Taking stock, having an accurate inventory, or planning the “haves, needs and wants” is critical to ensuring that you will be able to move forward on your goal of “making the most out of the least.”  That inventory includes personal activities, commitments, plans, life & health, and work catalogs.  While it is feasible to enter into your new style of living without premeditation and without preparation, minimalism is not simply “cutting back” indiscrimately. 

Like the “little engine who thought he could” fable, the core moral is “learn to know before you go.”  Learn what you have, before you know what you can do without.  Learn what you need, before you know what needs can be met by altering how you utilize what you have.  Learn what you want, before you arbitrarily abandon what you may still need.  Learning to know before you go, therefore, demands that you itemize your current life and assets, both tangible and intangible.

In my business life, I show retailer and wholesaler clients the essentials of inventory management: how to conduct perpetual inventory counts, how to determine current and projected needs, how to manage a mini/max system of stock, and how to anticipate trends upward or downward. 

A classic example of bad inventory management is the old corner grocer, who displays his stock of flashcubes proudly at the checkout end.  This merchant hasn’t sold a flashcube since the early 1970s, yet continues to feature them in his high-visibility “power-end.”  He also has not discounted the inventory since pricing them just after he acquired it.  To compound this crucial error in judgment, he continues to report the flashcubes on his tax returns at full value, missing out on potential tax reductions.  Time had passed this business owner by, and he is paying the price for poor inventory management.  The only credit he can be given is that he, at least, knows what he owns.  Yet, he does not possess assets.  He possesses liabilities that clutter his premises, complicating his life. He neither knows the use or utility of those inventory items that he claims as valuable.

You have a choice whether you wish to be a corner grocer.  I urge you to fill your “power ends,” though, with hot, valuable, in demand stock.  You are able to do so only by recognizing decomposing inventory, and dealing with it.

There is a sequence of steps regarding the cataloging of your assets.   I will flesh out those processes in this and the next three blogs.  Today’s segment deals with commitments and liabilities.

Let us assume you are married, with children.  Of course, you may be single, with no kids, an adult dealing with an aging relative, a business person with an array of clients, or an executive with corporate commitments.  This permutations and combinations are endless.  Married, with children, merely gives us the platform from which I am able to illustrate how and why you should inventory your life, objectives, assets and liabilities in this venue.

Note that I have isolated four factors to consider in your evaluation.  Within each of these components, you should be asking yourself, “On a scale of one to ten, how important is this item.”  Many people enter into a new philosophy of living –diet, lifestyle, or otherwise — assuming that the new way is the best way, and the one most congruent with their ideals.  Objectively assessing the criteria you identify will enable you to determine your level of commitment to minimalistic living.

Let’s start with liabilities. 

In the human equation, to whom do you owe a commitment?  In other words, are you responsible for caring for someone, have you pledged time, physical assets or money to someone?  When is that liability terminated?  For example, if you have pledged to provide for your children’s education, when will that commitment be fulfilled, and at what costs?  (Later, you can evaluate techniques for altering that commitment, reducing it, or increasing it, without compromising your minimalist philosophy.) How about a spouse, former spouse, employer, employee? On the work side of the sheet, what is your commitment in your business life?

Next, look at physical liabilities (not your own, but your material liabilities).  Are there, for example, essential household items that need to be renewed, replaced, repaired, and at what cost?  Are there limitations on the use of items (for example, an SUV loan, when you only require a compact car), or a home, vacation property or other item that does not meet your needs, but is still in your possession.  How about the physical liability of location?  Want to move to a $400 per month apartment, but live in New York?  Good luck.  Want to share a vehicle in a car cooperative, but live in a remote village in the country?  Fat chance.  Or are you burdened with the requirement of wearing high-end clothing and absorbing the cost of business meals, because you work in an environment dependent on image?  Not likely that you’ll be able to trim down to wearing jeans at the local Burger King when hosting clients, is there? 

But some of us do have physical liabilities that must be assessed, before “going down” to a minimal lifestyle.  Or, some may have emotional liabilities that need to be considered.  You are contemplating a major change in your way of living, so be sure you have weighed all factors.

Now, let’s itemize financial liabilities.  Here, to paraphrase Ella Fitzgerald, “the listing is easy.” What do you owe?  How long do you owe it.  What assets do you have that are acquired by the incurring of the liability. What are the restrictions on the liability.  For example, what is the monthly payment, the prepayment options and penalties, the interest charges, etc.

