The pressure just lifted, even before the market crashed in 2008.”
He sold his primary residence and three other homes, his license expired at the end of the year, he paid off all his credit cards, got rid of many of his possessions, and gave up his lavish lifestyle because he knew he could always come back and make $100,000 “without getting out of his chair.”
Moving to New York and Florida
To start a new life, he bought a farm and built a small house in Peru, and spent four years in Peru and Ecuador, much of it without electricity, before returning to the U.S. in 2012. He rented out his last home in Austin to a tenant, paying $650 a month.
Upon returning home, he lived out of his pickup truck, initially driving through California, Oregon, and Washington. Though he had a trusty bedroom in his Austin home, he spent 10 months of the year traveling with his dog, Sancho Panza. He did this for about seven years, taking him all over the United States.
He finally found a house on 14 acres outside Ithaca, New York, for $35,000. Although he had very little money left and still had three years before he would receive Social Security, his sister helped with the cost, promising to sell their Austin house and pay off the debt.
He put his Austin house on the market on March 9, 2020, just days before the COVID-19 pandemic put the country on lockdown, which he said was probably “the worst day to sell a house in the 21st century.” With the money, he bought a “brand new” 2013 truck with 200,000 miles on it that had previously been in an accident.
Once his Social Security benefits started rolling in, he got by on $900 a month. With no kids to support, a mortgage or health insurance, his expenses weren’t huge. While $900 a month isn’t nearly what he made 15 years ago, it’s enough to get by and live comfortably, he says.
He started an Airbnb business on his land after building his first tiny home out of an 8′ x 8′ shed. He moved onto the land and rented out his 384 square foot home to tenants who would take care of the home during the winter.
He worked with a local Amish family to build two more tiny homes on the property, as well as a tiny 8-foot by 20-foot community kitchen. When the house is all rented out, he lives in a 9-square-foot camper.
He’s still losing money on the business because he’s only open five months of the year, but he hopes it will soon be profitable. He has a small side business buying vacant land in Florida with two friends, sometimes doubling their initial investment and using the proceeds to buy more properties. Still, it puts zero money in his pocket and therefore zero income per year.
He also goes to Florida for a few months each November, where he lives in a 600-square-foot trailer near the swamp.
“It’s easy to live comfortably in this beautiful environment on less than $30,000 a year if you’re so inclined,” he said. “I’m living proof of that. I have other friends who have made similar decisions, and they’re starting to get tired of the whining.”
He argued that many of his fellow peak baby boomers need to rethink what they need to live comfortably and get more creative with their sources of income.
“I don’t live under a bridge. I run a business,” he says. “I live in such a nice environment, but I have to cut back on all the gadgets. I just replaced my beautiful i7 computer, which was acting up, with a Pentium processor. The guy at Best Buy was very surprised that I’d made this decision.”
Have you recently moved to a new state? Are you worried about your retirement prospects? Contact this reporter. nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.