- Introduction:
- New Resources: Highlights Of The Latest Additions To Our Resource Directory
- Information Overload: So Many Good Causes! Maybe Too Many?
- Simple Living Simplified: 10 Things You Can Do Today To Simplify Your Life
- Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth In A Sustainable Lifestyle
- Transforming Your Relationship With Money, Transformed: The New Road Map Foundation
- MTV Documentary Casting Call: True Life - Living Off The Grid
- The Answer To Closet Clutter: A Cultural Perspective
- The Refrigerator Test: The Dollar Stretcher
- Money/Life Balance In The New Millennium: The Crossover Point
Yes, spring has finally arrived here in beautiful Trout Lake, Washington. The sun has been shining full strength for the past couple of weeks. The 12-foot high piles of snow that had accumulated outside my windows are now a mere four to six feet tall. There are even a couple of places in the yard, mainly under trees, where you can actually see the grass and a few crocuses. I can hardly wait to break out the rakes and shovels and begin playing in the yard! The long winter and a severe case of Cabin Fever have finally reached an end!
I hope this spring finds you healthy and happy and enjoying the simple pleasures in life as well.
We have a lot of exciting news in this, the 63rd issue of our user supported on-line Newsletter. The most exciting and important news item for the future growth and development of The Simple Living Network is the subject of the following announcement. . . .
Alternatives for Simple Living and The Simple Living Network are now working together!
Now Alternatives members have access to The Simple Living Network's wide range of resources and user supported services. Now long-time friends and supporters of The Simple Living Network have access to well over 250 new resources recommended and produced by Alternatives for Simple Living — many of which are faith-based.
For those of you unfamiliar with Alternatives, their mission statement is:
Live Justly and Celebrate Responsibly."
If you identify yourself as an Alternatives customer by entering their new eStore through SimpleLiving.ORG, or by clicking on the "Alternatives" tab at the top of any page on The Simple Living Network, Alternatives will receive a commission on any resources you purchase. This is a great way to support both The Simple Living Network and Alternatives for Simple Living.
Visitors to The Simple Living Network are welcome to browse Alternatives Archives. By becoming a member of Alternatives, you can make as many copies as you want of the hundreds of free resources available in their Archives.
The Simple Living Network extends a warm welcome to Alternatives for Simple Living and all of its customers.
In an effort to make it easier for you to find the resources you are looking for on our web site, we recently made some substantial revisions to the structure of our Resource Directory.
Now, all resources are organized into one of the following "libraries:"
- The Simple Living Library
- The Green Living Library
- The Cookbook Library
- The Gardening Library
- The Country Living Library
- The Alternatives Library — The new Alternatives for Simple Living eStore
- Spread The Word - T-Shirts, Stickers, Posters, etc.
- Body, Mind & Spirit - Health & Healing, Meditation, Science & Spirit, etc.
- Partners - Links & information about other "simple living" groups
- Bargain Basement - Discounts on selected resources
We hope this change will make it easier for you to browse the over 1000 resources and tools we offer!
On February 1st The Simple Living Network launched its Don't Buy It! campaign — a nonviolent protest against the tax rebates the IRS will soon be sending many Americans. The campaign has been quite a hit and has become the most viewed section of our web site ever.
If you haven't visited the Don't Buy It! pages and reviewed the many suggestions for how you can put your rebate to work for positive, real change, please do! Join the thousands of others who are choosing not to spend their tax rebate in ways that support consumption as a solution, deficit spending, predatory lending, outsourced jobs, unaffordable health care, tax cuts for the wealthy, or war over oil and religious ideology.
Together we can change this stupid economy!
The Community Services on this web site — this Newsletter, the Discussion Forums, our Study Groups Database, SimpleRadio and the rest — would not exist without your support.
Because The Simple Living Network is a small, home based business operating without government, industry or foundation support, advertising revenue, or subscription fees of any kind, we rely on user support to continue offering our services.
If you enjoy and use this web site, we ask for your voluntary financial support — any amount large or small will help!
Our goal for 2008 is $20,000. These funds will be applied toward important expenses we anticipate in the coming year. Keeping up with the technology required to operate this web site is expensive! Old software is beginning to expire and must be replaced with new versions. Old equipment needs to be replaced because it is worn out or cannot keep up with the speed and storage space of this growing web site. Bandwidth charges are increasing due to the growing number of folks, just like you, using this site. (I could go on....)
Please do your part! Without your voluntary user support, The Simple Living Network would not exist!
Finally, as always, thank you to those of you who have become CyberAngels over the years. Your generous, ongoing financial contributions make all the difference.
We hope you enjoy this edition of our Newsletter!
Dave Wampler
Founder
The Simple Living Network
Copyright © The Simple Living Network. All Rights Reserved.
New Simple Living Titles
- Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth In A Sustainable Lifestyle
- Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun.
- Making Peace With The Things In Your Life: Why Your Papers, Books, Clothes, & Other Possessions Keep Overwhelming You — & What To Do About It
Resources To Help You Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
- Energy: Use Less - Save More
- Water: Use Less - Save More
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: An Easy Household Guide
- Composting: An Easy Household Guide
- Low Carbon Diet: A 30 Day Program To Lose 5000 Pounds
- Journey For The Planet: A Kid's Five Week Adventure To Create An Earth-Friendly Life
New Cookbooks
- Fix, Freeze, Feast: Prepare In Bulk & Enjoy By The Serving
- The New Moosewood Cookbook - Highly Recommended!
- The New Enchanted Broccoli Forest
- Honest Pretzels: And 64 Other Amazing Recipes For Cooks Ages 8 & Up
- Pretend Soup: And Other Real Recipes - A Cookbook For Preschoolers & Up
- Salad People: And More Real Recipes - A New Cookbook For Preschoolers & Up
New Gardening Titles
- Organic Gardening: The Natural No-Dig Way
- Sharing The Harvest: A Citizen's Guide To Community Supported Agriculture
New To Alternatives For Simple Living
- 31 Words To Create An Organized Life: Simple Strategies & Expert Advice To Win The Battle Against Chaos & Clutter
- Composting: An Easy Household Guide
- Energy: Use Less - Save More
- Green Living: A Handbook For Living Lightly On The Earth
- It's Easy Being Green: A Handbook For Earth-Friendly Living
- The Race: A Simplicity Musical
- Serve God, Save The Planet: A Christian Call To Action
- Simply In Season Children's Cookbook
- The Power Of Enough: Finding Contentment By Putting Stuff In It's Place
- Unplugged Play: 710 Games & Activities For Ages 12 Months To 10 Years
- Water: Use Less - Save More
- We Know What You Want: The Secret Tactics That Influence What You Buy, Think & Believe
Copyright © 2008
In December, I was struck with a sense of sudden desperation about the quantity of written information flowing through my life. I made a list and not including personal information sources (i.e. email from friends or conversations with people) or actual people, I listed well over 100 things coming into my life over the course of a week, month, or quarter that demand my attention in the form of my reading them. It was mostly email or print newsletters, action alerts, that sort of thing.
