Step #7 Avocations & Vocations

Living Free is about creating a lifestyle that is as simple, free of laws, rules, restrictions, limitations, encumbrances, covenants and other forms of control over how you choose to live as possible in a very complicated world. It does not, however, mean living for free, being fiscally irresponsible, without obligations, not being accountable for your actions or in any other way trespassing or infringing on the rights of anyone else.

You must be responsible and accountable for your own well-being and welfare. If you have a family, you have a responsibility to look out for your spouse and children. So, living free does have some limitations that must be defined according to your individual circumstances. Financial responsibility is a necessary part of living free.

Here are several possible scenarios to be considered.

The first is that you were fortunate enough to be born into significant wealth that provides enough financial resources to live comfortably at the lifestyle you have chosen. There is only a small percentage of people who find themselves in this situation.

A second possible scenario is that you have worked very productively during part of your lifetime and are financially independent and can live comfortably at whatever lifestyle you have chosen. Again, this is a circumstance only a small percentage of the population can relate to.

A third possibility, and one that more people identify with, is where you (or both members, in a family or domestic relationship) are gainfully employed, earning an income that may or may not be enough to satisfy you and is likely controlling your lifestyle. Most likely you’re barely keeping up with the bills and may have accumulated some debt. In this scenario you may consider yourself a wage slave. This simply means you probably don’t enjoy or gain much personal fulfillment from the work you’re doing, but must retain the job to maintain the status quo.

Yet, another scenario is when you are employed in work that is truly fulfilling on an emotional, intellectual and professional level, but may not provide compensation adequate to cover your current lifestyle. The work may require too much time, allowing little or no time to enjoy other aspects of a balanced life.

And, of course, you may be like me, led or driven into businesses you created for yourself. This scenario may be one of the most difficult to disparage since you may have, in effect, created your own employment “prison” and become a wage slave to your own dream.

Your own scenario may be similar or perhaps, a variation of those I’ve mentioned.

We’ve created a number of labels to describe this process by which we generate income to support our chosen lifestyle. Words such as work, job, profession, vocation, career, practice, occupation, employment, grind, labor, work hand, artisan, craftsman, drudge, rat race, salt mine, rut and others find their way into our vocabulary when referring to this facet of our lives.

You’ll seldom hear anyone describe what he or she does to earn his or her income as an avocation. That’s probably because an avocation, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a subordinate occupation pursued especially for pleasure or . . . a hobby.

There are three words in that definition that catch my attention. First is the word subordinate as an adjective to the word occupation. An avocation places “work” in a lesser place of importance in our life. The second is pleasure. One does something that is enjoyable and provides pleasure. The third word is hobby. A hobby is a pursuit or interest one engages in for relaxation. Wow! Imagine doing something that is subordinate to other activities, pleasurable, relaxing and generates the income you need.

Let’s examine the differences between a vocation and an avocation more closely. You engage in a vocation, occupation or profession, typically, committing 50 to 60 hours each week including commuting, lunches and arriving early and staying a little late to complete the requirements of the job. This activity cannot be considered a subordinate part of your life since it requires the single largest block of your time each week. It’s likely not pleasurable nor does it provide relaxation.

On the other hand, you engage in an avocation because you have a specific interest in whatever it is. Additionally, you experience pleasure and relaxation from it. If you can generate an income from the avocation, could it be any better?

There are certainly a percentage of people who do earn their income from activities considered avocations by other people. The list of activities considered by some people as traditional work and by others as avocations is long. The difference is the frame of reference. Most people frame activities utilizing a skill, education, specialized training or some labor related process used to earn money to support their lifestyle as work or a job. There are other people who love and are passionate about certain activities and realize financial compensation from them. They get to enjoy doing something pleasurable, relaxing and financially rewarding. Again, could work be any better? 

Vocation or Avocation?

So, which sounds like the better choice to you? This should be a no brainer for most people. The avocation is the way to go. Compare these two scenarios and answer this question for yourself.

Scenario #1 – you wake up everyday on a schedule prescribed by someone else, grudgingly get out of your comfortable bed, commute to and from some appointed location through traffic and congestion and do your current job because you “love” the work and the people you serve so much. Then, you attempt to squeeze in all the other activities, both domestic and pleasurable, in the limited time available after your primary job commitment.

Scenario #2 – you wake up on your own schedule with the thought in mind that you “get” to do whatever your passion is again today for as much or as little time as you choose to commit to it. You determine the time to commit to your avocation based on other activities you enjoy doing. You love your avocation so much you’d happily do it for free. Actually, you probably were doing it for free when you were able to squeeze it into a life that was based around the more traditional, industrial revolution model.

If you selected the second scenario as the life you’d prefer, then you need to do some serious contemplation.

Believe it or not, there are many people who feel work isn’t work unless it’s defined as work by society in general or, as I’ve called it, the “Committee of They.” Work is frequently defined by what we were taught by our parents, teachers, college professors and others still resigned to the antiquated, industrial revolution model. The idea that individuals can control their own time, do something they enjoy doing in a pleasurable and relaxing manner and earn an income doing it is an “impossible dream” to most of the population of the developed world. Then add that the individual can actually be passionate about whatever it is and blend their income-producing schedule into the rest of their life rather then blending the rest of their life into their job schedule.

To most this doesn’t seem realistic. This is what I’ve always described as “employee mentality.” Another term I’ve seen used recently is “wage slave.”

Do What You Love . . .

Speaker/Author Al Walker recording an audio book in his home

Ed Helvey directing and recording Al Walker's audio book

From this point forward you’re putting the traditional, antiquated, industrial revolution, vocation, professional, career model behind you. It’s time to focus on pursuing an avocation to support your ability to live free. You’ve probably heard the statement before, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Well, it’s true. However, there are always conditions attached to everything. Selecting and pursuing an avocation doesn’t mean you won’t have to put forth some effort. Here’s another old saying you’ve heard, “Freedom isn’t free.” Don’t ever forget that. Living Free should never be confused with living for free. There are no free lunches.

The first thing I suggest is that you obtain a copy of an out of print book that’s been a primary inspiration for my living free concept. The book is, Working Free: A Practical Alternative to a 9 to 5 Job by John Applegath. I see used copies listed on Amazon regularly. It was published in 1982, so it’s dated. However, the ideas and concepts are just as valid today as they were back then. It’s full of examples of people who threw out the antiquated industrial revolution job mentality. They discovered what was important to them. They determined how much income they required to live the life they wanted to enjoy. Then they found the “avocation” to fit that lifestyle and live on their own terms. I searched for the author for 20 years and finally had the opportunity and privilege of meeting John Applegath and getting to know him in late 2007.

I also highly recommend two other books. The first is, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood by Marsha Sinetar. After reading this book, I bought copies for everyone I cared about. The second book is, Making a Living Without a Job, revised edition: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Loveby Barbara Winter. I’ve also had the opportunity and privilege of meeting and attending a workshop with Barbara. Barbara left the world of the traditionally employed to follow her dream of being “joyfully jobless.” Today she conducts seminars and workshops that provide people with the tools they need to reinvent their lives.

Here are four important processes in fulfilling Step #7.

1. You must determine your personal definition of living free and create an image in your mind of exactly what your life will look like and what you’ll need to do to live free. Here’s a hint, Step #7 is deeply entwined with the other 11 steps.

2. You must determine exactly how much it is going to cost to create and sustain this living free lifestyle.

3. You must create a list (yep, another list) of the various avocational interests, talents, skills and abilities you have, prioritize them in the order of your love/passion for each and then evaluate if one or more of them, starting with the one you have the most passion for, can create a revenue stream that will be meaningful in your quest to live free.

