Transitional living is about owning no more than you need, traveling rather than touring, and remaining flexible enough to take life however it comes.
There is also the matter of being able to have all your amenities covered with a low monthly payment. When you have to pay for everything yourself, low payments quickly become high payments. Another benefit is that you can pick up and move to any other in-network location whenever you need to do so. If you have the kind of job that requires you to move from place to place for mid-term projects like construction management, you need the flexibility to go where the job takes you and not worry about whether or not you will have a nice place to call home for the duration. Transitional living provides the ultimate in flexibility.
There is also the issue of having no good examples of people doing it successfully. There is an excellent chance you don’t know anyone living this way on a full-time basis. You don’t want to be the first. Few people are interested in being pioneers and test pilots. It would be a lot easier if you had real life examples of what it was like. All of these concerns are legitimate, but can be overcome. What you need are positive reasons to consider it. Here are a few:
- Where will you be living next week?
- What will you eat tomorrow?
- How might your living status affect your career?
Be a Traveler and Not a Tourist
You Can Cancel Anytime
As humans, we will always face transitions at some point in our lives. There is always another transition ahead. Some are predictable and some are not. Many thrive during transition while others wither. They can’t understand why some people love change. And they have no idea why anyone would want to live in a constant state of transition. The idea of transitional living might be new to you. But once you really think about it, you might actually discover the allure. It is certainly not for everyone. It is only a matter of discovering if it is right for you.
One of the best features of any subscription is the ability to cancel at any time. The transitional lifestyle is a little like that. When you make a commitment to a mortgage, you are in it for the long haul. You don’t really have to commit to the transitional lifestyle. You can do it as long as it serves your needs and get off the ride anytime you like. You will not regret trying it. The more likely scenario is that you will end up regretting never having tried it.
Tourists are constantly checking their watch and their calendar to see how much time they have before needing to pack up and go back home to their real lives. Travelers are home wherever they happen to be. Traveling to a place like Brazil is very different from vacationing in Brazil. As a traveler, you don’t need to check your watch to be sure you are not late for your next flight. You can stay as long as you like
From Oakland rooms for rent to NYC shared apartments, there are always alternatives to large mortgage payments and long term commitments to housing. Millions of people use solutions like these when they find themselves in transition and decide to continue with the lifestyle long after the initial need is past. They discover that there is something freeing about not owing your soul to the bank and not being stuck in one place for the next 30 years.
No Long Term House Payments
The biggest challenge with transitional living is uncertainty:
You can go to the next town to the left, or the next continent. You can rent a room without much notice and stay until you feel like leaving. There are other interesting differences between travelers and tourists. Travelers immerse themselves into the culture and live like a local. They work while at a destination while tourists try to set aside work and enjoy a vacation. Tourists also prefer the relative safety of places and services designed for vacationers. If you ever wanted to travel and see the world, that can be accomplished via transitional living.