I am a dues-paying member of at least seventeen organizations. All but two have a publication that I receive (though another one of them has more than one publication). Then, I subscribe to ten different magazines/journals. Then, because I'm an alum of that school or because I donate money to that organization, or because I'm a member of that electric cooperative, or because I filled out that card for a free subscription to Energy Times from the health food store (I really like that free magazine, by the way), I get an additional ten or so publications. And... I read them all (even the ones I get not by my choice, but alumni publications or whatever. I have difficulty in NOT READING. Though it sounds simple enough, this is something that is really hard for me. If it is written and I see it, I read it. For better or for worse. (Thanks to New Dream's "no more junk mail" campaign, I get almost no junk mail or catalogs, so I do not waste any time reading that kind of thing! I also do not have TV.) I read about fifteen blogs (once a week) and I am on thirty email lists. Are you starting to see a problem here? When do we draw the line at how much information we bring into our lives? Is it possible to be so full of other peoples' opinions that it becomes impossible to hear your own still, small voice within?
I began to think that it is possible. I know that when asked my opinion about something — or when sharing my unsolicited opinions — I often begin with, "I've read that..." Also, on a regular basis, I short-circuit my own brain by the coexistence of two conflicting, yet each convincing and plausible ideas or theories (particularly about parenting). My inner voices then debate, "well, this author would say..." and, "well, this one would say this..."
Yes, I am an information junkie, but the flip side is that I'm also passionate about many causes, want to be an informed citizen, and want to have evidence-based opinions. I also like to be "in the know" and I like to be a well-informed, reliable, accurate person. Also, quite simply, I LOVE to read. It is very important to me. Heck, I even have a blog exclusively about reading. The blog is about me and reading and how the two intersect to form the texture of my life (mollyreads.blogspot.com). In the course of 2007, in addition to those scads of information sources referenced earlier, I also read 150 books.
As I reflected on this sense of information overload and the creeping overlay of desperation as to how to manage it, I decided that this word-fest of my life could be viewed through two lenses:
- The depressive lens: Each of these information sources chips off a piece of my life energy and diminishes my time. Each fragments and splinters my attention, my energy, my focus, and silences my own intuition.
Or...
- The optimistic lens: Each contributes its own piece to the complicated whole of me, my life, and my life energy and helps inform my thinking, expands my worldview, and enhances my ability to be an informative resource in my own right.
Of course, there is a logical third conclusion, which is that each of these lenses could be true. To try to simplify this part of my life, I reviewed my giant list of information sources and evaluated which "lens" each was supporting. Most of those in the "chipping away" category I unsubscribed from or deleted, or decided to scan through instead in reading completely, or cancelled, or decided not to renew. I also decided to be more selective about adding new sources of information into my life (though, I confess, even as I reflected on this topic, I paid membership in yet another worthy organization and subscribed to yet another interesting e-newsletter). Additionally, I decided not to participate in any email lists in which my likelihood of face-to-face contact with the other members is slim to none. I also went "no mail" or to "digest" on my various lists to make them more manageable.
With more difficulty, I then turned toward the "optimistic" lens information sources. I had to confront the wisdom in the saying, "choose the best and leave the rest (and the rest is pretty darn good too)." There is simply more good stuff out there than is humanly possible for me to keep up with. Making these few small changes reduced my sense of overload to a more manageable hum (instead of a roar), but it is an ongoing struggle for me to "choose the best" and simplify the information stream to the point where my own voice is audible.
About The Author
Molly Remer, MSW, CCE is a certified childbirth educator, birth activist, and writer. She is on the Board of Citizens for Midwifery and is the editor of CfM News and the Friends of Missouri Midwives newsletter. She lives with her husband and two young sons in a straw bale house in central Missouri. Molly can be reached at talkbirth@gmail.com or through her website: mollyreads.blogspot.com.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2008
Editor's Note: This article is an entry from The Zen Habits blog, reprinted with permission.
Simplifying can sometimes be overwhelming. The amount of stuff you have in your life and the amount of things you have to do can be too big a mountain to tackle.
But you don't have to simplify it all at once. Do one thing at a time, and take small steps. You'll get there, and have fun doing it.
In fact, you can do little but important things today to start living the simple life.
I was criticized a few weeks ago when I published the Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life, because many people felt the list was too long. I heard this point, and this post is my response: just the 10 most important things.
And these are not 10 difficult things, but 10 simple things that you can do today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month. Today. Choose one and do it today. Tomorrow, choose another.
If you do these 10 things, you'll have made great strides with little effort.
1. Make a short list. Take out a sheet of paper and fold it into a small square, perhaps 3×5 inches. Or take out an index card. Now make a short list of the 4-5 most important things in your life. What's most important to you? What do you value most? What 4-5 things do you most want to do in your life? Simplifying starts with these priorities, as you are trying to make room in your life so you have more time for these things.
2. Drop 1 commitment. Think about all the things in your life that you're committed to doing, and try to find one that you dread doing. Something that takes up time but doesn't give you much value. Perhaps you're on a team, or coaching something, or on a board or committee, or whatever. Something that you do each day or week or month that you don't really want to do. Now take action today to drop that commitment. Call someone, send an email, telling the appropriate person or people that you just don't have the time. You will feel relief. I'd recommend dropping all commitments that don't contribute to your short list (from Item #1), but for today, just drop 1 commitment.
3. Purge a drawer. Or a shelf, or a countertop, or a corner of a room. Not an entire room or even an entire closet. Just one small area. You can use that small area as your base of simplicity, and then expand from there. Here's how to purge: 1) empty everything from the drawer or shelf or corner into a pile. 2) From this pile, pick out only the most important things, the stuff you use and love. 3) Get rid of the rest. Right now. Trash it, or put it in your car to give away or donate. 4) Put the stuff you love and use back, in a neat and orderly manner.
4. Set limits. Read Haiku Productivity for more. Basically, you set limits for things you do regularly: email, RSS posts, tasks, feeds, items in your life, etc. And try to stick with the limits. Today, all you have to do is set limits for a few things in your life. Tomorrow, try to stick with them.
