Every Monday I post Real Life Minimalists, a profile of one of my readers in their own words. If you’d like to participate, click here for details.
This week, Conrad tells us about the pared-down lifestyle he and his wife enjoy aboard their boat. I love how he describes time as “the great equalizer,” and shares how his minimalism helps him make the most of it. Please visit his blog to learn more.
Conrad writes:
Living in a country where bigger is synonymous with better, being a minimalist is a title my wife and I often kept to ourselves. Even the coolest slogans encourage upsizing: “Go Big or Go Home”, “Everything is Bigger in Texas”, “Dream Big”, “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick.”
Becoming a minimalist seemed like a step in the wrong direction.
But taking steps to minimalize our possessions allowed us to maximize our quality of life. Three years ago we quit our jobs, sold our house, furniture, cars and 99% of our possessions. We then bought a boat (we paid cash, no more debt for us) and moved aboard.
Now we live in some of the most picturesque marinas surrounded by million dollar views and million dollar homes. The marina’s supply the internet access, pay for the water, provide for garbage service and lease us a slip to park our boat all for under $300 per month.
Our 49′ motor yacht (purchase price, less than $50,000) became the perfect minimalist home for us. There is no need to outfit it with furniture, the furniture is already built into the boat. When we moved aboard it was like walking into a furnished home. The couches, end tables, lamps, beds, chest of drawers were already there. The couple we bought the boat from even left all of the pots, pans, dishes and silverware. We literally could have moved our clothes and laptops aboard and been 95% moved in.
Then we created an internet consulting business. Since our bills were very minimal we didn’t need to make a lot of money (less than $2,000/month at first). My previous job’s hour long morning commute had transformed into a 20 foot walk, usually still wearing my pajamas and sipping on hot coffee. We have no need for two cars because we work from the boat. We don’t drive much so we don’t spend much on gas. The tires need changing less often and we only need to pay insurance on one car. It’s a real eye opener when you add up all of the expenses that are directly associated to having a job.
Though we make half the money of our previous lives we have double the disposable income. But where we really go big with being minimalist is the life experiences that we can now enjoy. We no longer need to work 40 or 50 hours per week. Often times I am finished working by noon and I take off even earlier on Fridays. My wife and I have spent our extra time visiting coastal cities, learning to play the guitar, finishing her college degree, learning to speak Spanish, writing books, taking the dogs on long walks and learning the tango. Daily we literally have hours to use as we please.
Time, to me, is the only commodity in life that has real value. It’s the great equalizer and the most democratic of all things. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, famous or anonymous, black or white, fat or thin or any other differentiator that exists in the world. We all wake up each day with the same amount of time. We all have 24 hours to spend as we see fit.
The question my wife and I asked ourselves 3 years ago was, “Do we really want to spend all of our time at work so we can buy things we don’t really need?”
Yeah we’re minimalist when it comes to possessions but when it comes to getting the most out of life, we’re maximalist!
If you’re interested in our whole story, check out our book, “Own Less & Live More: a sailing adventure that takes you from the cubicle to Key West.”
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
Hey Francine, I’ve noticed you haven’t posted yourself in a while.
MAY YOU PLEASE POST AN UPDATE.
Fantastic! Truly, time is the most valuable thing we have. I’m working on freeing up more of my time for the things that are important. Thank you for your inspiring story.
Hi Kariane,
Thanks for the kind words. It seems like a lifetime ago that my wife and I worked normal jobs and had ourselves deeply embedded in the rat race. We found that the elimination of monthly bills tends to free up time.
Good luck to you and remember to enjoy life. (“Life is not a dress rehearsal.” – anonymous)
Enviable!
Had you boating experience prior?
Hi Grace,
My family grew up with boats. Most were small but my dad did own a 41′ sailboat. A true fixer-upper so I had a lot of experience with boats, and working on boats, before we made this leap.
This is what I find interesting about life. We are all born with the same amount of talent, zero. During our life we learn things and as we get better at them we sort of gravitate towards those items because we are good at it. I started young learning about boats but that doesn’t mean you can’t start now.
I started to learn how to play the guitar at 42 years old and it has become one of the great joys of my life. Recently I started to learn Spanish in preparation for a trip to Argentina next year.
It’s never too late to learn something new. Actually learning new stuff is the spice of life and once you begin you’ll have a hard time stopping.
Best of luck to you and shoot me an email if you decide to live on a boat. Try leasing a boat for a month or two and see how you like it.
Take care,
Conrad
conrad@olalm.com
Thank you Conrad for your encouraging words.
What an inspiring story! I could picture myself out on deck in the sunshine, hearing the waves gently lapping against the side of the boat! :-D
Thanks for sharing your story, Conrad. May you always experience smooth sailing!
I second the comment of the poster above — would like to hear again from you, Francine!
Thanks Alix and thank you Francine for publishing our story. We have plans to live a minimalist lifestyle in the Bahamas this winter (I know this sounds crazy but people do it all the time.) I let you know how it works out.
Take care and best of luck to everybody,
Conrad
Hi all,
For the regular readers of Miss Minimalist, I am making my book free for download this Friday-Sunday (5/29/2015 – 5/31/2015) on Amazon.
Own Less & Live More: A sailing adventure that takes you from the cubicle to Key West
I hope you enjoy it.
Conrad
I just saw this and have missed the window! I will have to read it sometime.
Hi Dreamer,
Just for you I am adding on another free day. All day long on June 3, 2015 you can download my book for free off of Amazon.
I hope you enjoy it.
Conrad
Own Less & Live More: A sailing adventure that takes you from the cubicle to Key West
Thank you for that extension. I downloaded it, too! I look forward to reading it.
Wonderful post, Conrad. I love the water myself, and while I don’t think I’m *quite” ready to live on a boat myself (my partner isn’t a water person), I loved hearing how you’ve done it! Sounds like you’ve really created a wonderful, minimalist-stuf, -maximalist-experience life. Blessings!
Oops — “minimalist-stuff”, not “stuf”.
Just goes to show there’s a minimal lifestyle for just about everyone. Just choose the things that are important and go for them. We are returning from an 8 day Mediterranean cruise. It was all paid for in advance. Next we will go somewhere in the US.
We were just in Seattle. It was raining but we went to the beach, because I don’t know when I’ll go back to the Pacific northwest again, I had never been there before. There are only a few states I haven’t been to and we are going to Alaska in May.
Life is a series of choices and the ones some people make seem strange to me. I seldom eat beef and never eat pork or lamb. Mostly I eat eggs, cheese, beans, peanuts and occasionally chicken or fish. Egg shells make good fertilizer for my plants. I am interested in the zero waste home projects.