Not Everything in Life Has To Be Financially Motivated
Or, how simple living means more than saving a few bucks
Welcome to Simple + Straightforward, a weekly letter about living on your own terms in a simple, meaningful way. If this is your first time here, welcome! I’m so pleased to have you in this little community.
Yesterday I published a story to Medium that filled my inbox overnight with comments.
If you want something to read after this, you can take a look:
The “Give up Everything You Love to Buy a House” Argument Misses a Huge Point No One Talks About
The crux of the story is that not every choice in life has to be financially motivated. I focused my argument around housing, denouncing the idea that you should give up EVERYTHING in order to buy a house (even if buying one doesn’t suit your lifestyle).
It’s obviously resonating with a lot of readers.
So in the shower this morning (which, as everyone knows, is where your best ideas flow), I was thinking about other areas of our lives where money isn’t the only motivation.
Man, there are a lot.
But the area that stuck with me the most is the subject of this very newsletter - simple living.
Despite there being thousands of reasons why living simply is great for your bank balance, that’s not why people do it. That’s not why people get passionate enough about it to write to you lovely lot every single Friday.
The money side is great. But the psychological effects are even better.
Why does simple living resonate with you?
For me, it was always about headspace.
I am not a calm person. My thoughts race faster than my mouth can keep up so I talk at a million miles a minute. I think I was a dog in a past life because I need to walk or run for hours a day, just to burn off enough energy to sleep at night.
Simple living gives me room to find calm and peace in my life. Because that’s hard to find when you spend two hours a week looking for your keys.
When I talk to people about why they love simple living, the answers keep coming back to the same core concepts:
Minimalism gives me back my time.
Simple living lets me sleep better at night.
Minimalism lets me explore what really matters to me.
For many people, their first foray into minimalism or simple living starts with money. I discovered it when I had $300 in the bank to last me and my husband a month. It seemed like a great way out of that predicament.
But money motivation will only get you so far. If you’re only interested in saving a few bucks, you may cut back on your spending for a few months, call it minimalism, then be done with it.
It’s like a crash diet vs. a diet overhaul. One is a quick fix that doesn’t get you very far, the other is a complete lifestyle change.
And once you make the lifestyle change, the money part becomes less relevant. What becomes more important are the kick-ass benefits that simple living gives you, much like those reasons above.
Money is a man-made construct. Wellbeing and contentment are inherent
I think about this idea a lot.
Money is a societal construct.
Our wellbeing, peace of mind, contentment, happiness - whatever you want to call it - are inherent.
And yet, we pursue the societal construct more than we pursue our biology.
Then we’re told that those who don’t pursue money are cuckoo. Those who question whether money should be life’s primary motivator are bonkers.
Don’t get me wrong. I like money. I live in this society just as much as the next person, so I have to like money. Without it, I couldn’t pursue any of these other concepts.
But when it comes to my motivations, I don’t want to look back on my life and think yeah, I’m super pleased I made every major life decision based on money.
I want my motivations to come from somewhere more meaningful.
A friend of a friend Brian McClintic (if you recognize his name it may be because he was in the movie Somm) has been living in a cabin in the woods for the last two years. He just posted something on Instagram that sums up my feelings nicely on the subject.
First, here’s his cabin:
Nice, eh.
And here’s what he has to say about his life:
I go into nature, not for the fresh air, nor to slow things down. I don’t even go there to recenter myself or to escape city life… I go into nature because I’m tired of being something I’m not.
When you look at this scene, sure there’s a raw beauty that is attractive. But that draw doesn’t live in a vacuum. It is connected to some innate desire for the simplicity we have wandered from and the sense of belonging we have forfeited. So far is our regression that it becomes a privilege to reclaim it.
(Read his full post here).
The sentence that hit me hardest here is that he goes into nature because he’s tired of being something he’s not.
Shortly followed by the idea that we all have some innate desire for simplicity that we have wandered from.
His decision to move to the woods wasn’t money motivated. It wasn’t to save a few bucks. It was because he couldn’t not.
I love this - I love that people out there are making decisions based less on what is a ‘good’ (often debatable) financial move and more if it’s going to make them happier, or more contented.
Or more themselves.
Stuff I’ve done this week to re-fill the tank
Ever since I landed in Georgia (the country, not the state) three weeks ago, I’ve been tired, sluggish, and just not myself. You might be able to relate.
This week I decided to do something about it. I decided to re-fill my tank as it were through:
Lots and lots and lots of walking, even when it hurts and I just want to watch the telly.
Short naps every afternoon.
Plenty of cooking Georgian food because this place is a fricking Garden of Eden when it comes to produce.
Contacting friends and family across the world.
Slowly, it’s working.
Something to read
NEW SIMPLE + STRAIGHTFORWARD SEGMENT ALERT
I read something in the region of 50-100 articles a week and I’ve decided that it’s rude to keep them all to myself. So each week, I’m going to share the best of them with you.
I also want to send you some of my favorite articles from my own back collection. Because, you know, #selfpromotion.
So make yourself a cuppa and check out some of these:
3 articles from my back collection:
These 17 Rules for Simple Living Are the Best I’ve Ever Seen
4 of the Best Stories I Overheard During My Time as a Sommelier
The best articles I’ve read this week:
Hate Inflation? Blame Corporations - by Jared A. Brock
Rent Versus Own — The Debate Always Turns Into a Big Argument - by Rocco Pendola
To the Iguana that Lives on My Roof - by Lisa Martens
I Quit My Job. I Think I’m Going to Puke - by Kit Campoy
As you’ll see, all of these are hosted on Medium and that’s because I believe Medium is still the best place for indie writers on the internet. However, you do need a $5 a month subscription to read there.
If you’re not a member (but want to be), you can sign up via my referral link for full access to my work, any thousands of other incredible writers.
Thank you, as always (or as they say in Georgia, madloba!)
Charlie