Self-Sufficiency and Resilience – Plans upon Returning to Australia

  Back in January of this year I wrote a post about Self Sufficiency, Independence and Lifestyle Planning . In it, I explained how I wanted to become less reliant on the current industrial system and to take more control of my own life. I’ve achieved a lot since then, but knowing that we were moving back to Australia [...]

The End of Retirement

A while back, I wrote about the coming en masse Boomer (1943-1960) retirement and how it is likely to affect the economy. Today, after reading the post and comments about The Grey Tsunami over at Down To Earth, I’d like to take that thought process one step further. I’ve previously discussed how populations in industrialised nations are ageing. As an [...]

Finding Freedom in Simple Living

I came across this interesting Peak Moment interview with an early 30-something couple. I found their story to be really interesting because their lives parallel ours in many ways. While the host of this show gets on my nerves somewhat this video is worth watching for some inspiration on how others are choosing to find [...]

Links – Week 9, 2010

Photo by: Papalars Blogs This week I thought I’d feature a couple of blogs which are actually cooperatives. i.e. they are written by a community of different writers. Each writer brings their own point of view to the conversation and I’ve found some great new blogs in the process. The Simple, Green, Frugal Co-op A writers [...]

Creating a New Future Worth Living

Yesterday at lunch I was talking to a friend who reads this blog. We were talking about hope and how he thinks I have none because of the gloomy things I write about. I told him that wasn’t true in the slightest. In fact, apart from the occasional slip into doom-mode I am usually a [...]

On getting out of Debt (I bought back my Freedom)

Two years ago I was in a lot of debt. I mean A LOT! We are talking seven figures here. I was ok with it because I considered it ‘good debt’ (i.e. it was all investment related). I earned a good wage, worked in a secure job, could comfortably make the repayments and my assets were [...]

Self sufficiency, independence and lifestyle planning

Today I wanted to talk a bit more about some topics I haven’t really touched on before but which I find myself thinking a lot about. My Background First, a little background. At the age of about 22 I decided that I did not want to be working for someone else for the rest of [...]

My first Crochet Project ~ Newborn Teeny Beanie

I’m excited! This week I managed to learn a new skill and then actually produced something that resembles what it was supposed to look like. Last Sunday I spent an hour with a friend who showed me the basics of crochet and then during the week I watched a bunch of instructional videos. I love [...]

Voluntary Simplicity, Frugality and why all this economic stuff is relevant

Photo by: Stuck in Customs Over the last couple of months I’ve written some lengthy posts on various economic issues such as how money is created, housing bubbles, the credit crisis and debt. I know some people yawn and switch off to talk of economics, so today I wanted to talk about why I find [...]

Easy ways to save money while living more sustainably

  Photo by: Orcoo Shifting to a more sustainable lifestyle is a process. It’s not like you wake up one morning and can make a massive reduction in your impact on this planet. We’d like to think we can, but in reality it takes time to change our habits. Trying to change everything at once can also feel like [...]