this post was submitted on 28 Nov 2024
399 points (98.1% liked)
Greentext
4623 readers
690 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I mean some of your advice is sound but honestly a lot of it reads like “step 1: have money, step 2: don’t have no money”
Those two steps are the core tenants of our global economy. You need money to live, its just the questions of how much you need, how you can get it, and how well you can save it.
If you want to reductively boil down my five paragraph essay into a slightly smaller tldr the core message is more accurately like
Have any amount of money from work, passive income, social security, pension, plasma donation, or other legit means. Be smart with your finances and start budgeting what little money starts coming in. Try to learn how to grow money through passive income have it work for you so you don't have to work for every scrap of money.
Find ways to reduce the amount of money you spend each month in every way you can. Pinch EVERY penny, cut out every luxury and convinence, reduce resources consumed. The biggest expense most people have is rent which easily eats over 1k per month or 12k a year. If you have a car consider moving into it for a few months while still working and save up a couple thousand for a nicer car or cheap plot of land or to take a long sabbatical.
Some people make buckets of money with six digit salaries and are still broke by the time the end of the month comes because they live in high COL area or have poor financial sense like buying a new car every year as status symbol or collecting figurines or having a shoppaholic spouse. They spend just as much as they make thus living right at or slightly above their means.
Some people make barely anything at all from meager social security and still find ways to save up a few hundred a month just by budgeting and reducing expenses, and of course living without a landlord. Thus living well below their already meager means.
Sure, if you’re homeless you save on rent. But then do you eat out every day? Spend time in bars instead of on your couch?
Living in your car might be feasible in North America but good luck trying that in Europe. Also good luck keeping a bank account let alone a job without an address.
If I want to live close to my job without paying rent or taking a loan I gotta save about 1M Euros and be lucky with finding a place. That’s a lot of skipped Frappuccino lattes.
I do speak as a person from north america and made tried to cover my ass with the beginning statement of this isn't going to apply for everyone figuring europe or other countries will have different challenges in government and feasability. You do raise some good questions. I get the impression you don't really have any use for my answers though. Someone who measures saved money in frappachino lattes and is so cemented in their particular job they are unwilling to commute long distance, switch jobs, or move to a cheaper area, probably isn't willing to sacrifice any amount of convinence for the kind of lifestyle im advocating. Regardless ill answer your questions earnestly and hope it informs.
For food, you cook your own meals obviously. 12v fridge and house batteries or perserved shelf stable foods. Most people who live in cars have propane or disel fuel for cooking and heat, or enough battery capacity to run a portable induction cooktop and electric water boiler. You can even power appliances needed for your precious frappachinos to make yourself. You spend free time at public parks and nature reserves, go hiking, camping, find things to do besides sitting around in one place. On bad days you still can hang inside the car. In north america theres a lot of free public land for recreational use and free dispersed camping especially out west.
Having a mailing address to put down on govt and banking paperwork is a challenge if your home is your vehicle. There are ways to get a mailing address and there are mail forwarding buisnesses that you can use. I think the endgame scenario is you would eventually get a plot of land and register a mailing address.