Being A Little Whacky, Has Big Benefits:
As I write this Thanksgiving Holiday post, I’m thankful for all of my wonderful readers who have become virtual friends. Thank You.
I promised to lighten up and get back to what we as individuals can do to pursue a happy life in spite of the economic conditions that currently prevail.
I realize that my advice is not for everyone. I have always realized that my advice was not for everyone. Many see a simple non-complicated life as a boring and dull existence. They view the people who abandon the expressway to seek out the dim trail as having dim brains. Those are the folks who also maintain hope that another three lanes can be added to the freeway in both directions and solve their commute issues.
Am I right when I say, live simple, live free and live well? Or is the essence of life a stress filled two hour commute and standing in line to crowd into an elevator? What is right for one is not necessarily right for another. That being said; “To each his own.”
The thrust of this blog will always be to live within your means. I have attempted to live well below my means for the majority of my life. Doing so creates options and independence. And I do love options and independence.
I have long maintained that what we desire most in life is free time. I know very few people who don’t enjoy the week-ends and vacation. But, having free time requires that we make sufficient money during our work week in order to afford that free time. So then, installment debt is very much a pivotal element of our ability to afford free time; isn’t it?
Those with the greatest amount of debt have the least amount of personal freedom.
I won’t bore you with the entire story, but I remember the time, place and hour when I suddenly realized that I was in charge of my own life. I could change my circumstances at a moment’s notice. I could quit my job and they wouldn’t send the police to my house. I could pack up and move to another state and there was no state border patrol that would stop me.
I could decide to head into the mountains and hike and camp for a month. I could go off and visit family or friends on a whim. In short, I could do anything that I wanted to do; it was my choice. WOW, what a revelation!
So then, why don’t most American’s just do whatever their little heart’s desire? For about 95% of Americans, the obstacle between them and a very independent and happy life is debt and perceived obligations.
Debt is the anchor that holds us down. Debt is what takes away our freedoms and choices. Debt is the greatest societal control mechanism that was ever devised. And yet, selecting crippling debt is a personal choice and most people make the conscious choice to enter into long term debt! Go figure.
The reason that most people fall into debt is simple, they buy things that they don’t need with money that they don’t have. Banks, loan sharks, finance companies, mortgage companies, auto companies, and legions of others are more than willing to assist us with our perceived fast track to happiness. Of course, there is the matter of the long term payments, compounding interest, insurance, licenses, maintenance, and depreciation, but by gum, we’re gonna be happy as a clam. For about 5 minutes.
So then, if most people make the mistake of mortgaging their lives, their freedoms, and their options in exchange for the perceived happiness that these buy-now and pay-later possessions will produce; doesn’t that constitute “normal behavior?” By golly, I believe it does, and therein lies the problem. Most people want to be perceived as being “normal.”
That is why I have stated over and over that my advice is not for everyone, as most people will continue to travel the expressway with no free time in sight while climbing a mountain of debt as they attempt to appear normal. It ain’t easy being abnormal.
It takes a paradigm shift to take the freeway exit onto the little traveled road of personal freedom. It takes a person who has that same wonderful revelation that I had on that evening all of those years ago in Tonsina, Alaska, when I realized that I was in control of my own life. It also takes a person who is willing to drop out of the card carrying American Lemming Society and who is willing to appear a little whacky.
In my book, I wrote in detail how a young person could retire independently of government and corporate help by making good lifetime decisions regarding housing and transportation alone.
That council and advice has never been more important for any of us. Please don’t count on government; they are going to let you down. Don’t count on corporate America or corporate Europe or corporate anything else either.
Count on yourself, your friends and your family. Hang around other people who are abnormal, it makes you feel semi-sane. Make a plan to simplify your life and to save for your own future. Get past the old American Dream model of buy now and pay for the remainder of our adult life. Adopt the new plan of play now and play later by living a simpler more sane life.
The holiday season is coming up posty-hasty. Face the reality of the situation and don’t do the shop till you drop routine. I don’t care if it is normal. Talk to your family about not going hog wild on gift giving. When you inform them that they are not getting a present from you, it may come as a great surprise that you won’t get a present from them either. When it’s not there, it’s not there and believe me; it’s not there.
Most of us will need every dime that we can muster to get through 2010 and beyond. Paying credit card bills that were incurred from buying Chinese Holiday presents is plainly not in the cards.
We need to change our habits and our perceived obligations or go broke following the American Lemming Society over the cliff. Just step out of line and wave them goodbye.
The good life awaits the slightly abnormal. Have a great Thanksgiving.
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Those with the greatest amount of debt have the least amount of personal freedom.
Mike, I think that is the most succinct statement I have read summarizing the problem.
You leave out the advertising agencies which exist solely to bombard people and train them to believe what is “normal”, but those agencies probably deserve a post of their own, if not an entire blog devoted to their abuses.
