Mr. Procrastination can be your bestest b-f-f. He’s there for you when you are really wanting to do something, or know you should do something, and then he accidentally tips over that big punch bowl full of Jell-o made from Super Glue onto your kitchen floor.

Because that’s where you are when you’re procrastinating. Cleaning your kitchen floor. Or emptying the litter box. Or walking the dog. I bet there’s a blog post or novel to be written while you’re reading this right now.

I know I’ve got a novel to finish up while I’m writing this, but I’ll write it anyway just to save you.

Here’s one secret way Mr. Procrastination likes to interrupt you in disguise. You think you are working, but really you’re just avoiding the work. That is: reading about how to or why to or what to do at your job, when you already know how to do it.

Here’s how it works. You’ve got three papers to write. You go online and read up on how to write a paper, then read some forums on how other people have finished their papers. Then you read horror stories about how one person wrote a paper, and the teacher hated it, and told him to do it a different way. Soon, you’re an expert on writing a paper, without having started your own.

It’s natural to want to study something you aren’t successful yet at, only because of uncertainty. Are you really doing this right? Is this how I find success? Without a guide, as most don’t have one, we crumble under the weight of our own doubts, and then seek out answers. Unfortunately we don’t get answers, not the ones we want. What we want is confidence and a clear path. No one can provide it for you. They can only provide ideas. Unless you’re willing to fork over money for an expert to walk you through a process (most can’t afford this) then you’ll have to do this yourself.

Now there are exceptions. For example, I’m taking Holly Lisle’s How to Revise Your Novel course. Now, this is an example of paying for guidance. Maybe you don’t know how to ride a horse, so you pay an instructor. You don’t know how to play piano, so you pay for lessons, buy a book or some videos to help you along.

There’s nothing wrong with looking for answers, as long as you are finding answers and it requires your active participation, not sitting on the sidelines.

I often hate reading magazines. No offence, magazine writers, and you may be the exception, but magazines carry a lot of fluff. Next time you are in a check out lane at the grocery store, look at the cover of Women’s World Magazine, as an example. If you look every month, there’s always a column about how to lose weight, usually about 20 to 30 pounds, doing something that sounds so simple, like drinking water, walking, etc. (Notice off to the right or left there may be a picture of cupcakes. It’s too pull at different emotions so you’re more likely to buy the magazine.) If you read those articles, it tells you everything you probably already know about how to lose weight. If you walk every day, eat right, and drink water, you’ll lose the pounds. It’s no secret formula. They just talk to a different doctor who put it in a different concept, but the theory is still the same.

I call it fluff. It’s stuff you already know wrapped up in a different package.

But it’s so easy to pick up a magazine that promises to solve a problem for you. It’s the same thing with looking for answers online, while procrastinating about your career or problems. You’ll look for answers, often, but end up looking at concepts and ideas, and while great in theory, the only real solution is to test, and try.

Off to do my novel revision. What were you procrastinating while reading this?

After a heavy day of thinking, a good night’s sleep can be a great way to pull your head out of your heart and think clearly. Being emotional about money only works for a little while. Finances can be personal to people. But thinking too emotionally about money for too long doesn’t help. Like I said, I’m a problem solver, not a mope-r. I like answers, not problems.

So yesterday I spent part of the day swimming and picked up a keyboard from the Cajun’s parents who were kind enough to let me borrow one from them. I start piano lessons at school when the semester starts. Nothing like piano to bang on when you’re feeling frustrated.

This morning, I’ve got a better sense of money and issues. The dentist office, assuming I was going to get the credit card they wanted me to get, racked up a $10k bill. I didn’t, and am looking for insurance options. There’s no way I’ll go into $10k+ debt with high interest payments now because a dentist office says I should.

I may be looking for a different dentist that doesn’t try to tell me right off the highest number they think they can get for me from a credit line.

