Yes, that’s right. I bought a house. 

And it’s pretty much the most ordinary, traditional house ever! It’s got four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a double garage and a lovely open plan kitchen and living area. It’s in a family-friendly new sub-division in Rolleston, just outside of Christchurch. 

If you’d ask someone to describe the most normal Kiwi home they can think of, it would probably be pretty close to my one. 

There’s nothing ‘different’ about it. 

So, Am I about to hang up the nomad boots and start a new life in suburbia?

NO!! It’s an investment property! 

I actually bought it a year ago as a house and land package. After a year of waiting, of course, it had to be completed and ready for settlement right as New Zealand went into another Covid Lockdown. I can tell you, settling your first property in the middle of a lockdown is not ideal. But thanks to several amazing people, we got there. I still haven’t actually seen the finished house, but settlement was completed, and the tenants were able to move in, which is the important part. 

To be honest, I wasn’t planning to share the fact that I had bought a house – for two main reasons. First of all, I felt like doing something as ‘normal’ and sensible as purchasing an investment property doesn’t really align with ‘Life Done Differently’. And secondly, I am aware of how lucky and privileged I am to be in this position where I can afford to buy property despite not even working full-time. I sometimes feel a bit guilty about that and like I don’t really deserve it. So I kept it quiet for almost a year. 

But in the end, I decided I had to write about it because, in many ways, it’s a big part of my Life Done Differently. For starters, I probably wouldn’t be able to afford it if I hadn’t been living in a van for the past four years. Living in such a minimalistic way has allowed me to save most of what I earn. If I had stayed in Auckland and continued on the career path, I probably would be making more, but my living costs would also be much higher. 

But it’s about more than the fact that living in the van allowed me to save up for the deposit.

In a way, being a gipsy who just bought an investment property is maybe the most fitting description of who I am at this point in my life. 

I sometimes feel like I’m living in two worlds. People who meet me on the road as ‘gipsy Lisa’ are often really surprised when they hear what I do for work. And people who meet me through work as ‘ambitious Lisa’ are surprised when they hear I live in a van. 

There seems to be this misconception that people who live in vans aren’t ambitious and career-focused, and that ambitious people wouldn’t live in vans. 

But I want to be both. And I am both! 

I love living in my van and being ‘gipsy Lisa’. But I also have ambition and financial goals. 

I don’t know if that’s rare or if it just doesn’t get talked about very often. But, for whatever reasons, there don’t seem to be many stories out there that show that you can be both – you don’t have to choose. You can be a free spirit and get ahead financially. 

So I wanted to write about buying a house, hoping that it maybe helps ease some of that misconception that people who live in vans don’t have ambition or goals. And I also hope that it will inspire others who dream of living a free-spirited life but worry that it means they will have to give up their careers and other goals. Because you really don’t! 

As I was thinking about whether I want to share this publicly or not, I also reminded myself that Life Done Differently is about doing life my way instead of blindly following the masses – and sometimes, my way just happens to be the traditional, normal way.

Life Done Differently was never about being different no matter what. It’s about being true to myself.

And I am someone who values financial security, so it makes sense to save and invest – even if that is maybe not aligned with other people’s idea of ‘Life Done Differently’.