Mark Lowe on Living the Minimalist Lifestyle

I get caught up in the consumer hype of spending and buying. I feel somewhat obligated to buy things for others to show them that I appreciate them. A bit ridiculous for sure.

The other thing I struggle with in a big way in my form of minimalist living is trying to not feel like a failure for what I have accomplished thus far in my life and for how much money I make.

I make enough to pay my bills and contribute nicely for my retirement. But when around my girlfriend’s circle of friends I feel very inadequate. They all make very, very good money and are successful. They have successful businesses and some have won awards. They like to go out and eat at nice restaurants and travel and that is fine . It is just a bit hard to not feel inadequate. Don’t get me wrong. They are very nice people.

Last night the men were talking about looking at 200.00$ dress shirts. Ha. All my shirts together might not equal 200.00$. So I don’t have a lot to contribute to the conversation.

And I hate that inevitable question of, “So what do you do?”. Well I work in a factory and really am a replaceable drone. I make a lot less than a new college graduate. About 35000.00$ a year. Most people would wonder how someone can live on that much money. Minimalist living is how. And it is something I believe in.

Is Minimalist Living Hard?

Mark Lowe speaks from the heart on this. I have to wonder what sort of profession requires a $200 shirt. I don't know what the Canadian exchange rate is to the US dollar, but it sounds like a lot of dough to me. I might spend $200 on a Carharrt jacket, but I never spend more than 20 bucks for a shirt.

For me, the hardest part of being a minimalist is the discipline that it takes. With so much abundance and a cushion of savings, you get a bit liberal with the pocketbook. It is easy to be minimalist when you are broke but a bit harder when you are flush.

For Mark, it becomes an issue of status. I don't have the same issue as status was something I rejected long ago back in high school. This is more of a blue collar thing than a minimalist thing. I would learn later that my working parents had more money than they showed while all my "rich" friends had parents swimming in debt. I learned that not all wealth is authentic, and appearances can be deceiving. I've met some real millionaires in my life, and I have always been impressed by how little they regarded the opinions of others or how inconspicuous their consumption was. One millionaire had cows in his backyard and drove a Ford pickup.

Authentic wealth comes from hard work and deferred consumption. Guys buying $200 shirts are not deferring consumption. So, who lives like this? The only people I know who live like this work in white collar jobs usually involving financial services. It reminds me of banker Raymond Peepgass from Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full who rakes Charlie Croker over the coals for his inability to pay off his half a billion in debts to the bank. Meanwhile, Peepgass struggles to live on his $130K a year salary as he has maxed out numerous credit cards. Peepgass is a loathsome creature exulting in degrading Croker while he himself cannot manage his own more modest finances.

People familiar with Tom Wolfe will know that he bases his characters on real people. I have known and met people like Peepgass. They make a good deal of money, but they spend a good deal of money as well. Millionaire celebrity athletes are the same except they carry the excess to the next power. The result is the same. They end in financial ruin.

Why do people do this? They do this because they are enslaved to the opinions of other people. It isn't enough to be successful. You must show that you are successful. This is the crux of the issue between minimalists and maximalists. Maximalism is all about the appearance. Minimalism is all about the reality. Even Steve Jobs who was a billionaire was bewildered by the conspicuous consumption of his subordinates at Apple. The irony is that they probably lived in bigger houses and drove flashier cars than the boss.

Right now, I have money. I am able to pay my bills, and my disposable income is way larger than my appetite. I have no debt. This is all because of minimalism. I am always running out of time, but I don't worry about money. This is because I only spend for myself not for the sake of impressing other people. I don't have status. I revel in my anti-status.

I could change all this if I wanted to. I merely need to get a job in financial services and fuck people over for a living. I even had a girlfriend who begged me to do this. Even she did not have the moral vacuum necessary to do this, but she wanted me to have it in order to cash in. No thanks. Being happy is more important than making dishonest money. If I don't create value, a big paycheck is no substitute. I dumped that bitch.

If I could give some advice to Mark, it would be to select a better group of friends. All my friends are blue collar like me. They are real and authentic. Even the ones who make a lot of money relative to me still keep it real and humble. And this also explains those millionaires who drive pickup trucks. My friends have authenticity. They are real. What you see is what you get. Anyone who wears a $200 shirt is an inferior in my book.

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