How to live on $0 a year

[cacheborn]

Read about Mark Boyle, who decided to live without any money for one year. He grew his own food, used solar power, accepted only incoming calls. His story is really inspiring.

How Mark Boyle Lives on $0 a Year | Credit.com News + Advice

[moimoi]

Originally Posted by cacheborn

Read about Mark Boyle, who decided to live without any money for one year. He grew his own food, used solar power, accepted only incoming calls. His story is really inspiring.

How Mark Boyle Lives on $0 a Year | Credit.com News + Advice

That $0 is untrue... He did spend money on setting things up... (and maybe someone else payed his bills ). It reminds me a friend who said he had become a sadhu leaving behing wordly things, not even touching money, paying bills...and he does use internet etc. When I asked him about that he answered me that his other friend managed his money. Well, it's easy to live on $0, or become a sadhu that way if you manage to find someone do those wordly things for you.

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by moimoi

That $0 is untrue... He did spend money on setting things up... (and maybe someone else payed his bills ). It reminds me a friend who said he had become a sadhu leaving behing wordly things, not even touching money, paying bills...and he does use internet etc. When I asked him about that he answered me that his other friend managed his money. Well, it's easy to live on $0, or become a sadhu that way if you manage to find someone do those wordly things for you.

Okay he did spend money to set up things but once that was done, he did spend one year without spending anything, didn't he? And the efforts he took for it (using solar energy, doing his own farming etc.) are quite remarkable. I look at it from a broader point of view instead of getting stuck in the technicalities. To me, this is something like what Thoreau did when he went off in to the woods for two years to write Walden. In today's world, it's much more difficult to do than in those times because of our dependence on the technology.

[Criseyde]

I think it's really cool. I kind of want to do something like this. I keep wondering lately WTF is the point of spending our whole lives doing some weird tasks that don't really relate to survival. Money. Money is weird.

[cacheborn]

Originally Posted by Criseyde

I think it's really cool. I kind of want to do something like this. I keep wondering lately WTF is the point of spending our whole lives doing some weird tasks that don't really relate to survival. Money. Money is weird.

It seems he has set up a foundation of some sort for people who want to live without money. I am restraining myself because sometimes I have this desperate urge of joining. I need to finish some other goals first.

[elucidate]

Originally Posted by moimoi

That $0 is untrue... He did spend money on setting things up... (and maybe someone else payed his bills ). It reminds me a friend who said he had become a sadhu leaving behing wordly things, not even touching money, paying bills...and he does use internet etc. When I asked him about that he answered me that his other friend managed his money. Well, it's easy to live on $0, or become a sadhu that way if you manage to find someone do those wordly things for you.

I met a guy who did that for a while in India. Quite an interesting fellow. It turned out he was the person they based the characters in "The Wombels" on...if you can believe that.

He sat on the curb of a street in the poorest part of India for a whole year or more and begged, to understand things from the perspective of someone in that situation. I kind of got where he was coming from, and then it also seemed a little wanky to me to have a bank account full of money and choose to live like a beggar in India...but I guess, when you have money you can choose to live anyway you want.

[elucidate]

Originally Posted by Criseyde

I think it's really cool. I kind of want to do something like this. I keep wondering lately WTF is the point of spending our whole lives doing some weird tasks that don't really relate to survival. Money. Money is weird.

I find it really weird that people spend most of their lives doing stupid mundane jobs to earn money just so they can have a shelter, and a car to drive themselves to work, to earn money to drive themselves to work...

[Agota]

Originally Posted by elucidate

I met a guy who did that for a while in India. Quite an interesting fellow. It turned out he was the person they based the characters in "The Wombels" on...if you can believe that.

He sat on the curb of a street in the poorest part of India for a whole year or more and begged, to understand things from the perspective of someone in that situation. I kind of got where he was coming from, and then it also seemed a little wanky to me to have a bank account full of money and choose to live like a beggar in India...but I guess, when you have money you can choose to live anyway you want.

I think that's quite an interesting idea.

I think the point of having money is the freedom it provides, including the freedom to choose to live in luxurious mansions and drive expensive cars or to live like a beggar in India

[Agota]

Originally Posted by elucidate

I find it really weird that people spend most of their lives doing stupid mundane jobs to earn money just so they can have a shelter, and a car to drive themselves to work, to earn money to drive themselves to work...

I don't find it weird, I find it insane!

[elucidate]

Originally Posted by Agota

I think that's quite an interesting idea.

I think the point of having money is the freedom it provides, including the freedom to choose to live in luxurious mansions and drive expensive cars or to live like a beggar in India

Yes, and we've all heard of the lawyers or doctors who suddenly quit their jobs, with millions in the bank and choose to live on the street of New York as derelicts. I suppose they have a truly unique perspective as to what money can do to a person,if they let it, and may find being homeless refreshing from the lack of stress involved in paying bills, rent etc.

[elucidate]

Originally Posted by Agota

I don't find it weird, I find it insane!

That too. I've found myself in that situation of late, minus the car, and I'm not too happy about it.

[youssef]

He grew his own food, used solar power, accepted only incoming calls

I see it as a difference between The cash and premium payments,he already had paid for seeds ,for phone hardware .......
he only avoids the inflation
no body can live without money, but it may be done in hereafter