What are you doing?
Where do you see yourself next week, next month, next year, in a decade? Are you actively planning your life or are you merely floating through the flotsam and jetsam of your daily grind? Far too many of us are living like the latter, just trying to get to that next paycheck so you can pay your rent (or mortgage), pay your car payment, pay your utilities, pay your credit cards, for some folk just buying food can be a penny pinching challenge.
No this isn’t an infomercial, but this is guaranteed to be the first day of the rest of your life, you can spend it like you have been doing it, or you can make a change. I see so many people here on this site, posting comments, saying they are sick of the rat race, the are tired of not really living, they want to be free. Besides posting comments to strangers online, I have to wonder what else they might be doing to actually make a change for themselves…
That sounds tough hearted, even mean, but if they, or perhaps you don’t make some hard choices, then your/their life isn’t going to change. I also wonder if living free (to some) might actually mean living for free, the dream of living off the land sounds like a great thing, living without money. But the reality is, living totally without money just isn’t something that can be done IMHO, sure you can barter, and maybe you can even live off of someone else, but you still need basic necessities, food, clothes and shelter, either you are going to BUY them or someone else is going to BUY them and provide them to you.
I am not picking on those who post comments and replies here wanting to go off-grid with someone else, it’s a nice dream, a nice start, but don’t allow that to be your only action, if you truly want to do something, then it’s up to you to figure out how you are going to achieve this dream, you are the one who must make your dream a reality. It takes perseverance, hard work, and yes, it’s going to take some money.
It’s possible to get yourself setup to not have to need much money, PB and I have done that for the most part, but it wasn’t free, it wasn’t easy, it took hard work for many years, saving and planning. We purchased raw land in an area with few building codes (ie we could build our own place with little interference from the powers that be) and a place with low property taxes, we didn’t do a lot of improvements on the property so our taxes stay low. We paid for everything up front using our savings so there is no debt. We don’t do things that incur debt, no credit cards, …