No Mischief Monday

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No Mischief Monday

What Aren't You Buying?

As current economic conditions continue to change our world a lot of people are getting closer to not buying anything. Who can afford it? We're not buying houses or Hummers, cottages or caviar. As catastrophic as it all seems, it is a shift in the right direction. Something is obviously not working in our current system when the few have so much, and the many so little. I am not buying that.

It is always possible to buy less. One persons extreme budget is another persons luxury living. However, if the goal is toward living with less, each small step counts. Wandering holy people get their possessions down to a piece of cloth and a bowl. It is hard to get more basic than that. They are truly not buying anything. It is something I aspire to - to live as lightly as possible, and be free of encumbrances.

Then we can follow our own unique adventure, unscripted by society or the marketplace. You can't buy a life, or be forced into one against your will - you have to make a life of your own choosing on your own. Each of us is writing our own story. For a long time my story has been about working toward not buying anything. It is going to take longer than I thought.

The following is a list of things I haven't been buying the last 5 years, or in some cases, have never spent money on. My life is better without them. When things are uncomplicated and uncluttered we can focus on what is important to us. When we live better with less, others currently scraping by can live better with more.

I'm Not Buying:

• cable TV
• individual car ownership
  
• meat... still with me?
  
• movies
• new clothes
• caffeine
  
• concert tickets
• restaurant meals
  
• credit
• inflated real estate
  
• vacations
• big bank financial advisers and the mutual funds they peddle
• the Wall Street Casino
  
• ultra soft toilet paper made from 300 year old trees
• disposable products
  
• popular culture
• mainstream media
• granite counter tops
  
• processed food
• having kids, unless you really, really, really want them
  
• working a job you don't like
• christmas presents
• endless upgrades
  
• fast food
• fashion
• planned obsolescence
• non-participatory democracy
• stainless steel
• alcohol

Congratulations if you made it to the end of that. You must be a non-conformist yourself.

So many things not to buy. It is a challenge in a materialistic world, but is also satisfying in a way that buying things never can be. It feels like self-control, restraint, and thrift. It feels right, like an instinct.
Are there things you are cutting back on? What aren't you buying?

Change In Money Consciousness Required

We have grown use to abundance in the developed world. An abundance that has failed to make us any happier. All our big pile of cash has got us is record levels of depression and an environment falling apart at the seams. So why are so many people continuing to spend?

We need a radical change in how we make and spend our money. If more is not working, we should try less and see what happens. It seems counter intuitive, but it may be that the best thing that could happen to us is having less money to spend.

My favourite financial guy, Garth Turner, recently posted on his blog The Greater Fool: "The recession we thought was behind us is actually reappearing, and it will take a serious attitude adjustment on the part of many to survive." Ouch.

In 2008/09 household wealth was evaporating faster than a puddle of alcohol in a heat wave, and people were thinking about changing their financial attitudes and habits. Some actually did. For example, there are groups dedicated to not buying anything new for a period of time. Most members find they get hooked on their new simple life and never go back to shopping. But they are a rarity.

John Michael Greer, author and cultural critic, noted that changing our relationship with money is not that popular, despite the proven dividends it would pay:

"The problem is that the changes in consciousness that would actually do some good are changes that next to nobody in the industrial world is willing to make: for example, a shift in priorities that deliberately embraces poverty, accepting a rich personal, intellectual, and social life as a substitute for, or even an improvement on, the material extravagance that the industrial nations currently offer their more favored inmates."

We are our own worst enemies when it comes to cash. In our pursuit of more we open ourselves to the 'Wealth Effect'. It states that people will increase spending as household net worth increases. And this in spite of 88% of us thinking that life is overly materialistic. Net gain? Zero.

Other people are shifting the way they think about work and money. The ship is slowly turning back toward our frugal roots. The wealth effect works in reverse, too - the less wealthy we feel, the less we will spend. Perhaps being less wealthy is the answer then. Make less, spend less, live more. This is the new money consciousness, and it just may save our sanity and our environment.

Greer gives hope by reminding people that the "change in consciousness is certainly accessible to each and every one of us". However, "it requires a rare willingness to step outside of the approved habits and ideas of modern industrial cultures."

We can be brave, and step away from habits we know to be harmful. We can quit spending. We can stop the futile attempt to prove that money can buy happiness. A better, more simple, sustainable life lies ahead, and we will be happier for it. But it will require a change in money consciousness, and for some of us, a radical change.

The Perilometer

I invented my Perilometer in the dark days of winter 2007 in response to a general sense of peril that I was experiencing. I had been the watching mainstream media for a few weeks and was surprised that no warnings were forthcoming, no headlines of impending doom, or suggestions for how to be prepared for what I felt was coming our way - a radical change in the way we see ourselves and our relation to stuff and the planet that supports it all.


