Voluntary Simplicity

word-works.com/simple.htm
Has anyone ever tried this?
What do you think?

Funny, that’s something I’ve had in the back of my mind for a long time. The page I found was: simpleliving.net/ (they have it in their links section.)

Yes and no. It’s something I’ve been slowly putting into practice for a while now, but I haven’t made any large changes from my normal day-to-day life. I’m naturally pretty “frugal”. If I ate at home (something that can easily be done and I’ve been wanting to do) and toned down my love for new high-tech toys those would be big steps in that direction.

This is one of those things at the top of my list of “do’s”. Right there along with saving for retirement and staying in good shape. It seems simple. Spent less (and make more). Eventually you don’t have to work.

I’ve know this “secret” for a long time.

We should, of course, be cautious of the notion that the only reason work hard and sacrifice (sometimes at jobs they don

I do it but its far from voluntary. Its called poverty in my case.

[quote=“Vannyel”]http://www.word-works.com/simple.htm
Has anyone ever tried this?
What do you think?[/quote]

I’ve been in the process of doing this since a year before I made the decision to move to Taiwan.

As a starting point, I determined that all of my personal belongings other than my car and my books (I have a library of around 500 items), should be able to fit in my bedroom (which was about 3 x 2 metres at the time).

Before I moved to Taiwan, I had almost made it to that point. Then I moved and anything which couldn’t fit in my luggage was left behind (the books and the car are in storage back in Australia).

Moving to Taiwan has been one of the milestones along the way. I reckon I’m about 60% of the way there right now, and loving it.

Holy crap, finally a website that actually expresses exactly what I’ve always thought about work. If work sucks, get new work. Do what you want to, what you enjoy doing, and life is much better than if you slave away at a job you hate just for the money. Hell, that’s why I’m not teaching English here - the money might be way better than what I get right now, but I’m doing what I do because I like it rather than because I’ll get rich off it.

Interestingly enough, that’s exactly why I am teaching English here - the money is less than I used to make in Australia, but I love what I’m doing.

And working 20 hours a week instead of 40 has improved my quality of life dramatically.