4. Finally, you must create a plan to turn this/these avocation(s) into the income producer for you to live free.

There may be other considerations in developing your plan, but these four are the most basic and important. Consider your age? Are you old enough to retire or take an early retirement? Retirement is just a word people use to describe when you’ve left your “recognized” occupation or career. It’s often identified with a prescribed age. In fact, you can “retire” at any age for any reason. Retirement is often used to loosely define what I call living free. The difference is that retirement usually has some age, financial position and, often, an employer determined stipulation attached to it. Living free doesn’t have any external prerequisites. Living free simply means not conforming to the standards and conditions typically accepted by the vast majority of the population, the “Committee of They.”

Next, consider these questions. Do you have a significant traditional or Roth IRA, a 401K or other retirement instruments? Do you have pensions that will be available from an employer at some prescribed time? When can you begin withdrawing from your various retirement and pension accounts without penalty? When will you be eligible to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits? How much will these benefits amount to each month? None of these are required or necessary in deciding to live free. Depending on your age, they may, however, be of some assistance in your transition to living free.

How much savings do you have? Do you have funds in investment accounts that generate dividends? How much are these dividends? Will you be downsizing and liquidating assets worth sizable amounts of money? The assets could include your home, extra vehicles, a boat, one or more vacation properties, expensive jewelry, an airplane and so on. After you downsize and pay off your liabilities and become debt free, will any of this money be available to subsidize you until you can generate an adequate income from your avocation(s) to sustain living free?

I stated earlier that every step of the 12 Steps for Living Free is integral to the other steps. As you proceed through each step, you’ll discover opportunities and possibilities you likely never considered before. An open mind is important. Never say never! Just because you have not considered something before doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.

I also said that 12 Steps for Living Free is a process. A few people may decide to go “cold turkey” and change their lives overnight. This may work for some people. I strongly recommend against being overzealous. Making a change as drastic as living free is not easy. It is stressful. It is emotionally charged. It can take a toll on your physical well-being. It will require changes to almost everything you’ve based most of your life on. It will require a rewiring of your concept of work and how it integrates into your life. Your avocation is an important part of living free, however, it is not going to define your life as your vocation did when it controlled the largest block of your awake time each week.

The Perfect Blend

Creating a balance of having time to pursue all the activities you want to enjoy through living free and pursuing avocations to generate income to live free is what I call the perfect blend. While I’d like to say that creating this blend is a simple process, I’d be kidding you.

Remember, earlier in this series of 12 Steps for Living Free, I said that life is all about choices. Now is an excellent time to focus on the word “choices.” Choosing to reinvent your life to live free is one of those choices. Each of these first seven steps has required you to consider numerous choices. You’ll be making choices through the last five steps as well.

Here is another important thing to remember. You can’t have everything. You can dream about what you want. You can include it in your plan. However, like everything else in life, when the rubber meets the road, you’ll come to intersections, detours and obstacles that will require more choices. Some of these choices will require compromise. Compromise is an important part of living free.

So, how can you create this “perfect blend” and balance and live free? Setting aside some issues we’ve already established, like whether you’re a single individual or in a relationship of some kind (relationships require consideration of the other people involved and some compromising) you can do some speculating and contemplating.

Your definition of living free, dreams, desires and objectives is personal to you. I don’t know what is going on in your heart and mind. As an example, I’ll use myself. It’s important to understand that I’m a work in progress, just as everyone is. Because I’ve made and acted on some of the difficult choices doesn’t mean I’m where I’m ultimately heading or that many of my earlier living free definitions, dreams and desires haven’t and aren’t continuing to change and evolve. That’s part of the process.

Transitioning from Vocation to Avocation

You already know that I’ve been a serial entrepreneur since I was 12. I learned business basics and what customer service meant right from the beginning as a newspaper delivery boy and developed a good income as a 12 and 13 year old.

I earned an amateur radio license at 14 and had my introduction to electronics, radio and broadcasting. At 16, I wanted to be a Baptist minister. I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Arts Education certified to teach Kindergarten through 12^th grade by 22. I earned a Master’s degree in TV and Radio and by 23 and at 24 I was teaching television production part-time on a college level.

Over the years I’ve owned numerous businesses, too many to go into great detail here. Once I discovered the recording and sound industry during my freshman year in college I finally had a direction. I was doing live sound for national touring performers, starting my independent recording and by age 20 I was a member of the international Audio Engineering Society. At age 24 I had been approved for a very large six figure venture capitalization to build a multi-media production and duplication center in Central New York State. Unfortunately, this was at the peak of the Vietnam War. So, in order to avoid being drafted into the Army, I found myself a job in the recording and broadcasting field with the Air Force in Washington, DC. The venture capital deal, obviously, fell through.

During my professional recording and sound career, I’ve done just about everything anyone could do in that industry including: location recording, recording studio owner, record production, high-speed tape duplication, independent audio and video production and voice-overs to mention a few. Additionally, I created and published an international audio magazine, was involved in multi-level and network marketing, owned a book publishing business, have done professional speaking and consulting in various fields. This only touches on some of the facets of more then 50 years in business ventures.

Needless to say, the list is long. Everything I’ve ever done has dovetailed from one thing into another. Opportunities appeared and doors opened. It wasn’t unusual to be running several businesses at the same time. Most of my career I operated independently and contracted or outsourced certain things to others. Several businesses required as many as 25 to 28 employees.

Here is reality. During my 48+ years since my introduction to the recording industry in 1963, my life went from relatively simple to extremely complicated. I literally created my own jobs (yes, plural because I was often filling multiple positions) and my own self-imposed prison. I was a wage slave of my own making. I certainly didn’t start out in business to end up in that situation. However, reality is reality and that is what I created.

Considering in my late teens and early 20’s I had a very similar dream to the dream I currently have of living free, I certainly took some significant detours and off-road trails. Some of those detours took me out of my way and the off-road trails were often very rough.

Now, compare your own life to mine. Perhaps you’ve been in business for yourself. You may be able to relate to this snapshot of my life. On the other hand, perhaps you spent your life employed by one or more employers. You may have prepared to enter one field, and then strayed from that path due to circumstances and reality. The important point is that whatever roads you’ve traversed, you are the sum total of all of these experiences.

In my case, most of what I’ve done during my lifetime began with my main love and passion for recording. Would things have turned out differently had I become a Baptist minister, received the venture capital at age 24 and not had to enlist in the Air Force? Probably! But, such speculation is folly since reality and life happened and can’t be reversed. Woulda, shoulda and coulda don't count. The same is true for you.

While there were some businesses I wish I had never been involved in, the reality is that I did take the road and despite any other consequences, I gained considerably more experience and knowledge. But, how does this apply to creating income from some avocational pursuit at this time in my life? Watch this process and see if you can transfer and apply it to your own quest to live free.

I’ve gone through the 12 Steps for Living Free (and continue through them, a life long process). My life is much simpler then it has been in years. I’ve downsized and eliminated the major tangible and much of the intangible assets and “stuff” that no longer serves me. I’m virtually out of debt. I’ve evolved my definition of living free over the past few years. So, what are my passions? I still have a passion for facets of the audio and recording industry. I love to travel. I’ve been writing all my life, but mainly for business. Now, I realize that I love writing. I always loved teaching and helping others and speaking in public is a continuing passion.

So, my new life allows me to do the occasional audio project for a few, select clients who I enjoy working with and gain personal enjoyment and fulfillment from. I have personal audio and video projects I am pursuing. I’ve done photography, often for business, so I can take pictures during my travels and after careful selection, I can offer them for sale through online image services. I’m blogging and writing books that will ultimately be available through Amazon and other outlets. I can conduct seminars, workshops and in depth retreats to teach, guide and coach people in their quests to live free. And, my passion for travel will take me across the U.S. and Canada by motor home as I do all of the above.

