Life as the new Lower Middle Class.

[Stonepounder]

106. We are also 'lower middle class'

To those of you out there with a modest nest egg left, may I make a suggestion. Look into buying a 'mobile home'. Yeah, yeah, I know 'trailer trash' and all that. There are some very nice mobile home parks out there if you look. With real yards and trees and so on. We bought a repo for about 60% of the asking price. We have a 3 Br, 2 Ba, LR, DR, Kitchen, Breakfast nook, and laundry room. Small decks front and back, fenced for our dogs, and a 2-car driveway at the end of a cul-de-sac that backs onto a forest. Our home is paid for, since we are seniors we get a 'homestead exemption' so pay no property tax, and our lot rent is $300/mo. Try finding that in an apartment anywhere.

Even though our little neighborhood feels like exurbia, what with the forest behind us that will never be developed, we are 5 miles or less from just about anything we want/need. Stores, doctors, hospitals, malls, hardware, etc. When your rent is that low, it makes those SS checks stretch a lot further and makes it easier to shop in the produce section.