Having assessed you liabilities, you may be left with the impression that “going minimalist” is an impossible dream.  On the contrary.  This inventory process is just the first step. Take heart.  We will provide you with options for every alternative!  Look at the process in parallel to the modern way of travel.  No free drinks.  Fewer frills.  Even reduced suitcase limits.  But, by the end of this sequence of revisions to your life, you’ll be packing the most efficient luggage possible, and will be miles ahead of your fellow travellers, when you are able to disembark your flight with only a carry-on, while they hover around life’s carousel, waiting for their excess baggage. 

The key is to begin by knowing where you are, before you go.  Know what tools you have, and will need to get to your destination.  And know all about your destination.  Don’t pack your parka for a flight to Honolulu, or your tartan for a trip to Scotsdale, Arizona.  (Of course, a true minimalist would abandon forget the underwear as being redundant with a kilt, anyway.)

I know few people who feel they have reached the pinnacle of wealth accumulation.  In fact, a constant in today’s world is that the vast majority of the upper middle income and upper income earners do not categorize themselves as “wealthy.”  It is almost comical to observe a politician trying to re-define “middle class” so that he and his well-heeled family will fit, or re-brand his middle-income upbringing as a “poor joe” experience, so that he can relate to the masses.  Indeed, it is an axiom of society that, whatever we have, there is more that we need.

 Unfortunately for most of us, the quest for a rich life bypasses the real richness that is available to every person.

Living a minimalistic life can be very easy, very sanguine.  However, it is getting to that level of comfort that poses critical challenges.  I promote embracing a 15 step system of acclimatization.

These steps are:

1. Know before you go! Inventory your life, your assets, your priorities.
2. Head & Heart Conditioning. Prepare yourself mentally & emotionally
3. Choosing direction.  Identify what is important to you.
4. Always be prepared! Identify fallback (emergency) items
5. A soft place to land: Identify items & emotions that are based on nostalgia & memories
6. Putting your feet up: What you do for entertainment, and what you need for it
7. Double duty, half the cash: Identify multi-purpose items
8. Twopence, cautiously, frugally invested in the bank! Know economical from expensive
9. Mental de-clutter before material de-clutter
10. Conditioning the pack rat: Reorganize before de-cluttering
11. Any friend of mine … Network of associates reorientation
12. One part of your life, one activity, one room at a time
13. Monitor and measure
14. Spongebob’s philosophy — soak it up.
15. Steer clear of the pulpit.

Many of the points seem outrageously obvious.  But, like trying to put on your underwear after you have buckled your pants and laced your boots, sequence and attention to the little things are vital if you want to sustain and maintain your new approach to life.

I will go through each of the 15 steps over the next several weeks, offering anecdotes and illustrations, as well as the “whys and wherefores.” Converting to a rich man’s lifestyle on a poor man’s budget is rewarding, but it will require some thought and significant adjustments. Please, be patient, and enjoy your journey. 

http://www.arichlife.com/description.html

Close friends of ours, in a mid-sized, midwestern North American city, recently got rid of their car, in spite of having two teenage kids (one just learning to drive) and each parent working more than 1.5 miles from home.  While a brisk walk on a nice summer (or even crisp fall) day is appealing, walking 3 miles each day in 35-below winter conditions is far from desirable.  With bus service far less than frequent in their residential area, public  transportation is equally unattractive. But the lack of a personal vehicle hardly has had an impact on their lifestyle. Not only have they trimmed a significant amount from their monthly household, but they are able to travel as easily as they were able to do prior to downsizing, and do so in a level of comfort higher than before!

The cost of a vehicle is more than the cost of its fuel.  Insurance, storage, repairs & maintenance, and loss of free time to clean, maintain and repair a vehicle need to be factored into cost calculations. And, when a vehicle is readily available, it is more likely to be used more frequently. As a car ages, costs increase.  Downtime, as well, is more likely to occur, at unpredictable times.  And an older car uses more fuel.

Our friends have opted for two solutions to their transportation issues: renting and car pooling. Monday to Friday, “Claude” and his wife walk or bike to work on nice days, using public transport on bad-weather days.  For outings & events during the week, they share a car with friends.  When shopping, the two will car pool with neighbours.  For a small contribution to gas costs, they are able to gain the benefit of a car, while cutting expenses significantly.

