Ponder this:

[Kelly]

I like cheese.

And although I do appreceate a good intelectual discussion, and I appreceate you guys for being able to have one, I cant concentrate due to my 52" high def Direct TV with 500 watts of surround, the damn phone attached to my hip, and the alarm of my Mercedes randomly going off...... and run on sentances are always destracting too.

[fishbone79]

I haven't had a TV in probably 10 years... Liberating, really. My vocabulary increased exponentially and my disdain for the paris hilton-esq culture we feeblemindedly idolize subsided into the background rather rapidly. Right now I'm contemplating ditching my cell phone... We seemed to get by just fine in the early 90's without them - what happened?

All that stuff is really just a means for superfluous penis inflation in order to maintain some nonsensical status-quo... None of us need any of it. If you subscribe, I don't mean to judge, but I feel like life has to have more meaning than that. The problem is we begin to live for our stuff, so distracted by it that we're never as happy as we could be.

[Redlined]

Weighing in kinda late. I woke up to this same feeling several years ago. After paying 35 payments, on time and payment in full, of a 36 month lease on an apartment that was to big for me, I lost my job. I was refused unemployment as my employer told the unimployment office they had offered me my job back and I refused.

I was evicted from my apartment in the 36th month.

My bank account was dry from paying for "Temporary housing" (read, rental) wich I really didn't need in the first place( I was living alone in a big 2 bedroom apartment) . I had no job, car, income, or equity and was in debt on various loans and bills. I overdrew my bank account $14 and my bank began fining me DAILY. $450 in fines later they closed my account and reported my for "Account abuse" wich prevented me from having an account with any bank or Credit union for 2 years.

I spent the next couple years couch hopping. staying with various friends, Paying what I could in rent. Working stupid little jobs. I cut the fat from my life. Pretty much everything.

Now. Im not an overly proud man. but i'm smart. I SHOULD be running an office building somewhere. or creating computer programs. or something. anything but the stupid minimum wage jobs I kept getting stuck in. I finely swallowed my pride and re-registered with the local Painters Union. Nothing quite like working next to people who you can listen to talk. and know that they probably cant spell half the words their using. But it was work.

I scrimped and saved. Lived for a year on a rice dish I came up with, Full soup bowl portions at $.50 a shot. Online Computer games for entertainment ($15 a month for as many hours as you care to play. you do the math).

Eventualy I bought a shitty little RV for $2000. wasnt much. but it was warm and dry. Parked it at a RV park for $400 a month wich covered rent, water, sewer, garbage, electricity. A year later I upgraded to a 37 foot Class A. Damn things is bigger than a city bus. Custom kitchen and bathroom. Queen sized bed. still $400 a month.

Some might call me trailer trash. I call me a home owner, I own my home. No leigns, no loans, no mortgages. I Own my car. No leans, No loans, No mortgages. I may not have the larges, luxurious, fancy home or car. But I own them. Their mine. and I wouldnt have it any other way. I currently only deal cash. I WILL NOT FINANCE SHIT.

I have more money in the bank than I have ever had at any time in my life. My bills, including "rent" are less that 1k a month. once I get done dumping money into my car on its current projects, I will again go into scrimp mode.

My goal is to save up enough money to buy a plot of land. Maybe one with a shitty little house on it.

No one can say I have the most fabulous life. I don't have the best stuff. many people scoff at me. But im content. my life. for once, has begun to move forward. I don't have a high paying job. But I'm a big tipper. I will goto a store and make someone handly my phone payment before ill pay over the phone through some automoted service. Support the employees, not the company. 1) The companys dont give a shit about you. Be nice to an employee. and they will take care of you. 2) money given to the company will be used to help the company make more money. Money given to the employee will buy food and pay rent.

In a time when you are told to spend spend spend, have credit cards THROWN at you from every angle (Would you like to save 10% on your current purchase and order a Dave-mart Credit card?) and are encouraged to voluntarily put yourself into debt upto your eyeballs. I say fuck that.

Don't play the game by their rules, simply refuse to. Buy what you can afford to buy, save your money. Don't finance (if you have trouble with this do the complete intrest calculation and decide if the item is worth spending an additional 150% or so to own right now). Don't give money to rich people (windows 7 anyone?).

To sum up. I live in a 22 year old RV, drive a 16 year old car and hold a physical labor job. I have no debt. ( ok. one loan I'm refusing to pay off) no financial burden. and Im looked upon well by they community. Am I living the dream? no. Am I content with my life?

yes... yes I am

[evolutionmovement]

I resisted getting a cell phone until I absolutely had to for work. Then I ditched the land line as it cost almost as much anyway.

Debt is definitely a burden. I've been paying cash for everything but gas (convenience and time) for a while now and found I've saved a lot more since I started doing it. There's also the psychological aspect of knowing you owe that sucks as well. I doubt I'll be able to out-of-pocket the whole Tigershark build, but selling the Mazda next year should be a solid kick start. Hopefully can pay for either the drivetrain or chassis, which are the big hits. I'm thinking of using it as a sort of rolling resume anyway, so I look at it akin to further education and transportation cost reduction (though still having the wagon registered might cancel some of it out ... until gas prices go back up).

Trailer trash is how you live, not where you live. A friend of mine is retiring and he's just taking his fifth wheel trailer out to national parks and teaching fly fishing for food and trailer hook-up money, then fishing in his spare time. I'd probably get bored doing the same thing all the time, but he loves it and he's a master fly fisher so he's damn good at it. The guy's smart, a decent person, and has made plenty of money in telecom, but knows the value of simple living. I wouldn't call him trailer trash just because he's going to live in one. For me, a house is just a place to sleep and store stuff I don't need. I realized how much crap I have that I don't need when I considered what I'd do if the house was burning down. I'd grab my bag of emergency clothes, my laptop, maybe the models of my car designs (though they only cost about $10 to make)—all on my way out the door anyway.

[kimokalihi]

Interesting idea. If my house were burning down (I actually live in a rec room next to the house) I think I would grab my PS3 because it's expensive and easy to grab, my nice LG LCD monitor, maybe my PC since it's a custom built case that I built out of wood myself, the whole clothes rack which is a standalone unit with almost all my clothes on it, my acoustic guitar, wakeboard and BMX bike that cost me like $1,300 which I never ride and is practically brand new.

That is if I had the time to grab all that stuff. The shittiest thing is I know I would forget to grab the really important things to me. Like sentimental stuff with memories that are unreplaceable. After rattling off that list just now I realized I forgot all of these things. That's how fucked up materialism is. I'm deep in it I guess.

Damn.

[evolutionmovement]

When I was younger, I used to imagine grabbing the expensive stuff, but now I'd just grab what's important, though the laptop happens to have been relatively expensive. In the exercise, I try to figure I have almost no time and won't be able to get back in. I don't have much for sentimental stuff, so the design models would constitute the most of that.

[Elcapitan]

if i may weight in on this , i find having nothing to live for is benificial in existance - with somthing to live for , you yourself become a dependee ; tied to what it may be that you are living -with , moreso than for ; with it you feel real and if it happens to get away from you , You are left in existance as absent to that of what has just gone away
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still though you are present and do exist in place after the dependant is away , making you real
In comparrison to your shadow - your shadow is tied to you and makes YOU the only reason IT is even see-able
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depending on material things makes you material in existance
the feeling of being real arises when you depend on material things and rely on what is unreal
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the concept of existance is naturally artificial - You make IT what it is by simply being present and sharing what you know , i too spend time questioning the order in life for similar reason , i side with evolutionmovment in being the contractor where i too take comfort in seeing somthing i ve produced , i study architecture

a passion is what is needed

That's deep

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