I’d like to do some reading on this kind of stuff. Anybody got any of these kinds of books lying around that they’d like to lend, trade or sell?
Here are three books that came up in my searchings that seem interesting. If you have any of these or similar, that’d be cool:
Your Money Or Your Life
The Simple Living Guide
Work Less & Play More
I think I have your money or your life in the school.
But I have lots and lots of Motely Fool starter books if that’s what you’re looking into…
BTW, YMOYL was witten a real long time ago.
What exactly are you trying to learn?
Well, I want to read more on that simple living mentality. Here’s what I want to do (it’s quite simple really 
).
Reduce spending and increase what I make from “side jobs” to the point where I don’t have to “work” anymore (the work I do will be work I want to do, not just like to do).
If that doesn’t quite make sense I can try going into more detail.
No, work less, make more was a motto of mine for years, and it worked.
Success can be a biatch though. :fume: Now I work more and make more. :raspberry: Winnebagos and education for genious offspring don’t come free. 
What you are talking about is investing in income producing financial instruments. Something that pays you as you scale back your spending.
Investing in big dividend paying stocks is a good idea. I happily owe Altria and am amazed at the effect compounding dividends have. Laddered bonds are something you might want to look into.
YMOYL deals ONLY with bonds, 30 yr treasuries. I feel laddered bonds do a better job. And living off dividends, once you’ve built up a nice stock share next is what it’s all about. But look, anything like that is years down the road unless you’re sitting on 400-500k US. It takes time to build up that much through consistant investing.
But hey, you’re young!
Git started.
Good topic. I would also like to know more about stock investing and trading and stuff like that. I heard about some sort of mock internet site where you could invest fake money in real companies and see how you do. Can’t find it, though.
There’s always horse racing…
I find it quite easy to live frugally in Taiwan. I only work about 25 hours a week as opposed to sometimes 90 back in Canady, so i have time to work on my other stuff.
I think miltownkid’s on the right track by spreading his sources of income around a bit. Sooner or later, with effort, the kind of life you want takes shape. Good luck on the books.
Miltownkid always seemed pretty simple to me.
I always wanted to learn more about the philosophy of minimalism, but I haven’t.
[quote=“miltownkid”]I’d like to do some reading on this kind of stuff.
[/quote]
Well frankly, if you can handle the political angles they take on some stuff there’s probably no better reading out there than what’s been put out by CrimethInc. You can get Days of War, Nights of Love : Crimethink For Beginners by Paul F. Maul and Recipes for Disaster: An Anarchist Cookbook by CrimeInc Worker’s Collective and more on Amazon.
A lot of it’s online fer free (without illustrations 
). If you want to look through some stuff they’ve published visit their online reading library.
I think it’s just great. A nice mix of practical info and exercise in thinking beyond boxes.
A friend told me that Steal This Book by Abbie Hoffman (out of print/date?) was great too, but it set off the buzzer at the library exit before I read much of it.
That’s a part of it too. The problem with only thinking that way (I think ) is that you (I) start spending more as you (I) make more. And my investing plan for now is to just to at least max out my IRA (which I was very slack at doing the past year).
s.b., cool links, thanks. I’ll have to check them out more when I’m not rushing off to work :P.
Funny, I thought minimalism would be the perfect word for this kind of thing (and it is), but googling it came up with a bunch sites about art and music. Checking the dictionary further confirmed that. When you do want to learn more, terms like “simple living” bring about better results .
let me know what you think…
also the magazine Punk Planet has (or at least used to have) “DIY files” that tend to have real good practical tips for escaping the bar code prison. The mag Mother Earth News has lots of living off/with the land stuff that also has lots of practical ways to save money on everything from housing, to eating, to energy. I don’t know if these are availible on the net, but I’m sure you can contact the magazines and get them sent here.
I want to read more on that simple living mentality.[/quote]
I would also recommend The Unsettling of America by Wendall Berry. I don’t have it here but I think it was reprinted recently, so it may be in a good bookstore, or I’m sure it’s on Amazon. It’s a sorta broadside against industrial agriculture but definitely has a lot of that mentality that simple really is better (physically, environmentally, psychologically, economically, socially, etc.)
I think that’s the book that turned my friend into an urban farmer and his income now comes from growing veggies on property owned by yuppies who want gardens but are too lazy to work outside. He then sells those veggies to the yuppies’ neighbors who want organic food to serve at their dinner parties. Seems to be working all right for him.
This is what I’m talking about right here.
I’ve read both ‘Volunatary Simplicity’ and ‘Your Money Or your Life’. If you are interested in finding a way of live that is fullfilling but simple these books will surely help a lot.
Voluntary Simplicity is more philosophical but tremendously inspiring.
‘Your money or your life’ is more practical and is basically a course on how to simplify your financial matters and eventually live of income that does not come from paid employment, so that you can have time to do the things that really matter most to you. They also have a section on investing. You should check out the Simple Living Network. It’s a site with a lot of resourses for people interested in simplifying their life styles. They have pages that explain en introduce the book ‘Your money or your life’ in detail. 
I have both books and would be more than happy to borrow them to you.
I help friends on a website for foreigners in Taiwan: info4tw.com
You can email me at services@info4tw.com
I havent gotten around to trying it yet so I don’t know how good it is but one place to look is at Virtual Stock Exchange
I keep meaning to use it so that I can learn a bit more about what I am doing before I use real money. I alway thought it would be interesting to get into short term trading but since I am a complete stock trading neophyte I thought it would be good to practice a bit. Eventually I’ll get around to it.