Claude’s family enjoy numerous outings & excursions, going skiing in winter, to the beaches in the summer.  And these trips have actually increased in frequency, rather than decrease.  They have accomplished this, again, in two ways.  Day trips are slightly less frequent, replaced by a two- or three-day trip.  This cuts fuel costs and travel time, but adds the cost of accommodation.  Staying with friends and reimbursing those friends by providing meals when staying with them is a great cost-saving tool, from which both parties benefit.  Secondly, by renting a vehicle for weekends, and booking well in advance, they are able to get much lower rates than Monday-Friday rentals, are using a fuel-efficient vehicle with no maintenance costs, and have achieved a higher level of luxury than with the old family vehicle.

Relinquishing their family vehicle, then, appears to have left Claude and family with only one minor issue: how to accommodate the desires of the children to obtain their drivers licences.  That problem, too, has been easily resolved.  First, the daughter’s school provides driver education, as well as a vehicle in which to take her test.  And the response to her request for a vehicle to drive follows traditional parental responses: get a job, and earn your own vehicle!

While our friends are not true minimalists, the lesson they illustrate definitely provides a devoted minimalist’s solution to the materialistic approach to transportation & travel luxuries.  No car does not mean sacrificing even a moment of comfort or convenience.

That’s not minimalism.  In polite circles, that’s a Spartan lifestyle.  For those of us prone to being too blunt, that’s dumpster thinking.  Life in a cardboard box.

Minimalist art certainly is not about eliminating everything.  It is about simplifying background noise to allow viewers to focus on the simple, obvious item in front of them.  It is about eliminating the unnecessary.  Minimalist living should be the same.  The public image requires re-branding to drag the lifestyle from obscurity to avante garde.

Today’s environmentalists are on the cusp of minimalism.  Their public persona is that of caring for the world around us, of reducing our eco-footprint, of living clean, and independent of the noise of pollution.  How is that different from minimalism?

One of the major impediments to large-scale embrace of the minimalist approach is the people with whom the concept is identified: radical artists, reactionaries and starving, idealistic youth.  Environmentalists, on the other hand, are perceived as well-educated, somewhat affluent and insightful.

To explain to an acquaintance that you are a minimalist, you invite their view of you as living on the cusp of poverty.  In my world, I deal with a variety of bureaucrats, a wealth of money-handlers, and an army of potential entrepreneurs who are looking to score their millions.  To explain to them that I live a minimalist life would immediately cause them to revisit their beliefs in my competence as a business developer.  I know.  I’ve done it, and am not likely to repeat that error!

I have compensated.  When I leave work, none of my clients are invited into my personal life.  I go home to my barebones home, in my ultra-economical Echo, and change into my $5 tee-shirt and $16 jeans.  In the morning, I climb into my suit, pick up my Blackberry and laptop, and rejoin the “normal” world.  Am I comfortable with this compromise?  Not really.  But the public image of minimalism currently does not allow for coming out of the minimalist closet.

While my approach may seem hypocritical, it is essential to survival. 

When one adopts a divergent approach to anything, and is called to defend it, a person almost always takes one of three tacts: deny passively, adapt, or defend aggressively.  As a solid environmentalist, I support forest conservation.  I do not support the approach of radicals who pound spikes into trees to thwart chainsaws.  As a solid believer in small business, I do not support the heavy-handed irresponsibility of multinationals.  I also do not support those protesters who inflict violence and destruction on innocent businesses at the G-9 conferences.  Unfortunately, those extreme approaches are the very visible reactions by people who are challenged to defend their divergent views, and are unwilling to passsively accept any alternative.

Minimalists tend to overreact.  (That comment is sure to get a rise out of those readers who choose the more divergent approach to the concept, by divesting themselves of every piece of comfort and every stick of worldly possessions).  However, what I mean by the comment is that we tend to want to show our dedication to the philosophy by throwing away everything, and every link to conventional lifestyles.

A more moderate approach is much more successful if change is to be sustained. Obviously, I now have both a barebones wardrobe, and the more worldly one.  My two suits and five shirts are more than adequate to “put on the Ritz” when needed.  On out-of-town business calls, I rent the occasional mid-level intermediate sedan.  I own technology, but I do not subscribe to more than basic cable (news channels are an essential!).  I largely “live off the land,” but bring along store-bought (instead of homemade) wines when I socialize.  The transitions are easy.

For me, the move to minimalism was more abrupt than for most of you, in many ways made out out of necessity.  Maintaining the lifestyle became a choice.  But for most, the move to minimalism should be made gradually, partly because of the shock to the system when you first seek out your fine jewellery for that special outing (and it is no longer there) or when the children come crying fore the latest designer clothes because their friends are mocking your kids’ perceived poverty. But gradual moves will enable you to integrate your public persona with your private lifestyle, and allow you to be selective in your new minimalistic approach.

