Downsizing one's home has become a popular topic in the financial community and especially to people approaching retirement age. When downsizing your home, it can actually give you financial benefits such as reduced expenses and increased cash flow as well as giving you the opportunity to increase your retirement savings. When you compare downsizing with other lifestyle benefits, you will find that downsizing has more advantages.

The reasons that many Americans are considering downsizing their home because they are approaching retirement, have become empty nesters, overwhelmed with the upkeep and maintenance of the property, and they realize that they have just too much empty space.

Reducing the size of your home gives you many financial benefits such as reduced mortgage payments, less real estate taxes, lower utility costs, lower insurance costs, and less maintenance costs. All these reductions in your expenses can give you significant savings. It’s certainly up to you on what you want to do with the extra cash you can have each month. However, you can always have the option to either invest this extra cash for retirement or enjoy a wonderful vacation abroad.

Downsizing your living space is also a great motivating factor for embracing simplicity and eliminating anything that you don’t want to keep anymore. Don’t think of it as taking for granted of your memories. Think of it as moving into a new chapter of your life, one that can make your life easier, less stressful and more relaxing.

If it took you years to gather your belongings, the process to de-clutter those that aren’t useful anymore can be overwhelming. Start to evaluate now your things so you can take the time you need to inventory your belongings and decide what things are important to you and what things that you want to throw away. Some things are easy to dispose of, but others will make you think twice.

To make this easier, categorize your items and choose which you think are valuable and have sentimental value. These are the items with the fondest memories. Items that you think are still valuable but you don’t want to keep it anymore, give them to family members so they can enjoy them. Items that you think are still of value but you don’t want can be sold at yard sale or online or you can donate them to your favorite charity. If you have plenty of time, you can recycle items and make it useful for other purposes.

Some homeowners don’t really focus on downsizing, they only want a simpler lifestyle free of stress and mundane tasks. Moving into a smaller home eliminates a lot of tasks that can keep you busy all the time thereby depriving you of a stress-free and relaxing life. A small home and fewer belongings take less time to clean and need less routine yard work, and cost less to maintain.

All of which means more free time and extra money to enjoy activities you want to do and living a more balanced lifestyle. When you downsize and simplify life, you can focus more on goals and spend more time doing things that are important to you. When downsizing home, you’re certain to live with lesser tasks which translates to more free time.

A home should not be viewed as an investment. It should be valued as a quality of life for you and your family. Spending long hours on work trying to earn money to pay for a large lifestyle or worrying about money you need to pay your bills can be draining. Downsizing your home and your lifestyle takes you off that stressful daily tasks and gives you more time and money to enjoy the things you want to do.