Will any one of these avocations provide an income adequate to sustain living free? I’m not counting on it. However, I’ve reduced my overhead to approximately 20% of what it was just three and a half years ago. I’ve reinvented my lifestyle to enjoy living simply, frugally and as a minimalist. I’m freer and happier then I’ve ever been. Thus, I fully expect the income from these various avocations to provide all the income I need with some left over for a “rainy day.”

Of course, there are some aspects of pursuing these avocational pursuits that I’m not interested in doing myself. You’ll probably feel the same. Maybe you won’t feel comfortable with marketing or fulfillment. Perhaps you don’t want to deal with the bookkeeping, accounting and finances. You may feel inspired to create the ideas and designs for some product ideas, but would prefer not to deal with the manufacturing and delivery of the products. All of these can be resolved through partnering, virtual assistants and outsourcing. Sure, there will be some cost involved, but the most important part of an avocation is that you get to do what you love, are passionate about, enjoy and are relaxed doing on a schedule you establish.

This will not be accomplished overnight. The process I’ve described in this step, just like the other steps, is an ongoing process. As Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” I’ve managed to find just about every way to complicate my life and imprison myself. Unraveling this lifetime of detours and off-road trails is no easier for me then it is for you. Perhaps, it’s even more difficult for me. The most important thing is that if I can do it, you can do it. Life is all about choices. You can choose to accept what you have and where you are now. Or, you can choose to take another step toward your dream of living free.

Photo-of-the-Week #60 – Jimmie Rodgers Museum, Meridian, Mississippi, September 2003

These are some of the furnishings from the home of Jimmie Rodgers, considered to be “The Father of Country Music.” Like Hank Williams, maybe a better known country singer from the late 40’s and early 50’s, Jimmie Rodgers made a major musical impact during a short lifetime, dying in 1933 at only 35 years old. (Williams died at only 29).

Visiting the Jimmie Rodgers Museum in Meridian was almost like a pilgrimage for my buddy, Dave, as we were traveling to New Orleans to meet up with some friends. If you love music, then you know there are these special Mecca’s of music all over the U.S. It hardly seems right to pass up these “hallowed” places and not pay homage to the people who gave voice to our country in song.

What a trip that was. A chance to pay respects to “The Singing Brakeman” and “The Blue Yodeler” as he was also known and then end up in New Orleans where so much great jazz, including Dixieland came from. Add to that more great blues, Cajun and New Orleans style rock and roll. My friend had to fly back to Washington, DC since he was still gainfully employed by the Voice of America. I traveled on to Texas where I spent a little time in Austin. That’s a great place for music, too. It’s Not too far from where the original Gillies Club operated by country music singer Mickey Gillies was located or Willie Nelson’s ranch and recording studio and the long-running Public TV show, Austin City Limits.

What a great country. 

Step #6 Economizing

This step separates the men from the boys and the women from the girls. This, again, is going to require some lists and complete honesty. The honesty is with yourself and with those financially entwined in your life. As you are probably aware, one of the major causes of separation and divorce in marriage, break-ups in other kinds of domestic relationships and business relationships is MONEY! Finances are one of the main building blocks of any kind of stable life regardless of whether one is single or married, a sole-proprietor or a partner in a small business or on the management team of a huge global corporation. There is one simple principle to keep in mind here. If you are in debt, you are not and cannot be free until you are out of debt.

Let’s begin by listing all your financial assets and what they are realistically worth. We know certain basic things about finances.

1. While real estate has tended to appreciate over time that can change at any time and just did, to the detriment of a lot of people, many who have already lost their homes and more who will in the future.

2. Most tangible assets depreciate such as automobiles, RVs, boats, motorcycles, time shares, furniture, clothes, jewelry, books, electronic devices, especially computers, tools of your trade and so on.

3. Over the long-term, the stock and bond market outperforms the real estate market, but investing in the “markets” is, always has been and always will be a major risk and you have to be able to tolerate that risk. It would be nice if we knew the future, but to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever passed Crystal Ball 101.

4. No matter what we want to believe, prices continue to increase and most incomes do not keep up with it.

5. Marketing is a science designed to separate the public-at-large from the hard earned money they earn and attempt to preserve for a rainy day.

6. Credit is NOT your friend. It is the friend of the huge banking conglomerates. No one who loans you money in any form really cares about how much that new home, car, pair of shoes, etc. will mean to you. They only care about how much they will earn from your often ill-guided wants and desires. Losing your home, car or whatever is none of their concern.

7. We live in a society of gluttony and instant gratification. The vast majority of the 7+ billion who inhabit this world live for a year on less then you make in a single week. Yet, we never seem to have enough.

The List Of Assets

We could keep adding to this list, but let’s move forward at this point. List all your cash on hand, money in checking, savings (most people don’t have any or very little), money market accounts, CD’s, IRA, 401K and other retirement accounts, investments in stock, bonds, commodities, currency, precious metals, real estate (including your own home, vacation properties and investment properties), vehicles, jewelry, art, collectibles, furnishings, clothes, tools, toys, college funds, pre-paid funeral arrangements, possible future inheritances you know about for sure and anything else you can think of that has value.

Real World Value

Now, next to each item place a real world value. Some of these will be easy, of course. If you have $500.00 in a checking account and $1,000.00 in a savings account, that is their current real world value, assuming the currency won’t collapse and become worthless or runaway hyperinflation doesn’t make a dollar worth a dime. It will be more difficult on most of the other items on your list. For example, your home is a best guess since many factors will determine the real value including changes to your community, foreclosures, closing or opening of a school that serves the community and so on. You may have paid $60,000.00 for a Hummer H2, that by normal depreciation might be worth $40,000.00 when it’s four years old, but then again, with gas prices in the range of $3.50 to $4.00 per gallon and the Hummer averaging, perhaps, 8 to 12 miles per gallon, the market may have tanked and its value may only be $15,000.00 to $20,000.00. This is where the realistic and honesty factors come into play. Don’t kid yourself. It won’t hurt me and it won’t hurt anyone outside those directly intermingled in your finances, like your spouse, children, business partners, etc.

Another thing that has to be taken into account at this time is your marital/relationship status. Are you single or married? Are you in a domestic relationship – romantic or for convenience – and do you own any of these assets in joint tenancy? Do you have joint bank accounts. Does your spouse (male or female) have any claim to any retirement accounts or pensions you have should the relationship dissolve? Do you have disability insurance and/or long term care insurance and/or health insurance if something unthinkable happens? If so, is it adequate to cover all the bases? By the way, I’m not a credit counselor, insurance professional or certified financial planner. I’m simply a guy who has lived for 67 years at this writing and watched untold numbers of people go down the tubes due to business downsizing, closings, car accidents, work related accidents, home accidents, health issues like heart attacks, strokes, cancer, divorce and so on. It’s that Life 101 thing again.

Fire Sale!!!

Next, make another column on your Asset list and call it, Fire Sale Value. If this sounds familiar, I hope you went back to Step #3, Personal Inventory. It will help you speed this process. In this column you’re going to come up with values for your assets based on the worst case scenario where you would need cash fast to cover doctor bills, gambling debts, to put food on the table, a flood, earthquake or wildfire destroying your home, business, etc. and insurance isn’t enough to cover your losses or whatever other unforeseen and heretofore unthinkable event could befall you. Okay, I know, this only happens to other people. It will never happen to you. That’s what “they” all said, too. Is the grass really all that much greener on your side of the fence? Have you really dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s? DO NOT be optimistic with these valuations. Mostly, even your most conservative guesses are going to be optimistic, at best. Go visit that pawn shop with your jewelry, computers, stereo’s, TV’s, etc. and get a real idea of their fire sale, worse case scenario value.

