That’s my brother everybody!! He and his wife will have their first baby!!

Best news one can ever receive. Theirs is a home of love, tenderness and freedom. What a lucky baby and what radiant new parents!

Los quiero mucho!!

C

Great blog on what it is all about. You make it sound so easy to just go with a new direction in life. Like so many of us i struggle with family responsibilties and of course money. I guess like most of us followers we are all woring towards are goal of leaving one day to find true freedom. My biggest concern is money and the lack there of. I know you and Alex get a very small amount from the web site and video sales but more then likley not enough to feed your selves and pay for your personal needs. How do you do it? How do you afford a trip to the states or to see family? I know alex has worked in the states for short periods of time to make some extra cash.
thanks for your blog you said it so well.
http://www.livingaboardboats.com

Guys I guess all I’m trying to say is realize your fears and see to what extent they are true or not.

We live on little while having lots of comfort. What’s the great fear, economically speaking? If you have a roof over your head then you’re pretty much sorted. We’ve met people who have a good life here with much less than us. If you find it hard to get work at first well you eat rice, beans, fish and some veggies for a while and all you need is 50 dollars a month! If something breaks on your boat, as long as it’s not sinking, you can wait. You row to shore for free. You don’t need electricity to have a good life either. And you can easily do odd jobs with whatever you’re good at or just cook at backpacker boats if you have to. Still you make money for basics in very little time.

The key to freedom, if freedom’s what you are looking for, is only paying for what you need. When you move away from western societies you realize how little you really need and how much more free time and peace that means.

Start little by little. Take your time. Find your own way.

Curtis,

What do really mean when you talk about money? What do you buy with your money that is really good for you and what percentage of it do you spend on different taxes, bills, insurance, objects that make you lazy and fat, information that makes you sad and scared, possessions that make you look like the ads you’ve been spoon fed since you were a child, food that has added chemicals that make you sick, etc?

It’s really up to you to decide how much of your free time your current life and possessions are worth.

I have a 250 dollar computer, an 80 dollar guitar, a great 300 dollar camera, a 100 dollar surfboard, a notebook, a couple of pens, used books i generally exchange with other travelers, and practical comfortable clothes. These are all my possessions and I don’t exaggerate because I’ve been a nomad for 13 years. I carry my possessions, I know what they are. You can pay for all my possessions with ONE minimum wage month salary.

I draw and write in my notepad. I use one ballpen every 3 or 4 months. My guitar, surfboard and books have no cost and give me great joy.

In my computer I watch movies and some tv shows that I download for free, with the great added value they do not come with ads or news flashes. In my cheap laptop I also record my own music, listen to mp3s, translate, store photos, write blogs and check email. From all these things I like doing in it the only one that costs money is the access to the Internet, which comes up to the total amount of 15 dollars a month in Alex’s pay as you go phone. We pay when we want to.

Electricity comes from our solar panels, again, initial investment less that a month’s salary then it’s free forever.

The camera is digital, no cost. Batteries are charged with solar panels.

How much flour, salt, oil, rice, beans, spaghetti, nuts, seeds, fruit and vegetables can you eat in a month? We spend together, on average, 250-300 on food a month. We don’t buy processed foods because we don’t like it.

Our fish and water are free. So are coconuts and mangoes sometimes.

I don’t use any beauty products other than cheap shampoo and I feel beautiful.

Cooking gas is 20 dollars every four months.

We don’t pay any taxes, insurance, rent or services.

So, we float in the breathtaking Caribbean sea together doing all the things we love (tell me what we are really missing out on by having moved to the water) and our monthly expenses are, for the both of us, 300 on food, 15 on Internet and 5 on gas.

Then there’s always something to fix on the boat which we do ourselves so we only pay for materials. And we have the occasional 10 or 20 dollar meal out. If we go to the dentist it costs 15/50 bucks.

Sailing is free if you go with the wind. We pay 300 a year for the cruising permit.

It’s really not that hard to come up with that money for anybody. You work sometimes and you pay for your real expenses.

We refuse to work everyday for most of our lives to live with traffic, stress, fear, artificial food, air conditioning, commercials, taxes and insurance. It really makes no sense.

And if we have children, we’ll educate them in nature, also enjoying movies and computers of course but swimming and fishing and surfing and hiking. In many countries (such as mine) if they want to go to university, the best one is the one that belongs to the state and it is free for everyone.

It takes guts to have a look at your own life and realize it’s not what you want of dream of. Nobody is going to offer you freedom. You have to have the guts to take it as well. Not everything will be roses at first, it takes time to build something new, but we must at least give it a try! It will be worth your effort.

We write this blog because we believe there are many people out there that, like it happened to us, have been thrown into a lifestyle they have not really chosen and which does not make them happy. I think that some people find their way within capitalism and lead the lives they chose, but the system is based on the concept that many need to do the hard work for a few to enjoy the results, and I don’t mean the few with the most money because there’s a lot of suicide, cocaine, anti-depressants, etc among “successful” wealthy businessmen.

In my case, since very young I realized I loved my “free” time (out of school, university, work) and I’ve always been an A student (I’m pretty brainy and have a good memory so its not that I didn’t fit, I was actually among the favorites and enjoyed the classes and also later my work as translator and language teacher) still I always felt the balance was wrong. I never had enough time for my family, my friends, reading, playing my guitar, cooking, drawing, swimming, taking photographs, dancing, all the things that I loved doing and that were actually more natural than living inside my own brain and following directions. Human beings are not brains. We have spirits and bodies that need to be nurtured and enjoyed. We are social beings. We live on a wonderful planet with animals, plants, landscapes we don’t really know.

There is something very wrong with that even if we lived in societies without inequality, violent media, etc. When you look at what the system has become (traffic jams, fear of one another, concentration of wealth, starvation and obesity, stress, etc) then when you look at it objectively the whole thing is pretty ridiculous. What are we doing?

We work most of our time and when we get paid, what percentage of it can we really use freely? Not much, most of it is “obligations” you HAVE to pay someone else EVERY month of your life. And, do you have a better life than a fisherman who lives on an island, eating what he catches, gathering fruit, taking naps, caressing his dog and little children who make tents with sticks and rocks? Not really. Is it better for a child if the parents make money so that they can have the last playstation, a smart phone and expensive trainers than if their dad works with wood occasionally and they live near a clean river and they can climb trees and chase squirrels? Climbing trees, swimming in the river, playing with sticks and chasing squirrels is not only a lot of fun, it’s also absolutely free and a lot healthier. Children are not brains. It’s not ok they would rather use Facebook or watch TV than ride a bike. And it is NOT more fun for them. It’s marketing and adapting to the artificial environment they are brought up in.

Living in nature (a small town, in the mountains, a river bank) is cheaper, healthier and more gratifying. Living on a simple sailboat is practically free. It’s up to us to take the necessary steps and initial effort to live the life we want, with less obligations and more choices. It doesn’t come in a package with a brochure. It’s your life and it’s up to you. Be strong and find your way to make it happen!!