Then 2008 limped into view, and complete with it a generous amount of good old-fashioned peril. Serious and immediate danger seemed everywhere for everyone. You know things are bad when for a short period of time the rich don't get richer. Things were crumbling, and lies were being exposed, and the biggest lie was that an economy and lifestyle based on MORE was sustainable.


Those who profit from stroking our desires have been telling us for almost 100 years that our consuming 35 times the resources of the average global citizen was NOT having a negative effect on other people or the environment. 2008 marked the beginning of the end of this excessive party, and at the time my Perilometer needle was registering somewhere between "Muscle Twitches" and "Strong Desire To Flee".


Naturally, our inclination is to keep the instrument needle as close to "No Peril" as possible. Having said that, peril has always been a fact of life on earth. Whether sabre tooth tigers, floods, or Og from the cave next door running after you wielding a large club, peril has always been around to some degree.


Modern life protects us, mostly, from one set of perilous situations (nature), and trades it for another even more perilous set (affluent, busy, technological lifestyles). It is highly unlikely you will be eaten by a bear or wolf, but you might get eaten by the potentially perilous demands of modern life. Now we deal with the perils of heart attacks, diabetes, trillions of dollars of cash vanishing into thin air, housing markets crashing, and people losing jobs at the highest rate since the Great Depression. Perilous times, indeed.


We can minimize the effects of a constant sense of peril, and we must because an ongoing sense of danger is highly stressful and can lead to disease and unhappiness. I figure somewhere between "No Peril" and "Mild Peril" is sufficient to keep us awake and relatively stress-free.


When I feel my Peril Rating climb to the point of "Adrenaline Rush" these are a few things I do:

• Review my personal preparation plan to be able to take care of myself and my family in the event of an emergency (end of globalism, earthquake, power outage, global climate change, fall of capitalism...)
• stay away from TV and online news
• go for a walk or hike or bike ride (leave the earbuds at home and listen to nature and the pounding of your own heart)
• stretch, deep breathe, meditate
  
• play guitar, sing, dance, shake and be silly
• take action to implement positive change in my life
• talk to friends and family and work on building a strong community network
  

The coming decades promise to be quite different than the ones we passed in relative luxury while everything crumbled behind the scenes. Now many dangers can no longer be hidden or ignored, and our eyes have been opened. We should be aware of serious and immediate dangers, and have plans for dealing with them. Then we need to implement the best plans to the best of our ability. Having done that we can relax, knowing that we are doing what we can, where we are at, with what we have. What else can we do?


Hope you are having a Low Peril day, and if not, that my suggestions to mitigate it are useful.

A Few Have Too Much, Many Have Too Little - You Can Help

"There can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental degradation, and as long as the weak and small continue to be trodden by the mighty and powerful."

- 14th Dalai Lama

Some countries have too much money. Some countries don't have enough. Both are detrimental. The current gap between the rich and the poor is a bubble about to pop. How long can the richest 20% of the planet's people consume 76.6% of the world's resources while the poorest 20% consume a meagre 1.5%? This situation spawns poverty, despair, and terrorism.

The good news is that this was an improvement over 1995 when the richest 20% consumed 88% of the world's resources. Some one must pay for the rich lifestyles we live in industrialized, wasteful, consumer-oriented countries. Currently, the poor and the environment are paying our way, but this is likely to change soon. We are reaching several critical points, peak oil and climate change being two. More importantly, people are beginning to hop off the money train after finding it was not all it was cracked up to be.

You may wonder how one could have too much money. Our cultural credo is you can't have too much money, or fame, or thinness, or toys. It is wrong. Witness the Toilet Paper Abundance Syndrome, which I will use to illustrate my point.

When you have a closet full of toilet paper, a TP glut if you will, your tendency will be to use say, 7 to 25 or more squares. But make that the last roll of TP in the house and you will find that 3 to 5 squares may suffice.

When we have too much money we indulge in senseless waste, often as a way to feel and show our wealth. It is an evolutionary thing, so understandable, but now we know better. I would like to think our higher-order brain is in charge, not our emotions and base instincts. No, the conspicuous consumption beast is dead (2008 RIP), and you can help put the final nails in the lid the coffin.

How? By how you live. Waste not, want not. Don't make the environment and the poor pay for your extravagant lifestyle. Consume less. Save money. Share some of it. Use resources carefully - they are precious. Make demands of your politicians, and tell them you want a more equitable, sustainable community, and world.

