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Better off broke: Why some people choose poverty
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K
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23 Oct ’13 - 9:04 am
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I think they should have said simple living not poverty, but whatever, interesting article

Biswas-Diener recounts a story about a colleague living in Thailand. "He and his friends used to see a guy they nicknamed 'hammock guy,' and for a long time they made fun of him because he was always there. But then they all realized that they were working themselves like dogs so they could take vacations and lay in a hammock. This guy was doing it, but getting rid of the middle man!"

And those McMansions that surged in popularity when the housing market made overnight millionaires? Many owners found them to be more of a pain than a pleasure. "I see a movement toward voluntary poverty," says Bruce Specter, an advisory mortgage planner from Reno, Nev. "That shift is already taking place in the private sector as homebuyers re-entering the market are opting for smaller, efficient homes."

Specter and his wife participate in the trend. "We have paid off all our consumer debt and are moving into a smaller home with a mortgage one-third that of our current house."

http://www.foxbusine.....=obnetwork

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bad_astronaut
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23 Oct ’13 - 12:37 pm
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How does living conservatively = being broke? this country needs a paradigm shift to see that we are not defined by the size of a loan we can get, or how much we can leverage what we have.

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spotted-horses
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23 Oct ’13 - 3:45 pm
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I agree bad. I live for my quality of life. I don't have much money to spare, but I love what I do for a living, I love where I live, and I pretty much love the life I have chosen

Be RADICAL Grow Food

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jonathco
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23 Oct ’13 - 4:27 pm
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It's sad that so much of our society now thinks that living within your means is poverty. I don't make a big salary at my job, but we adjust our lifestyle to fit it. If more people in our society adjusted their spending to match their income (instead of adjusting their debt to match their desired lifestyle), I think we would see less problems in the world.

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K
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24 Oct ’13 - 8:53 am
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true dat Jon

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morotetsuke
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24 Oct ’13 - 10:17 am
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“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.”

? Henry David Thoreau

And the monkey presses the button.

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Horse-Fork-Farm
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5 Nov ’13 - 11:50 am
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Theres so much thats skewed with peoples perceptions its ludicrous. Living simply is mentally healthy... it's GOOD to accept that what you're able to afford can be rewarding. THINGS are fleeting... they break, they become useless or old or obscure. Why can people in general, not understand that the really worthwhile improvements are the improvements of "self". Improve who you are if you want to find any satisfaction with life. Buying things does nothing to improve your character... I'm not saying we should all live in a dirt soddy and have an outhouse to be good people.... but I AM SAYING for some folks that is ALL THAT IS NEEDED to live a perfectly happy &harmonious life. I could be happy with that, if that was where I found myself. When we were younger we looked at a remote property and fully intended to start out with nothing more than a one room 16x24 cabin, no plumbing, electric, gas etc...We would have turned it into an adventure and had a blast.... It would NOT have been a poverty situation for us at all. Everything we go through, we use it to learn and strengthen our relationship!

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jonathco
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5 Nov ’13 - 12:34 pm
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Quote:
Quote from Horse Fork Farm on November 5, 2013, 11:50

Theres so much thats skewed with peoples perceptions its ludicrous. Living simply is mentally healthy... it's GOOD to accept that what you're able to afford can be rewarding. THINGS are fleeting... they break, they become useless or old or obscure. Why can people in general, not understand that the really worthwhile improvements are the improvements of "self". Improve who you are if you want to find any satisfaction with life. Buying things does nothing to improve your character... I'm not saying we should all live in a dirt soddy and have an outhouse to be good people.... but I AM SAYING for some folks that is ALL THAT IS NEEDED to live a perfectly happy &harmonious life. I could be happy with that, if that was where I found myself. When we were younger we looked at a remote property and fully intended to start out with nothing more than a one room 16x24 cabin, no plumbing, electric, gas etc...We would have turned it into an adventure and had a blast.... It would NOT have been a poverty situation for us at all. Everything we go through, we use it to learn and strengthen our relationship!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

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