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.”

Anne Holmes NABBW’s “Boomer in Chief”

As "Boomer in Chief" of the National Association of Baby Boomer Women, Anne is passionate about educating, empowering and enriching the lives of Baby Boomer Women, as we now begin to age beyond our middle years and enthusiastically launch ourselves into life’s next stage – which most people call old age. We Boomers know aging doesn’t have to diminish us. We still have a lot to offer the world, and we continue to be ready and willing to enthusiastically participate.

Actively involved with a number of Boomer-focused organizations and committees, Anne keeps a steady finger on the pulse of this still-spirited generation, with the goal of helping us all to enjoy life, stay healthy and continue to live lives that are rich in every sense of the word. Beyond that, Anne is dedicated to helping facilitate the positive interaction between Baby Boomers and the hard-working younger generations who are readying themselves to “take the world’s reins” and continue our efforts to move society in a positive direction.