The Journey Towards Minimalism

Living Large for Less

At some point in the last few months, I came to the realization that I simply had too many things. It did not surprise anyone who knew me when I was able to fill two walk in closets in my new apartment with all of my clothes. I had so many clothes that nothing else would even fit in the closets! I live alone in an apartment with about 1,000 square feet, but I felt like I was drowning in my things. So I began the very sad task of adding up the quantities of everything that I owned. Some of the highlights: about 300 T shirts, 12 jackets, 10 bathing suits and about 40 pairs of jeans. And yet despite all of this, I kept routinely jaunting off to the mall and returning with new bags of stuff. Something had to change. 

First night in my new place!

Where to Start...

I knew that Step One was just realizing that I had too many things, but that was as far as I got for a while. I was onto something, I just didn't know what. And then one day I found this finance and general life blog and I realized where I was supposed to go.

I looked at all of my things and slowly started to ask myself if any of them added any meaning or value to my life. At first I thought that they did. For example, I could hold up one bathing suit and imagine myself wearing it on some tropical island, while another I would envision wearing to a family pool party. And so on until I got to 10 different occasions and color combinations "requiring" different outfits. Step Two: realizing how ridiculous this was. 

I suddenly understood that I did not in fact need 10 bathing suits. This may seem insignificant, but to me it was huge. For the first time ever I realized that my life would be no different if I bought one more article of clothing; and in fact, my life might actually be easier if I had a bit less. I didn't actually want to get rid of anything at this point, but I convinced myself that I could sell some of my stuff and make some quick money on eBay. So I did.

Reduce, Reduce, Reduce

In the first week of "reducing" as I'll call it, I listed close to 100 articles of clothing on eBay. Not everything sold, but I still made about $100. The first time I went to the post office to send my beloved items away, I felt very sad. I thought about all of the money that I had spent on everything and all of the times I had worn these things and I was angry that for less than $100 I was giving it all away.

But after a few more rounds of this, something started to change inside of me. I started to feel happy when someone would pay me $.99 for an old T Shirt that I hadn't worn in years. I started realizing that I actually didn't need it at all, and I didn't even want it. Slowly, my closet started emptying and a few dollars would enter my bank account here and there. And better yet, I stopped buying new things. For the first time in my life, I felt happy with what I already had! 

Budding Minimalism

It was amazing: I suddenly cut my spending, got rid of extra stuff I didn't need, saved money for a downpayment on a house and felt happy at the same time. But the best part of all was that I could see an immediate reduction in future consumption. I knew looking forward that I could save even more because I would continue not to need the things that I realized I didn't need today. The entire facade of our culture of materialism and consumption began to fall apart right before my eyes. In essence, I had discovered minimalism. 

To be fair, I have only just begun this journey, and I have no idea where it will take me, but I do know that I have made a substantial change in my present life to the benefit of my future self. I hope that as I move forward, I will continue moving in this very new and very positive direction. 

My 2015 Resolution - Buy a Home

Taking the Plunge in 2015

So I realize that I have been a little lax on the blogging and that New Year's happened a few weeks ago at this point, but I did make one important resolution for this year that I think will be helpful to share. My thought process is that if I blog about this and tell everyone that I'm going to do it, I'm more likely to actually make it happen! Based on where my life is at, I think that this would be a good year to purchase my first home! 

Perfect Timing

If I think back to my life one year ago, I never imagined that I would be where I am today. I was suffering through a miserable senior year of college, living in a ramshackle house with little to no heat and I often struggled to figure out how to pay my (very small) bills. But, given the fact that I was a 20 year old student, everything seemed on the right path!

Since then I've graduated, landed a job and become a lot happier. And so rather than focusing on the short term, I can start honing in on some of my long term goals. My biggest goal as of now is to retire young, but more on that another time. So I've set my sights on buying my first home, hopefully right here in Worcester!

The Hard Part - Saving

Abstractly, the idea of buying a home sounds awesome: space that I can use for anything, no more rent payments, maybe a dog! But getting from here to there will require me to save like crazy. So far I've got about $1000 saved, so clearly I have a long way to go. If I actually want to save enough for a downpayment in one year, I have to have a really solid plan, so here it is: save 50% of my income this year.

This may seem crazy, an on some level it probably is, but I'm on track so far. I'm trying to learn to appreciate what I have and find happiness from myself rather than from possessions, again more on that later. As of right now, this all seems pretty much like a dream, but I think that if I really focus, I can make it. This post is really just a collection of some of my high level and as of yet undeveloped ideas, but hopefully I'll be back with some progress in the coming months! 

Boston Shouldn't Host 2024 Summer Olympics - Part 2

Keep the Olympics out of Boston

A few months ago there was this tiny little rumor that Boston might be interested in hosting the summer 2024 Olympic Games. I first wrote about this topic here way back in February. I am, without question, completely opposed to Boston hosting the games. At the time I thought that my post was very far out and I never imagined that Boston would go on to bid for an win the American bid for the games. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened. So I figured that now would be a good time to reiterate my opposition.

