The $40k was more roughly the number I had in mind for getting set up somewhere. Land, yurt, gardening tools, and food expenses for a year or two. My ongoing costs would be property taxes, food costs if gardening doesn’t work out, and water/electricity (or budget for upkeep/maintenance/replacement on my own systems).
Gardening can be an income stream, too—selling fresh vegetables at a farmer’s market (or effective income stream in offsetting food costs). But that’s probably not wise to count on—it keeps my position dependent on not failing at gardening.
It’s really getting the living expenses down that’s important, though. If I can meet my needs cheaply enough, then it’s really not that big of a deal if I have to pick up a shitty job later.
The research I’ve done also suggests that it’s fairly straightforward to get on disability. That would more than cover incidental expenses at $500/month.
Anyhow, I kind of rambled for this, but that’s mostly because it’s not particularly thoroughly thought out. It’s more out of a suspicion that it takes much less money to live a happy life than most Americans think it takes, and that the common error mode is spending too much time making money to try to fulfill your needs, rather than simply fulfilling your needs with more effort and less money.
The $40k was more roughly the number I had in mind for getting set up somewhere. Land, yurt, gardening tools, and food expenses for a year or two. My ongoing costs would be property taxes, food costs if gardening doesn’t work out, and water/electricity (or budget for upkeep/maintenance/replacement on my own systems).
Gardening can be an income stream, too—selling fresh vegetables at a farmer’s market (or effective income stream in offsetting food costs). But that’s probably not wise to count on—it keeps my position dependent on not failing at gardening.
It’s really getting the living expenses down that’s important, though. If I can meet my needs cheaply enough, then it’s really not that big of a deal if I have to pick up a shitty job later.
The research I’ve done also suggests that it’s fairly straightforward to get on disability. That would more than cover incidental expenses at $500/month.
Anyhow, I kind of rambled for this, but that’s mostly because it’s not particularly thoroughly thought out. It’s more out of a suspicion that it takes much less money to live a happy life than most Americans think it takes, and that the common error mode is spending too much time making money to try to fulfill your needs, rather than simply fulfilling your needs with more effort and less money.