Well, for one I am rather envious, actually. I am approaching this from the other way ’round. Being on a fixed-income for the past 20 years changes your perspective a bit. Due to a medical situation, I was placed on Federal Disability.
Try to survive in Southern California on less than $1,000 a month some time… Yet in the course of that, due to occasional odd jobs, etc, I have a vehicle that is completely paid for, an excellent credit rating, a decent chunk of money in the bank…
I managed to do this by having lots of friends and community.
This is the way it was done back in the early days, people helped each other to simply keep their heads above water.
I am curious in that with this bursting housing bubble, we might actually see the return of the community housing concept — co-housing, co-op’s, and even the 60’s era concept of the commune…