When I first started living outside the norm in the San Francisco Bay area, it wasn’t easy at all. That’s when I lived in a Toyota Prius with my partner, Tom. It felt truly scary giving up my secure (and crazy expensive!) studio apartment to live in random parking lots, campgrounds and rest stops.

But paying $21,000 per year in rent was no way to get ahead.

Giving up the security of a sticks ‘n bricks home was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I kept my 9-5 job
as a radio news reporter at KGO in San Francisco, a career I’d had for 15 years. We joined a gym to shower and spent evenings playing music in our shipping container storage unit.

Even though it was hard, I grew a great deal from my four months living in a car. I paid off debt and saved money.
I learned how to live in a tiny space. I enjoyed time backpacking in the mountains that I would have otherwise spent cleaning my apartment. And Tom saved up enough money to buy a sailboat with cash!

I learned to live with less, enjoy the adventure, and create an even deeper connection with nature.

Then, in 2016, I lost my job as a news reporter at KGO. I had to reinvent the wheel and started this blog, The Wayward Home, to help others through the hurdles of living tiny and to serve as inspiration for hose wanting a New American Dream. Four years later, my blog is my dream job and sole source of income.

Do you want to start a blog? Click here to enroll in my 5-day How to Start a Blog course!

Now, after five years of living on a boat and in a van, it’s hard to imagine going back to a house and a life of permanence. But maybe if it was a tiny house, someday.