Like last years fashions, an awful lot of things that carry a high price tag today, are about to be worth nothing.
A lot of people today are turning towards the path of minimalism. They have found the motivators of impressing women and keeping up with the Joneses to be anti-motivating. The commercial world has gone too far, and burned out many people.
The hollow words of HR in corporate jobs has left a lot of people wanting nothing to do with corporations. These people have decided to stop trying to climb the ladder. Many of the bottom rungs have been kicked out anyway. So, not only are these people only doing the bare minimum to keep a job, they do not see the city life as rewarding. Telecommuting, and living in a small town suits their life better.
Many people have found the homesteading life to be truly freeing. Having food be, not scarce, not poisoned, not expensive… is truly relieving. It gives you a feeling of freedom that not much else can give you. Further, it is so great to not be near any of those flash-point cities.
The thing about each of these is that it takes you out of a large portion of the control grid. And that changes so much. It changes what is important. It changes, what is an asset.
What do you need money for?
If you are mostly self sufficient, you need very little money. In fact, you may be able to barter for what you don't make yourself.
Minimalism also puts you in a state where money is not a big issue in your life. Some combine minimalism with making the most money they can, so that they can retire as early as they can.
For these people the high paying career, where you sell your soul to the corporation, loses its lustre, and its hold on their future. The drive to earn, earn, earn is gone. Often, even the drive to earn is gone. There is no car payment (don't need one, or have a used one paid off) There is no food bill, or a low food bill. And housing is minimum.
Life is just so much better when you always have extra money, because you are always living way below your means. When you shed your desire for fancy phones, fast cars, fast food, starbuckins coffee… you find your life so much easier to live.
These groups also seem to be the ones embracing crypto. That paper fiat can go away now, it is not needed.
Social InSecurity
I know so many people who are barely surviving on Social inSecurity.
People who are doing ok, are the ones who embraced minimalism long ago, or at least resisted the urge (marketing) to go out and buy a bigger house. If your house is paid off, Social inSecurity is quite adequate. If you are still renting, it is almost impossible to live on Social inSecurity.
If you have your house paid off and your car paid off, your monthly expenses are really quite low. If you grow your own food on top of that, you need so very little.
The idea of packing all your money into the stock market to afford your current, highly expensive lifestyle, without working is really a bridge too far. So, you stop working, and you still have a house payment, a high priced SUV payment, country club payment, and the highest insurance rates… That is a lot of outflow every month.
A lot of outflow equals a huge amount of invested money.
It is so much easier if you got rid of all those unnecessary bills long ago.
What is important?
So many people have "invested" in a lifestyle. They take all their hard earned money, and often more, and dump it down the drain. Their brains have been taken over by advertising. They haven't figured out that the happy, satisfying life, is not gotten like the commercials on TV show.
The American Dream is a scam. It has been replaced with "buy NOW!" "low, low terms" "don't wait, operators are standing by" It is truly amazing how much of your life is destroyed by taking on interest.
We aren't taught financial literacy in school, and so we write checks that our bodies can't cash. We dig so deep of a hole, that we barely dig ourselves out before we retire, with no nest egg. And, those going to college today are taking out college loans that aren't paid back by a high paying job. A complete yoink on these youths. So many of these loans won't ever be paid back. (expected earnings is lower than lifetime payments) If we were taught about how bad interest is, we may never get loans. (And then the financial industry would collapse)
When you change your home from being viewed as an asset, to this is just an expense that i will have to maintain until i die, it changes everything that you do.
When you get your mind out of the trap of having to have it now (bad commercials, bad) then you can get what you want and not pay for it three times.
When you think about how to acquire the thing, and not in how to get money to buy the thing (like growing your own food) then your life becomes so much simpler and direct.
When you lose the notion that having a fast car will help pick up girls, that it is important to look stylish, when you give that up, you can truly start saving money. The self made rich people all drive around in old, reliable, and paid for cars.
We, first world people, spend so much on worthless junk, that we have been told will make us cooler. Step out of the matrix and take your life back. Those advertisements are all lies. See those people smiling? That's the biggest lie. You can make your future so much better.