Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

This series is about figuring out what, in life, is important…and adjusting your income accordingly. Too often, I see people working themselves silly to hit some benchmark that may have been set by a parent, the Joneses, mindless adherence to what society says they should do, or even just an overinflated sense of how much money they need.

What I’m trying to do is explain my own thought processes, along with a way to assess what it is you really need out of life. I’m using my own goals as an example, not a suggestion for what you should do. I don’t know too many people who would care to live the way I do, and that’s fine. The idea is to get you thinking about whether you really need XYZ or whether xyz or even just z would do. ;)

My objective in life is to be rich.

Okay, now let this sink in. What immediately springs to mind for you? A bunch of dollar bill signs floating in the air? A Lambourghini, perhaps, a 12-bedroom mansion? Or something completely different?

If “something completely different” is your answer, chances are that you’re defining “rich” the way I do. For me, rich means having a life rich in the things that bring me joy, not necessarily in hard cash. I don’t want to grind myself into dust working: I want to live this wonderful life that I’ve been given.

I got to thinking about this as I walked across to Flag City Starbucks just before I left Lodi. That place had been “my” coffee shop for five months, and it was my last visit as a regular. It occurred to me that one of the things that made my life rich was being able to go to coffee shops, sit down, and have a nice read or session of people-watching.

That same day, I also noticed that gas at the Arco down the road was $4.13 a gallon. Last week when I filled up I paid $4.70 or something close.

The cost of gasoline is scary. But one thing I have learned is that this life in this RV brings me a huge sense of peace, because it’s one of the things I do; one of my riches. So I got to thinking about what was important to me, in the end, and what would allow me to preserve this lifestyle.

When Don and I first bought Harvey, we both agreed that we would most likely not use the vehicle to travel thousands of miles at a shot, but to move slowly around the country. If it takes us a year to cross to the East Coast and another to return, so be it; the idea is to stop and smell the roses. The bikes, with their much better miles per gallon, and maybe even bicycles, would be our “getting around” vehicles. Even with the gas costs, running an RV this way is much cheaper than running a house, a fact that immediately offsets the gas prices. Being self-employed, and not needing to commute, helps as well.

Over the last few years, particularly over the last eighteen months, I’ve been refining and redefining my list of what I need to be happy. Part of that process is to think back to what I did in the past. My twenties were materialistic years where I hadn’t managed to break free of the expectations set by society: I needed to buy a house, a good car, have a good job…or else I couldn’t call myself successful.

I remember, too, that I lived paycheck to paycheck, not having any real tools for saving money other than a vague notion that I “should.” In fact, one thing that really sticks out is that each month, instead of stashing money away, we’d use our wages to buy something we “deserved”–one month it was a high-tech jacket, another a set of waterproof hiking pants, yet another was an extra piece for the stereo…there was always something. Even when I got divorced almost the first thing I bought was a compact stereo system–it brought me a lot of pleasure, but I was still living paycheck to paycheck!

When I was 27 I moved to the USA, leaving about 95% of my stuff behind. I brought with me two large suitcases and nine boxes sent by sea, three of which were the abovementioned stereo that broke about a month after I arrived. I was now married to a man who was basically frugal and skilled at both making and mending things, so many of the tasks I’d needed to outsource before could be done in-house, and slowly my attitudes about “need” versus “want” were changed.

As I entered my thirties, the idea of saving money rather than spending it seemed more appealing, and my mindset shifted towards making less stretch to more. Then the real sea change came in the form of the loss of our home; we bought an RV, which pretty much forced a reassessment of our finances and stuff, and we got to liking it so much that we might even do it for good.

Also, as I approach my forties, I find myself thinking that actually I’d like to have the option to retire some day, but that perhaps there are more ways to achieve that goal than to work myself silly. I find myself thinking about the things that make me happy, and I start to create a life list–something to separate the wants from the needs. It’s quite an interesting process, actually, and that’s what I’ll talk about tomorrow.

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