5. Simplify your to-do list. Take a look at your to-do list. If it's more than 10 items long, you can probably simplify it a bit. Try to find at least a few items that can be eliminated, delegated, automated, outsourced, or ignored. Shorten the list. This is a good habit to do once a week.
6. Free up time. Simplifying your life in general is a way to free up time to do the stuff you want to do. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find time to even think about how to simplify your life. If that's the case, free up at least 30 minutes a day for thinking about simplifying. Or alternatively, free up a weekend and think about it then. How can you free up 30 minutes a day? Just a few ideas: wake earlier, watch less TV, eat lunch at your desk, take a walk for lunch, disconnect from the Internet, do email only once today, shut off your phones, do 1 less thing each day.
7. Clear your desk. I can personally attest to the amazing feeling that a clean desk can give you. It's such a simple thing to do, and yet it does so much for you. If your desk is covered with papers and notes and gadgets and office supplies, you might not be able to get this done today. But here are the basic steps: 1) Clear everything off your desk and put it in a pile (either in your inbox or on the floor). 2) Process the pile from top to bottom, one item at a time. Do not defer decisions on any item — deal with them immediately and quickly. 3) For each item, either file it immediately, route it to someone else, trash it, or note it on your to-do list (and put it in an "action" folder). If it's a gadget or office supply, find a place for it in your desk drawers (or get rid of it). 4) Repeat until your pile is empty and your desk is clear. Be sure to get rid of any knick knacks. Your desk should have your computer, your inbox, perhaps a notepad, and maybe a family photo (but not many). Ahh, a clear desk! 5) From now on, put everything in your inbox, and at least once a day, process it in the same way as above.
8. Clear out your email inbox. This has the same psychological effect as a clear desk. Is your email inbox always full of read and unread messages? That's because you're delaying decisions on your emails. If you have 50, let's say, or fewer emails in your inbox, you can process them all today. If you have hundreds, you should put them in a temporary folder and get to them one chunk at a time (do 20 per day or something). Here's how you process your inbox to empty — including emails already in your inbox, and all future incoming emails: 1) process them top to bottom, one at a time, deciding and disposing of each one immediately. 2) Your choices are to delete, archive, respond immediately (and archive or delete), forward (and archive or delete), or mark it with a star (or something like that) and note it on your to-do list to respond to later (and archive). 3) Process each email like that until the inbox is empty. 4) Each time you check your email, process to empty. Ahh, an empty inbox!
9. Move slower. We rush through the day, from one task to another, from one appointment to another, until we collapse on the couch, exhausted, at the end of the day. Instead, simplify your life by doing less (see Items 1, 4 and 5) and doing them more slowly. Eat slower, drive slower, walk slower, shower slower, work slower. Be more deliberate. Be present. This isn't something you're going to master today, but you can start practicing today.
10. Single-task. Instead of multi-tasking, do one thing at a time. Remove all distractions, resist any urge to check email or do some other habitual task like that while you're doing the task at hand. Stick to that one task until you're done. It'll make a huge difference in both your stress level and your productivity.
About The Author
Leo Babauta writes the Zen Habits weblog. He is married with six kids, living on Guam. He is a writer and a runner and a vegetarian. For more information, check out Zen Habits at http://zenhabits.net/.
Related Resources
Copyright © 2007
Editor's Note: This article is an excerpt from Simple Prosperity, a new book by David Wann.
A Few of the 17 Assets of Real Wealth
An Instinct for Happiness
To be genuinely happy, we need to actively create our experiences and our lives, rather than passively letting media and marketers create them for us. The pathway to greatest happiness goes beyond mindless consumption to the heightened, enlightened realm of mindful challenge, where we are engaged, connected, and alive.
To balance the precise, quantitative, and sequential mindset orchestrated for a millennium by the left-brain, here comes a troupe of story-telling, aesthetic, empathetic caregivers, visionaries, and creators. Though still ridiculed by policy-makers and engineers, and sorely neglected by test-crazy school administrators, it appears the right brain is rising. YES!
Creating a Great Life Story
In this world of media and mirage there are significant obstacles to "knowing thyself," as the Greek sages counseled, because there are so many stories out there! (It's like a room filled with hundreds of telephones — which one is ringing?) If we're lucky, we figure out what we're good at, what we believe in, and what we want to accomplish, joyfully, while we're here.
I like the analogy of a backpacker when I think about the emerging American lifestyle. The backpacker doesn't want a lot of junk in her backpack. She wants only items that are ingeniously designed, like a lightweight cookstove, a warm fleece sweater, a good pair of boots that can go the extra miles, and food that's full of slow-release energy. The backpacker brings along skills she has learned, the stories she can tell, a well-designed tent, maybe a flute or a great book. On her journey, the world is a splash of light and shadow, with mountain peaks in the distance and bighorn sheep standing guard. If we're smart, the awakening American lifestyle will deliver clarity, a sense of wonder, and great health, as if life itself was an energizing, mind-opening backpacking trip.
Mindful Money
What if an average household's annual expenditures of roughly $43,000 went to different priorities? What if their purchases (and decisions not to purchase) brought more durability, greater vitality, more satisfying entertainment, greater intellectual growth and more laughter into their houses? Their choices might result in major attitude adjustments — psychological makeovers — that would make discretionary time seem far more valuable and a huge income seem less necessary.
About 32 percent of an average household's expenditures is spent for housing (that's the house, utilities, furniture and supplies). The family could win back time, money and vitality by living in a smaller, better-designed house with efficient appliances and good natural daylight, buying well-built furniture that doesn't need constant replacing, and having a different attitude about what a house is for. If their house becomes more of a healthy verb than a passive noun, there may be a vegetable garden out back, a workshop in the garage, and an accessible place to store well-used bicycles and a scooter.
If the food they eat delivers energy rather than lethargy, they'll exercise more, walking to the library or bank, and playing sports rather than buying them. Health care costs will be lower and weight-loss programs won't be necessary. With better food in their lives, they'll go to the doctor less and require less insurance coverage. They'll spend more social time eating, reducing their entertainment costs. Almost certainly, they'll feel a greater sense of contentment and wellness. By slowing down to the speed of life, the average American family can become more than just an "average" family — they can be an exceptional family. Instead of disposing of their income, they can save it, eat it, and live it.
The Benefits of Social Capital
Social capital is the "glue" that binds communities together, creating cultural norms, energetic networks, and reservoirs of trust. When freely and wisely spent, social capital lowers crime rates, makes schools more productive, and helps economies function better. Contracts, leases, and schedules operate more smoothly. In socially abundant communities and nations, individuals don't have to earn as much money to be comfortable because quality of life is partly provided by the strength of social bonds.
