Category — Real Estate and Economy

This was one of the first things Larry said to me, coffee-stained teeth showing, eyes a little wide. Larry had disheveled white hair, white beard, and work clothes that were worn and faded from the Costa-Rican sun – but well-cared for. I thought he was a bit crazy, at the time. Of course you need to live next to food – my twenty-something mind thought – why would you live where there was no food?

“When the economy goes bad, they will no longer ship food to many places… you need to live where you can grow your own food!”

This was a decade ago. I spent three months in Costa Rica surfing – a little bit of adventure before starting a graduate program.

Larry lived with his Tica wife, Lupe. Lupe and Marisol (sisters), ran a little posada in the village of Domincal on the Pacific coast. Larry looked like he could be in his early sixties – he was literally getting long in the tooth – but he was fit and wiry. I occasionally spoke with Larry, he seemed to spend his time gardening, repairing the posada, and working on various projects. I thought he had that slightly-crazed ex-pat vibe, but he didn’t share the beer-gut and perma-sunburn that most older gringo-men seemed to carry around.
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The Year of Living Frugally – Week 2

I have no doubt the average citizen of this country is traveling through a jungle of debt. During the last decade, the average saving rate has turned negative. Credit became easier to obtain, and we were all encouraged to spend and buy and consume. Not because it would make us a healthier country – but because we needed to keep the Gross Domestic Product growing, and we no longer produce any real goods to sell on the global market. Our major export from this country is our debt. Our largest product is our debt-spending and consumption.

Even though we are traveling through a jungle of debt, there is a well-worn path for us to follow. The companies and politicians who need us to spend ourselves deeper into debt (keep the GDP growing!), continue to clear their preferred path through the jungle for us.

When one tries to get off of this path and escape the jungle, is when one really finds out how difficult and dense this jungle really is.
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While I was at work today an interesting news article came through the internet tubes. This article discussed how The Fed was going to lower the prime rate by at least .5% at the upcoming March 18 meeting. In fact, Wall Street was predicting it with 100% certainty.

Wall Street is in a great position to pressure the private corporation known as the Federal Reserve. Wall Street can accuse them of ruining the economy if they don’t lower the interest rates (and we’re already heading into recession). We’re approaching a crossroads – a fairly bad recession while the economy “sheds” it’s speculative-bubble values, or we devalue the money by pumping a lot more of it into the economy so it appears as if there is growth. Wall Street thinks that this is an easy recipe: Take a shot of bad recession (maybe a 2% loss of Gross Domestic Product), followed by a chaser of a 5% inflationary money devaluation and don’t we get a net 3% gain in GDP? (Imagine a barrel of oil costs $100. After 5% inflation the same barrel costs $105. We have now increased the amount of money spent by 5%, which increases the GDP by 5%.)

They’re playing high-stakes economic “chicken” with our future.
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(surfing is frugal)

Over the the month of January, I’ve had time to think about and refine my original idea. The premise is still the same – I can not continue along my present path.

Something needs to change.

I am currently finishing the task of paying off credit card debt, and working paycheck to paycheck with very little savings. My job takes most of my time and energy. I am renting too much house for just myself and my dog.

I am only one unfortunate event away from poverty.

Actually, most of us are only one unfortunate event away from complete poverty. We are not as safe as we try to make ourselves feel. This statement is not meant to make us live in fear. Quite the opposite – we should not let fear keep us from living the lives we want to lead.

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New year’s Day. New Year’s Resolutions. Too much darkness, not enough sunlight. Too much fatty, sugary food. All these things can bump one into a more introspective mood. Especially those of us with mild Seasonal Affect Disorder – whose holiday plans fell through (which was driving south for more than a week of sunny SoCal and Baja 70-degree-and-Santa-Ana weather). Instead, I spent the last week in the gloomy, chilly rain of far northern California.

During the summer and fall, I can’t think of a place I’d rather be. I love it here. However, sometimes I really hate the damp dark rainy Pacific Northwest winter climate. Once the darkness sets in, and the rain starts, and the average local buoy reading is 20-foot plus and sideways rain blowing onshore – there’s no clean surf for months. There are the rare days, when the winds die and the ocean calms – like this New Year’s Day (although the surf was too flat) – but that was the exception rather than the rule. The average surf go-out during these times means looking for waves wrapping around the protective headlands and hoping it filters the chop from 12 feet to a more manageable 5.

To survive, many of the long-time locals take this time to vacation in warmer climes. A co-worker told me I should plan next year’s winter vacation now to make sure it happens.

So on a warm sunny day, feeling the happiness, I let myself think of the ideal winter vacation (instead of the usual driving south to couch-surf with friends-and-family for a week over the last week of December).

Why not go around the world?

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