This is the reboot of my blog now I have time to breathe and reflect on life. I have been working to get to this point for several years. Now I want to live a simple life. Just simple living.
Simple living is removing all the layers that our lives have accumulated and just keeping the bare necessities that make us happy and complete. Doing so reduces the mental clutter that keeps us anxious and stressed. With all the outside clutter gone, you can see what matters to you, what makes your heart sing, and what you dread.
After we bought our third house – a project house that sucked us dry both financially and spiritually, we made a new goal. We wanted to retire; we wanted to exit the rat race. All the shiny objects we were pursuing lost their luster.
So we looked at our finances. Not a fun thing to do but you need to know where you are starting before you know where you are heading. You know, point A so you can aim for point B.
First thing on the list was selling the beautiful but soul-sapping house on the Oregon coast. We finished it with blood, sweat, and tears but enjoyed it as much as possible along the way. When it sold, we paid back the loans from family and paid off the credit cards used to finish the house. The rest of the money went towards our mortgage.
We cut our spending. First, we cut cable bill over $100 a month. So we were early cord-cutters. Then we stopped eating out so much and stopped going to the movies. You can save a couple hundred a month if you want to meet your goal. The extra savings went toward our mortgage. And we watched the balance drop.
We sold our boat we hadn’t used in a long time. If you don’t use it why keep it? We kept driving our cars even when they approached 10 years old. Our 2006 Chevy Aveo now has over 325,000 miles on it and is still going. I love that car!
How in the world does our car have that much mileage? We drove 80 miles each way to work. We had already moved to a cheaper county – cheaper housing, cheaper taxes, cheaper utilities. But crappy internet. We built our house ourselves. Looking back, we should have built it smaller, much smaller.
What does simple living mean to you? Please let me know in the comments. Is it something you want to pursue?
Photo by Rachel Nickerson on Unsplash
