Money is an energy that can empower us. We use money to purchase the basic goods for survival, and to give us the materialistic pleasures of life. We can use money to help others out, to create businesses, and build structures.
Money is an energy that can also be used for manipulation, destruction, and malfeasance. Money buys off politicians who can put devastating policies into place. Big pharma likes to use money for pushing their drugs into the bodies of millions of humans. Money manipulates the masses into the feeling of scarcity, survival, and forces many into being debt slaves.
I don't view money as evil, rather as an energy that can be used as a double-edged sword. Unfortunately, in too many cases, money is used as a weapon instead of a helpful tool.
I have found myself relying on the excuse that I DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY to do X, Y, and Z.
I know that many others do this as well. We simply say, "I cannot afford it" or "I don't have the money to do that" and we simply kaput.
Money can create action, lots of action, especially if you have lots of money. But the lack of money can prevent action, to the point of paralysis, despair, and even death for some.
For a real life example: I live off-grid on a 30 acre parcel of property that is undeveloped and very wild. I constantly find myself dreaming of building projects and installing systems, which rapidly meets the "I don't have the money" dead-end.
Of course, when we started our off grid journey, it was at the peak of the building materials "shortage" that caused a massive price spike in lumber, metal, and hardware. We had to purchase some materials to build our fence and our crop cage. But it dashed many of our other building dreams.
The price of building material has come down, but will likely never be as low as it was before the wave of inflation.
I quickly had come to the realization that it would take tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to build up a functioning off grid ranch, and we simply do not have the money to do so. You can read more about what I learned in my first year of living off the grid.
But what if I could tell you that it can be done without all that money? This is where ingenuity comes in.
New Year's Resolution: Decrease my reliance on fiat money and increase my reliance on REAL WEALTH.
The fiat currency system that we are beholden to is a GRAND ILLUSION. The only thing that gives the US Dollar value is the belief that it has value. It is not backed by anything, it is not even hardly printed on paper anymore! That's right, most dollars are digitally manifested into existence by computers and the fractional reserve banking system.
Whats the difference between 1 dollar and 1 trillion dollars? 16 zeros. - Mike Maloney
Fiat currency systems have worked to enslave humanity across the globe, and the USA is probably the biggest actor in this whole scheme. The American dream consists of getting into massive debt, and then working to pay off that debt with a nice interest price tag attached to it. People work their entire lives away in order to pay off their debts to the bank.
It starts right when you get out of high school. The credit card offers flood in, the price to attend college keeps getting higher and higher every year, and students have to take out boatloads of loans to get through.
We have been conditioned to become debt slaves, which keeps us as worker bees for our entire lives. Getting that new truck, boat, tractor, home, etc. keeps getting more and more expensive, and we keep taking out the debt to get those things.
My new year's resolution is to break the chains of fiat debt slavery so I can be more wealthy.
You may be thinking that this is a contradiction, don't you need lots of dollars to be wealthy? How does using fewer dollars make me more wealthy?
Although it seems counterintuitive, using LESS money makes you MORE wealthy. You gain wealth in your life by having to rely less on the fiat debt system.
Essentially, if you have less debt, you have to work less, and you gain more time back in your life. And time is the REAL WEALTH. That is the ultimate scarcity factor. We are all on a time limit. If we spend our whole lives working for others, working to pay off debt for fancy cars and over-inflated houses, what are we really working for?
When you use fewer dollars, the dollars you do use go a whole lot further. If I need $5,000 a month to live because of a mortgage, truck loan, student debt, and credit card debt, I have to work tons of hours and am beholden to this debt. My dollars I do have are swallowed by the debt monster.
If I only need $500 a month to live, it doesn't take me much energy or time to earn those $500 and any dollars over that amount can be spent on other things, like crypto or assets that appreciate. That means my dollars go a lot further which increases my wealth.
There is more to wealth than just fiat currency
Let me name some ideas for you that are forms of wealth:
- Natural resources, such as water, land, and timber
- Precious metals like gold, silver, copper, palladium
- Precious stones like diamond, emerald, sapphire, ruby (check out my post on rock hounding)
- Foodstuffs like dried beans, grains, salt
- Heirloom seeds
- Livestock animals
- Guns and ammunition
- structures like sheds, shipping containers, animal pens (my post on off grid dwellings)
There are also esoteric forms of wealth:
- Health and wellness (our podcast about off grid health and fitness)
- Peacefulness
- Family and friends
- Children
- Elders
- Community
- Culture
- Spirituality
You can also build assets of wealth with skillsets:
- Distilling and brewing to make alcohol and beer
- Foraging wild foods
- Trapping, hunting, fishing
- Prospecting, rockhounding, metal detecting
- furniture making
- blacksmithing, metal working
- herbalism, medicinal and edible
- weaving, sewing, basket-making
And the list goes on and on.
In Conclusion
Do not let money - or the lack thereof - prevent action in your life. If you find a roadblock that requires money, learn to work around it. Think about how you can accomplish the same goals without the money. You may have to tweak your goals a bit, but in the end, you can produce the same result without the fiat system.