I believe we can and must bring sanctity to our everyday lives by creating I-You relationships, treating even the food we eat or a masterpiece painting with great respect, wonder, and connection, because the people who grew healthy food or created the painting "speak" through it. By changing the way we regard the world, the "me" in each of us becomes a much wider we, and we feel interconnected and complete. Even in a world filled with contradiction and superficiality, we find True North.
We need to elevate love and connection to a higher priority even if that means we make less money and spend less time worrying about it. Researchers say it's a matter of life and death. Dr. Dean Ornish, author of Love and Survival, says, "Study after study has shown that people who feel lonely, depressed and isolated are 3 to 7 times more likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who have a sense of love, connection, and community in their lives.
Taking Back our Time
We're discovering how costly consumption really is, in time as well as money — hurrying through our best years partly to overcome the hidden costs of these disposable, poorly designed products. The most effective weapon against all the packaging, payments, and pretense is to fill our time with things that last; and the truth is, quality usually takes time to obtain or achieve. For example, to really take care of our health takes time, just as learning to play the piano does, or reading stories to our kids. Yet all of these uses of time can substitute for consumption.
Lore Rosenthal, a Maryland sign language interpreter, is another example of a person choosing to shorten her workweek. Says Rosenthal, "I recently reduced my hours from 32 to 28 hours per week. I told my boss I needed that extra hour a day, to go work out or do something healthy. To my delight, she granted my request! I am now a 7/8 employee; I still qualify for full benefits, health insurance, 401(k), profit share, Annual Leave, Sick Leave, and Holiday Pay. I immediately went out and joined Curves, an exercise class. I decided to make my health more of a priority and work/money less of a priority." Lore's fellow workers are glad she made the switch. When their boss observed that at 32 hours, Lore wasn't having physical problems but those who worked 40 hours were, the standard workweek became 32 hours. This was also a quality-of-life enticement to keep the interpreters from going to work for other employers.
Stocks of Wellness
The benefits of being healthy cascade through all other aspects of our lives: finances, relationships, discretionary time, ability to work effectively and play passionately, and so on. When we're healthy, things seem effortless. We have the energy to do what matters most; we can more readily tap into values like clarity, security, connection, caring, and a sense of purpose. Stress levels are lower, bones are sturdier, and senses are sharper. We don't fuss over ourselves as much — taking this medication, stressing about this ache, or making an appointment to see that specialist — and we give our time more freely to others. We also don't have to dwell as much on what we need to buy to feel happy, because feeling good generates its own value.
Appleton High School for developmentally challenged students, in Wisconsin: Police officers routinely patrolled the halls of that school to prevent fighting between teachers and students — some of whom carried weapons. But several years later, the atmosphere was completely different. After just a few food-related changes, the students are now "calm and well-behaved," according to a counselor at the school. Says the school's principal, "I don't have the vandalism. I don't have the litter. I don't have the need for high security." What changes did school administrators make? They replaced vending machines with water coolers, and replaced foods high in fats and sugar (like hamburgers, french fries and soft drinks) with fresh vegetables and fruits, whole-grain bread and a salad bar.
Research at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and elsewhere showed that since the 1980s, the vitamin and mineral content in beans has fallen by 60 percent, in potatoes by 70 percent, and in apples by 80 percent. These decreases have occurred in produce from conventional farms that don't replenish their soil with cover crops, compost, and organic wastes.
Says Walter Willett, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health: "Our studies have shown that with healthy diets, no smoking and regular physical activity, we could prevent about 82 percent of heart attacks, about 70 percent of strokes, and over 90 percent of type 2 diabetes. The best drugs reduce heart attacks by about 20 or 30 percent, yet we put almost all of our resources into promoting drugs rather than healthy lifestyles and nutrition."
For Ornish, the bottom line is the return to vitality he's seen in his own patients when they changed to diets lower in saturated fat and sugar and did moderate exercise. "We found that even among people with severe heart disease, 99 percent were able to stop or reverse the progression of their disease... People who couldn't walk across the street before the light changed without getting chest pains, they couldn't have sex, they couldn't take a shower, shave... within a few weeks were essentially pain-free." (21)
If meat is so heavily implicated in various diseases, and if it takes such a heavy toll on the environment, isn't it time to question whether we want to be eating it 10 or 15 times a week?
Natural Capital
The truth is that humans used to value nature as the greatest and most sacred wealth of all, but now it's being traded for convenience, comfort, and perceived security. In our current way of seeing the world, the environment is just a collection of problems. We won't protect it until we correctly see nature as a collection of solutions, a regenerating form of wealth we literally can't live without. If we let it, nature can take care of us, energize and delight us, for free! In research studies, when people view slides of nature, their blood pressure counts fall, and when those with ADHD spend time in nature, the results are often as effective as if they'd taken the widely used drug, Ritalin. A classic ten-year study reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine documented that hospital patients with a view of trees went home sooner than those who viewed a brick wall.
Sure, we can read about the rainforest and see it on TV, but until we spend quality time there, letting ourselves slow down, we don't really grasp what tropical biology is all about. It struck me on a Costa Rican rainforest retreat that we over-consuming humans need to somehow absorb these colors, this bold brilliance, into our hearts, and re-value nature's wealth all over the planet. There's so much more to life than the gray of concrete and the drab green of paper currency! My feeling is that until we acknowledge the butterfly, orchid, maple, and wisteria colors inside each of us, we can't feel truly at home in ourselves.
Precious Work and Play
A large and very diverse mix of variables determines what work will make us happy. We crave work that has meaning beyond the paycheck, that challenges our creativity and aptitudes, that gives us a sense of being recognized and remembered, that connects us with people, that's safe and secure (both physically and fiscally), and that doesn't strip away all our energy. Much of our enjoyment of work depends on who we are and how we perceive the world.
Personally, if I were going to work in a car factory, for example, I'd rather it be a factory that manufactures hybrids, safe and durable cars. Traveling salesman Peter Gilbert recently donated his 1989 Saab 900 SPG to a museum after a million miles of service; I'd want to be part of that assembly line or engineering team! If I were going to work as an investment counselor, I'd want to steer clients toward investments that are good for people as well as the environment — so-called "socially responsible investing" that now screens trillions of dollars.
