Getting by on $565. An article from the LA Times.

[Disappointed]

Please follow the link.
Casting off life's cares - Los Angeles Times

mp

 

[Sarah in SC]

Here's a nice quote from this fellow, living on his boat in the harbor and singing for his supper about getting rid of all his "stuff":

"My possessions made me work harder and stole my time," Dixon said.

 

[BunsGettingFirm]

Check out this thread on how to survive on $15k to $30k a year in Manhattan:

Perfecting the Art of Frugal Living in NYC : NPR

 

[bots2019]

"Time, not money, is the real commodity in life," said Dixon, relaxing in the salon of his boat as a sea lion barked nearby.


Couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[ProspectiveBum]

The idea is certainly a romantic one, but I personally wouldn't enjoy having no safety net. I couldn't help but wonder, when his boat hit another during heavy weather (since he had no place to moor) who paid for the damage to the other vessel? I doubt this gentleman has insurance...

 

[LOL!]

I believe there are a number Californians with pickup trucks with a camper shell over the bed that 'camp' in the state parks around San Diego. There is some rule that they can't be there 365 days a year, so they trade places with others like them in other state parks. Anyways, my limo driver told me that's how he lived. He worked minimal hours and just hung out at the beach the rest of the time.

 

[FIREd]

Dixon said he can't afford health insurance, instead relying on God's healing powers, a physician friend and, once, government help for the indigent when kidney stones put him in the hospital.

If I shared the guy's trust in divine healing powers and the government's willingness to pay for my hospital bills when divine intervention fails, it would make retiring on a shoestring a lot easier!

 

[haha]

Joan Jeffri, who directed the study for the Research Center for Arts and Culture, says for these creative people being an artist transcends every other identity — race, education, gender.

"They don't ever think of giving up being artists," Jeffri says. "If they have arthritis, they change their art form. They don't retire."

Jeffri believes these artists have wisdom to impart about living and aging. In a sense, she says, they are role models.

Pat Dillard, who creates wood block art and illustrations, is 81 and lives in a third-floor walk-up that costs about $700 a month. Her outlook is simple.

"You don't stop," she says. "There is no depression if you don't stop."

Dillard supplements her monthly Social Security check by charging $10 an hour to care for people's pets. She says her total income is $29,000 a year.

She has all kinds of advice for living cheaply, but still living well: Buy things at the 99 cent store. Make chili for the week. If you order pizza, pick it up yourself so you don't have to tip. And, she says, don't associate with people who bring you down.

"The first thing I do when I go out of my building," she says, "I look at the sky, white clouds and a blue sky, my heart goes pitter-pat."

There is something miraculous, Virgona says, about seeing the way the light falls and then perhaps getting a part of that light into a piece of work. When that happens, he says, you feel that you are part of what it really means, "that you are part of the light."

Wow. These people are not in any danger of not having enough to do, or feeling alienated from life.

Ha

 

[Eagle43]

Great articles. I forwarded them to the appropriate cubicle farm workers. Who knows, somebody might get off the treadmill.

 

[rs0460a]

"Dave Dixon made a radical lifestyle change after realizing that 'time, not money, is the real commodity in life."

Yes ...

- Ron

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i roughed out the following approx 36k/year (what i consider a minimal) budget for non-stop (or find a place for a month or more before setting sail again) cruising in a 35ish-ft world-capable sailboat (hull value around $130k). while the more exotic places might not have dockage so would reduce those costs, there are entry & cruising fees for which i have not accounted that could come out of dock budget. i've incorporated a highish mooring budget as i'm single so i figure i'd want to tie up for socializing. i figure electic at my home average electric bill so that might be overstated, but i imagine solar, wind and battery infrastructure require replacement and don't know those costs.

from what i've read of the accounts of others, i'm both over and under budgeted. most advise that you will spend what you have, but i've never been that sort.

electric 1320
communicate 480
land transport 1200
food & fun 10500
medical insure 3000
rx 840
eye care 500
boat maint 5000
clothing/msl 500
dental 600
docking 5000
fuel 2000
boat insure 1875
subtotal 32815
income tax 3281
yearly budget 36096

i don't think i can do that on $565/month.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I live on $565/mo. That is, if this is the year 1974.

 

[W2R]

i don't think i can do that on $565/month.

Just the boat maintenance and boat docking that you list amounts to $833/mo. So how is this guy going to live on a budget of -$268/mo ?

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the only maintenance budget i'd consider would keep a boat in safe, comfortable, cruising condition.

he can neither afford slip fees nor the liability insurance marinas require.

was surprised to read that he spends considerable time at anchor in the open ocean; was not surprised to read that he dragged anchor and hit another yacht.

that is not my idea of "living the dream".

 

[TromboneAl]

Anyone notice that the budget excluded food?

 

[Sarah in SC]

He sings for his supper!
What, you mean they don't feed you at your gigs?

 

[teejayevans]

electric 1320
communicate 480
land transport 1200
food & fun 10500
medical insure 3000
rx 840
eye care 500
boat maint 5000
clothing/msl 500
dental 600
docking 5000
fuel 2000
boat insure 1875
subtotal 32815
income tax 3281
yearly budget 36096

i don't think i can do that on $565/month.

with some solar panels/wind generator, your electric should be 0.
pretty high food and fun, 10K? Thats a lot of beer. A couple
should be able to live on 5K/yr for food.
if you have a sailboat or living in a marina, fuel should be minimal.
TJ

 

[Notmuchlonger]

I spend 15k on food and booze a year

 

[USK Coastie]

Looks like this guy and his boat will be SAR case for the USCG or the local Harbor Master/Marine Police. NO maintenance and continuous immersion in salt water for a wooden boat will result in swim for the owner usually in the middle of a storm.

 

[haha]

Looks like this guy and his boat will be SAR case for the USCG or the local Harbor Master/Marine Police. NO maintenance and continuous immersion in salt water for a wooden boat will result in swim for the owner usually in the middle of a storm.

What this guy's story illustrates to me is that some people are a lot less given to worrying about "What if?" than I am. His life has so many what ifs that If it were me living it, I would never sleep.

Ha

 

[ziggy29]

If I shared the guy's trust in divine healing powers and the government's willingness to pay for my hospital bills when divine intervention fails, it would make retiring on a shoestring a lot easier!

That's exactly it. I sense a growing call for redistribution -- higher taxes and means testing on the ants and more goodies for the grasshoppers.

When a critical mass of people realizes that the incremental value of w*rking and taking calculated risks with your capital is approaching zero, because it will be taken from you and given to others not producing, we are in big trouble as a society.

"National health care" is a perfect example. There may be no better way to encourage a lot of upper-middle class folks in their 50s (who pay a lot of taxes) to leave the work force (since they no longer need to work for health insurance) and become net tax *consumers* instead of tax *payers*.

 

[CitricAcid]

That's exactly it. I sense a growing call for redistribution -- higher taxes and means testing on the ants and more goodies for the grasshoppers.

When a critical mass of people realizes that the incremental value of w*rking and taking calculated risks with your capital is approaching zero, because it will be taken from you and given to others not producing, we are in big trouble as a society.

"National health care" is a perfect example. There may be no better way to encourage a lot of upper-middle class folks in their 50s (who pay a lot of taxes) to leave the work force (since they no longer need to work for health insurance) and become net tax *consumers* instead of tax *payers*.

Exactly. Someone needs to foot the bill. If enough people make the same mistake, it encourages more people to do it. Then, everyone realizes they can vote in leaders who will just bail them out and the wheel keeps on turning...