Gee! This is pretty depressing isn’t it? There are so many more scenarios, but we’re going to move on. Remember, being free, ultimately, is going to mean detaching yourself from “stuff” and money and determining the basic core values that are really meaningful and valuable to you. But, we’ll look at that a little later.

What Do You Owe?

Start a new list and title it “Liabilities.” Now, you’re going to list every single thing you owe no matter how much or who you owe it to. Start off with your home and vacation property mortgages, The main thing right now is to consider how much you owe on the principle amount borrowed. Then go to your vehicles (all of them), toys, tools, credit card debt carry-over, home equity loans, signature loans, other secured loans, student loans, loans from family and friends, gambling debts (oh yeah, don’t hide from them, if you have them, list them), loans on investments, real estate properties, business loans and lines of credit you’ve personally had to guarantee, medical bills you’re paying off, deficits in investment accounts and so on. You probably didn’t think your list could be this long. Surprise, you’ve been kidding yourself like most people do. When you get to the bottom of this list (and you’ll probably continue remembering little things you forgot), tally up the total. Ouch!

Reality Time

Now, here comes the real eye opener. Subtract your liabilities from your assets. If the resulting number is a positive number then that’s how much you’re worth (and remember, if you’re married, you really only worth half that much). If the resulting number is a negative number then face it, you’re bankrupt.

I told you this might surprise you when I outlined the 12 Steps for Living Free. You (like most people) don’t want to look at reality, so you typically skip over things and conveniently forget to list them. This certainly isn’t a full and necessarily accurate balance sheet that an accountant can prepare for you if you give him or her ALL the information they require, but it’s accurate enough to give you a pretty good idea of where you really stand in life.

I hope you came out with a very, nice, large positive number. The reality is that most people are 90 days away from bankruptcy. A major illness, loss of a job, natural disaster or any of a number of other events could pull the rug out from under you if you’re like most people.

But, there’s more. OMG! Haven’t I made you miserable enough? Sorry! The facts are the facts and reality is reality. We’ve only examined the assets and the liabilities – and don’t forget to subtract the liabilities from both the “realistic” valuation and the “fire sale” valuation of your assets. The pictures could be and probably will be very different.

Time To Crack The Nut

Now, we have to add in the cost of day-to-day living. Your assets and liabilities don’t address those added expenses. So, it’s time for another list you can call Monthly Living Expenses or Monthly Overhead (a bit more business-like term).

Here are many of the items to include on the list, though not all of them, certainly. Let’s start off with the more mundane necessities like food, clothing, transportation, job related expenses, school related expenses if you have children, prescription and off the shelf medications, supplements and vitamins and similar items. Next, let’s add a big category, insurance. Make sure to list the monthly premiums (or if you pay them quarterly or some other frequency, calculate the monthly cost) for life, health, car, house/homeowner/renter, disability, long-term care, dental, RV (if you have one), vacation property, flood, title and any other forms of insurance you carry for yourself and your family’s security.

Then there are utilities like gas, electric, water, sewer, telephone and cell phone. You can add entertainment like cable or satellite TV, Internet, Netflix, book purchases online or at stores, theater tickets, movies, concerts, dining out, dinner parties and vacations. Don’t forget monthly expenses for the kids that may have to do with school sports programs, concert trips, field trips and such. Also, remember you have federal and possibly state income taxes, and various other local, state and federal taxes you are required to pay.

And the last major category is monthly debt service. This can be a little tricky because you may pay some of your other categories with your credit cards, so you’ll need to separate these so you don’t list them twice. But, most will be pretty clear cut, your mortgage payment(s), car payment(s), secured loan payment(s), signature loan payment(s), and so on. If you have money withheld from your income to be deposited toward any of your retirement or pension accounts, that is money coming out of your income each month, so count it as part of your expenses. It does have the benefit that it is increasing the value of your assets on the other side of the ledger.

Add all the dollar amounts on this list together and this is your monthly “nut” to crack. Subtract this number from your total income (that you can count on) each month. Now, you know how much you have to go to savings or for some discretionary pleasures. This is what you NEED to maintain your lifestyle just as it is today with no significant improvements. And, if your income doesn’t keep up with the increasing costs of things like health insurance, utilities, gasoline, food and so on, then at some point in time, you’re going to have to dip into your savings account to finance today’s lifestyle. This is called deficit spending. If you want a good example of exactly how this works, watch the evening news about how the U.S. government operates and what the impact of this kind of spending formula has had on Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain, to mention a few.

Sure, you knew all this. I’m not trying to insult your intelligence. But, are you operating like the U.S. government or like the Coca Cola Company? The government doesn’t produce anything, they take money from taxpayers – allowing all kinds of special concessions to all kinds of people with “special” interests or needs. Then they spend that money wantonly and simply borrow more when they don’t have enough. How long can this be a FREE country if we keep adding to our $14 trillion debt – sooner or later someone has to pay the piper. How long can you continue the illusion of being free if you owe massive amounts of money. At some point in time the U.S. government won’t be able to borrow any more money and neither will you. On the other hand, the Coca Cola Company operates on a simple formula – they take in more money then they spend. What a concept. And, it works.

It’s Show Time

So, now we’re to the bottom line of this step, Step #6 Finances. What is it going to take for you to get to the point where you can say you’re financially free? You may have noticed that there is an interconnecting pathway within these steps. While each is distinctively an individual step, action from various steps will definitely impact the other steps.

How do you define living free in financial terms in your life? If you are part of some kind of partnership like a marriage, domestic relationship or business partnership, do you see eye to eye with your partner(s)? If you are single and self-sustaining and self-supporting your choices, decisions and actions are much simpler then if two or more individuals have to come together on dreams, philosophies, choices and actions.

I stated it earlier, you can’t be in debt and be free. So, if you are in debt (and unfortunately, very few people aren’t in some form of debt situation), how can you eliminate your debt? If, after you created your asset, liability and overhead lists you, find yourself in a reasonably healthy and positive financial situation, can you simply go through the downsizing process, simplify your life, sell off high value (and possibly high debt) assets to clear those liabilities off your books? Perhaps you can work with a credible and highly reputed financial planner to create a plan to lower your monthly/annual overhead and apply the income that was paying for that higher overhead to paying off debt and reducing your liabilities. Those are two likely scenarios. Each will require a plan and a reasonable time line to execute and accomplish.

If you’ve been kidding yourself for more then a couple years and now, after being brutally honest and evaluating your actual financial position, you realize you’re not likely to get out of your liability position during this lifetime. You may have to consider drastic measures. If this is a realistic scenario, it’s important to accept that your assets will most likely be attached when you die and there will be no estate to leave your kids. You’ll never be able to stop working as hard as you are now. You’ll never be any freer then you are now. You’re doomed to the life of a wage slave, even if you own your own business. Then what? You could quit everything and abandon your home and lifestyle and just go off the grid. I don’t recommend this kind of action. Maybe you could just sell off whatever you can, take the money and leave the country and start all over again in a different country. Sure, that’s possible. But, we’re in a global society and your anticipation of privacy is pretty slim. Your records will follow you and catch up at some point in time unless you can do a very successful change of identity. Frankly, This isn’t a great idea, either. Bankruptcy is yet another alternative. If you’re in this kind of situation, let’s face it, sooner or later you’re going to default and your house of cards will collapse. The longer you go on, the more hopeless the situation will likely become and the more people you’ll potentially hurt. So, why not consider just doing it, getting it over with and starting out fresh.