There’s a local insurance office that has a prepaid plan that seems reasonable. With $5 exams, no charge for x-rays, and crowns at $400, that seems much more reasonable. As a freelancer, I may not have $10k lying around in an account, but I certainly can come up with $400.

With my freelance work, I can dig up $400 by working a few more hours in one week. Maybe a handful of articles and viola, extra money for the dentist.

And maybe I’ll find a dentist that doesn’t poke the bejesus out of my gums until they hurt? Maybe.

Yesterday, I went to the dentist. As most freelance writers will tell you, I don’t have dental insurance. When the bill came for some very much needed dental work, I was shocked by the $10k price tag. They wanted me to sign up for a credit card that they will charge it to and I’ll be paying so much plus interest. $10,000 treatments and debt up to my ears that I’ve never had in my life.

I didn’t get the credit card. I told them I was looking into some insurance options for dental and left.

For the first time in 10 years, I felt inefficent. My income wasn’t good enough to pay for my teeth to be repaired. I went home and wondered what it was like to have a salary. Dental insurance. A 401K. All the things “normal people” get but I’ve never had the luxury of. I cried that night because I felt I couldn’t support myself as well as I would like. I felt like I didn’t make enough money, working part time. for $15 an hour.

I am going to school in the fall to learn physics. I’m 29, have been working from home for 10 years as a writer and doing other part time work. I’ve lived on very low income for many years just for the beauty of simplicity and only needing to work part time hours to live the life I want. Maybe that’s a lie. Maybe I’ve been burned by a few well paying clients and now I don’t want the burn and hassle of dealing with clients that will pay me more, so I stick with content mills and other low paying hourly jobs. (OK, $15 an hour isn’t low pay I guess, but when you freelance, and you don’t have health insurance, it’s low.)

I feel the same this morning, but now looking for answers from career coaches online and from other people willing to share their advice and ideas. I’m a problem solver, not a moper. However, today I can’t seem to figure out a solution.

I’m already applying to dental insurance to help pay for some dental work. The problem for that is OK, however, I think my bigger problem is, my bravado for working as a freelancer is squashing when I realize I’m ineffecient right now. My skills are par, my drive to seek better paying clients are lingering.

So here’s some empathy for people who sometimes feel inefficent when they are living a low income life. Sometimes, it sucks because you feel you can’t pay for things you need that other people get when they have a career with benefits. It’s not being part of the ‘normalcy’ that everyone else takes forgranted.

But I still get to sleep in most weekdays.

Chip Conley talks about interesting topics that I feel reflects on what I sometimes talk about on this blog. I try to share ideas on how people can survive well on less, save more, and spend their free time improving their life, finding the happiness in their life.

As you watch the video, check for that pyramid that he redesigned. It had basic needs, survival, at the bottom. That’s sort of like that struggle when you just don’t have enough money for your basic needs in order to feel comfortable. I think most people feel on edge about bills, when many pay more than they need to. When your basic needs are whitled down into a solid statement: I just need shelter, food, and love — it becomes less important that you keep the boat and fancy car. When you have time to explore, learn, and grow because your basic needs are taken care off (success) you then transcend into the self awareness that allows you to do the above. To find happiness.

I think if Chip Conley talked to Vivian about her finances, he may find that she feels safe, she feels her basic needs are met, and that with that security of the survival part and further success, it allows her to focus on her job more and make it worth her while.

Not all of us can be Chip Conley, owning hotels, or kings of countries. We still need people to clean bathrooms, and to be a nurse, or to run sewer lines. However, remember the hard working people on the show, Dirty Jobs? Many seem happy. They enjoyed sharing their work. It may not be fun, but when people are not stressed about basic needs, I feel they relax, and are able to take another look at life and what they do.

So when I mention that someone can live a happy life on less than $1000 a month in America, it’s the coverage of basic financial needs in order to go beyond survival, beyond success, right up to self-awareness and ultimate happiness in exploration, learning, and growth.