Civil rights came about because the people demanded it. Universal suffrage happened because the people demanded it. When the people band together to right wrongs amazing things can happen. A better world is evolving, but ongoing improvement must continue to come from the people. We have the power.

A few have too much, and many have too little. You can help. Let us live simple, sustainable lives so that others may live at all. Let us mourn the consumeristic, planet-killing beast and move on. We already know what to do, and we have more than enough money. All we need is the will, and that begins within each one of us.

Investing Without Wealth Or Calamity: The Finances Of Enough

"Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas." - Paul Samuelson

Individuals lucky enough to have a bit of savings are asking hard questions about their money after the 2008 financial collapse wiped out trillions of dollars of personal net worth. There is a move toward post-traumatic stress investing; a cautious, less greedy way of investing in order to avoid the kind of trouble we have seen lately. Such an approach will avoid extreme wealth as well as extreme calamity, both of which are unbalanced ways to live and best avoided.

It is a good time to be returning to a concept of 'enough'. Good-bye get rich quick risky business, hello slow and certain. My financial goal is not to get the highest return and damn the consequences. At one time people were satisfied with a modest return on investment. Any more would have been considered immoral at best, and illegal at worst.

Therefore, my No Extreme Wealth/No Calamity strategy focuses on:

1. Reducing the potential for financial calamity. Higher risk investments pay higher returns, usually, but can also experience higher losses.
   
2. Investments that improve global social and environmental health. I want to know that my money is supporting solutions rather then enabling problems, even if the 'dirty' investments pay a better return. Are my hands clean?
   

The following information, from David Trahair, agrees with a low risk strategy. In "Buy GICs. Only GICs." in The Globe and Mail, September, 2009, he points out the following average annual rates of return:

S&P/TSX Composite Total Return Index

• 10 years to August 31, 2009 - 9.41%
• 20 years to August 31, 2009 - 8.86%
• 30 years to August 31, 2009 - 10.76%
• 40 years to August 31, 2009 - 9.77%
• 50 years to August 31, 2009 - 9.80%

GICs

• 10 years to August 31, 2009 - 3.35%
• 20 years to August 31, 2009 - 5.11%
• 30 years to August 31, 2009 - 7.28%
• 40 years to August 31, 2009 - 7.71%
• 50 years to August 31, 2009 - 7.35%

The Wall Street Journal seems to agree about the reality of stock market investing these days. They reported that the first decade of the 2000s was the worst ever for American stock market investing.

"Investors would have been better off investing in pretty much anything else, from bonds to gold or even just stuffing money under a mattress. Since the end of 1999, stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange have lost an average of 0.5% a year thanks to the twin bear markets this decade."

Stuffing money under a mattress? Now there is an investment strategy that I can both understand and support. One will not experience riches, but one will avoid calamity. Without riches and calamity there is less potential for trouble. And trouble is something many people have been experiencing lately.

The returns of a low risk strategy may be lower, but you have to also factor in the ease of GICs, and the peace of mind you have when you step off the stock market roller coaster. You will not get rich, but you will also not lose 50% of your personal wealth over the course of several days in the event of another near-death experience for capitalism. Free market troubles are not close to being over yet.

For me a guaranteed, small interest rate is preferable to a large unearned gain that is harmful to all, and has the potential for massive losses.

No wealth, no calamity, no trouble. This works for me.

Fix It Because You Can

Ever since I was a kid I have loved taking things apart. I love it even more when they go back together again. If you have a few basic tools and curiosity it is amazing the things that can be done. If you aren't handy, with patience you can learn at least a few skills that will take you far and save you money.

My brother gave me an answering machine in 1995. It's not digital and makes clunking sounds as it faithfully does its work year after year. We thought about replacing it with a silent digital model, but in Frugalville, if it is not irreparably broken it doesn't get replaced.

Lately the recording mechanism started to get a little distorted. My outgoing message was not sounding like me any more, and listening to incoming messages was like deciphering backwards masking on a Beatles album.

Time to grab the tools and rip it apart, then hope I don't pull a Humpty Dumpty. Even if I did, fifteen years of faithful service for a used piece of electronics makes it fully eligible for retirement in a nice museum somewhere.


I snapped on the latex gloves, grabbed my tools and opened the patient. Since I did not study electronics anatomy, it all looked like indecipherable guts to my untrained eyes. I went for the heart of the matter and took a look at the motor drive, something I did recognize. Sure enough the drive belt was stretched beyond usefulness causing the devil in the machine sound effects.

From my Drawer of Potentially Useful Things I drew several sizes of rubber bands. After snapping Linda with one, I proceeded to choose just the right size to make a new belt drive and stretched it into place. Then I stitched the patient up and hooked it up to a power source.

