Happier Abroad Forum Community

i doubt many members or guests who haven´t seen FIGHT CLUB but the underlying message of that flim is against consumerism. the idea that the shit you own will complete you has and will always be shit. BUT yet it is a hard message to rally against. I for the record have and do own a nice apartment. i sold my nice furniture when i offically made the move abroad and currently dont own a car(i sold that too). BUT living without my u.s. comforts has not made me less happy, infact i am far happier since i made the move abroad with just 2 bags, selling or storing{with family no costs) everything else. you cant imagine the freedom this gives you not just physically but mentally. at risk of sounding horribly cliche "the stuff you own ends up owning you" is as true a statement as you will find. good luck and good bless those who also find minimalism.

I have been a minimalist since I made the choice to move overseas and find my wife at the same time. I have no car, I may get a car for a online project but then sell it to make back the money invested. If I decide not to do that, then the goal is to come back to America in 3-6 months with at least thousand in my pocket.

From that point whoever agrees to be my woman will agree with my tactics as I know there will be another financial collapse and there's no reason to come out the other side better than came into it, which is why I am buying silver...

hey you should look into holding agq etf its up like 40% in last month and if you got real balls uslv its a triple etf and up 70% in a month. i doubt there will be a comex default for a while so take advantage of silver bottoming or consolidating this week is a good week should be a look of volitilaty. i like visiting
sgtreport.com but also tfmetals.com

invest well and prosper

which country do you live in djfourmoney

I live in an apartment, no car, furniture from people who didn't need them anymore and many others. The only thing I have that I don't need is the internet and cellphone. I just use them to stay connected and look up information. The only thing I need to reel in is my cigar and wine. Able to live nicely for only $1000 here in colorado. with about $200-$300 to spend. Now I can imagine what I can live on with that money overseas.

+1. I rent a townhome and lease a subcompact car. Almost all of the furniture that I needed for my place I got at garage sales.

Way ahead of you bro. I've been wearing the same pants since 2008.

I like this quote from "Heat" it´s a good minimalist motivation:

A guy once told me, "Do not have any attachments, do not have anything in your life you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner."

being a minimalist in the physical sense is easy, only those who are most brainwashed into consumerism would struggle. being a mental minimalist is whats hard. this site sure as hell does not promote mental minimalism, in fact quite the opposite. physical minimalism is the path to wealth, while mental minimalism is the path to happiness. youve dropped your attatchments to physical objects and thats great, but you should not stop there. drop your attatchments to all objects, including your self image, and you can find true happiness.

royaldude wrote:i doubt many members or guests who haven´t seen FIGHT CLUB but the underlying message of that flim is against consumerism. the idea that the shit you own will complete you has and will always be shit. BUT yet it is a hard message to rally against. I for the record have and do own a nice apartment. i sold my nice furniture when i offically made the move abroad and currently dont own a car(i sold that too). BUT living without my u.s. comforts has not made me less happy, infact i am far happier since i made the move abroad with just 2 bags, selling or storing{with family no costs) everything else. you cant imagine the freedom this gives you not just physically but mentally. at risk of sounding horribly cliche "the stuff you own ends up owning you" is as true a statement as you will find. good luck and good bless those who also find minimalism.

lavezzi wrote:being a minimalist in the physical sense is easy, only those who are most brainwashed into consumerism would struggle. being a mental minimalist is whats hard. this site sure as hell does not promote mental minimalism, in fact quite the opposite. physical minimalism is the path to wealth, while mental minimalism is the path to happiness. youve dropped your attatchments to physical objects and thats great, but you should not stop there. drop your attatchments to all objects, including your self image, and you can find true happiness.

I was talking to my wife about this just this morning, then found this thread. Quite the synchronicity I have reached a point in my life where desiring anything material else and more than I already have won't add a crumble to my happiness. Indeed quite the opposite. I wouldn't consider myself on a peak of spiritual awareness, far from it, I'm as full of contradictions and unsolved riddles as I was 10/15 years ago. I guess having a curious mind that looks for new questions as much as it looks for the right answers, is a good thing at any age. I'm also blessed by a profession that won't require much more than a laptop and a copy of Microsoft Visual Studio to allow you to be productive and survive (or live) on a decent salary, pretty much anywhere in the world.

