I read the other day that the average personal credit card debt is almost $8,000, the typical cost of a new car is nearly $48,000, and the national median price of a house is about $418,000, all of which begs the question, how are folks making ends meet nowadays? The answer is many are struggling to do so and near record inflation has not helped. So, rather than trying to keep up with the proverbial Joneses, perhaps the time has come for people to opt out of the insanity.

“Given the insane cost of everything, a person trying to find a sane response is put in a difficult position. He or she can try to keep up, enter the rat race, let money be their goal in life, worship Mammon like so many,” suggests W.D. Wetherell in North of Now: A Celebration of Country and the Soon to Be Gone, or “He or she can go the opposite route, opt out of the economic race entirely, but this requires courage, and extravagant sacrifice, and is a very difficult option.” 

Suffice it to say the latter route is the one Linda and I have chosen and while it has required courage, I would not characterize the sacrifice as extravagant nor a very difficult option. It has simply involved adopting a different set of priorities, namely identifying our definition of “enough” and choosing to live according to another standard of  “wealth.” As the saying goes, your mileage may vary, but it pays to at least consider a more modest consumer lifestyle.

Our basic needs are met and we are debt free so we are rich in time and experiences, none of which we take for granted but it is our lifestyle by design. We prefer to lease our homes, share one vehicle, and limit large expenditures to affordable ones. It may not be for everyone but we would not trade our lifestyle with anyone. As author Kevin Kelly states in Excellent Advice for Living, “The rich have money. The wealthy have time. It is easier to become wealthy than rich.”  

Pictured above is the former debtor’s prison in Gloucester, Virginia, an historic village off the Chesapeake Bay we recently visited. It is located in the state’s oldest courthouse complex and is one of several preserved structures on the site. While photographing it I could not help thinking of how foreign a concept that of a debtor’s prison is in our day of easy credit and bankruptcy filings. It must have made people think twice about acquiring debt and living above their means!