Call In The Cavalry

Now I’m going to make this very emphatic – DON’T DO ANYTHING UNTIL YOU GET PROFESSIONAL LEGAL AND ACCOUNTING ADVICE! I am not a legal, accounting or financial professional and even if I were, I don’t know your specific circumstances. It’s absolutely vital that you seek the appropriate professional help. Take your lists with you. Tell them everything about your life, lifestyle, job/business as well as your “partner(s)’s if you have one or more. Tell them your dreams and aspirations. Explain how you plan to live your “new” life free, frugally and fiscally responsibly. Give them an idea of the time line you’ve tentatively established.

Tell them what actions you’ve taken to date. For example, explain that you’ve eliminated your wired phone lines, gone to a flat rate cellphone service, cut the cable service to the most basic service, restructured and re-shopped your various insurance policies and reduced your insurance cost by 30% (or whatever). Indicate that you do more shopping at Walmart instead of the high priced supermarket and Nordstrom’s and cut you food and clothing bills by 50%. You only have someone in once a month to clean the house instead of weekly and don’t plan to have anyone once you downsize to a smaller home or apartment. Show them you’re willing to take on more of the direct work yourself by letting go of the lawn service people and mowing your own lawn. Additionally, indicate what other actions you plan to implement to reduce your overhead and simplify your life. Perhaps, you’ve closed six of your eight credit card accounts and use only one with the other as a back-up for emergency use.

Like everything in the 12 Steps for Living Free program, nothing is an overnight process. You took actions over a period of time to “imprison” yourself in the lifestyle you’re seeking to shed. You have to pay the price to extricate yourself. However, each small step you take is one more step toward the living free lifestyle you’ve identified for yourself. I compare it to losing weight. You didn’t gain all the weight you may desire to eliminate in a day, a week or a month. It happened a little at a time over a period of time. The same is true when you want to lose the weight. If you want to lose 30 pounds and you set a goal to lose one pound a week, you’ll reach your desired weight in 30 weeks. If you go on a crash program, you may lose it, but it won’t be a healthy loss and it’s virtually certain that you’ll regain it just about as fast as you lost it because you didn’t actually modify your lifestyle.

I told you I cut my overhead by about 80% in one day. But, that was my combined personal and business overhead (which in my case are basically synonymous). However, I began the plan for that to happen a couple years in advance of the actual event. It was little steps. It was little modifications in my lifestyle and my business operations. It was a process to become a reinvented person. And that’s exactly what you’re going to do. I’m not unusual in what I’ve accomplished. There are many people like me and I meet more of them all the time. None of them want to go back to their old lifestyle (me included). It’s an ongoing process for all of us. And, here’s the simple fact. If I can do it anyone can do it and most especially you.

Next time, you’ll be adding another process, Step #7 Avocation, to the 12 Steps for Living Free and it’s going to dovetail right into Step #6 Finances.

Photo of the Week #59 - A Great White Egret in the Mangroves – September 2004

The mangrove communities of Florida are the home to a variety of wild life, including many kinds of birds. I was on a snorkeling outing on the reef off Key Largo, Florida with a friend when I took this shot. We were aboard the boat taking us through a channel lined by mangroves on both sides when we happened upon this regal Great White Egret. Once again, nature at its finest.

Many photographers specialize in specific subjects in their photographic pursuits. I don’t consider myself a professional photographer. I rather think I’m more a documentary photographer. I find beauty and a story in everything – landscapes and flora, wildlife, architecture, geography and topography, people – it really doesn’t matter. I simply aim and shoot to capture the moment. These are the lifetime of memories I’m building up so one day, should I actually ever grow old, I can sit back and relive all of these experiences and count the “richness” of my life.

Behold, The Great White Egret.

On The Road Again Day #2 - Pike Street Market

It's day two of this trip, Thursday, June 14, 2012. Seattle is an exhilarating city. It’s important to remember, however, I’m not a fan of big cities so this is pushing the envelope for me to make these statements. 

Seattle reminds me a lot of San Francisco, my favorite city. Like any big city, it has its traffic and congestion, parking problems, a diverse population which tends to contribute to the driving behavior of the local population and is compounded by the interloping visitors, like me. But, there is an interesting vibe to this city that makes it different from San Francisco and any other major city I’ve been to. That’s a good thing. It’s not a carbon copy.

My morning was quite relaxed today. I slept pretty well after being up and awake for about 23 hours. A bed felt good. I took care of some business this morning. This is a busy time for me with a few projects on the books plus the annual Veteran Speakers Retreat and Legends Award program I coordinate and execute every August. 

My son is in the midst of some stress and turmoil while he’s getting the prototype of a new Internet business model created and operational. It’s almost like deja vu all over again watching and listening to him. What he’s doing has been my life. Creating and starting businesses from as early as age 12 for me. He’s 33, which is precisely the age I was when he was born. At that time his mother and I were running a very busy conference recording and tape duplication business as well as about three other businesses at the same time. So, watching him brings back memories.

The Pike Street Market

I decided that today would be a good day to go down to the Pike Street Market, a well established public market that has been around for 105 years this August. It’s a fun place. There are vendors selling fresh fish and shellfish of all kinds right off the fishing boats. There are vegetable vendors, bakers, gift shops, toy, magic, puzzle shops, art galleries, restaurants of all kinds and stalls of flowers of all kinds. It’s a must visit place when one is in Seattle. In addition to the main public market, there are several other buildings across the street and an alley between Pike Street and 1st Street. And there are more shops and restaurants there, too. One that is particularly popular is the first, as in Number 1, Starbucks Coffee Shop directly across the street from the Public Market. I went in the last time I was here in 2005 and waited out the line. This time, I chose to pass on that opportunity.

There are always street musicians around the Market. I don’t know if they have rules established by the market management or if they have their own unwritten code, but they seem to rotate through the various prime locations. Mostly they are folk singers or instrumentalists on various string instruments. But, there was a pianist playing on one corner and he had a real piano, not an electronic keyboard. He sang and played. There was a small jazz trio in front of Starbucks and a little later there was a mountain music group complete with a washboard player.

There is so much to choose from. The variety of unique shops with all kinds of things for sale is mind boggling. It leaves me wondering how many of them actually sell enough “stuff” to make a living and pay their overhead. But, I guess they do. One of the real crowd pleasers is the main fish vending stall. There they actually have what I guess would be termed fishmongers. They play with the gathered crowd and then they’ll pull a few of the really large fish from the packing ice and throw it from the display in front of the stall to one of the fish preparers behind the counter in the stall. They do this with great fanfare. And, of course, they goad the “audience” they’ve assembled into cheering. 

The Living Free Nomad Meets the Genius Project Woman
 
The most fun for me was when I was beginning my exploration of the lowest level of the three that make up the Public Market. As I came down the ramp leading to the shops there was a pretty, young blond woman sitting on the ground painting the beginning of a sign on the lower portion of the wall, just below the shop window. It was too soon for me to know what the sign would ultimately say. There was an attractive older woman, meaning she appeared older than the young, blond woman, who appeared to be assisting in some manner. Well, that was the beginning of a fun and delightful 45 minutes or so. I acknowledged the gal sitting on the ground and painting and she smiled and thanked me for my pleasantry. Then the other woman jumped in. I had just been accosted by Brooke Westlund and Karen Peterson.

Brooke went on with her painting and just listened in and quipped occasionally looking up from her focus on the freehand sign she was painting - and very well, I might add. This from someone who can’t draw a straight line with a T square. Karen it turns out was almost my age, but looked at least 20 years younger. Karen had more energy than any three people I know. And could she talk. I’ll bet she could talk a Wall Street banker into investing every last cent he had into faulty Credit Default Swaps - that brought down the economy in 2007. She was delightful, funny, exhilarating and intelligent, not to leave out pretty kookie. This is one of my favorite things about living free and being a professional nomad - meeting interesting people. I gave her one of my “Living Free” business cards that also lists my 12 Steps for Living Free and she went crazy over it. She seemed to think I was some kind of genius for her own special pet project she calls, aptly enough, the Genius Project. Well, they have my card and my email address, so we’ll see if they ever contact me after our close encounter of the enjoyable kind.

