The Philosophy Behind Sailing Simply and Cheaply

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by resilientg

Im some ways by living as i do i have an idyillc life as i dont seem to have all the crap hanging over me that most people seem to have gathered.

However it is acheived (living frugally or having lots of money) - financial independence from others is something that once acheived is hard to give up.

[s/v Beth]

Was that before or after the donations DOJ?

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

However it is acheived (living frugally or having lots of money) - financial independence from others is something that once acheived is hard to give up.

Was that before or after the donations DOJ?

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by s/v Beth

Was that before or after the donations DOJ?

Shhhh . I will get the CF black spot - as a Commercial Vendor

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by foolishsailor

At 16 I knew consequences, and it had nothing to do with sailing or sailing dreams. My ability to go sailing has nothing to do with wanting to be a sailor it has to do with financial decisions I made and have had to live with that started over a decade ago.

Edit: and not to be harsh...if one has made a life change then I salute them, but changing a path that involves financial instruments and banks takes a long time and serious sacrifices. Make a plan, and stick to it. Don't look for sympathy here. If you screw yourself by making bad choices and then work doubly hard to correct it later on and get out sailing, well if I see you out there I will paddle my dink over to your boat with a cold bottle of rum and we will raise our glasses together and talk about how we beat the system. Sooner or later is irrelevant, as long as you escape before you die...

This.

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by foolishsailor

To support what I am saying lets look at global income levels

via : Global Rich List so you can go yourself

Only one stat really matter: Poverty level un the us which is approx 11k/year. Assuming you aren't mentally ill and unable to take advantage of welfare this is the least you can earn in the US as a single person. This puts you in the lowest percentile possible within the US. The 1%...on the wrong side of the bell curve

But globally it puts you earning more than 87% of the world. And if you put it in comparison to only thrid world countries it puts you at wealthier than 93% of the world.

According to the above link, my income last year put me in the top 12.66%. This is a nice psychological trick to make first world dwellers feel guilty and get them to hand over the loot. With me it doesn't wash.

The problem here is that there is a logical error. One's income is PERSONAL and LOCAL. How it performs on a GLOBAL basis is irrelevant if it buys what you need. True enough, for someone in a third world country my income would be a fortune, but the cost of living there is significantly lower.

A member of a New Guinean hill tribe may not even understand the concept of money, but he survives regardless. For some cultures, there is no desire at all to play the world financial game, and to expect them to do so is a symptom of still being trapped into the brainwashing of western society.

In Australia I live on the poverty line, and since last December I've been homeless. Yet many people at my age are significantly better off in societies where there is still some regard for the wisdom of age, a respect for past achievements, and a concept that I might be able to share that wealth of KNOWLEDGE with younger generations.

Money not only isn't everything, it's fairly irrelevant. There are ways to achieve anything related to basic survival within any society. What's missing is usually either the motivation or the need for change beyond that. And this is something your handouts can't remedy.

Rob

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

#1. Does it respond to a real need, not just a want? (a hard thing to do ... I know).

...

BTW, looking at this list, #1 is clearly the most challenging, at least for me. I know I can live quite well without a fridge, but I dearly love my cold beer ... what's a man to do ?

Bypassed the real question: is beer itself a necessity?

Sorry, that's probably an heretical question to ask of a "man." ;-/

[haiqu]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

Dr Newt, Bill, and foolishsailor, care to see my ugly, materialistic side?

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ind-79822.html

Feelthy capitalist peeg.

I'm recycling a footpath here.

Rob

[zeehag]

is planning necessary , and is a printed philosophy written by someone else a true measure of one's own beliefs?? why is it folks need so badly to utilize the words of others to lend approval to their plans???? do our plans, individually , truly NEED approval factor?? if so , arent we not being independent but being followers, as sheep???? why dont folks dream up their own philosophy?? is fun to share but we arent lil clones of those who went before--we are each and all different ....omg..ponderings and ponderances...

keep it simple......

rof

[kthoennes]

Here's the problem -- I really like my boat. I really like my nice big posh comfortable house too. I like gardens in the backyard with waterfalls and a koi pond too. I like driving the Escalade, it's comfortable. I like a steak at a good restaurant (the kind where they don't incessently ask you "How's that tasting for you!?" while rudely interrupting dinner conversation). I like a Belvedere vodka martini with the steak dinner, straight up, with a twist. I really like spending time on the Queen Mary 2, the rougher the Atlantic the better, while I sit in my tux at dinner eating Maine lobster. I could go on, but you get the idea. I lived a simple life when I just got out of college and didn't get a job right away, did my laundry in the bathtub. I enjoy my life now a lot more. Simple? Heck no, now we have to hire people to feed the koi when we're away on the boat, we have a remote control internet camera on the koi pond waterfall in the winter because if the heater goes out or the pump trips the plumbing will freeze and wreck the system. Life is a blast, and a giant amount of work at the same time. We have a ball in life, and we work like dogs to keep all this afloat. Like is a joy, and a huge burdensome load. Of course I'd like to spend less time cleaning 100 miles of rain gutter on this house, of course I'd rather be sailing the Loop instead of replacing a lawn sprinkler head or landscape lighting bulbs and a million other things that nibble away piece by piece at my finite time on earth -- but we've chosen a spot somewhere on the balance beam where we try to have it all. I don't know that simpler is necessarily more virtuous or noble somehow. In fact, I tend to think there's something a little more virtuous in working like a dog for good purposes (for lots of good purposes, in addition to acquiring and maintaining all the stuff).