We're socially conditioned to believe that passive relaxation yields the greatest happiness, and that consumption and possessions help us relax. We imagine them to make our lives so convenient, so easy. By using various machines, media, and consumer products, we believe we can remove "distractions" like cooking, walking, and even thinking, so we can fully relax. But there's a critical difference between passive relaxation and restorative relaxation. But when we are simply under the spell of commercial stimuli on the tube or at the mall, we aren't creating ourselves but rather allowing ourselves to be created. We aren't aligning our actions with our values, but aligning our inactions with someone else's values.
The Real Wealth of Neighborhoods
I believe that neighborhoods and communities offer the best counterweight to the corporate dominance that takes away our voices. Whether or not we realize it yet, the grassroots power we collectively wield in our communities can tilt civilization in a more sensible, peaceful, democratic direction. Neighborhoods can be places where Americans make the transition from "me" to "we," getting our priorities straight and becoming citizens again.
We use the question, "Where do you live?" automatically, without really thinking about it. Sometimes the question just means, "How far do I have to drive to get there, and how long will it take?" Too often "where you live" means where you park your car, consume energy, watch three or four hours of TV a day, and generate four pounds of trash. Hopefully, in your case, it means something far more magnificent: where you have your best relationships, and your most creative ideas. Where you feel the most content and energized. Where you come to life.
Return on Investment
In our current economic paradigm, profits and prices are often the only variables considered in a given decision or transaction: "If it makes monetary sense, let's go with it." But in the next era — now coming clearly into focus — ecological efficiency will be the dominant accounting tool, because resource realities have radically changed in our generation.
We'll base our economy on things like nutrition per molecule of food, and the quality of work accomplished per unit of energy. We'll buy houses based on how well they satisfy our needs per square foot, and evaluate the efficiency of a car not just by miles per gallon, but by the number of people-miles per gallon. These new ways of living won't be thought of as sacrifices, they'll just become part of a new everyday ethic: the way we do it now. In all likelihood, future generations will look back at our high-consumption era — before the change — and ask, "What the hell were they thinking? How could they be so sloppy?" (They may even include us in a lumped-together era known as The Dark Ages.)
Trimming the Fat
Americans consume the most packaged drinks of any country in the world, and after the beverages are guzzled (and only the belches and containers remain), we go through over 650 plastic, aluminum, and glass containers per person, annually. Less than half of these containers are recycled, a lost opportunity for the national economy. About 350 of our annual share of containers are aluminum cans, compared with only 14 containers per person in France. Despite the fact that recycling an aluminum can save three-fourths of the energy it takes to make a new can, we throw away more than half of them, wasting the energy equivalent of powering a million homes!
A full 3% of the world's electricity goes into manufacturing aluminum cans, but the U.S. market continues to treat them like dirt. CRI's research director Jenny Gitlitz comments, "The irony is that while Americans are trashing almost three quarters of a million tons of cans a year, the major aluminum companies are forging ahead with plans to build new aluminum smelters and hydroelectric dams for power in environmentally-sensitive areas including Brazil, Malaysia, and Iceland."
Infinite Information
In the transition to a less consumptive yet culturally more abundant world, the brain is like an empty stage set, right before opening night. The new story — our new way of viewing the world — will be created on that stage as the play progresses, and a new, more ingenious lifestyle will unfold. By changing just one line of script — that the brain's highest use is to create limitless economic growth — we can ensure rave reviews in the history books of future generations. Let's face it: our descendants won't be especially impressed with the size of our GDP or the fast pace of our life, but they will be ecstatic (we hope!) that we cared enough to stop tearing things apart for cheap burgers and infinite varieties of soap and underwear. That we learned how to use relevant information to cut waste, create an aesthetically rich way of life, and balance the biological budget so the future could be abundant, too.
A whole new universe of natural solutions is waiting for us if we study the way other species meet their needs without any monetary system at all. By studying how the lotus leaf stays clean without detergents (a bumpy surface that doesn't enable dirt to accumulate), engineers have invented bio-inspired, bumpy-layered paints. By seeing how peacocks and Morphos butterflies create pigment without dyes (they use transparent layers to refract light), we learn how to make our world more colorful, naturally.
If we are smart enough to redirect the flow of information, we can learn to create a benign economy that doesn't require so much money, that creates wealth — real wealth — the way a bee creates honey. Without harming the flower.
Cultural Prosperity
The heart and soul of a culture are its values, and how it meets them. Core values — expressed in words like diversity, moderation, responsibility, respect, durability, equality, quality, trust, prevention, care, and regeneration — translate directly into tangible goals like "clean energy," "great neighborhoods" and "wellness." In turn, these goals can drive specific policies and actions like "expand the use of public transit," or "reduce the consumption of cigarettes, gasoline, and saturated fats."
When we ask ourselves if we're meeting our real needs with a given product, we start to understand that it's not the stuff we want, but the values the stuff is trying to satisfy. We buy a sporty car to attract a partner so we won't feel lonely. We eat a quart of ice cream in one sitting, but the real hunger is for something worthwhile to be doing.
The secret of success at the national and global scale is not really a secret: it's in plain sight, and it's called moderation. We'll get more value from less stuff and better stuff, by tapping into riches like quality products, brilliant design and redesign of cities and towns, cultural and aesthetic greatness, curiosity and fascination about how nature really works, cooperation with co-workers and neighbors, and generosity, just because it feels right. We've always loved the idea of rising to the occasion, of being heroes in the last minutes of a game. We've practiced heroism for many thousands of years in our myths and scriptures. We're ready in these most critical times to continue the transition, individually and culturally, from the "love of consumption" to the "love of life."
About The Author
David Wann is President of the Sustainable Futures Society; a board member of the Cohousing Association of the U.S.; a fellow of the Simplicity Forum; and recipient of various lifetime achievement awards for his work on sustainability. He's been a passionate gardener for 25 years and now coordinates a neighborhood garden in the cohousing community in which he's lived for 11 years — Harmony Village in Golden, Colorado.
Dave is the author of many books, including Affluenza and the new Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle. He will be on tour in early 2008 in Colorado and California, among other places. Dave can be reached at davewann@comcast.net.
Related Resources
- Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle
- Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
- Affluenza — DVD Video, PBS Special
- Escape From Affluenza: Living Better On Less — DVD Video, PBS Special
Copyright © 2008
The Financial Integrity Program, alternatively known as The Nine Step Program For Achieving Financial Independence, or Your Money Or Your Life, has a 40-year history, and it's about to get a new modern twist!
