The guy quit a bad drug habit known as money

Sun Jul 26, 2009, 7:30 am | 1 Comment

DANIEL SUELO lives, unlike average Americans who are swimming in the swamps of credit-card debt, clinging to a mortgage, terrified of the next downsizing at the office – in a cave. He isn’t worried about the economic crisis. Nine years ago, in the autumn of 2000, Suelo decided to stop using money. He just quit it, like a bad drug habit.

His dwelling, hidden high in a canyon lined with waterfalls, is an hour by foot from the desert town of Moab, Utah. “When I lived with money, I was always lacking,” he writes. “Money represents lack. Money represents things in the past (debt) and things in the future (credit), but money never represents what is present.”

He wasn’t always this way. SUELO graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in anthropology. He thought about becoming a doctor, he held jobs, he had cash and a bank account. In 1987, after several years as an assistant lab technician in Colorado hospitals, he joined the Peace Corps and was posted to an Ecuadoran village high in the Andes.

He was charged with monitoring the health of tribes people in the area, teaching first aid and nutrition, and handing out medicine where needed; his proudest achievement was delivering three babies. The tribe had been getting richer for a decade, and during the two years he was there he watched as the villagers began to adopt the economics of modernity.

By 1999, he was living in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand – he had saved just enough money for the flight. From there, he made his way to India, where he found himself in good company among the sadhus.

Suelo is 48, and he doesn’t exactly have a 401(k). “I’ll do what creatures have been doing for millions of years for retirement,” he says. “Why is it sad that I die in the canyon and not in the geriatric ward well-insured? I have great faith in the power of natural selection. And one day, I will be selected out.” Until then, think of him like the raven, cleaning up the carcasses the rest of us leave behind.

Moral of the story
That’s one way to avoid credit card debt, mortgage bankruptcy and be terrified all the time that you are next when the lay-off at your company happens. But is that the only option for us.

How about swimming with the sharks, the anacondas and the predators but avoid being their prey. Just live within your means and be debt free. Defeat them at their own game.

Read the full story “COULD YOU SURVIVE WITHOUT MONEY? MEET THE GUY WHO DOES“.

What do you think?

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