If you’re a home-owning Baby Boomer looking for a profitable side hustle, this book is for you.

You’ll be especially interested if, going forward, your personal housing preference is not to move to a Retirement community, but to stay in the family homestead – or at lest the home you currently live in – and “age in place;” yet you’ve realized that the kids don’t have time to come visit very often, which means the family homestead, as it currently stands, is really too big for your current needs.

This situation not only describes the experience of Art Barry, author of “The Downsize Side Hustle: How we downsized in place and made BIG money!” but also thousands of Boomers and Seniors across the country.

As Barry writes, he and his wife looked into Moving to a smaller home in the same community, but for many reasons, this wasn’t a financially smart move. They also considered alternative housing. Everything from manufactured homes to apartments to tiny homes — and everything in between.

But they soon realized none of the options really fit their needs. Especially because if they chose to downsize to a smaller home, they would have to spend nearly as much for a new, smaller home as they would receive for their existing home in the same community.

Worse, the smaller home prices they encountered didn’t take into account the increase in property taxes, or the fact that if they purchased something newly constructed, their insurance costs would go up, based on replacement value. (And on top of that, if they were to move to a townhouse or condominium, there’s be the addition of monthly HOA fees.)

Based on those findings, Barry and his wife decided to research a different option — home sharing — and eventually decided to turn the extra space in their home into a private guest quarters, complete with its own entrance and even its own mailbox.  Once they’d successfully begun renting out part of their home — and enjoying the reliable extra income — Barry realized there was enough interest in his home renovation endeavor to write a book.

The Downsize Side Hustle, available in both Kindle and paperback formats, provides readers with a step-by-step narrative explaining how Barry and his wife turned the extra space in their home into a private guest quarters, which now generates a cool $1,000 a month income. The book details Barry’s research, provides links to sources, reference materials, and provides an excellent Author FAQ.

Here’s a link to one of the articles he cites in the book. The article, about what’s being called the coming Silver Tsunami, (another term for Aging Baby Boomers) is written by Matthew Clark for MoneyandMarkets.com. Here’s the link:  https://www.moneyandmarkets.com/silver-tsunami-to-turn-housing-market-on-its-head/

Our impression is that this book is a very timely publication, as we recently read an article by Linda Abbit, written for SeniorPlanet.org, which indicates there is a real need for senior house sharing. However,   the information contained in the article is really more focused on housemates, while we say Barry’s plan more correctly creates “ROOFMATES.”

Originally Published on NABBW.com

Anne Holmes Boomer-in-Chief of NABBW