Later in the afternoon I did more walking and looking, I enjoyed a delicious bowl of hot, fresh made, New England clam chowder with a shrimp cocktail and the house’s own homemade cocktail sauce. I topped that off with fresh frozen strawberry yogurt. And that was my afternoon. I had my son drop me off at the Market because parking in Seattle is in one word - EXPENSIVE! I decided I’d rather invest in some food for the inner man than pay to park an inanimate object in some space somewhere. 

A Vegetarian Dinner with a Group of Eclectic People

We got back to my son’s house and he had some errands to run. So, I took that opportunity to do a little email catching up and resting a bit before we were heading out to meet some folks for dinner as a vegetarian Asian restaurant.

The one thing I have to say about the folks in Seattle is they are very eclectic. One of them, Pete’s friend, Jess, is a recording guy like me, only several decades younger. We’ve had some stimulating conversation already, to say the least. Jess’s mother, Ande, was there. She is a retired teacher, I believe, involved a variety of post retirement business opportunities. Her daughter, Amanda was there, a 19 year old aspiring entertainer. Then there was Roxanne, a young Asian woman, I’m not sure I caught exactly what she was doing, perhaps, a student. Then there was Frankie and Eleathra - and I’m not positive of that spelling or if I even got her name correct. Frankie is a cartoonist for comic books and Eleathra, I believe has a bed and breakfast.

With eight people around the table, six of whom were very unique and interesting - well, actually seven counting my son, Pete - attempting to keep up with the myriad of topics and parallel conversations was a real chore. I can honestly say there was plenty of banter and laughter. The food was excellent, I gave out another of my Living Free business cards that stimulated more conversation and upon disclosing about my nomadic lifestyle, landed me an invitation to use a small rural cabin near Bellingham, WA when I’m in this region again. 

New Friends I Hadn't Met, Yet

Meeting people is, for me, so enjoyable. It’s really like they are all friends, I just haven’t met, yet. The people here in Seattle that I see on the street are diverse in ethnicity and national origin. They dress and appear very eclectic and unique. I guess I would compare this to some degree with the Greenwich Village of my youth. There is a certain youthfulness and vitality here. Everyone I’ve been meeting is busy in some manner. Perhaps some of this has to do with the young technology businesses located here, chief among them being Microsoft. But, add to that Amazon, who is also headquartered here and groups from Google, Facebook, Adobe and other companies. The only major airplane manufacturer, Boeing, still has major operations here. Seattle is also a large shipping port both by ships and air. And, there is a tremendous love of the outdoors, athletics, hiking, camping and similar activities. Skiing isn’t too far away and with the lakes and Puget Sound, water sports abound.

Other than the traffic and congestion and not being familiar with the way the city streets are laid out, I have a positive feeling about Seattle, as I did when I was here in 2005. I can see why my son has selected it as his base of operations for the past nine years. 

There's more to come in future posts including my upcoming tripon Saturday to Newberg, Oregon near Portland. There I'll have a reunion with an Air Force friend I haven’t seen in 42 years.

One final note, I have photos I've been taking to illustrate this trip. Unfortunately, the computer I brought along with me, my netbook, is not functioning properly at all. I'm composing this post on one of my son's computers. However, he and I are not compatible on all our software, thus, I'm learning new systems as I'm working on my various projects. So, the photos and video clips I'm capturing will appear at some time in the future.

On The Road Again Day #1 – West Coast Trek

Well the Professional Nomad is on the road again. Actually, I’ll write this post in parts and upload it tonight. I’m currently sitting in the terminal at BWI (Baltimore) airport awaiting my Southwest flight to Kansas City and then on to Seattle where I’ll meet up with my son.

There is nothing unusual except I arrived here this morning at 6:00 AM for a 9:35 AM flight that is already delayed to 9:45 AM. I was surprised at the ease with which I got through TSA security. I went to a rather isolated security checkpoint and got through fast. Of course, I always travel with some audio equipment and my Rode NT4 stereo microphone caught their attention. None of the rest of the other electronics I had packed in my backpack seemed to bother them. So they pulled the microphone out, examined it and asked what it was, ran it through the X-Ray scanner again. Done.

I then went to a Silver Diner in the terminal and had a nice relaxing breakfast and then came to my boarding gate where I’ve been taking care of some business. It’s getting near boarding time so, I’ll write a bit more, later.

I’m in Kansas City now. The Southwest Airlines flight was packed. Not one open seat. All things being equal it was a decent flight hurtling through the sky in the big red and blue Boeing 737 tube. We arrived early.

I went to the Starbucks in the Kansas City terminal and ordered a strawberry smoothie to carry me over until I reached Seattle – BUT, they didn’t have any bananas to make a smoothie with. The young woman at the Starbucks counter said they haven’t had bananas all week – the shipment hadn’t come in. I won’t tell you what I was thinking at that moment. I ordered a Grande Chai Tea Latte. First, the cup wasn’t full, second they had it made in about two minutes and third, it wasn’t very hot. It in no way resembled the delicious, really large, carefully brewed and steeped, appropriately hot Chai Tea Latte made with pride and care and taking about 8 to 10 minutes to make that I’ve become so accustomed to at the Backwoods Bean Coffee Shop in Sparta, North Carolina. The proprietor, Selma, is amazing with her customer service and care she puts into everything she serves.

I checked email. The terminal had free wifi – as opposed to Baltimore where you had to pay a fee to use the wifi. I took care of a few bits of business, composed this addition to this blog post and we’ve just been called to board the Seattle flight. So, back I go into a second red and blue tube that will hurtle me through the sky to the final destination of the day, Seattle, Washington. It appears we’ll leave on schedule.

I’m now in Seattle. The flight was uneventful. The plane was again filled to capacity. But, it was still a pleasant flight. I began reading a new Kindle book I had downloaded while at the Kansas City terminal. I also read the airline magazine that had several excellent articles.

My son was waiting with the rental car when I hit the ground. I called him after I had my one checked bag (I carried my other bag, the backpack with the microphone in it, as carry on baggage). He pulled off and we were off. We went and took care of some business on the rental car. We walked from the rental car office downtown to his current rented office with a beautiful view of Puget Sound. Then picked up the car and drove to his house near Lake Washington on the east side of Seattle. I met his housemate and another friend, he showed me where I would be crashing and he went off to run a couple errands.

When he got back, I had rested a bit and he and I went out to dinner to a very nice little restaurant situated on the lakeshore. It was a fitting end to a long day of travel.

My only real surprise was that it was COLD when I arrived in Seattle. I believe it was in the upper 50’s or maybe 60 degrees. Oops, I hadn’t contemplated that. I walking around in a short sleeve polo shirt and slack and every one else is wearing jackets, sweaters and flannel shirts. I didn’t bring any warm clothes with me other then one long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker. It was an overcast day, but I did catch a beautiful glimpse of Mt. Rainier through a whole in the cl oud cover as we were driving to dinner.

I’m on the road again and I’m loving it. More about this trip in future posts.

Photo of the Week #58 - New England in the Fall, November 2007

My two favorite seasons are the spring and the fall. I love the spring when everything is just bursting back to life with the beautiful spring blossoms and flowers and trees filling out from light green to their full, robust lush green. Then there is the fall when those leaves become resplendent with beautiful red, orange, yellow, brown and green. Truly, it’s a tableau of nature’s finest work.

This photo was taken in November of 2007 near Portsmouth, NH. My focal point was the typical New England style lighthouse on the river to guide shipping and fishing boats into the small harbors along the river. But, the entire setting with the homes and other buildings behind the lighthouse and the foliage, although long past the peak color season, was still gorgeous to my eye. I guess it didn’t hurt that the sun was low in the southwestern sky providing a warm, golden light on the entire scene.