Everybody Loves Boston

To be fair, Boston is an excellent city. Of all American cities that I have visited, it is by far my favorite. Boston has a beautiful layout, many eclectic neighborhoods, is very walkable and has one of the highest rates of public transit ridership in the country. If Boston were to host the Olympics, the city would likely pull in billions of dollars of federal support and funding, get upgrades to the MBTA and other great perks. Between now and 2017 when the final decision is made about what city will host the games, Boston, Massachusetts and the United States as a whole will likely focus on these very positive views of Boston hosting the games. But none of this means that Boston would actually be a great host city.

NO CITY is a Good Host City

That's right, hosting the Olympics is almost never an economically reasonable idea, unless you happen to be Los Angeles in 1984. The costs associated with the games are both astronomically and rising exponentially. This article from the New York Times explains that despite the perception that hosting the Olympics draws substantial tourism, the true effect on tourism for host cities is negligible. Typically, the revenue brought in by the games is somewhere in the three to six billion dollar range, but the costs are much higher. As you can see from the graph below, recent host cities have spent somewhere in the tens of billions of dollars range. 

Boston Alone is a Poor Choice

Even if we foolishly ignore the large scale, Big Dig style, costs of hosting the games, there are several reasons that Boston itself is not the best choice for a host city. 

First and foremost, Boston is already crowded with tourists and hotels in the area routinely sell out. Boston has over 100,000 college students; if you want a hotel for graduation weekend you should book it 3 years in advance. But in all seriously, if Boston can hardly handle some tens of thousands of graduating students, how will it handle the perhaps 500,000 people who may come to the games? Keep in mind that Boston itself only has about 650,000 people to begin with. Just imagine that doubled, plus commuters for a few weeks. Sounds fun. Most Olympic hosts have somewhere in the 10 million population range, so adding half a million isn't such a huge influx. 

The other problem is traffic. Boston is a great city for people who don't want to travel by car, but if you love your car, Boston is not the place to be. We can assume that if Boston were to host the games, not all venues would be within the city, and many would require cars to get to. Boston area roads are not equipped to handle a huge influx of cars. If you have ever driven anywhere in or around the city, you would see that the streets are a winding mess; fine for subways and pedestrians, but not vehicles! 

Boston is a great city on it's own, it doesn't need the Olympics to make it "better."

The Three Types of People in the World

Stairs or Escalator?

The other day I went for a walk and I had some time to think about life. I came to the realization that our lives are nothing more than a series of seemingly complex layers of decisions. Yet as I continued to think, I began to realize that all of these choices that seem so complex on the surface are actually much more simple. I came to the conclusion that nearly all of our choices can be reduced to simple questions of act or do not act; active or passive; yes or no. And from this I realized that I could gather people into one of three groups based on their decision making. The first group are the people who ride escalators, the second take the stairs and the third walk up escalators. 

Escalator Riders: The Art of Passive Performance

Take a moment and think about an escalator. Imagine yourself approaching it as you see it shuttling people slowly upwards or downwards from one landing to another. They come in all different shapes and sizes, but their defining characteristic is that they assist in the transportation of people from one place to another. 

The first group of people approach the escalators step on and then stop, happily transported to their destination by their slow rising mechanical lift. These people progress through life willing to let things happen. They are content to accept their place in the world and drift with the masses from place to place. To ride an escalator is to detach oneself from free will and to become a passive observer of life. It's even rumored that the inventor of the escalator committed suicide in old age when he realized that he had simply given the world an excuse to become passive and lazy. 

Stair Climbers: Do it Yourself

If you're anything like me and you happen to interact with people and escalators on a regular basis, you may observe the ever bothersome person who simply states "I don't ride escalators, I'll take the stairs." Now after my rant about passive escalator riders, you may find it odd that I am complaining about stair climbers, the second type of person, as well. You may think, well there are many benefits of taking the stairs: resumption of free will, good exercise, muscle building, etc. These are all true statements, but they all miss an essential fact. Escalators help us get somewhere. 

Regardless of whether you choose to take the stairs or the escalator, you still exist and you are still always traveling from one place to another. The problem with taking the stairs is that by avoiding the escalators, you avoid the nagging urge to rest your legs, but you also miss the wonderful assistance of a machine that is designed to help you move. Escalators move at about the average speed of stair climbers, so whether you are a passive rider or a stair climber, you will both arrive at your destination at the same time.

Please Climb the Escalator

Personality type number three, my personal favorite, is the escalator walker. These are the people that truly have things figured out. They recognize the virtue of self-propulsion, exercise and personal choice, but they also recognize the fact that escalators were built to assist. By exerting the same amount of relative effort as a stair climber and also getting the assistance of the riders, the escalator walkers get where they are going twice as fast. 

I realize that this analogy is not perfect, but I would venture to say that it's pretty good. At any given moment, we are all likely to be making a decision about something. We can choose to do nothing or we can choose to do everything ourselves. Or better still, we can learn to ask for help and accept the benefits of the world that we live in without relinquishing our ability to effect positive change in our own lives. So at any given time, you can decide who you want to be and what path to take. So please help join me in encouraging everyone to just start walking up the escalators!