This 9-Step method was first synthesized by Joe Dominguez in the 1950-60s for his own personal liberation from "making a dying". It came to be known as a system that not only engenders financial independence, but transforms the concept of finance altogether and brings it back into alignment with human values. At the age of 31, Joe Dominguez was already "retired" from the working world, and decided to dedicate himself to voluntary service — to help others remove their barriers to life with capital L-I-F-E. While traveling and being of service, he found people plagued by a most formidable barrier: a dysfunctional relationship with money. So Joe began teaching friends and acquaintances informally what he had discovered about how to free up that particular barrier. They could then be free from worrying about jobs, in order to pursue callings, and more effectively follow their own paths. Helping people and organizations was the impetus behind what would become The New Road Map Foundation (NRM), a non-profit charitable foundation founded by the original adopters of Joe's method.
Joe's seminar Transforming Your Relationship With Money and Achieving Financial Independence helped countless people do exactly what the title states, and was eventually made available to a larger audience through a recorded audio course. Joe never took money personally from any of his work, and proceeds from Joe's seminars went to the New Road Map Foundation. NRM was formed to grant out those proceeds, as well as others' contributions, to environmental and social justice organizations. In 1984, after being on the road for most of two decades, Joe stopped giving the seminar, and sought ways to "get the word out" that would not involve so much travel.
Your Money or Your Life, authored in 1992 by Joe and Vicki Robin, with participation from the New Road Map team, became a bestseller and has been published in at least 10 different countries. In the decade since Joe passed away in 1997, inspired program adherents who wanted to help spread the word also translated the information into supportive materials like the book Getting A Life, (by Blix & Heitmiller), as well as many different study guides, The Simple Living Network's OnLine Study Groups, introductory workshops, and The Simple Living Network's Discussion Forums. While all of these products were developed by individuals through their own generous spirit, NRM fostered all the work related to the program, and in many cases retained oversight of developments.
New Era, New Methods
Now, New Road Map is converting the 9 Step Program into "open source technology." The idea of "open source" or "the commons" is one that is truly aligned with NRM's original ethos of communal, voluntary co-creation and sharing. NRM has been creating a curriculum that will have everything that is essential to success with what we are now calling the Financial Integrity Program. It will function like a textbook and a workbook, walking people through all nine Steps. It will speak to all the people who tend to seek out this program — people who want Financial Intelligence, Financial Integrity, and Financial Independence — but we call it the Financial Integrity program because we've found that the value of integrity is what all those people have in common. The text can be used for both individual self-guided learning and group educational settings. It will have minimal cultural or temporal anchors so that it can be easily translated into different languages and for different generations. Under a Creative Commons (attribution / share-alike) copyright, this text will be available for free as a foundation that others can draw from, build on, and use in their own endeavors to "spread the word" about financial integrity and simple living.
The Rebirth of "The Seminar"
In the future, FI advocates who would like to teach others this method of personal economics will have a professionally developed curriculum to do so, together with an Instructors Guide that combines the wisdom of professional education techniques with the experience of decades of program delivery. The curriculum will be available for free from a web library, without issues of licensing fees or royalties, because NRM will not seek revenue from its distribution, nor from the "add-ons" that others create. Like "shareware", the text may easily become the foundation for innovative individual approaches to teaching Financial Integrity, encouraging everyone to make it their own.
While these products are being developed, NRM is sponsoring a Financial Integrity "Wiki" site. Just like Wikipedia, this site is an open collaboration space, where people can share and mutually edit information related to the program. We recognize that in the 30+ years since the inception of the 9 Steps, everyone has their own approach to these practices and their own stories. We've found that the best way we can support people in using the program successfully, is to make all those stories, tips and innovations available to everyone. This is a work in progress, and we are currently collecting writings, tools and data, as well as using the wiki as a shared workspace for creating the new materials. It's not pretty (yet), but it's a lot of fun! Check it out and contribute your story at http://newroadmap.pbwiki.com/.
Over the next few months we will be testing out the new materials. If you have experience teaching the program to others, leading study groups, or are interested in leading workshops in the future, please contact us to participate in these feedback groups. It will only take several hours of your time (it is all nine Steps, after all!) and you'll get the first glimpse of these exciting new developments, in addition to helping us make them the best they can be.
Peace and prosperity to all,
Rozie Hughes, Executive Director
New Road Map Foundation
About The Author
Rozie Hughes is the Executive Director of The New Road Map Foundation, a non-profit organization. New Road Map offers practical resources that empower people to align their financial choices with their life goals. Rozie can be reached at newroadmap@igc.org.
Related Resources
- The New Road Map Wiki
- The Your Money Or Your Life Program
- Your Money Or Your Life
- Transforming Your Relationship With Money — Audio CD/Workbook Course
- OnLine Study Groups For Your Money Or Your Life
Registration In Progress.
Are you literally living "off the grid" of regular American life? Do you generate electricity for your household through wind or solar power, chop wood for heat or draw water from a well rather than rely on (and pay) the government or utilities for these services? Has your family chosen to live without television, computers or the Internet, and dragged you "back to the land" with them? Or has your disgust with mainstream culture inspired you to abandon city life for a rural existence where "wireless" is meaningless? If you're surviving without relying on modern infrastructure, MTV wants to hear from you.
If you appear to be between the ages of 16 and 28, and you think that you have an off-the-grid lifestyle, email us at grid@mtvn.com with all of the details. Please be sure to include your name, location, phone number and a photo, if possible.
Copyright © 2008
There are a variety of things Americans have learned from the French, but when it comes to closets, it is not one of them. For the past two years, my husband, young daughter and I moved to France to live in a small country village and take time off from our life to rejuvenate and figure out the next phase of life. Our goal was not specifically to simplify, but to live a different life that would provide balance unknown to most professional dual-career couples. Simplification however comes in many forms, and learning what the French have to teach us is what we were after.
French homes, many of which are hundreds of years old, all have one thing in common: no closets. They just aren't built. Gorgeous wooden armoires, tall as the ceilings, new modern creations, and cupboards are used, but not closets.
Moving into our home for year-round living, we had to figure out some method to handle all of the clothes, books, and work supplies we had mailed from California. We didn't want to invest in furniture, but instead pulled upon our college day resources and nailed heavy-duty antique hooks on the wall and purchased old coat racks with character for hanging clothes. This worked fine until all of our winter clothes arrived by post in large boxes. Figuring out where to put the additional clothes was one problem, but the fact that they were winter clothes (heavier, thicker, and bulkier) posed another.
With no closets, there is just only so much room. Trying to stuff old jeans and winter coats into the back of a closet was not a possibility; there was no closet. Hanging them on the coat racks and hooks just wouldn't do (the weight was more than they could take) — thus the reason closets were built. However, here we were and we had to figure out what to do before the hat racks tipped over and the hooks came out of the wall.
