Simple Living, March 31 2016 - Mark Rafferty

Spending the last 5 months in a camper van has been one of the best decisions I've made. When people see my lifestyle and how I'm living the often say to themselves, "I wish I could." Which really doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I believe many people are afraid of this lifestyle because it requires you to sacrifice throwing away most unnecessary items in your life and forces you to be more considerate of spending. Even though being more considerate of spending for me personally often goes south. However it's something that is important to do now a days. I think the main benefits of living simple has to do with these three things; increase of personal gross income, freedom, and outside activity.

Imagine this scenario: Say you graduated from school with a simple engineering degree. On average most engineers will make about $90,000 in annual income each year. However thats saying before payments on housing, insurance, maybe even student loans. Now imagine if you have this degree and instead of living in a house or apartment you live in a tiny home, camper, or a van. Instead of loosing more than 50% of your paycheck to bills that money goes straight into your pocket. This would certainly cut your student loan payments and will allow you to save money a whole lot faster in the long run. Yes that sounds a little intimidating living out of car making over $90,000 a year but its an easier way to save a whole lot faster.

What I mean by freedom is simply not being tied down but housing leases. A lot of times people get an apartment/house and sign a year long lease. What happens when you realize you want to move within the first month of living there? Some of my personal friends have had this problem where the move after signing a year long lease and when the sing another lease in a new area they are paying for two places. So if living simple your able to leave whenever you want and not have any tie downs in the place you left. 

A great advantage of living simple is having so much time to be active. When I'm home at my parents house or a friends I find myself a lot more lazy then normal. Being  because theres television. Television is my all time weakness, Growing up we rarely had cable or games, so we didn't watch television much. Now looking back I thank my parents for doing that because it forced my friends and I to get outside and do fun yet idiotic activities. With living simple your able to park your home anywhere. Whether thats on the side of the river, on the beach, or at a ski resort your backyard is where you park. 

Living this lifestyle has many advantages and well disadvantages. However life is all about the experiences. When we die we cant take out money to our grave what we do take is our memories and soul. With living out this simple lifestyle you maximize the life experiences and minimize the unnecessary needs that distract us from these pleasures in live. Anyone can do it, if this is something your interested in, don't waist time and live simple!

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