Post 1, Introduction

This will not be an experiment in simple living but simply an experiment in a simplified form of living.

Having seen and heard far too many horror stories of people suffocated in debt caused by an ingrained instinct to constantly consume and as many stories of hyper stressful jobs and unfulfilling careers; having long grown tired of work being the central activity in my life; now long past the realization that the more money I have made the more unhappy I have been; as well as due to an ever increasing list of additional reasons that will be further discussed in an ongoing manner here in the future, I will here chronicle the process in which I hope to find it possible to live on as little money as possible, while also working as little as possible, over the course of the next year. I look to keep a running tab of how much I have worked, how much I have spent to date— extensively listing the things I have purchased—while also outlining the philosophies behind consciously deciding on living this way of life.

This is not a change of lifestyle so as to take up this particular way of living. In fact, this is exactly how I hope to live for a long time coming, if not altogether for the rest of my life. A continuous exercise in living richly while being poor.

But I not only hope to show how it is financially possible to live as such, but am also out to find the plethora of ways in which one is capable of spending their free time, as opposed to their money, that are often overlooked. I not only hope to work as little as possible, so as to maximize my free time, but I also hope to hang out with my friends as much as possible; I hope to find a great many things that cost little or nothing and can still be enjoyed without the ever-presence of money. I hope to go outside often; I hope to make all sorts of food that I’ve never made; I hope to further my education in the privacy of my own home; I hope to expand the boundaries of my own personal individualism—one I possess no greater than any other—and to show that, through a determined dedication to minimizing work, one is able to do so much in “doing nothing” over the coarse of an hour, a day, a month and ultimately a year.

And it will be a year that I will chronicle this manner of living (I began counting on July 1, 2007 and will do so through an entire year). I have begun with the goal of spending no more than $1,000 a month—$12,000 over the course of a year for those instinctively reaching for a calculator as opposed to instinctively turning to their own intelligence—even though that will more than likely prove high. As for work, I have no particular goal in the number of hours that I will work other than to keep it as far below the standard 2000 hours full-time workers work in a year.

This may not succeed. I suspect that it will, and will do what I must to make sure that it does. Regardless of the outcome, I will chronicle the ups and downs; the successes and failures; the worries and joys; the ways in which we are conditioned from youth in thinking that we need more money and the ways in which one can, hopefully, overcome those teachings.

Again, this will not be an experiment in simple living but simply an experiment in a simplified form of living.