January 8, 2012

Keeping a perspective

If for some reason you came across this blog thinking that it was about totally getting away from the money system, you were possibly misdirected somehow. It is true that this blog is about doing things with less money or no money. However, there are many times when using money in order to get something done or to acquire some material thing, is the most efficient way to use our time.
The real point of this blog is to describe strategies of coping in your life when money is tight or nonexistent, and also to provide ways of using money more efficiently when indeed it becomes more plentiful. The area of focus in your life narrows to what your priorities are, such as a craft that may be a labor of love, like knitting or visual art, and the other areas of your life revolve around this. So the idea of living with less money, living on $1000 a month, for example, is a means to an end. And that end is basically having more time for your craft or whatever it is you like to do. You don’t think the words “live cheap” as much as it becomes a way for you achieve your goals. Cheap car repair happens because it turned out to be the most expedient way for you to get from point A to point B, point B being the freedom of time so that you can do what you want to do. If, by some fortunate set of circumstances you don’t necessarily have to live cheap, then to some degree your life becomes a little easier, but perhaps not as much as you think. Just a little money goes a long way toward making your life better, but when people start to get a lot, they start thinking ever bigger dreams, and more stuff, which then complicates the equation by taking more time to deal with it all, leaving less time for what they really wanted to do in the first place, which was plying their “craft” or “labor of love”. Some things to think about here, as we are headed for the middle of the first month of yet another year.