Help making the transition to sustainable living?

Question

Hello everyone, recently I read a book online about moneyless living, and it got me thinking about a lot of things I had never thought about before. First of all, it made me realize just how much my family wastes every day. Second, it made me realize how, as a fifteen year old, I am completely dependent on other people. From there, I started reading all about organic gardening, sustainable living, and self sufficiency. All of these things interest me greatly. I believe that as the next generation, it is my responsibility to help get people off of the track of blind consumerism and onto the path of sustainability and respect for the earth. The only place to start is with myself. But now I'm looking for something I can do to take that first step towards self sufficiency. I've looked into community gardening for a hands on introduction into organic gardening, but there aren't any community gardens where I live. I've read all about WWOOFing and HelpX and Ecovillages, and I'm very interested in that kind of thing, but the problem is I'm still in school. Is there anything I can do today to start learning skills that will one day help me become self sufficient? A club, a class, somewhere I can volunteer, any and all ideas are welcome and greatly appreciated. I just want something that will be that stepping stone from thought and theory to having the skills to take action and make a difference.

2012-12-07T05:27:45Z

*I'm less focused on moneyless living and more focused on things related to green living, organic gardening, survival skills, primitive living, or something similar. The idea of moneyless living is just what got me started thinking about these things.

John W · Accepted Answer

Many people have had that thought but what you have to learn is that the concept of money and the economy is about resources and the value of services and goods.   To establish a sustainable life requires resources and services, you need the land, you need livestock, seeds, supplies, a house, and equipment.   As with any goods and service, a dollar value can be attributed to what you need for that life and a dollar value can be attributed to that "moneyless" living that results from the investment.   It is no different than any other financial investment.   Basically what you want from that "sustainable" life is financial freedom therefore the quickest way to achieve it is to learn about personal finance and investment and dedicate as much of your income toward saving up to achieve your sustainable life.   It isn't an alternative to money and the crazy world we live in, it can only be achieved through careful management of money, investments and earnings in this crazy world.   Money is only a way to quantize value, there is no real moneyless living, there's only more efficient use of resources and value.

Learn as much as you can from school but more importantly, learn how what you learn applies.   Learn that the summation of a geometric sequence is how loans, bonds, mortgages, dividends and the time value of money are calculated, yes that one equation that you learn in junior high ( middle school ) is the heart of all the complexities of finance, they'll teach numerous other equations but those other equations are all versions of the summation of a geometric sequence.   Learn about risk, about the utility of money isn't really about how the value of something to you drop as you have more resources which is what they teach ( that is how $100 may be a lot to you but nothing to Bill Gates ) but that it's about how important money is when you don't have much of it ( how $100 is everything if it's all that you have ).   Learn about the logarithmic utility of money as a gauge on risk ( Bernoulli risk ).

I know that you don't want to hear this but the key to "moneyless" living is money.

Help making the transition to sustainable living?

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