I’ve often struggled with too many tasks and never enough time. There’s way too much to want to do with life. However, before I could get to the stuff I want to do, I had to get through the stuff I just -had- to do. Like laundry. And cooking. And work.

Tired of being tired before you get to the fun stuff? Here’s a few ideas on getting around all the boring stuff.

1. Work from your own home office. Many of us spend a lot of time at work. If you spend 8 hours a day in an office, two hours on the road, and time showering, getting dressed, breakfast, getting your mind set for work, shaking off work after work… work takes a lot of time. Instead convince your boss, or convince another boss, to let you do your work from your own home.

2. Work part time hours. Learn to live on less income, and you can live comfortably on working those hours part time. This is especially great if you can work freelance, and you’ll spend even less time working, and you are in complete control of the money you bring in. Earn $50 an hour, or more. Choose your hours, choose your pay, choose your job. Think about it. Does what you really want to do require more money, or more time?

3. Cut back on costs, to reduce the need to work a lot. Even if you love your job, and want to keep it, reducing what you spend your money on can relieve some wallet stress.

4. Rethink tasks at home, like laundry. Do you really need to wash sheets every week? Couldn’t you push it back two weeks? Or longer? Many tasks that we tend to do every day, sometimes we really don’t have to do them every day, or there are better ways to do them. Behind in laundry? Take them down to a laundry service. It may cost a few dollars, but it’ll save on hassle. Once it’s caught up, you can start on a regular, not-as-often laundry routine.

5. Become a food hack pro. Food takes up so much time. Unless you love cooking, there’s usually some cooking hacks people can follow in order to reduce time in the kitchen. For example, you can learn how to identify if a recipe is worth cooking in five easy steps.

6. Let your tastes evolve, and move on. Sometimes we do things only because they are routine, and not because we enjoy them. For example, maybe you used to enjoy a certain rubber chicken blog, and would follow the blog every day. Now, you no longer have an interest in rubber chickens. You know all about them, you’ve had your fun and now you want to learn about something else. Learn to let go.

7. Get help. When you’re overwhelmed with a task, like taxes, or house cleaning, or organizing, it’s so much easier to give the burden to someone else, someone who may enjoy doing those things. It does cost money, but when you save money by working at home, or save on the utility bills, that few extra dollars on getting someone else to do the hard stuff may be well worth it.

8. Get free help when possible. Many people are often stumped by daily problems, sometimes the problems are specific. A generic list like this one may not be able to help everyone in every situation. Find a forum, a group, a person (I have email!) and ask, “How can I…” and get direct answers. Spend less time researching when a pro or other people can point you in the right direction. (Google when possible, but when you don’t know where to start, or need extra help finding just the right keywords to search, try asking.)

9. Eliminate email, phone calls, television, etc. I used to spend $50 a month on cable television that I never watched. I’d turn on a DVD or watch Netflix before I’d watch the 300-channels-with-nothing-on cable tv. Learn the tricks to cut down on emails (using folders, deleting junk before you get it), eliminating phone calls (voicemail) and save money on cable, unless you really, really, really enjoy those things. All those hours are yours again.

10. Find that project you do want to spend all your saved hours on. I work part time hours, live well doing so, and I ended up with so much extra time, I decided to go to school for a degree in physics. Finding something to do gave me a whole new reason to push back other projects that weren’t in sync with my goal, and do what I feel I want to do with my time. Believe me, when you find something to do that you are really passionate about, you’ll find ways to make time to do what you love.

If you are trying to live off of a low income margin, looking for low rent is one of the key first steps you can take. Lower rent means you have more to spend on other needs, like food and health care.

Sometimes it can be tough. It may mean moving to another state, or working on Saturdays and Sundays trying to find the best deal on an apartment or home. It does take work to find a good spot, but once you find it, you’ll be saving so much money.