By necessity, we decided to clean out last season's clothes. Yes, no, it fits, it's too small, it doesn't flatter me, do I look fat? All these questions we went through while deciding if the object was worth packing away. My daughter's wardrobe luckily changed every six months as she grew taller. Next winter, the jeans would definitely be too short and the coat, well maybe? Convincing her however that the red cowboy boots would be too small, took time and the promise of a replacement. With this completed, we thought we could fit the clothes on the racks and in the drawers.
Not needing an assortment of corporate clothes, my husband and I chose a week's worth of outfits we might need and hung them on a rod pushed between the plumbing in a tiny cubbyhole under the stairs. Our major corporate wardrobe, which we can barely remember, was left in storage in California. That's another story about hanging on to stuff you don't need or want.
Living in the French countryside, our need for clothes has been reduced to a few basic items with some wonderful scarves and accessories to create the sense of a lá Française. Not being bombarded by beautiful stores and the newest fashion, I've been able to not be enticed to buy, buy, buy and get away with a spring and autumn shopping trip for those must have peach colored capris and black leather boots. It's a very different experience from my frequent, "I'll just pop in," trips to Nordstrom's. These trips also spur us on to getting rid of something else. My husband's favorite sweater he wore all winter was great last year, but now it looks tattered, full of little balls, and basically old and worn out. With little argument he agrees to replace the old with the new and we are all happier.
Each season we replace our coat racks, hooks, and drawers with the next season's clothes. If it doesn't fit in our small space, we start over, clean out and get rid of something. Twice a year in our village, a "vide de grenier" ("clean out your attic") sale is hosted in the Place du Marche. At 8:00 on a sunny Sunday, families come out with boxes of outgrown clothes, bikes, knickknacks, toys and books. By 5 P.M., what is not sold can be donated to charity and we all leave with some money in our pocket and usually more books and toys that Zoe has bought with the money she earned.
This works great for clothes because our needs and space are less, but when it comes to books, the whole family is a little less disciplined. "Let's just get another bookshelf," my daughter says after reviewing her collection of over a hundred French comic books. A library would be wonderful, and we do have the school library nearby in French, but when it comes to English books we have to buy them. Luckily Amazon now has tons of used books to buy that are stacked up around our office, but when it comes to paperback novels, I found the solution. A used bookstore in a nearby village accepts my English novels and I get new ones in return. Zoe sells a few comic books and gets a few more as well. We give, we get, and we pay just a little and my daughter is learning about buying and selling.
I have to say however, living without closets feels somewhat Zen-like, requiring us to clean out our clothes at least twice a year, donate, recycle, pack away for the winter and replenish for the summer. This alone is important for the psyche and soul to feel free versus cluttered.
About The Author
Suzanne Saxe-Roux Ed.D, is a entrepreneur, author, speaker, facilitator and coach who has spent the past twenty-five years training corporate America in communication, consulting, change, and leadership. Paddling through mid-life, she sold her company and moved with her husband and young daughter to the south of France to live in a country village and enjoy the simplicities of the French way of living. Now she is looking forward to her next phase in life as a writer, coach, and facilitator of mid-life transition and living a balanced life. Look forward to her forthcoming book written with her husband entitled Change of Place, Change of Pace, a mid-life journey. She can be reached at suzanne@saxe-roux.com. Visit her blog at timeoffinfrance.squarespace.com.
Related Resources
- Clutter Control
- 31 Words To Create An Organized Life
- Miserly Moms
- Living Simply With Children
- Moving To A Small Town
- Simply In Season
Copyright © 2008
Editor's Note: This article is an entry from The Dollar Stretcher Blog, reprinted with permission.
I was invited to a friend's surprise birthday party this weekend. Had a great time. Good friends and good food. Can't ask for much more than that! But I noticed something during the afternoon/evening. This friend often hosts an "open house". They'll throw on a big batch of food, people will bring more and everyone has a great time. It's the kind of place where you just know it's OK to head for the refrigerator if you need something. No need to ask first.
It occurred to me that demonstrated a lot of financial freedom. To paraphrase past wisdom, "You can measure how rich a person is by how little he needs" — i.e. the richest person isn't the person who has everything; it's the person who needs nothing.
Refrigerators are an interesting thing. If you come over to my house you can be pretty sure that I'll ask if you'd like something to drink. But I'll be the one to get it for you. Refrigerators are kind of a private thing. You don't need to know that I've got some cheese curds tucked away in a corner that I'm reluctant to share with anyone. And that's the problem. At that point I don't really own the cheese curds, they own me. (ouch!)
Guess I still have some growing to do. But that's OK. At least I know in what direction I'm headed and have some idea of how to get there!
Keep on stretchin' those dollars!
Gary
About The Author
Gary Foreman is the editor of The Dollar Stretcher.com website and newsletters. Not only does the site host thousands of articles on various ways to save money, but you'll also find a vibrant forum where people share their dollar stretching ideas. Visit today!
Related Resources
- The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map To True Riches — Book
- The Ultimate Cheapskate's Road Map To True Riches — Audio CDs
- The Complete Tightwad Gazette
Copyright © 2008
This is the eighth article in a series discussing Your Money Or Your Life from a modern, personal perspective. The most recent article in the January-February edition of this Newsletter reviewed Step 7: Valuing Your Life Energy - Work & Income. That step worked together with Step 6 (Minimizing Spending) to help us transform our financial lives to generate a monthly surplus. Now in Step 8 we'll see how the effect of that surplus is to free us from ever having to work for money again. Furthermore, we're not dreaming of some hazy notion of "retirement" in the distant future. Instead, we'll estimate when we'll reach that point (usually much sooner than we'd guess!), and start envisioning our lives of Financial Independence.
When I first read the book, this is the point where my eyes lit up and I broke into a big grin. It's exciting! Here it is, the moment we've all been waiting for, the light at the end of the tunnel! We will never have to work for money again, and best of all, we're estimating when that time will come, and it's sooner than we had thought!
The Wall Chart Takes On New Meaning
The core concept of Step 8 is to fundamentally change how we think of our savings. Rather than money we're putting aside for the future, this is money we're investing to generate an income. It becomes "capital", not "savings". We stop thinking in terms of how much we've saved, and begin looking at how much income we can generate by investing it.