It worked. Ya, I could replace it for less than $20 dollars, but now I don't have to. The rubber band was free.

We live in a world in which powerful interests profit from having us believe that we can not do things for ourselves, and we must rely on them - for a price. The fact is, we are capable of doing much more than we think. The solutions are often free, and fun. We can build, repair, create, and enjoy ourselves while saving resources and money.

Are We Still Going Up If We Are Going Down?

"The environmental disruptions, the ever-increasing list of species extinctions - all are evidence to those who are willing to see that this past 10,000-year phase of development does not mark great evolutionary progress but a terminal crisis in the life cycle of the planet.

It is time to imagine beyond endings."

From: Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime by Robert Lawlor, 1991

I have often wondered why the concept of evolution, a supposedly scientific theory (culturally-generated story), has white males at the top of the ladder with everything and everyone else taking up the rungs below.

We need a new story. Let's knock down the ladder and make it into a bridge.

What Would You Do With Spiderman's Head, Arms, And Legs?

When we are children spontaneity and creativity are how we roll. The borders and limits of the 'realities' of the adult world are not yet obvious. Joy rules the day and fun is made with natural and found objects. Pillows and blankets become forts, pots and pans musical instruments, and natural areas the settings for major adventures. Anything is possible.

As constricted grown ups with adult responsibilities we set aside our childhood ways. This often means simultaneously setting aside much of our spontaneous nature, as well as our belief in our own creative powers. When we are free of stressful conditions, are unafraid, and have time to be ourselves, the magical qualities of childhood can once again guide our discoveries.

This week I found a Spiderman action figure while out for a walk in the hood. The webbed wonder had obviously tangled with an evil foe, and lost. His body section was in rough shape and I buried it solemnly while several spiders gathered nearby. The limbs and head I put on ice and brought home.

When I got home Linda reminded me that we took a well-ripped Spiderman action figure traveling overseas with us. It was an unclaimed toy at the end of a year of teaching grade 6, and it acted as our unofficial mascot.

Could this be the same one? Did he follow us from the prairies? Last time we saw him he was hanging from our friend's houseplant, scanning the living room for nefarious activity. But that was 5 years ago and 1500 km away.

We started thinking of things we could replace Spiderman's torso with. An early idea was Spiderloaf (not that kind of loaf), because I had just baked a couple of banana loaves. We fused Spidey's head and limbs to the loaf, but he looked bloated and slow. Plus he was nutty. Walnutty.

The versions seen here were created complete with lyrics for the theme song. We also thought about their special powers.

Spiderpod, for example, can spin a world wide web and download about 150 songs.

Spiderdriver can solve any crime as long as it has a Phillips head.

Spiderpen could have been Spidersword, but his keen senses told him which was mightier and he requested a pen/body transplant.






Finally, we have Spiderband. He's bendy and stretchy, and can propel himself vast distances with a single snap.




The grown-up world, highly over-rated in my opinion, is not as set as we think, and responsibilities can and should be set aside occasionally for mental health purposes. It feels good to reclaim the best parts of childhood so that we can again feel the magic. Feel the joy. Run. Jump. Play.

Shakti Gawain says, "As you open to the playfulness in the universe, you see its humor in many ways."

I try to play a bit each and every day.

Natural vs. Artificial Desires And Wealth

In responding to a comment on my last post, found here, I realized that the length of my response was getting a tad unwieldy. I decided to post the comment and my response here in order to share it with a larger audience, and perhaps illicit further comments on this topic. The comment was in response to Evolving Past Narrow Definitions of Wealth:

Why would someone have to not want something to be wealthy? It is a natural drive of human beings to want, to know they can get and achieve. Real wealth is seeing something, knowing you can have it and then freely deciding whether you want it or not. It's the ability to choose. That is freedom, when a person knows they can have, but is free to choose not to have, rather than being forced not to have or thinking there is something to gain from self-denial. I agree that it is unfortunate the our society has evolved into the perception of a person's wealth as their possessions. That is a game that individuals can choose to play or not to play. The way to not be effected by it is to realize one's self worth and develop one's confidence... from there they can freely choose to possess or not to possess.

I thank Shannon for her thought-provoking comment, which represents a "be careful what you wish for" moment for me. Like most in the blogosphere, I enjoy reader comments and want to encourage them. And then you get a comment and it is, "Argghh, this person is making...me...think." It is challenging work representing. But if you can't pull it off, it is time for a change. Here is my attempt to do this comment justice:

Being forced to do something is not good, you are right. However, some self-denial can be a powerful character builder - it is why we send kids to rustic summer camps. It is why we feel good when we can go a day without spending money. One can get carried away, however. Self-flagellation, for example (literally or figuratively).