You also mention “getting past the American Dream”. I heartily agree, but would hasten to mention that it’s not the problem of the dream, but our insistence on having all the supposedly “required” components of that dream satisfied RIGHT NOW. I have actually met young college graduates who are disappointed that they can’t purchase the 3000 square-foot McMansion right out of school, but will instead have to rent for several years and SAVE money in order to make a down payment on a smaller, less luxurious dwelling. To them it’s outrageous!
For Christmas this year I’m getting my wife some cooking lessons, given by myself. She is determined to try and teach me to sew, but we’ll see. Other than that, we’re hoping to get enough snow to build a nice snowman. That will be Christmas enough.
Enjoy the holiday weekend and I wish for you a happy and joyous Thanksgiving!
Sweaterman,
Thank you for the kind words and the excellent comments.
What a wonderful idea, giving another person your time and valuable skills as a gift; bully for you and your wife.
James Kunstler covered this subject with a little different take; “Is he [Paul Krugman] perhaps misusing the term “recovery?” After all, that is generally taken to mean resuming a prior state, which is, in turn, presumed to be a healthy prior state.”
“Is that what the economy of the past decade was? And, incidentally, what exactly is a “consumer?” And why, at the highest levels of journalism in this land, do we refer to citizens that way? As if the American people have no other purpose except to buy things? Or is that the only way an “economist” can imagine them?”
As a group, are we Whacky? Perhaps, but I prefer to describe myself and other intelligent people as eccentric. I think intelligence is currently in short supply.
In a world gone mad, those who are sane and intelligent are opting out. I don’t want to be “normal” in a dysfunctional world.
I find commuting, watching television, going to the movies and shopping very boring. I find what we call “work” in the modern world to be mind-numbingly boring. In fact, I find that most Americans are boring.
To me, eccentric people are interesting and that’s why I enjoy the King of Simple, I think all of us here are a bit eccentric, and that is a good thing.
Happy Simple Thanksgiving to All!
I was trained at a young age that DEBT IS BONDAGE and “smart people earn interest, dumb people pay it”.
By living those two ideas I have enjoyed great flexibility and freedom.
We gave up TV decades ago. What television show can compare to watching majestic salmon spawning in the creek by our bridge? Or my son growling at the two large raccoons trying to eat the cat food on the back porch? Or working as a family to get our firewood off the hillside? And the goats alone are endless comedy. These are real life experiences, not touched up by make-up or computer graphics.
Our family feast tomorrow will be homemade, the kitchen will be filled with heavenly scents and lots of laughter as three generations cook and celebrate together.
This is the Life for us and we are living it with joy and a sense of adventure.
Greg,
I had to laugh when I read, “I don’t want to be “normal” in a dysfunctional world.”
Yep, the slightly wacky and eccentric are certainly the interesting characters and maybe, just maybe, they have more fun and take themselves a little less seriously.
Country Lady,
I could smell the aroma of your kitchen and feel the homeliness as I read your comments. In fact, I smell the incomparable aroma of fresh baked yeast rolls coming from our own kitchen as Cathy and our granddaughters get the baking under way for tomorrow.
Is there any smoked salmon on your bill of fare? Ummmm - umm.
I often think of the word debt, and enslavement as the same..
Indentured servitude is both slavery, and debt.. In my mind..
WmA..
Wma,
I agree, and to think, we suffer from “self inflicted” indentured servitude.
Once most people experience the near euphoria of being debt free, they can never go back to debt prison.
I started my day at a soup kitchen. My son and I joined a group of guys from our church to carve eighty turkeys which will be served to clients of the soup kitchen tomorrow. This is a yearly tradition for us.
I then delivered donated food and money (which I solicited from some of my customers and friends, and added to myself) to a family who is seriously “food-insecure”, as our enlightened government likes to call it. He’s a disabled vet, she is disabled as well, yet they volunteer in our cub scout pack, giving what they can- their time, themselves.
I am thankful for the ability and the compassion to help those who desperately need it.
There are some who could work but choose not to, to play the system. There are many more who are victims of the system. More and more will join this latter group in the coming months and years. The notion of living simply so that others may simply live has never had more meaning.
Indeed we can’t rely on the government or corporations to save us. We have to help each other.
I am thankful for all of you who share your intelligence, wisdom and humor through this blog.
Michael in NC
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
My Father drilled an old German saying into my head and roughly translated it goes like this: “Interest eats at the table before you do and then you get the leftovers”. This probably sounds better in the original German, but I think the point is abundantly clear. I am certain my Father learned this from his Father and Mother who were frugal and successful farmers who made it through the last Depression unscathed because they owed no debt.
I am overjoyed to find this site with such intelligent and independent thinkers whose common sense never fails to amaze me. Thank you all.
