I recently registered to this forum because there a a few constants in my 32-years of life:
- Reading/thinking (about) ERE and an "alternative" lifestyle
- Not wanting to have the feeling of having to work (defined below)
- Loving the idea of independence of the economy (defined below)
After a detour (pun intended) of playing in a rockband, which was touring through Europe i am feeling a growing urge to follow my original journey:
An alternate lifestyle (now that i am reading what i typed it sounds a bit silly, but thats how i feel).
What fascinated me then was the digital nomad and "capitalist"/trader lifestyle.
What fascinates me now is more the homesteader / frugal lifestyle.
I would love to get a small house near a forest and live the simple life. Thats a dream though (today at least).
What i can do is learn. Learn to save money. Learn to get double the use of every €/$ instead of doubling my income. Learn to identify usable skills to make my life better. Learn to share these insights and skills with others to make theirs better.
But what do i mean by "having to work" and "independence"?
I don't want to be dependent on a (read: one) job or occupation. People around me and friends seem to be stressed out over losing their jobs and hating it at the same time. What i would love to get are a few key competencies which are changing slowly over time. i wouldn't call that work, although i would use these competencies to get money as long as i need it. What i am getting at, i think, is, that "work" for me is a singular field of (financial) dependence. I dont want that.
Which ties into the "independence"-part of that: I am living in a city where nearly all of the money was "generated" by VW (Volkswagen). Either you are working directly for them or in some kind of adjacent business. or you are serving the people working for VW in a restaurant, teaching their kids, etc.
Recently VW needed to announce cost cutting and people are freaking out. Because everything is so single-dependent on one auto-maker. I would love to get competent in "swiss-army-knife"-skills that are usable in many different ways, so i am independent of that single point of contact. (Skills like: Writing; teaching, promoting, …?)
Anyways. What i wanted to say is: Hello!
Long time lurker, finally here