I know from personal experience that the more I choose to unburden myself from things and endless entertainment, the healthier I feel. With fewer distractions I am more able to cultivate the conditions that add to my inner wealth. Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between natural and artificial wealth.

Natural wealth results from the fulfillment of natural desires. Such desires are common to all of humanity: the desire for food, shelter, love, community, freedom, etc. Fulfilling these adds to our sense of contentment. Not fulfilling such desires has a detrimental impact. We need natural wealth.

Aquinas said, "...artificial wealth is that which is not a direct help to nature, as money, but is invented by the art of man, for the convenience of exchange, and as a measure of things salable." The desire for artificial wealth is a result of cultural conditioning. Such desires vary from person to person, and culture to culture. Not meeting them will not harm you, and yet it is possible that meeting them may yield harm to yourself, those around you, and the planet.

Presently we have a preoccupation with our infinite artificial desires, the attainment of which defines our wealth, as well as our place, and perceived value in society. We can meet all of humanities natural desires, but not its artificial ones. As Gandhi said, "There is enough to meet every one's need, but not every one's greed." We can not all possess everything, but we can all feel good about ourselves as we boldly and freely explore the magic of life. Such natural wealth is freely exchanged, and all benefit.

Attaining natural wealth leads us to experience enduring personal health and well-being. We all desire love, security, and adequate food, shelter, and clothing. It is also natural to desire a sense of self-worth and belonging, as well as a feeling of achievement. When we reduce our desires for fleeting artificial wealth we can concentrate on attaining the enduring natural type Aquinas speaks of. He also warns that even natural wealth is simply a means to an end.

Funemployed

Ever wished for the simple life? Like when you were a kid, or a student. A life that has time to do the things you want to do? During the current economic bowel movement some people are getting their wish, having been pooped out by an ailing system. But they are turning poop into fertilizer.

For the funemployed the pleasures of a simpler life are apparent. They are re-branding their joblessness. They are taking advantage of being unemployed, which has never had much cachet in our work and money-obsessed culture. Instead of moping about and feeling like losers, they are seeing the value in being time-rich. They are doing what they want, not what their parents, or society wants them to do. They are going against their cultural programming that says it is better to have more money than more time.

We did not invent "labour-saving devices" and increase personal wealth so we could have less time than ever before to do what matters most to us. Many couples are convinced that double incomes are the only way parents can support a family. What happened to all the leisure time advertisers have been promising since I was a kid? Even with automatic everything we are more time stressed than ever.

Time will get you money, but money can't get you time. When you are on your deathbed taking your last breath, you can not, regardless of how much money you have, buy more time. Best you take advantage of the time allotted you while you can. Instead of fretting and worrying about being jobless, think about the free time you have had thrust upon you. Once a boss fired me by saying, "I am going to give you a wonderful opportunity to do something else, because as of today you no longer work here." I saw it as an opportunity, too. It was my first brush with funemployment.

A person could spend a great deal of time combing help wanted ads and pounding the pavement, resumes in hand, but I don't recommend that. See your freedom as a gift and you may never want to go back to the usual regime of work, sleep, repeat. A lighter life requires less money, less work, and allows you more time.

A job for most of us working stiffs is about money, nothing more, and there is nothing attractive about poverty. But let's face it, many of us in high-consuming nations could give up a whole lot before we got anywhere close to poverty levels. The more material things we give up, the less money we need. You are free to work part time, or casual, or on contract. Or be funderemployed.

Funderemployed is when you take a lower paying job because it really interests you, even though you may be overqualified. Some examples in my own life are river rafting with school groups, tour guide of a waste water treatment plant, and chauffeur. All paid less than I was used to, but all had either a more flexible schedule, a more scenic workspace, or interesting people I would not meet otherwise. Each job provided experiences I would not have had if I had stuck to a more profitable though less interesting line of work. Mostly though, I had increased control over my time.

What would you do if you had more time? Go fishing. Take the kids to the park. Plant a garden. Sit under a tree. Draw. Sing. Learn to play an instrument. Visit a friend. Picnic with your partner. Have a nap. Read a book. Lay on a beach. Walk a labyrinth. Ride a bike on a trail. Stay up late. Stargaze. Sleep in. Help a neighbour. Volunteer at your kids school. Take a trip. Go for a walk. Bake bread. Plan a staycation. Get an interesting part-time job.

The funemployed know a good thing when they see it. The idea of more work , more money, and more stuff, past a certain point, falls prey to the law of diminishing returns. After that point more becomes detrimental to you and your surroundings. What most of us need is more time. And you can't buy that. You just have to take it.