Why low rent for low income? Why not buy a home? Buying a home usually means higher costs. Yes, your monthly payment may be lower, but you pay property taxes, home repairs, insurance and interest. And for those saying renting is throwing money away, paying for insurance and interest is throwing money away as well. You may be throwing away as much as you are saving.

Some real estate agents and other folks may suggest that your investment is for your future. You’re giving something to your kids later. Your kids may not like the house you buy. If they sell it, they’ll have to pay taxes, and there may be additional costs and problems.

The money you save on your ‘investment’ may be put into a savings plan. Instead of paying $100,000 for a home, of which they may or may not get back, you may want to instead invest in a Roth 401k or another savings plan. Not everyone has to buy a home.

If you already are on your way to owning your own home, you may have to consider if you really love your home, and if you want to live off of less money, you may have to first work toward lowering your monthly payments, lowering

I have not used any sort of ‘free rent’ help from the government, or low rent help. It is a waste of time to deal with the paperwork, and on top of that, you don’t really get an option to choose where you live. Many of the places I am talking about don’t accept payments from the government.

The best way to find low rent apartments or homes is to start looking locally. Cruise streets that are groups of starter homes and near colleges or downtown. If location is important, because you have a job you have to stick with, check the local area within walking distance to your work, or as close as possible. (Low income living means spending as little money as possible on gas and travel.) I’ll be teaching exactly how to find low rent homes in your area in another post coming soon, complete with step by step tips on where to look.

Move to low rent areas. I lived in California for 6 months. The only way I was able to afford it was because I was renting one room out for $200 a month. I hate having roommates, so it didn’t last long. (No offense, those who are good roommates out there, some were nice, but I just preferred to live on my own.)

I moved to South Carolina, where I was able to find an apartment for rent, on the beach for about $500 a month. It was a little more than I wanted to afford, but it was on the beach. I love the beach. I was willing to sacrifice some money to live on the island for as long as I was able to.

In many cases, I was able to move away from the city because I worked from home. I was able to pick an apartment at low rent near a small town that had a tiny library and a grocery store within a 30 minute drive. The once a week drive to town to get supplies and books made living at the low rent apartment worth it.

When you do it right, and when you consider the possibilities, moving for low income to a low rent area makes for much more freedom. You can’t take it with you, and as long as you are comfortable within the living conditions, why buy a bigger house or pay more in rent?

I love it when Sir Ken Robinson talks. He is one of my favorites at TED and someone I love to follow. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out his latest book: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. I haven’t read it yet, I plan on purchasing it soon.

His speech holds a lot of meaning for me, simply because I am someone who never went to college, until now, at 29. I was nervous about going to college, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I felt like I had one shot at going to college. The government would pay for it, and I would have to choose what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Because I didn’t know what I wanted, I never went.

Instead, I looked for what I really wanted to do. I experimented with different types of businesses, some were massive failures. It is through this ‘testing’ phase that I found writing. I found I loved to write fiction. I discovered that while I could write nonfiction, it wasn’t my favorite. However, I learned certain aspects of it that were enjoyable. I learned to focused on what I loved about it. Over 10 years of working in nonfiction, and having perfected it, I did it because it allowed me access to do what I really want to do while working part time at it. Maybe I’m a ‘late bloomer’ but I absolutely love working from home and having the free time that I have to seek out other opportunities.

So this year, as I enter college, I do so with the idea that I’ll be diving into lessons and learning and passions that I can discover all over again. I’m not taking English. Why would I want to learn how to do something that I already do for a living? Instead, I chose physics, a science field, and with full intention of exploring other sciences along the way as well. Chemistry and biology are also of interest to me. I wouldn’t have this opportunity to learn about things that could be very important to me. I wish to find the solutions to problems I’m passionate about. I feel I can only do that through knowing the science behind it, so I can create what I want. I’m a problem solver. I like knowing how to make it, not going over problems.