Mike:
I’ve been reading your comments for the last 6 weeks or so. Our family has been on the interest receiving end for some time. We are having a Happy Thanksgiving.
We’ve made preparation for the continuing decline in this absolutely horrible economic mess.
Just thought I’d share some information with you about our media/newspapers. There is a distinct lack of moral honesty.
The media trumpeted the economic recovery success stories yesterday using numbers that were baseless, having no reference to the real comparisons.
That’s what you got from reading and listening to yesterday’s news.
Let’s try to get some facts straight.
Consumer sales are the lowest they’ve been in the past four years.
Housing sales are down 70% from four years ago.
Durable goods orders are down 23% from last year.
When comparing apples to apples, the real economy continues to be in a tailspin.
Mathemagicians continue to deceive.
Retail sales October 2008 $353.641 billion
Retail sales October 2009 $347.683 billion
Retail sales October 2007 $367.855 billion
Retail sales October 2006 $348.117 billion
Some recovery, ugh!!!!
Valid comparison would be helpful.
Retail sales are down 1.7% from Oct 2008.
Let’s recall that we had a meltdown in the market in Oct 2008.
September 30 2008 Dow was 10,850
October 31, 2008 Dow was 9,325
People were scared of the financial meltdown.
Do the current numbers reflect optimism?
Don’t think so as we continue to sink slowly but surely.
Home Sales
Here’s the Headline in Yesterday’s Newspaper
Sales of New Homes in U.S. Rise to Highest Since 2008
The October 2009 seasonally adjusted new home sales the media and Wall Street seem to be excited about were 430,000.
But the October 2005 seasonally adjusted new home sales were 1,424,000.
An equally truthful, but perhaps more accurate measure to people living on Main Street, would be:
New US home sales fall 70 percent since 2005
Durable goods
Media reported they were up 0.4% for the month when excluding defense orders.
Durable goods orders shipped actually fall 18% for the year!!!
New Orders in the pipeline are even worse for the entire economy, they are down 23.0%.
October 2008 $208.711 billion
October 2009 $180.372 billion
Economy booming, buy buy buy!!!!
Here’s the link to data.
http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/m3/adv/pdf/durgd.pdf
Preparing for the spiraling decline.
Wordherder, While reading our local paper last evening I noted that requests for home heating bill assistance has gone up 100% over last year this time! The food banks are crying for more donors and more volunteer labor.
Hotrod, The quote, “Interest eats at the table before you do and then you get the leftovers”, is worth a special place in our memory banks.
Many years ago I started viewing everything that we desired, not by the cost in dollars, but rather by the cost in hours, weeks, months, and years of work. It’s amazing what we were able to do without.
HorseCreek,
Welcome aboard and thanks for the in-depth report.
It’s nothing more than government math at play. Consider the excitement that surrounded the report that ONLY 500,000 new claims for unemployment came in last week! Now that’s something to cheer about unless you are one of the 500,000.
Government then questions what they can do about the employment numbers as they import a couple of million more workers. Insanity? That really doesn’t cover it.
“I have attempted to live well below my means for the majority of my life. Doing so creates options and independence.” Words to live by or strive for if you aren’t yet living them.
I’ve said it before and I’m saying it again. In 5 years of employment at Chaco Sandals in the sleepy little town of Paonia I was able to pay off a $75,000 mortgage, a $10,000 truck loan, and $12,000 in credit card debt. Good thing for a garden in the backyard and my hunting and fishing abilities to supplement my “Rice and Bean Get My Butt Outta Debt Diet”! I had set a goal to be debt free by the time I was 45 and I beat that goal by about 2 years. Fortunately, unlike most Americans that have been laid-off I had about 18 months of warning signs to take heed of. I doubled down on my debt payments and became debt free 4 months before loosing my job in June of this year. Fortunately, I have a bit of savings and some odd jobs and bartering to keep going on for the foreseeable future. My expenses each month for utilities, truck expenses, high deductible health insurance, and food come in at around $400 to $500 a month. My income has dropped dramatically but when you remove a $300 truck payment and a $500 house payment from the equation it makes live a whole lot easier.
I saw a bumper sticker the other day that made me think of this blog it said “Grow Up and Act Your Wage!”
George,
“Grow up and act your wage,” what a great line!
I think it’s difficult for most people to live below their means…it’s just not American.
We are advertised to from the time we can sit up and pay attention (think Ronald McDonald, Playland, and Fun Meals).
Wealth and possessions are seen as badges of honor, regardless of the manner in which they were accumulated. Many arrived at their fame and fortune the old fashioned way; they inherited it.
Why would we worship a person whose only claim to fame was being born into a wealthy family? Why would be worship people for the single reason that they have money? Why would anyone worship the arrogant and mean spirited Donald Trump? But millions do.
Living below ones means then, is the exact opposite of what we are taught. It takes a lot grit to go against convention.