Learn wealth building skill sets and accumulate assets that are valuable outside the fiat system. Find ways to generate wealth through nature, community, and use those ways for positive empowerment, not destruction.
Do not let the fear of not having money consume you. Remove the scarcity mindstate and focus on abundance. Work to pay off debt and not get into any more debt, even if it feels necessary.
I hope you found my thoughts on money interesting, and maybe it gave you some ideas about life. Let me know your thoughts below!
Sincerely, Regina Cal.
Hey, just going to say in case you weren't familiar with them, check with Buy Nothing groups in your area (usually these are groups on facebook, but there is also Freecycle on Yahoo Groups and Nextdoor and Craigslist postings, of course) for some building supplies! I see them crop up every now and then in my groups and usually it's just a matter of, if you can transport it, it's yours, because somebody did some remodeling or redoing their garden or whatever. Firewood is another semi-frequent offer because someone had to cut down a falling tree or it fell in a storm or something so they chainsawed it up into pieces and you just have to take it and give it time to season.
Thanks for the tips! I have fallen out of the habit for scouting materials as of late. Some good stuff can come up!
I see a lot of good stuff come up around here, but I live in a rapidly gentrifying city sooooo there's a lot of construction and remodeling and so on happening all the time. Apparently with the cost of building materials skyrocketing, even the Habitat for Humanity Reuse Store was getting picked over, per the comments sections of people asking for leads on supplies locally. The costs of this stuff is crazy right now!
It really is! I actually just broke ground on a huge project, I am building a primitive stone house, using most materials from my property. You can check it out here: https://peakd.com/hive-120078/@queenmountain/i-am-building-a-stone-house-my-primitive-off-grid-building-journey
You can head to those construction zones and pick thru their bins and ask them to put aside any spent materials. There is usually a TON of waste at these sites that are perfectly reusable.
30 acres, I'm jealous! I have 2 acres, live between the property and vanlife. Much less stressful, I been free from paying someone else's mortgage since August.
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TBH, 30 acres is a whole lot to take care of. Looking back, I think 10 acres is max that I would want, although the no neighbor thing is really nice. I have thought about doing some boondocking and off grid life, how is that working out with owning property?
Its basically a place for my dogs to get out and I have a shed on it for storage. I sleep in the van, not always at the land, I go on mini adventures. It's a mix of offgrid living and vanlife
That sounds amazing! I always had a dream of traveling to look for gems and gold. My plan is to have a small camper and boondock in remote locations. But that dream is on hold with the property, at least for now. Someday, I will make it happen!
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nice post, thanks for sharing it! i do find it strange that we can make money in just about any way imaginable.. and many people are able to manifest it on a whim, whilst for others its very illusive.. the secret is in the mind, in the thinking.. i have a few friends who have gotten by their whole lives with almost none.. somehow they always find a way to live even with out it!
That is a good point, most of it exists within the mind. I do notice that when I am in fear/survival money mode, I have a hard time manifesting it. But when I let go, and go into abundance mindstate, it seems to pop up everywhere! Skills are so valuable.
well what do you know! yes.. a positive outlook really goes a long way.. people also respond positively to positive people!
The ABCs of independence
Ammo
Bullion
Crypto
Dirt
OK,now I need to come up with entries for the rest of the alphabet. Dangnabbit!
Eggs
Farming
Gold
Helium Miner
Your turn!
Woww good article, I agree with your comments
I think money talks, Money can't buy everything, but it's: "material" is important. There is a famous saying in Vietnam " 1 thatched hut two golden hearts." - it's about a poor couple who live side by side in a hut but they are still happy. In our generation, that saying has been dropped haha no one wants to live faithful and poor in a hut. The more modern society is, the more people want to have an enjoyable life, without money we can't do anything
And I hate debt, I'd rather buy a few things, I accept not buying things I like, debt makes our brains tense. Only when our mind is happy can we make money more hahaha
Debt is a huge stress, and it always in the back of our minds. Better to live without it and be in peace.
It is much easier to live without money in the countryside. It would be tough in a city, living a modern life. But, I bet it is doable, to reuse, upcycle, and maybe have an urban garden. That would be an interesting challenge!
I love that saying.
Beginning of this year, I had plans for my fashion brand but just because I don't own a sewing machine yet and have been saving up to get one but just when I hit the cost amount there would always be a hike in price so,I left it untouched but recently, I decided to opt in for a rentage that way my monthly income will increase as well as my savings...
That's a good perspective, I never really thought of money part, but yes it makes lot of sense, a lot of people make money an excuse to procrastinate. To think of it, can also be the other way around, if someone has too much money also they may not be so motivated because they are so comfortable.
Thanks for an encouraging and instructive post. I like the idea that many, many things have value, including things, people, and skills. This helps us to rethink our notion of assets and value.
There is so much value that is not tied to dollars. The hardest part is adjusting the perspective to give dollars less clout.
I also have a easy contest you may want to enter and the reward is one HBD!
https://peakd.com/nobansonhive/@shortsegments/jack-dorsey-tweet-contest-earn-1-leo-for-a-tweet-reply