Getting rid of everything may give you a momentary feeling of triumph, but climbing into that cardboard box at night is sure to send a feeling of chill down your spine!

To be sure, minimalism needs a new image, but, to paraphrase the old saying, “image-building begins at home.” Get your own head around what minimalism means to you, before you try to convince the outside world of the rightness of your divergent approaches.

Next post: Multi-use affluence: How to make the most of every possession.

A close friend, somewhat envious of the freedoms that my minimalism seemed to provide, decided that he and his family would adopt this approach to living.  In a few short weeks, he got rid of his car, and began aggressively trimming the household budget.  He established a rigid plan that would reduce operating expenses by more than 60%.  His six-month plan was to have quit his well-paying government job, and live exclusively off the family’s $2,000 per month rental income from their triplex.

As expected, there soon was a massive internal family rebellion brewing, and, within three months, the minimalism objectives were abandoned.

In large measure, this feast-and-famine approach to adopting the minimalist philosophy derives from misperceptions about minimalism.  Because minimalism is intrinsically associated with its roots — minimalist art, most enthusiasts believe that true minimalism means doing (in fact, existing) with less.

But the minimalist lifestyle is a whole lot more, and a whole lot less, than “doing without.”

I first flirted with minimalism in 1990, without realizing that I was embracing a new way of living.  At the time, I was in the market for a new car for my business, and fell in love with the sporty Plymouth Laser.  But, I knew that, as soon as I bought it, I would be spending hours each week babying it, washing & waxing it, devoting countless unproductive hours to it.  Because I lusted after the Laser so much, and because I needed to use my time productively, I bought a Plymouth Colt 200GT instead.  And, within weeks, I was in love with it, too.  But, I spent less than 1/2 hour each week washing it.  I merely enjoyed it.  In the following 4 years, I saved more than 400 gallons of gas, $200 per month in payments, and probably $5,000 in repairs and maintenance costs.  But I got the same miles, and virtually the same level of comfort as the Laser would have provided.

That was Lesson 1 for me: Get more out of less.

Lesson 2 came four years later, with my divorce.  Rather than fight with my ex through her lawyer, I opted to give her absolutely everything!  That meant I was starting from scratch, at age 42, with three kids in my care more than half the time.  When the kids were with me, we ate and lived normally.  When they left, I lived off leftovers.  I built what some would call a shack (in fact, a spartan cabin), and we lived a relatively frugal lifestyle. 

But, not long after, my ex started to complain that I was “spoiling” the kids, because they were having so much fun with me!  No name-brand jeans, no dining out every day.  But the kids found huge pleasures in the smallest things, the least of activities.  They were unwitting minimalists, already.

Lesson 2 was “Things don’t make you happy, and they don’t  make you sad.  YOU make you happy!”

In a matter of a couple of years after my divorce, I had built up my business to a quite successful level.  Indeed, over the life of my self-employment, I have owned a dozen businesses, with the largest operation grossing over $3 million in the year in which I sold it.  And the money I have earned has found its way into good, deserving hands, where it was put to better use than I could ever have done if I had held onto it.

Today, I operate a business that, in the past three years, has been responsible for the construction of as $1.5million sewer/water extension for a small town, two biodiesel plants, a $3.8 million seniors assisted living centre, a $2m small business incubator, a $1.3 million eco-centre, and three eco-oriented businesses, among other projects.  And, today, I drive a 2000 Toyota Echo with 478,000 kilometers (290,000 miles).  My house is a slightly larger version of the original 450 square foot cabin.

But, today I live probably the richest life of all the friends I know.  That, for me, is Lesson 3 in the minimalist philosophy.  “You don’t have to give up everything to be a minimalist.  You merely have to reduce its significance.” With that lesson in mind, you CAN earn good money without feeling guilty.  You CAN live in an environment that has an abundance of possesions, if that is what your spouse or family or business associates feel they need.  You just don’t have to let the objects run your life — just like the successful dieter who eventually can have sinfully rich desserts and unhealthy foods around him, so long as he doesn’t allow himself to be governed by his unhealthy cravings.

This blogspot will discuss how I have achieved what I believe to be the pinnacle of good living, simply by making the most of the least.  I will discuss concepts that have worked and have failed for others, as well. I invite you to provide me, as well, with your ideas as to how to enhance your spot in the world today by minimizing your “footprint” on this earth.

Welcome to my world!  Can I offer you less?