For Ryan Mitchell, the attraction of small-sized living hit home after a layoff. Despite an advanced degree and strong performance reviews, the Charlotte, N.C. man lost his job as a corporate recruiting consultant in 2008 due to the economic downturn, learning abruptly that “a job isn’t always a guaranteed thing, even if you’re a hard worker,” he said. The aftermath of the layoff led Mitchell not just to change his career path, but to reconsider how he’d live his life in the future. Now 27, the New Hampshire native works in non-profits, runs a successful blog, The Tiny Life, that focuses on small space living, and is about to custom build his own tiny house, which will be mobile. Immersing himself in the growing discussion and dialogue around living smaller and smarter has been eye-opening for Mitchell, and has revealed that he’s not the only one who wants to downsize. With a new job in the non-profit sector, he’s been saving up to build a house with a utility trailer as its foundation, so that in the future he can move anywhere for work if needed. He’s found that many of the visitors joining the discussion on The Tiny Life are retirees or soon to be retirees who are trying to figure out how to stretch their savings and retirement funds further. “Even if they have weathered the economic storm, they may have not saved enough, and life expectancy is so much longer now that money has to last longer. Retirees are trying to wrap their head around the question: ‘How am I going to have a good retirement with the money I have available and still have good quality of life?’” said Mitchell, whose highly-trafficked blog gets attention from around the world. One...