Imagine if Christopher Columbus had believed in his formal education where everyone around him believed the earth was flat. Pigeonholed into what was tradition, rather than willing to push the boundaries but following his passion, he revolutionized beliefs in his time. In the picture above, he is seen with people weeping at his parting, because they feared he would not return. He must surely fall off the end of the world if he were to go off in his ships.

If you haven’t yet, go listen to Sir Ken Robinson, and then maybe share with me your interpretations.

Humans love complications. If there aren’t any complications in life, some folks tend to create the complication. Here’s some comments that come up about when I mention my method of living off of $1000 a month.

“I need my job.” AKA They don’t want to switch jobs and work from home, or from a place where they can walk.

“I have too much debt.” I don’t have credit card debt, yet others do and live off of less per month.

“My rent is too high.” People are looking so hard at their current situation, they won’t look at anything else.

You can say no like the grumpy turtle, but you do things by choice. No one else is going to care if you live off of working part time, except yourself.

Here’s what I’ve learned about people who say, “I can’t do it like you do it.”

1. They’re blocking suggestions. Some people just can’t wrap their brain around how to do something else. They’re stuck in their own mode, and they won’t see the forest for the trees. For example, some folks will say, “Well, my own rent is $500 a month. My phone is $100. I’d never survive off of $1000 a month.”

People like this are looking from it from the opposite way. They have a set amount they’ve already established for themselves. If you suggest to them, “Well move to a cheaper apartment.” They will often suggest that they “can’t”. In most cases, I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do for you. Part of living off of part time work means doing a few difficult things now so you can get to that point to where you want to be. If you say you can’t, you are right. You can’t. This blog may not be for you.

2. Some folks just can’t do it. If you have kids, you can’t live off of $1000 a month, but having kids or having a family has the potential for both parents to work part time and earn plenty and still have free time. You don’t have to live off of exactly $1000 a month, either. I like to show that it is possible, but if you have extra coming in, you can use it as savings or for paying down debt if you have it, you don’t have to spend it.

3. Some people already spent more than their fair share. They established some kind of debt, and that eats up more costs than rent and so forth. That’s all about debt consolidation, and all I can suggest is to get help, tear up the credit cards, and pay it off as soon as possible. I have lived without credit cards and loans. If you already have a loan or credit cards, that’s something you will have to pay off, but it’s just some additional income. It doesn’t have to mean you work harder, you’ll just have to work smarter. (I love Scrooge McDuck from Duck Tales when he says, “Work smarter, not harder.”)

So set up your own budget, and then progress from there. How much do you really need? Is there any way to cut corners without living off of rice and ketchup dinners? Maybe you can work at a slightly higher paying job part time, working from home, instead of having to work in an office, earn less and spending more on gas and clothes?

From this blog, I hope you’ll take what works and leave the rest behind. As mentioned before, mileage may vary.

Photo by hortongrou.

For a very long time, I’ve worked only part time hours. That isn’t because I had to. I just wanted to. Fewer work hours meant more time to do other things, like writing novels or going to school. Simplifying my work life became an obsession.

I learned that I didn’t have to make as much money as everyone else wanted to make. There was a false sense of more equaled better. I didn’t find that to be the case. The more I had, the more I had to deal with and take care of. So living with less became something I really wanted to discover.

I squared myself to working only 4 hours a day, earning about $15 an hour, that’s $1,200 a month if I worked only weekdays. So how can a person living in Louisiana live off of about $1,000 a month?

Essentials
Rent $400
Utilities $140
Cable Internet $45
Food $200

Total $785
Remaining $215

The remaining money splits into entertainment and savings. On months I earn more money, it’s additional entertainment and savings.

Let me break this down.

Rent for $400

I took my time finding a prime apartment to rent. The one I found was downtown and within walking distance to the library, a must have for my own entertainment.

I was probably lucky to find one for $400, but the Cajun was living downtown as well, for about $425 a month. His was actually bigger and better than mine, and I could have easily afforded it.

