Subj : Living Debt Free To : All From : debian Date : Sun Jul 31 2022 00:54:40 I recently came across a phlog, gopher://sdf.org:70/0/users/atyh/phlog-2022-07-26-smol-happy-big-happy.txt, where the author discussed his offgrid living environment in that moment. As I was reading it, I thought about how nice it is to be living a life debt free (well atleast debt free from the banks) and self sufficient. While I do own property in Holbrook AZ, I decided to move to southern Idaho. I sold my house in Phoenix (I am holding on to the holbrook property, as it is vacant land. I paid for the land in cash, so no debt) and relocated to Idaho where I am room mating with family. I work a 9 to 5 and pay my monthly dues. I am not 100% debt free myself - more like 98%. In a time of economic downturn, the least amount of debt you have, the better off you will be. You will be able to weather the negative effects of an economic downturn much better than those who hold large amounts of debt. Sure, that ferrari looks nice and it drives fast, but what good is that going to do you when you can't pay the bills? It has to be one of the least stressful life styles - living debt free. There isn't that daily stress of having a large amount of debt on your head, knowing that if you loose your source of income, you will loose everything that you went into debt for. Then there is also the topic of priorities - The author of the aforementioned phlog post, and his wife, both raise chickens and grow their own crops. To be able to live a self reliant life, you have to get your priorities straight! Once your shelter is established, and you have a good source of water, your next priority is food. As for myself, I just got my hands on a couple packets of corn and tomato seeds. It is too late in the season now for me to be starting any of these, so I am harvesting and stocking up on seeds while I can. There is a farmers market up the street from where I live and I harvest the seeds from some of the jalapenos and bell peppers I buy from them. A propper offgrid homesteader will also have a clear plan to run his homestead on. My plan for next year is to build a couple large garden boxes where I can grow corn, tomato's, and the various other peppers I collect along the way. Both me and my family raise chickens, so soil is not a problem for us (neither are eggs, nor chicken meat!). The people who I am roommating with are already aware of this plan and have already given the OK. I am building on this property as I will be inheriting this property when they pass on. Who knows how long my job is going to last - our orders have gotten so low that they have had to send people home early because there was just no work (all orders were processed and the entire factory was cleaned to a sparkling shine). They are already reducing hours for one of the production lines for the aforementioned reason. When I first started with this company 3 months ago , we couldn't keep up with the orders! Now, we are struggling to get any orders. Interesting how things have changed so much in just 3 months. If I do loose my job, it won't be as impacting to me as it will be to the others who work there, who don't have a large savings built up and who have sky high debts. My part of the family that I am staying with currently has their house paid off and most of their debts paid, plus a large savings as well , so even they won't be impacted as badly. The number of new jobs in America is on the decline as more and more companies face declining business. 2 quarters of negative GDP is an indicator of a recession. We will see now the upcomming quarters turn out. There will also be allot of time afforded to me as well to take on other forms of work should I loose my current job. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have a background in electronics and can render repair services. How something like this would shake out in an economic down turn remains to be seen. My speculation is that it will be very difficult and expensive to source replacement parts - and will make the repair very difficult and expensive, assuming the customer even wants the repair. This is how I think - I think in novels, and this is what popped into my mind when reading over the article. 73, de KG7UJH Debian How ya gonna do it? PS/2 it! --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/02/11 (Linux/64) * Origin: SPOT BBS / k9zw (700:100/69) .