On the flip side, Monica my wife seems to be no exception to the typical modern woman equation "settled for good = mortgage on a family house + one or more kid + one or more cars". It makes me think how the middle-class dreams of a Colombian are not that dissimilar to those of an American. Thanks, Hollywood. Then again, we come from two different backgrounds - she had to work hard all her life to win some social and professional status, while I am, by nature and nurture, more spoiled and took many things for granted. She is also a woman, she has a need for security and stability ingrained in her DNA.

Dragon wrote:Way ahead of you bro. I've been wearing the same pants since 2008.

and you don't change ever? JK

http://www.amazon.com/Amy-Dacyczyn/e/B0 ... r_dp_pel_1

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

http://news.yahoo.com/video/secondact-2 ... 10195.html

Check out these great points about true wealth and happiness.

http://postmasculine.com/minimalism

Happiness studies consistently bring back a couple of findings: 1) that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions, and 2) that we’re better off investing our energy in our relationships than the things we own.

Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can therefore indirectly improve our quality of life through the following ways:

1. Frees up more time and money to spend on experiences and with people.
2. Forces one to invest more of their identity in their behavior and attitude and less in objects around them.
3. Removes the stress of loss aversion and trying to hold on to what one already has.
4. Saves money (always a stress reducer).

http://postmasculine.com/wealth

Psychological studies on happiness in the past couple decades has supported this. Research shows that money correlates with happiness up until a middle-class income and after that, there’s no correlation between money and happiness. Happiness flatlines.

Money buys happiness only when it is spent on experiences and earned without costing too much time. This is why I find it less useful to define wealth in terms of money, and define it instead in terms of the quality of life experiences.

Wealth is having the freedom to maximize one’s life experiences.

Money is a requisite for wealth, but so is time and so is efficient use of that time and money. Money gives one opportunities for more experiences. But one must also have the time to pursue those experiences. Having the money to travel to Australia isn’t worth anything if you can’t ever take time off work to go there.

Your fundamental needs take precedence: health, food, shelter. If these three needs are not met, then nothing else is going to make you happy and not having them is going to make you miserable. But assuming you have those needs met, then research indicates that the experiences which create the most happiness are:

1. New and unique activities.
2. Shared experiences with others and building relationships.
3. Passion activities.

Winston wrote:Check out these great points about true wealth and happiness.

http://postmasculine.com/minimalism

Happiness studies consistently bring back a couple of findings: 1) that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions, and 2) that we’re better off investing our energy in our relationships than the things we own.

Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can therefore indirectly improve our quality of life through the following ways:

1. Frees up more time and money to spend on experiences and with people.
2. Forces one to invest more of their identity in their behavior and attitude and less in objects around them.
3. Removes the stress of loss aversion and trying to hold on to what one already has.
4. Saves money (always a stress reducer).

http://postmasculine.com/wealth

Psychological studies on happiness in the past couple decades has supported this. Research shows that money correlates with happiness up until a middle-class income and after that, there’s no correlation between money and happiness. Happiness flatlines.

Money buys happiness only when it is spent on experiences and earned without costing too much time. This is why I find it less useful to define wealth in terms of money, and define it instead in terms of the quality of life experiences.

Wealth is having the freedom to maximize one’s life experiences.

Money is a requisite for wealth, but so is time and so is efficient use of that time and money. Money gives one opportunities for more experiences. But one must also have the time to pursue those experiences. Having the money to travel to Australia isn’t worth anything if you can’t ever take time off work to go there.

Your fundamental needs take precedence: health, food, shelter. If these three needs are not met, then nothing else is going to make you happy and not having them is going to make you miserable. But assuming you have those needs met, then research indicates that the experiences which create the most happiness are:

1. New and unique activities.
2. Shared experiences with others and building relationships.
3. Passion activities.

Another prophet of the bleeding obvious, this Mark Manson. All of this polished rethoric about freeing yourself from material possessions and finding happiness in "the intersection of your passion and what brings value to other people", and all he's selling is his ego and the usual eBooks on how to date girls (which always, guess what, works best with second and third world women), how to become wealthy while not really needing that six-figure bank account (so why bother in the first place?) and how to dress stylishly with clothes you don't really need bought with money you never really wanted.

I'm starting to get tired of all of these egocentric furballs advertising nothing else than an opportunity to fund their own self-aggrandising lifestyle, while pretending to do everybody else a favour.