They Live Illegally In The Basement Of Their Own Gym With A Baby To Avoid Rent In New York City. It Helped Them Erase $70K In Business Loans

Benzinga_recent_news03-03 23:45

Living in New York City is expensive. For Hannah and her husband, paying $3,000 a month for what she described as “basically a closet” didn’t feel sustainable, especially with a baby on the way. So ...

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It Helped Them Erase $70K In Business Loans\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2026-03-03 23:45 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/management/26/03/51004550/they-live-illegally-in-the-basement-of-their-own-gym-with-a-baby-to-avoid-rent-in-new-york-city-it-helped-them-erase-70k-in-business-loans><strong>Benzinga_recent_news</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Living in New York City is expensive. For Hannah and her husband, paying $3,000 a month for what she described as “basically a closet” didn’t feel sustainable, especially with a baby on the way.\nSo ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/management/26/03/51004550/they-live-illegally-in-the-basement-of-their-own-gym-with-a-baby-to-avoid-rent-in-new-york-city-it-helped-them-erase-70k-in-business-loans\">Source Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","isBrief":false,"type":0,"news_type":1,"symbol":"CHCO","symbol_name":"City Holding Company","start_time":0,"source_url":"https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/management/26/03/51004550/they-live-illegally-in-the-basement-of-their-own-gym-with-a-baby-to-avoid-rent-in-new-york-city-it-helped-them-erase-70k-in-business-loans","article_id":"2616324007","we_media_id":null,"thumbnails":["https://cdn.benzinga.com/files/images/story/2026/03/03/People-Running-In-Machine-Treadmill-At-F.jpeg?optimize=medium&dpr=2&auto=webp&width=240"],"rights":{"source":"benzinga_recent_news","url":"https://www.benzinga.com/personal-finance/management/26/03/51004550/they-live-illegally-in-the-basement-of-their-own-gym-with-a-baby-to-avoid-rent-in-new-york-city-it-helped-them-erase-70k-in-business-loans","rn_cache_url":null,"directOrigin":true},"url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2616324007","pubTimestamp":1772552700,"columns":[],"sourceInfo":{"source_id":"benzinga_recent_news","name":"Benzinga"},"weMediaInfo":null,"summary":"Living in New York City is expensive. For Hannah and her husband, paying $3,000 a month for what she described as “basically a closet” didn’t feel sustainable, especially with a baby on the way.So they made an extreme decision. They moved into the basement of the gym they own.“We’re not technically supposed to live here and it’s not the most comfortable living situation,” Hannah said on the recent “The Ramsey Show.” Still, the basement meets safety requirements, with proper ceiling height and windows above ground. And the move helped them dramatically cut expenses at a critical time.A year ago, just before Hannah gave birth, the couple decided to eliminate rent completely. The goal was to wipe out debt and create enough breathing room so she could stay home with their baby while still helping run the business.Because they weren’t paying rent, they were able to attack their loans aggressively. “In that year, we paid off $70,000 of our business loans,” Hannah said.The key, he explained, ","collect":0,"end_time":0,"defaultTopTitle":"benzinga.com","property":[],"viewcount":null,"language":"en","relate_stocks":{"CHCO":"City Holding Company","BK4211":"区域性银行"},"translate_title":"他们带着一个婴儿非法住在自己健身房的地下室，以避免在纽约市租房。它帮助他们注销了7万美元的商业贷款","themeId":null,"isJumpTheme":false,"ttsUrl":null,"symbols_score_info":{"CHCO":1.5},"content_text":"Living in New York City is expensive. For Hannah and her husband, paying $3,000 a month for what she described as “basically a closet” didn’t feel sustainable, especially with a baby on the way.\nSo they made an extreme decision. They moved into the basement of the gym they own.\n“We’re not technically supposed to live here and it’s not the most comfortable living situation,” Hannah said on the recent “The Ramsey Show.” Still, the basement meets safety requirements, with proper ceiling height and windows above ground. And the move helped them dramatically cut expenses at a critical time.\nDon't Miss:\nA year ago, just before Hannah gave birth, the couple decided to eliminate rent completely. The goal was to wipe out debt and create enough breathing room so she could stay home with their baby while still helping run the business.\nAt the time, the gym was bringing in about $40,000 a month in gross revenue. Today, that number is around $65,000 a month.\nBecause they weren’t paying rent, they were able to attack their loans aggressively. “In that year, we paid off $70,000 of our business loans,” Hannah said.\nThey still have about $120,000 left – $40,000 in credit card debt and $80,000 in student loans. But their income picture looks very different now. Last year, they were taking home “basically nothing.” Now, they bring in roughly $10,000 to $15,000 a month.\nThat's when co-host George Kamel pressed her on the bigger issue.\n“When you say technically, do you mean it's not legal?” Kamel asked.\nTrending: Put professional stock research to work in a single ETF — explore Motley Fool Asset Management's factor-based funds. \nHannah confirmed it wasn't zoned for residential living, and that raised red flags.\n“Oh boy. Well, that poses a problem,” Kamel said. “One is the actual legal implications, another one's just the integrity of the situation on top of the risk that you're putting yourself in, especially with a baby.”\nInspectors already showed up once after someone reported them. “The inspectors did come and look at it because someone reported us,” Hannah said. “But they said that we were okay.”\nKamel couldn't help but react. “Wow, New York City is just a wild place,” he said, half joking but clearly surprised that the situation hadn't resulted in fines or forced eviction.\nStill, the basement isn't approved housing.\nWhile the sacrifice clearly worked, Kamel encouraged the couple to move out soon.\n“I would make it a very urgent goal to get out of there and get your own place,” he said.\nKamel broke it down in practical terms. “It's not like you guys are making five grand a month and you're paying four grand in rent,” he said. With $10,000 to $15,000 in take-home pay, even a $4,000 New York City apartment is manageable.\nSee Also: Designed for investors with strong market convictions, REX Shares builds ETFs for income, leverage, and tactical positioning — explore the lineup.\nThe key, he explained, is keeping housing around 25% of take-home pay and continuing to “attack the debt aggressively.” He suggested using the debt snowball method to knock out the remaining balances step by step.\nIn other words, the couple no longer needs to take on zoning risk to make progress. The business is growing. The income is stronger. The momentum is real.\nIf their current revenue holds, they could still erase the remaining $120,000 relatively quickly, but this time from a legal apartment.\nFor families facing big financial transitions, you don’t need to call “The Ramsey Show.” Finance Advisors connects people approaching retirement with fiduciary financial advisors who focus on tax-aware planning. Instead of selling products, they help people understand how taxes may affect their retirement income and long-term outcomes. \nFor this couple, the basement experiment worked. It erased $70,000 in debt and forced the business to level up. But financial intensity doesn't have to come at the expense of stability. \nRead Next: Get Matched With a Fiduciary Advisor for a Complimentary 1-on-1 Strategy Session\nImage: Shutterstock\nTo add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.","kind":"highlight","is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":false,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":0,"need_auth":false,"code":"91000000","status":"200"},"commentList":[],"isCommentEnd":true,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":0,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"tenantId":"TBGLOBAL","deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.36.2","shortVersion":"4.36.2","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/2616324007","isCrawlerRequest":true}