I was born in Connecticut, guess the old Puritan Protestant work ethic is deep in my bones. I suspect Thoreau would have been a pot smoking hippy if he had lived in the 1960's.

[Blue Crab]

I'm with you zee. I care less and less about more and more.

[Therapy]

Originally Posted by Blue Crab

I care less and less about more and more.

They want to medicate me because of that.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by kthoennes

Here's the problem -- I really like my boat. I really like my nice big posh comfortable house too. I like gardens in the backyard with waterfalls and a koi pond too. I like driving the Escalade, it's comfortable. I like a steak at a good restaurant (the kind where they don't incessently ask you "How's that tasting for you!?" while rudely interrupting dinner conversation). I like a Belvedere vodka martini with the steak dinner, straight up, with a twist. I really like spending time on the Queen Mary 2, the rougher the Atlantic the better, while I sit in my tux at dinner eating Maine lobster. I could go on, but you get the idea. I lived a simple life when I just got out of college and didn't get a job right away, did my laundry in the bathtub. I enjoy my life now a lot more. Simple? Heck no, now we have to hire people to feed the koi when we're away on the boat, we have a remote control internet camera on the koi pond waterfall in the winter because if the heater goes out or the pump trips the plumbing will freeze and wreck the system. Life is a blast, and a giant amount of work at the same time. We have a ball in life, and we work like dogs to keep all this afloat. Like is a joy, and a huge burdensome load. Of course I'd like to spend less time cleaning 100 miles of rain gutter on this house, of course I'd rather be sailing the Loop instead of replacing a lawn sprinkler head or landscape lighting bulbs and a million other things that nibble away piece by piece at my finite time on earth -- but we've chosen a spot somewhere on the balance beam where we try to have it all. I don't know that simpler is necessarily more virtuous or noble somehow. In fact, I tend to think there's something a little more virtuous in working like a dog for good purposes (for lots of good purposes, in addition to acquiring and maintaining all the stuff).

I was born in Connecticut, guess the old Puritan Protestant work ethic is deep in my bones. I suspect Thoreau would have been a pot smoking hippy if he had lived in the 1960's.

Hey. Thanks. I got a kick out of this. You reckon pot was discovered after 1862, eh? Plus the Belevedere vodka, Queen Mary trips, your Escalade. Ha ha. Great stuff! Thanks again.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by kthoennes

Here's the problem -- I really like my boat. I really like my nice big posh comfortable house too. I like gardens in the backyard with waterfalls and a koi pond too. I like driving the Escalade, it's comfortable. I like a steak at a good restaurant (the kind where they don't incessently ask you "How's that tasting for you!?" while rudely interrupting dinner conversation). I like a Belvedere vodka martini with the steak dinner, straight up, with a twist. I really like spending time on the Queen Mary 2, the rougher the Atlantic the better, while I sit in my tux at dinner eating Maine lobster. I could go on, but you get the idea. I lived a simple life when I just got out of college and didn't get a job right away, did my laundry in the bathtub. I enjoy my life now a lot more. Simple? Heck no, now we have to hire people to feed the koi when we're away on the boat, we have a remote control internet camera on the koi pond waterfall in the winter because if the heater goes out or the pump trips the plumbing will freeze and wreck the system. Life is a blast, and a giant amount of work at the same time. We have a ball in life, and we work like dogs to keep all this afloat. Like is a joy, and a huge burdensome load. Of course I'd like to spend less time cleaning 100 miles of rain gutter on this house, of course I'd rather be sailing the Loop instead of replacing a lawn sprinkler head or landscape lighting bulbs and a million other things that nibble away piece by piece at my finite time on earth -- but we've chosen a spot somewhere on the balance beam where we try to have it all. I don't know that simpler is necessarily more virtuous or noble somehow. In fact, I tend to think there's something a little more virtuous in working like a dog for good purposes (for lots of good purposes, in addition to acquiring and maintaining all the stuff).

I was born in Connecticut, guess the old Puritan Protestant work ethic is deep in my bones. I suspect Thoreau would have been a pot smoking hippy if he had lived in the 1960's.

Did I miss something ... where is your problem? It sounds like you like things just the way they are.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Starbuck

Sensible Cruising: the Thoreau Approach

Did you look at the PRICE on that book? Over $215 new, over $60 used. No chance on Amazon to even do the "peek inside" thing!

That sounds like a COLOSSAL rip-off to me.