Living The Semi-Retired Life: The Somewhat Surprising Housing Survey Results Are In
Earlier this month, we conducted a survey on housing. Specifically, the housing situations of people who subscribe to the Living The Semi-Retired Life newsletter.
Turns out I was wrong about one thing—you have to be a subscriber (free or paid, it doesn’t matter) to vote in Substack polls.
So—
When I opened the survey to my Medium audience, it didn’t produce a huge of number of responses from Medium.
A majority of the responses (I estimate 80%) came from Substack subscribers.
Either way, the response was great. 124 people took the time to answer. And the data, while hardly sound statistically, does shed interesting and useful light on the housing situations of the type of people who choose to subscribe to this type of newsletter.
We presented some of the data qualitatively via extended case studies with a few subscribers:
Two subscribers impressively on track for traditional retirement.
A construction worker who wants to move to Ireland who told us about not only her, but her kids’ very different housing situation.
A resident of Key West, Florida, who riffs on the uniqueness of that place alongside thoughts on the $3,000/month her and her boyfriend pay for housing.
We have one more subscriber story to do (a household with plans to move to South Africa!). But first, let’s present the numbers from the series of questions I asked.
Before we do that—
Quite a few new subscribers have come through the door over the last week, thanks to a couple of Medium articles that blew up, including one that is already my most viewed on the platform. Not sure if it was the article or this image that made it blow up!
Either way, subscribers (especially long-term subscribers) to the newsletter know that most of what I say on Medium has already been said in the newsletter. I consider Medium and Substack complementary, synergistic platforms.
On Medium, you get more of my opinions on the state of life in America as I see, experience and live it. On Substack, you get a double dose of that, but with a focus on the things I’m doing and want to do in relation to:
Working less now so I can work less longer—and into and beyond relative old age.
The nuts, bolts, thoughts and emotions around Living The Semi-Retired Life.
The plans my partner and I have to move to Spain.
Travel, specifically ways to travel locally and abroad for way less money than most people tend to spend.
We get at these things in a variety of ways, including but not limited to, by chronicling our travels (that image is me, looking all tired in Valencia, Spain), telling subscriber stories (like on housing), inviting other writers to do guest posts (let me know if you’d like to write one), summarizing interesting research and detailing personal financial thoughts, ideas and concrete strategies, geared toward those of us who will Never Retire.
With this in mind, now is a fantastic time to become a paid subscriber (if you haven’t already).
You can do so in one of three ways—
$5/month
$50/year
Pay $100 or more to join as a founding member and I immediately convert you to a lifetime subscription, meaning you pay once and never pay again. I plan on doing this newsletter for the rest of my life (I turn 48 on July 18th) so this option is the best deal.
Your support helps ensure that I can continue to devote a majority of my time and attention to growing and evolving the newsletter. Plus, I appreciate it.
Now, the housing survey results—