Life, as we know it, can be extremely difficult. We have bills to pay, a family to feed, and dreams to reach. As the prices of goods began to mount each year, the thought of saving up goes down the drain. Not every one of us has a retirement plan when every penny we earn is used to pay for monthly bills and emergencies.
But, when an opportunity is presented, we must take it. This is what happened to Michelle “MJ” Boyle.
MJ is a single mother of two who lives in a rental home with her kids. She works double shifts and multiple jobs just to cover the monthly expenses. Her life may be full of struggles, but it doesn’t stop her from creating a way to give her family the best life.
Since she is an amazing and strong woman, she was able to make ends meet. The solution: she built her own home!
MJ always believed that having her own home will help in reducing her expenses. She found out that her home in Sherwood, Oregon was costing her $1,600 a month in rental fees. Due to the exorbitant amount of monthly expenses, all her money was used to save the bills instead of saving it up.
She was stuck living paycheck to paycheck.
MJ used to own two houses, but after filing for divorce, she lost them. Also, her kids are off to college. MJ needed to switch up her game plan because her current situation wasn’t allowing her to save money and live comfortably.
She wanted to give the best to her children, so she took the risk.
“My life has been a series of unfortunate events. I have been divorced twice. I have built two houses and I lost the houses basically in the carnage of my divorces.”
MJ built her own house and named it her “empty nest”.
As part of her plan, MJ reduced her costs drastically to save up for retirement and planned on living in a tiny home. She also joined an architectural and social movement named Tiny House Movement.
The group aims to encourage people to live a simpler life by living in a small space. With this, the group was able to successfully help struggling families from all walks of life.
To create her own home, she used her own cash and donations from sponsors.
Her own tiny home is the first of the many houses she plans to build.
“I built my first house, this house, basically using cash and sponsorships to make sure that I have a paid-for nice, comfortable house when I retire. Now I’m building a few more tiny houses that I look forward to renting like on Airbnb or a try it tiny or other VRBO kind of platforms and create some income so, that’s next.”
Source of income
Due to living in a tiny home, MJ was able to cut her expenses to $75 a month! Now that is a huge amount of savings. Since she was successful in creating her tiny home, MJ started the business of designing and creating other tiny homes and trailers.
She turned these tiny homes and trailers into a rental business.
“I got Superhost status from Airbnb, it was almost 100% booked in the first summer, and within six months it actually paid me back every dime I had put into it,” she said.
Her message to everyone:
According to MJ, everyone has the capacity to change their lives. The secret to success is to work hard and dream big.
“My story is very much that this is intentional, this is comfortable, this is feasible. It quite literally changed my life and my future,” she said of tiny home living.
MJ is super proud of her tiny home and business. So, to anyone who is reading this, may you also be inspired by MJ’s story. If she can do it, you can do it too.
Take a tour of her adorable tiny home in the video below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
