Monday, June 25, 2007

Freedom Files

I have a manila folder lovingly labled The Freedom Files. I worked on this project for roughly 3 years. It is the actual plans for my freedom from the rat race. Not my wishful dreams, the cold hard facts and numbers. I dug it out this weekend, because it had been on my mind lately, from its ignored place in a filing cabinet.

Unfortunatly it was incomplete, probably scattered through boxes from the last move. It was a very large file, involving charts and graphs that I kept on the wall above my desk. There was one of those thermometer style graphs where I would fill in a line a little higher each month as I added money to my savings account. There were indicator features which were marked as things like " buy land now" and "put in well" for when the color filled in to that level. At the top was the word "freedom".

I wish I could find the notebook filled with pages and pages of itemized projected expenditures. It had EVERYTHING. The cost of a solar system. The price per foot of well drilling, and estimated depths in areas I was looking at. The cost of materials for a small cabin, the types of foundations, the legal requirements in different states. I had pages of little things too, like shovels and ladders and fruit trees and a composting tiolet. Heehee. I had added it all up for the grand total price of freedom from renting and a job I hate. I would sell eggs, see, and whatever excess edibles I could grow. I would have a pond stocked with trout!

Last year was a bit of a rough one, so although The Freedom Files became scattered and lost, they were not forgotten. I still saved money when there was leftover at the end of the month. The dream is not dead.

Today I checked out fannie mae loan estimates, and house prices where I currently live. Apparently on my income, depending on interest rates of course, I can afford a max price home of $105,000. Joy! I guess if CommonLaw made as much as me that would put us at $210,000. Here's what else I found. Having dreams of acreage, I found a 100 sq ft cabin (not including the outhouse 100 feet down the hill) on 6 acres for $289,000. I also found a cabin not unlike the one we rent (although sans plumbing and paving) on 25 acres, only $425,000! I guess if we didn't want privacy there was the 2 bed 1 bath fixer upper in town for $415,000. That's pretty good, since the county average for a 2/1 is $650,000.

I'm so kidding! Not about the prices unfortunatly, but about actually wanting to slave at a job I hate for 30 years to not even afford a place with an OUTHOUSE. Yeah, oregon, here I come. Or maybe washington (state). That's where most of my Freedom File research was, where it's 1g an acre instead of 20- 50 thousand an acre. Not that I ever was deluded enough to think I would live here permanantly, it's just where I grew up. Yes, I think it's time to redraft the ol Freedom Chart and knuckle down to it. Please pass the Top Ramen.

2 comments:

Maewen Archer said...

Wow, you're organized. Sounds just like what I've always wanted to do -- only I don't have a file. Just the dream. I'm missing the country in a big way right now!

hermitgirl said...

You actually really helped me with the yurt stories... good to know they are loud in the rain! I'll stick with a cabin plan I think... :)