It’s almost enough to make me move there . . . except, I know that winter is not far behind. After having endured two winters in central New York State when I attended graduate school at Syracuse University, I know what’s coming and I don’t enjoy that kind of winter any longer. So, I’ll just make sure I’m up north during the late spring, summer and early to mid fall for my “return engagements.”  

Step #5 Downsizing

Downsizing is the next of the 12 steps I’ve identified to create an environment for living free. I’m sure you’ve heard people say (and maybe said it yourself from time to time) “less is more.” In my experience, this is a universal truth. Unfortunately, we live in both a society and a world where abundance and prosperity is measured in tangibles or, as I like to call it, “Stuff.” Ultimately, most people are, to some degree, pack rats. There is a small percentage who are minimalists by nature and finds great comfort in acquiring and maintaining only that which they truly need to live comfortably. On the other extreme, there is another small percentage we call hoarders. These people will collect just about anything, often with no reason, and just stack it up in their homes, businesses and even rent additional storage space to keep it. It appears that their satisfaction in having all the stuff is simply to have all the stuff.

While I have gone into some depth for the first four steps of the 12 Steps for Living Free and Downsizing is no less important or challenging, I’m going to breeze through it and the remaining seven steps. The book titled 12 Steps for Living Free will provide more detail and depth.

I recently read Courtney Carver’s ebook, Simple Ways ToBe More With Less: Life On Purpose, and I’ve posted a review of it, you can read the review if you click on the title. Courtney is on the same track as I am and vice-versa and I’ve gained some interesting ideas and insights from her book.

No Punches Pulled

So, on to this challenging process called “Downsizing.”  

I’m not going to pull any punches. No matter who you are, you have stuff you don’t need. Further, you likely have TOO MUCH stuff you really don’t need. So, let’s examine some of your excuses . . . oops, I mean reasons (that’s how you’re rationalizing your stuff) for keeping this stuff:

1.   I’ve hardly worn these clothes and they’ll come back into fashion one day

2.   I may need “this” someday (whatever “this” is – a left handed corkscrew, I’m right handed)

3.   I love books and I invested a lot in my library, I need them for reference, I’ll read them again

4.   Vinyl sounds so much better then CDs – it’s a warmer sound

5.   I’ve had these plastic model airplanes, boats, cars, (or whatever) since I was a kid

6.   I have three sets of dinnerware in storage that I’m saving for the kids

7.   These tools belonged to my father and my father’s father before him

8.   I have 350 baseball caps from everyplace I’ve ever been, including the local supermarket

9.   I have five large cartons of old photos and negatives dating back 150 years, these are valuable

10. We love music so we’ve been collecting CDs for years, probably have over 2,000 by now

11. We have the 16mm & 8mm home films and the VHS videos we shot dating back to the 40’s

12. I have my wedding dress (all three of them, actually), my high school and college prom dresses

13. I have my college blazer from the Class of ’67 and all my military uniforms

14. I have all my college textbooks; they were just too expensive to get rid of

15. I have all my tax returns, receipts, and records of my doctor visits since 1979

16. I have all the kids baby clothes and school papers, drawings and so on from all four kids

17. We have holiday decorations dating back to when we were kids, some are 60 years old or more

This list could go on to infinity, but I hope you’ve received the message.

The “Stuff Warehousing Business”

That’s what I call it. You’re in the business of warehousing stuff. Why call it that? Be serious! Go down the list and look at it realistically, I know, you think you are, but most of us don’t and you’re likely just like most of the rest of us.

Why do we do it? I listed a few of the excuses we all use to rationalize irrational behavior. I’m not sure if collecting stuff and being a pack rat isn’t some form of mental illness that afflicts most people or not. I’m not a psychologist. But, it seems that there may be some characteristics of potential neurotic, OCD and insecurity issues. Am I calling you crazy? No! I’m calling all of us a little crazy. A little crazy is probably normal since I can’t exactly define normal behavior either.

The process of downsizing is very cathartic for most people. We each attach meanings and values to things that are very personal and often meaningless to others. Perhaps you’re attached to a ragged, worn old chair or a “lucky” football jersey you wore out years ago, but still wear. It may be a scarf your mother gave you when you were 16 or a baby tooth you carry in a small charm on a bracelet you wear when you need grounding. You have them just as I do and everyone else does.

The process of doing a major downsize is stressful, emotional and sometimes heartrending. You will find yourself sitting at a table or on the floor surrounded by boxes and piles of your “stuff” laughing, crying and in moments that may grow into minutes or even hours of reverie as you find some old letters or a journal or a diary written by a parent, a former lover or a long since out of the nest offspring. This step, along with steps #8 and #9 are, perhaps, the most emotionally challenging and difficult to get through. You’ll have a difficult time deciding what to get rid of. It’s easier not to get rid of anything, which unfortunately, many people choose and then, when they die, leave this personal responsibility on the shoulders of their children who now have to wrestle with their own emotional issues regarding your life and “stuff.”

Prepare to be insulted when you’re offered $50 for the couch you paid $2,500 for 30 years ago. People will come to your yard/garage/moving/downsizing sales and insult you, never intentionally, just from the perspective that they don’t have the emotional ties to what they are interested in buying from you as you, the seller, do.

Steel yourself as I ultimately had to when I took 20 large, heavy cartons of books I considered valuable to a used bookstore. Out of all those books they only found enough to offer me $20.00. They wanted to load the rest back into my van. In a split second I said, no thank you, just donate them to the local library or someplace. $20.00 for thousands of dollars in value . . . at one time. Sure, I could have continued taking them from place to place, but to what end? I could have ended up investing hundreds of dollars of my time and gas for the van to end up with . . . maybe $100.00?

Be prepared! This is one of the most important steps in moving from where you are to living free, but it’s also one of the hardest. I’ve been there and done it. I turned down the tee shirt; didn’t need it.

Hang On, The Wild Ride Begins

1.   Older Clothes – newer fabrics, patterns, cuts will come back into fashion, but these won’t. Get rid of the pedal pushers, culottes, Nehru shirts, bellbottoms, and tacky gold neck chains – Today! We all end up adhering to the 80/20 rule for some reason – we wear 20% of the current clothes we have 80% of the time and the other 80% we seldom wear even 20% of the time – and we don’t wear the older clothes at all. We just warehouse them.

2.   I may need “this” someday (whatever “this” is) No, you won’t! It’s way cheaper to buy new then to pay to store it - IF you ever do need it again. Clean out the junk drawer(s), closets, shelves, etc.

3.   Books – you might use a few for reference, the rest are dust collectors – You’re not going to read those books again. And guess what? We have libraries. If a book is that important, you can borrow it for free. Off to the yard sales, flea markets, used bookstores and the occasional dealer if you have any first editions of important books, especially signed first editions.

4.   Vinyl records – get a life, most of this is crap and hype from a few nuts that believe they can hear the wind blowing on Mars. I’ve been in the recording industry for nearly 50 years and it’s full of BS to get people to buy more stuff and believe old stuff is cool – even Oldsmobile is past tense. Make digital copies if you must, it will preserve all the surface noise, clicks and pops and take up way less space. If you have some collector’s items, research them and sell them, use the money for a vacation.

5.   Plastic model airplanes, boats, cars and so on are so ancient history. I went to a model store the other day and all the brands of model airplane motors that my dad and I had no longer exist, like the Oldsmobile. These take up expensive space. Take digital pictures and store them on a hard drive. Who is going to want this stuff when you die and how long do you think your kids are going to take deciding which truck going to the landfill is going to deliver them. Save them the time NOW!

