Living Simply
In this time of economic upheaval, living simply is becoming a must for nearly everyone but for us Boomers on the brink of retirement, the need to simplify our lives is urgent. With the increasing prospect of layoffs, many of us will face retirement before we expected. For those of us still working, our ability to replenish our IRAs in time to live the retirement lifestyle we expected is limited, as is the likelihood of reaching higher salary levels before we leave the work force.
Luckily, living simply is something many of us practiced before. There was a time when we didn’t need much. The patches on our jeans measured our commitment to a simple life embroidered with beauty. But somewhere along the way we turned into Hippie-crites, becoming more materialistic than the establishment we condemned. When did our desire to shed unnecessary possessions turn into a feeding frenzy of consumerism? As we enter the next phase of our lives we have to ask ourselves what all that consumption got us?
No doubt our initial questioning of rampant consumerism came first from the fact that we were comfortable. We were the children of affluence. As far as we knew, food came from the refrigerator and cars from the garage. We’re still comfortable, though our sense of need and want may be somewhat warped. We need a car. We want a Mercedes. We need a bag. We want a Prada. We need shoes. We want 200 pair. Most likely we already have what we need and a great deal we don’t.
Even if we shed three quarters of our possessions and stepped down our lifestyle considerably, in many ways we would be living better than the Emperors of Rome. We turn on the faucet and get hot water. The produce of the entire world is available in our local markets. Our Polartec parkas keep us snuggly warm. We travel the country in hours and communicate instantly with anyone in the world. There is a difference between living simply and impoverishing ourselves. In the introduction to Dune Elgin’s classic on the subject,
Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich (Revised edition)
Fortunately, we will need less in retirement. Clothing can be chosen for comfort. We can fix our own lunch and tuck away the money spent on commuting. We might want a smaller house. Maybe we only need one car. Entertainment will be cheaper. We can travel off–peak, enjoy matinees, play golf or tennis on weekdays and take advantage of the many discounts available to us. Movies, museums, theaters, sporting events, restaurants, recreational facilities, adult classes, airlines, hotels, and public transportation all offer discounts for people over sixty. Actually, income relates little to retirement satisfaction. Though financial security is essential for a comfortable retirement, money does not guarantee contentment. A study by Dr. Daniel Ogilvie of Rutgers University discovered that the strongest factor in life satisfaction is the time a person spends doing what they do best, enjoy the most, and find the most meaningful.
The quality of our experiences are not determined by what they cost but by what we get from them. Learning to be grateful for what we have and enjoying the abundance of simplicity can return us to a time when life overflowed with possibilities. For ideas and insights on the joys of living simply click here at The Simple Living Network. |
60’s sage Ram Dass describes how when he was young he moved into a cabin behind his father’s house. Here he bathed in cold water, slept on a mat on the floor and ate only lentils and rice, while warmth and comfort lay only fifty yards away. “I was running as hard as I could away from Western values even as I was studying in depth the Bhagavad-Gita, which says that one must honor one’s unique life predicament; one cannot imitate another’s.”
