Let's Do as the Golden Girls Do

For various reasons, myself and a few of my friends never really took off in our 20's like everyone else did. My personal battle with health disorders and a failed real estate business has left me one to two paychecks from being bankrupt. My friends have different but no less troubling reasons why they were unable to really make it in their 20's either. We all still have our hopes and dreams, but looks like it will be a little harder for us to get there. Then one night an off hand joke about some/all of us ending up living together in old age like the "Golden Girls" sparked an idea.

The "Golden Girls" were all living together in a house that they shared. Originally the house was only owned by Blanche, but some city codes she had ignored forced her to gift partial ownership to the other ladies. It occurred to us that what if rather than waiting until we are old to split a house we did it in our 30's?

Our plan is that we would each spend 2021 trying to improve our credit and financial situations. One friend got a Chime debit card to help her credit score. I have taken steps to improve my job prospects by doing what little you can during a pandemic to network. Looking for at the very least volunteer work to put on my resume.

Granted our "Golden Girls" plan does not have all the kinks worked out yet. We still have to decide what type of living situation we can all agree on. Suburban, urban, rural, house, condo, townhouse or manufactured home etc etc. Personally I favor a more minimalist style of living. I am definitely into tiny houses and container homes. Mostly I feel like they are less wasteful, cut down on costs, and the time saved from less upkeep can be put to better use. Like painting or gardening.

There are only two things we are all certain about. One no one wants their share of the mortgage to be more than about 500-600 a month. Two that we will only collectively own the house for about 5 years. At the end of that time we will sell and split the profits to use as down payments on our own personal houses. And of course if anyone wants out early they must give the others a chance to buy out their share first.

The great hope here is that no matter what else happens at least over the next few years we will be putting equity into ourselves rather than into a landlord's pocket. Also this will prevent any of us from having to be isolated and alone struggling to make ends meet in subpar living arrangements. Having been friends for years we all know there will be times we might need to pick up the slack for someone else, and we are all ok with this. Plus, my own personal goal is maybe I can work out a way to not have to clean dishes. I love to cook and will gladly do so for the group, but I really REALLY hate having to clean dishes.

It probably won't be all rainbows and St. Olaf stories. We all know that merging our rather independent lives will take some work and understanding; however, I know that with our shared end goal of financial stability, we will definitely be able to pull through. And who knows? Maybe we will just keep on doing this until the end of our days. Just like the "Golden Girls" I can't imagine a much better way to live than with close friends and cheesecakes galore.