6.   Old dinnerware is just what your kids want. First, much of the older dinnerware wasn’t dishwasher safe and who wants to wash dishes by hand anymore? Second, they want their own stuff based on their own tastes and lifestyle. Third, while some of it MAY have some antique value, most does not. Tell the kids you’re downsizing, there are some things they MAY be interested in – take a look, take it now or it’s gone. Maybe you can find a dealer who sells replacement pieces to other pack rats who are still keeping old dinnerware or a used “stuff” dealer or a local auction house. It’s not that hard to research to see if it has any value at all and if it does – take the money and run.

7.   Old tools and that’s exactly what they are, old tools. Obviously, you’re not using them; you’re storing them for posterity. Fahgetit! Just like the old dinnerware, there may be a few pieces that have some value. Go through the same process with the kids. They likely won’t want them. Take the time to research if you want to sell off the potentially valuable stuff and just get rid of the rest.  

8.   Baseball caps, cards, comic books, magazines, buttons, thimbles, jelly glasses and whatever else are taking up space and costing money. Let’s face it you’ve blown hundreds and maybe thousands on items like these. I had Hard Rock Café tee shirts, other tee shirts from many other places I visited and a collection of baseball caps from everywhere I went. This stuff all takes up space and ends up valueless. I’ve done it. You’ve done it. Photographs are a much better way to remember someplace you’ve visited. Keep a very few hats and things and get rid of the rest. By the way, don’t be surprised if all that collectible stuff doesn’t have the value you thought it did? Times change and so do demands, interests and values.                

9.   Photographs can be another space waster. Photographic prints, negatives, slides, slide trays and photo albums were the primary method of retaining graphic memories of time and people past. Photographs still are, but convert to the 21^st Century and digital photography. Learn to scan old stuff into your computer and store it there and on CD’s. Create screen savers where you can watch a selection of these memories pass by like an animated art gallery. Eliminate all the space and inconvenience of those old memories with digital files, backed up and they won’t deteriorate. Give any old photos to people they will be meaningful to and dump the rest.

10. Music CD’s can also become costly and space wasting. You may have a collection of a thousand or more CD’s by certain artists, plus box sets of the “Music of Your Life.” You really only listen to a limited number of these CD’s on a regular basis. The rest mainly collect dust. Sort through the CD’s, identify the must have music and transfer them onto your computer or iPod. Then sell them, give them away or whatever. By the way, you can hear almost any music you want to hear on Pandora and several other music services commercial free on the Internet.

11. Oh my God! What are you going to do with those old 16 and 8mm home movies and the VHS videos you’ve been shooting since about 1977? Wonderful memories are stored on these media. But, it’s hard to find good, working, reliable 16 and 8mm projectors any longer and most of those films don’t have sound anyway. VHS video has also joined the dinosaurs and is rapidly becoming extinct. To the best of my knowledge, no one is manufacturing a stand alone VHS VCR any longer. So, purchase a little transfer kit that allows you to feed the video or film into your computer as digital data and store them on DVD’s and a hard drive. Or, if you don’t want to become more techy, pay someone else to do it for you. Do it now while you still can. The longer you wait, the harder and more expensive it will become to transfer and salvage your important memories. Then, dump the film and videotapes. More stuff gone!

12. Wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses and prom dresses - I have four words – Get Rid Of Them! If you have one (or more) wedding dresses you wore them one time for one special occasion. They don’t work for any other occasion. They have likely yellowed with age. They probably don’t fit your daughter(s) or granddaughter(s). They are totally out of style. And, there are few new brides who REALLY want to wear a “hand me down” wedding dress. The same applies to prom dresses and those typically awful bridesmaid dresses that you would have rather gone naked before consciously choosing one of those dresses. These all have one use one time.  Some consignment stores specialize in vintage (yes, I said vintage) dresses of this kind. There are prom dress rental stores that might buy them if they are modern enough. Also, high school, college and community theaters are always looking for donations they can add to their costume departments. Let them go.

13. Old blazers, athletic clothes and military uniforms all had their time and purpose. But, that isn’t today. Ask yourself; will you be in high school or college again? Will you ever play football or run track on the college team again? Will you ever be in the military again? Do any of these clothes still fit you? If, by some slim chance they do, would you ever wear them to any occasion other then a costume party? Take digital photos and then – Get Rid Of Them! Enough said.

14. College textbooks are another issue. What compels us to keep these old books? Is it because they were so expensive (read overpriced) when we bought them as “required texts?” Is it because of all the valuable, outdated content you probably never read? Is it because one day you’re going to read them? (Unlikely!) Is it because having all these books on shelves collecting dust proves you are literate and intelligent? Here’s the fact. They are old, outdated and valueless. If your literacy or intelligence is ever in question, let your resume stand on its own. Your local used bookstore will likely not want them, so prepare for another trip to the landfill.

15. Old tax returns, receipts, records of doctor visits from a decade (or longer) ago are all a valueless waste of space in your Stuff Warehouse. There may be a few documents that are important to keep like birth certificates, death certificates, Social Security papers, marriage licenses, divorce, custody and similar papers. They shouldn’t take up half of a file storage carton. The rest of the carton can hold tax returns from the past seven years along with any documents the IRS or your state and local governments require or suggest you retain. A CPA or licensed tax advisor can fill you in on these requirements. Or you can go online to any of the government agencies and find a list. Everything else needs to be burned or shredded . . . period. 

16. Virtually, all parents are nostalgic about their offspring. You save baby clothes, little league jerseys, ballet tutus, school papers, report cards, graduation announcements, newspaper articles, coloring books, finger painted pictures of ??? and more. We’re all guilty. But, there comes a time when serious choices have to be made. A few things (including school photos from every year) you should want to keep just for yourself. These are things your kids may relish having back one day, either before or after you die. Carefully sort through and pick out your meaningful items. Ask the kids if they want anything back before you dispose of it. They most likely won’t. Get rid of the rest. You’ll downsize, have all the memories and be freer when you’re done.

17. Holiday stuff is another big category. I had six large cartons of decorations, two Christmas tree stands and other assorted “stuff.” Some of it dated back 40 or more years. You have the same thing. Ask yourself, do you still celebrate the holidays as much as you once may have? If you’ve decided to downplay or eliminate formal holiday observances then you don’t need this stuff. Go through it. You’ll find a few small things that have sentimental value. Pack them away. Again, ask the kids if they want any of it. If not, get rid of the rest. Donate it or toss it. It’s likely to have little value.

This Is Just The Beginning Of Something Small

There is a whole lot more stuff stored in your home, office, garage, workshop, warehouse and business that is no longer used, needed, wanted or even relevant to the current world and your life. You probably have furniture that takes up space and is there, well, just because it’s there.

Downsizing is a huge project. On the one hand, while it may cause a huge amount of stress and even some distress, downsizing rapidly and massively as I did toward the end of 2008 may be the best way to do it. I guess my analogy is like having medical adhesive tape removed from a wound on a part of your body where you have hair. You can do it little by little, one small ouch after another. Or you can do like most doctors do, grab it and yank it off in one fast move. It hurts a lot real fast and then it’s over and done and the pain is gone. Personally, this is my recommended method. The slow “hair by hair” method can take forever and the pain is around a lot longer.

However you choose to undertake Step #5 for Living Free, it is absolutely necessary to ultimately achieve the freedom you are seeking. Don’t put it off. Make a plan, begin and don’t stop until you’ve achieved your goals, whatever they may be – moving to a smaller home or apartment, moving into an RV full-time, leaving a big city for a country lifestyle or vice versa or whatever else your dream of living free is. And, here’s the best part. You won’t miss it and you won’t look back once you’re free of this anchor I call the “stuff warehousing business.”