Part of the big key for living off of $1000 a month is to find an inexpensive apartment very close to where you have access to work, food, and some fun via walking or riding a bike.

Utilities for $140

Of course, this was an estimate. My old apartment wasn’t a great example. I had to share my utility bill with four other apartments. The apartment was sectioned off from a big house. So it was one big bill given to the land lady, which in turn we split. So my old ability to be able to get the gas and electric and water down to around $100 a month or less wasn’t going to happen.

Normally, I can manage to get electricity way down, as well as water. I showered every other day. (I worked from home, I just didn’t get very dirty when I didn’t even leave the house.) I washed clothes every week and a half to two weeks, and I hand washed dishes. It’s never an exact estimate, because of the varying rates.

A lot of my savings came from not using as much electricity. I used a single lamp to read from or to work near the computer at night. I regularly left my lights off during the day. The most used device was the computer. Getting energy efficient light bulbs and monitors increases my ability to save money.

Cable Internet for $45

I used to have Cox Cable, which was about $45 a month for a middle tier of speed, about 15 Mbps. Now, we’ve got fiber at this house, which is $40 a month, at 30 Mbps.

This is our source for entertainment. We browse the internet and use the Wii to stream in Netflix. It saves us a ton of money from paying for rented movies and cable TV. Some people love cable, and as long as you actually watch it, that’s great, buy it. For us, we liked watching Lost and Tudors in order and when we want to, not when the programmers wanted us to.

Food for $200

I spent about $50 a week on food. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Plus at least $15 of that went to cat food and litter. It was more than enough to buy milk, cereal, bananas, chicken, veggies and other fixings. Days I ate out, it only came from savings.

Now I have $215 leftover. If you work from home, you may be spending $50 to $100 in health insurance, and maybe some more if you have debt. I don’t. I never had a credit card, so I don’t have the debt that comes with it. If I don’t have the cash to pay for it, I don’t buy it.

I also, right now, don’t have a car. I plan on buying a scooter soon. Even with a car, I could get one for $2000 from savings (that’s about 10 months of savings if I don’t spend too much on extras for a while) and buying used saves me money every month. Plus, when I purchase something in total like that, insurance rates are much lower. My old car used to be $40 a month in insurance and maybe $20 in gas a month. Working from home meant I didn’t have to buy gas that often.

Everyone’s situation will be different. There’s no way I could find $400 a month in rent in California. Mileage may vary for this, but I’ve lived in many states across the country. If you wanted to stop working so hard and live off of less money, this may be one way to do it. You live on less, you can have more time to do the important things. Like surfing.

What would you rather be doing? Working?

Photo by saine.

I don’t remember where I found this story, but it hit home and I wanted to share since my last post was something like this.

If anyone knows where to find the original tale, I’ll be happy to link to it. This is my ‘memory’ of how it went.

There was once a fisherman sitting on the beach, bringing in his catch. An MBA guy walks up to him and begins asking about his fishing business.

“So, how much money are you making here?”

“Enough to live on the beach, feed my family. I fish in the morning and have the whole day to myself. I surf every evening, visit the pub.”

The MBA asks, “How would you like to let me help you? You could work for me, I could pay a wage, and help you start up a fleet of boats.”

“What for?”

“To be rich. You’d start with another boat, hire on crew. It’ll be long hours in the beginning. Eventually, you’ll move up with additional boats, and additional crew who will need to be managed. The more boats you manage, the more money you’d make. Eventually you’d hire managers to manage the boats.”

“Sounds like a lot of work,” the fisherman said.

“You’d make a whole lot more money. I could make you rich.”

“What would I do with all of that money?”

“Well,” the MBA man thought about it, and then smiled, “you could retire in twenty years or so, and live with your family on the beach, surf every day, and visit the pub. Enjoying your hard earned life.”

What would you use your riches for?

And why are you waiting?

Photo by Auroqueiro.