In the book, we are shown how to project our investment income line on the Wall Chart into the future, enabling us to estimate a date at which point our investment income exceeds our monthly expenses. At first, this date appears to be a long time in the future (though usually much sooner than we had guessed). However, as time goes by and our income grows while our expenses remain about the same, this projected date grows closer and closer. The first estimate generally turns out to be conservative. Through increasing monthly savings combined with compound interest on our invested capital, we find ourselves becoming Financially Independent far sooner that we would have imagined.
The task of Step 8 is to create a new line on our Wall Chart. This line shows the amount of income generated by our invested capital. For example, at 4.8% interest, every $1000 we invest will give us $4.00/month ($1000 * 4.8% / 12 months = $4.00) forever. Admittedly, that $4.00/month may not sound like much income. But think of it this way: back at one point in my life, I could comfortably save $1000/month. Back then, I thought of it as savings, and eventually spent it. Now looking back, I see that if I had invested that money and grown my capital, I would have been generating $48.00/month of investment income after just one year. Within ten years, that would have been $480.00/month. Now we're talking! But that wasn't realistic. The reality was far better: my salary increased substantially over those ten years, while my cost of living actually dropped. By the end of those ten years, my monthly savings would have been closer to $2000/month. If I had begun following this 9-step program earlier in life, I would have reached Financial Independence even sooner! Clearly, the time to begin is now.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the important factor in achieving Financial Independence isn't how much money we stockpile. The more significant factor is how our expenses drop as we become comfortable with "enough" (see Step 6: Minimizing Expenses). Using my example of 4.8% interest, if my monthly expenses were $4.00/month lower, that would be $1000.00 less capital I would need to support my lifestyle of Financial Independence. That's why Step 6 is so important.
Tackling Fears
Any discussion of Step 8 wouldn't be complete without bringing up the two major reasons people sometimes say it won't work. These two reasons are:
- Interest rates are lower now
- Inflation
First off, people point out that the book was written in an era when long-term interest rates were higher than they are now. For this reason, people sometimes claim that this program is unrealistic. But what's the alternative, to work for money forever? Sure, because interest rates are lower, the resulting investment income will be lower (for those of us investing in bonds). That means our Crossover Point to Financial Independence will be further in the future. It will still be much sooner than the alternative!
Second, people may be unwilling to believe that inflation can be safely ignored. While some of us have experienced a comfortable life on about the same level of expense for many years, others have seen their expenses increase. One option to consider is to project not only investment income, but also the expense line on the Wall Chart. This gives a sort of "personal rate of inflation" based on the trend of our expenses over a period of time. Also, keep in mind that the definition of Financial Independence includes enough investment income to meet expenses, and then some.
We can try to address our fears mathematically, but we also need to think through what it is that we're so afraid of. What's the worst thing that could possibly happen? We'd have to get a job! In the meantime, we would have been living without working for money for many years, enjoying the prime of our lives without a paycheck. It's also good to keep in mind that many of the things we find ourselves doing for free are things others would gladly pay us to do. It's a natural progression to find ourselves continuing to receive an income we hadn't planned for. To quote President Roosevelt, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
A Finite Period of Time, and Then What?
As the truth hits us, we realize that we're only going to be working for money for a finite period of time. Rather than thinking of work as what we'll be doing until we retire, we may begin thinking of our paid work as a life stage. We're creating our future of freedom, enjoying this stage much as we enjoy the other stages of life. Moreover, our future after paid work probably won't be "retirement". When we become Financially Independent, we will likely still want to actively participate in constructive activities in society. As such, we need to envision our lives beyond paid work. What's the plan?
Shifting Gears
Looking around in society, I've noticed the wide variety of people who work for the greater good of people and the planet, without taking money for their efforts. My mother received Meals on Wheels for many years. Every day, a volunteer would come to her home with a hot meal, taking a moment to check in and chat with her each morning. It's heartwarming to see these people who care, helping those around them whose health is failing. Moreover, these people do this work in the middle of the day, when most people are at work.
Near my home, a local group of people includes a fellow named Ray, better known as "the bread guy". Ray picks up unsold bread from stores and bakeries all over town each day, delivering it to homeless shelters and food banks. Ray's a kind, outgoing person who's always happy to pass along a wonderful ciabatta to anyone with an appetite for good bread.
Right here at The Simple Living Network, much of the work is done by volunteers. The administrators of the Discussion Forums are a fine set of people who facilitate insightful discussions of everything related to living simply. They keep the chatter civil and supportive. Thank you, administrators!
All around us are people who work at what's important to them, rather than for money. In following Your Money Or Your Life, how will you shift gears? Take some time during this life stage (working for money) to plan the next one. Most of us get pretty bored if we try sitting on the couch!
Conclusion
Finally, we've reached the point where we can see our future selves. In Step 8, we came to see our savings as invested capital, generating income to eventually meet our expenses, and then some. We will be free, not in some far-off dream, but for real, in a finite period of time. Working for money is only one stage of life, after which we'll create vibrant lives of all the activities which enrich us. It's exciting and true!
In the final article next time, we'll discuss Step 9: Managing Your Finances. While many readers think of that step as simply saying to invest in bonds, that's not the case at all. We'll look at the need to become knowledgeable investors, and consider ways of managing our cash flow for a lifetime of easily handing all our expenses without working for money. Until then, think about paid work as just one stage of life, and what that means for you. It's exhilarating!
About The Author
Fred Ecks is the volunteer Newsletter Editor for The Simple Living Network. He's a dedicated follower of the 9-step program detailed in Your Money Or Your Life. He uses the time freed up in his life for writing, volunteering, sailing, and ultramarathon trail running. He can be reached at fredx@pobox.com.
Related Resources
- Your Money Or Your Life
- Get Satisfied
- My Job Sucks & I Can't Take It Anymore! Help!
- Making A Living While Making A Difference
- The Joy Of Not Working
What Is An On-Line Study Group?
OnLine Study Groups were created by The Simple Living Network (SLN) in cooperation with The New Road Map Foundation (NRM). Our purpose is to provide hosted, interactive, on-line classes for those following the nine-step program in the best selling book Your Money Or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin.
Your Money Or Your Life presents a simple, nine-step plan that will transform the way you think about, earn and spend money. This plan, a whole systems approach based on simple record keeping and your own unique life situation, works for anyone who earns or spends money. Singles and couples (with and without children), retirees and students, big earners and those below the poverty line have all been successful in doing the program.
We have created this OnLine Study Group venue because we recognize that group study is very helpful for those following the nine-steps. However, we also recognize that there are many folks out there who...
- do not have access to a local Study Group,
- find it difficult to attend face-to-face meetings on a regular basis, or
- wish to maintain the anonymity provided by the Internet.
