Originally posted spring 2003

Less is Best - The UnAmerican Dream

Nobody needs a 6,000 or 4,000 square-foot house or a 2,000 square-foot house. What you need is a little thing just big enough to have your body with a roof over it.

- Jeff Paul, extremely successful direct marketing expert

I believe most Americans are caught up in a perpetual race to see who can accumulate the biggest pile of stuff. "Bigger is better" seems to be the unofficial national motto.

Well, I've decided not to play this game. "Less is best" is my motto.

Here's my dream lifestyle: Beyond the standard necessities of life, I'd be happy living in a trailer and driving a beater. Better yet, I'd replace the car for a good pair of running shoes and a bike.

Why would anyone desire such an unAmerican lifestyle?

It's simple. Material possessions are a drag on life's most valuable resource - time. For whatever reason, I'm very aware that our time dancing on this planet is fairly short. Wise people refuse to get weighed done by worldly possessions.

Consider my situation at the time this column was written …

· 1998 Saturn SW-1 has a dent that should be repaired.
· Outdoor gas grill needs serviced.
· Outside basement door is rotten, needs replaced.
· Driveway is breaking up into a million pieces, needs resurfaced in a big way.
· Exterior house wood trim needs painted.
· Grass needs mowed again. (Spring 2003 has been extremely wet in south central Pennsylvania.)

Are you starting to get the picture? None of the things I've listed are extraordinary, but they all chew up valuable time and money that could be used for other pursuits.

Here's how my to-do list would change by adopting the less-is-best lifestyle:

· I'd only keep the Saturn because it's paid off. Dent would not be repaired to eliminate urge to fix future cosmetic imperfections.
· Gas grill would be sold at a yard sale. Charcoal grills at public parks would be used for cookouts.
· All home repairs and yard work would be avoided by selling the house. Sale profits would be used to purchase a house trailer on a lot small enough to mow in 15 minutes with an old-fashioned reel mower.

Many people consider mobile homes to be inferior housing. Forget image, trailers are perfect for living the less-is-best lifestyle. Beyond being economical compared to regular houses, they're compact size would force you to only acquire meaningful stuff - anything that couldn't fit in storage areas or under the unit would be pitched. Plus, sheds would not be allowed.

What I'm suggesting here is far from being revolutionary. People throughout history have demonstrated and wrote about the benefits of living simply. Henry David Thoreau experienced it at Walden's Pond. Syndicated columnist Jeff O'Brien, who is sometimes referred to as a contemporary Thoreau, is living the less-is-best lifestyle in a farmhouse located in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

My idea of trailer living pales in comparison to the life of Jesus look-alike Carl Joseph, an Ohio evangelist who goes by the moniker "What's Your Name." In 2000, he spent several weeks wondering around Pennsylvania only packing his cotton robe and sandals. I joined hundreds of other curious people to hear him speak at a Harrisburg church - evidence that simple living has some widespread appeal.

As for me, the unAmerican lifestyle won't happen anytime soon since ideas like these scare the living daylight out of my wife. The last 17 years spent with Barb has taught me to avoid openly discussing the advantages of trailer living and other offbeat ideas. Plus, my daughter would think her old man had totally lost it.

All is not lost though. There are some tried and true money management strategies that can be used to achieve financial freedom without taking up residence in a trailer park. I'll save this topic for another time.

Meanwhile, just for fun, I'm off in search of a used travel trailer that I can drag into the woods as a personal hideaway.