Millionaire Life Without a Million Dollars

 

This is from our book "The School of No School Adventure Education: Home School Manual" available on Amazon.

FinalFrontier Millionaire Life without a Million Dollars

Most people work a job for 40 hours per week. 

They spend about half an hour commuting each way – which is now effectively 45 hours per week. They spend 10 hours per week feeding themselves: driving to restaurants, waiting in line at restaurants, ordering, waiting… driving to grocery stores to get their favorite foods with the best price, shopping, waiting in line, etc. 

After monthly expenses, they have about $200 per month of disposable income. And maybe $800 in the bank. They spend nearly all of their disposable income on fun things. They are looking for entertainment and life substance. 

They dream of having a million dollars so they no longer have to work. If they had a million dollars, they could buy a better house, car, and awesome toys and would no longer have to work at their sucky job – or any sucky job. They earn $50,000 per year now. 

With several small raises, they will have earned over a million dollars in twenty years. But, hum? Where did that million go?

FinalFrontier has realized the Frugal Prosumer dream 

FinalFrontier took a different route. She lives on ¾ acres and harvests things that grow on her land. She also does a great job of “harvesting” things outside her land. When strawberries, mangos, chicken, etc. are in season and on sale (at a fraction of the price other times of the year), she spends some time preserving these foods, which means mostly dehydrating or freezing. During this time, she might work an extra 10 hours a week. Once, she dried and froze 40 pounds of bananas as she came across them for five cents a pound.

For most of their lives, she and her spouse (TheProsumer) worked less than twenty hours a week to earn money. She also spends about twenty hours a week making her meals. Sometimes, it’s quick, but often, it is really cool, as she considers preparing food another art form. Neighbors sometimes buy some of her products. Once a week, she helps a neighbor.

FinalFrontier doesn’t drive. She and her spouse have about $300 monthly disposable income and less than $3000 in the bank. She has trouble spending this extra money, and she’s not sure what to spend it on. It “just sort of accumulates.” She and spouse man have seldom earned over $12,000 per year for the past 40 years, often less. She foresees earning less money in future years. Over the past forty years of their marriage, she and her spouse will have earned around $400,000.

Everybody tells you you can’t live on Social Security, but she knows you can if you’ve  always lived on the amount you would get. Hint: You can’t do that if you're up to your eyeballs in debt. 

She wondered if she had a million dollars, what she would do with it, and how her life would change. If your life does not change if you have a million dollars, then is it fair to say that you are already living the life of a millionaire? 

Maybe we could call this being a “Frugal Prosumer millionaire”?

Some say she should write a book and tell the world how it’s done. But…she doesn’t feel like it. She is more of a doer, even though she is an excellent writer. Plus, there are dozens of useful books on the subject, so she doesn’t feel she needs to write another one.

She has a hobby of making soap and body care products. It started to be just for her use, as her skin is sensitive to many commercial product ingredients. However, as she shared her creations around, friends and family liked them more and more (who wouldn’t?) enough to pay for them to keep ‘em coming. As a result, supplying her products to herself cost her nothing. Enter the choir of “shoulda.” (Almost all come from people who haven’t done it themselves and don’t have any idea about all the work, stress, and problems that come with that “shoulda.”) 

Maybe she shoulda ramp up her business and sell more products from home or online. “Think of the money you could make.” However, she doesn’t want her art to be turned into factory production or work in her “own factory.”

Maybe she shoulda teach some classes at her place so people can learn from her example? But she knows teaching is a lot of extra work. Plus, she would have to do advertising and marketing to pull this off, which isn’t her thing. And this isn’t to say she wouldn’t be happy to have ya over and teach ya.

Maybe she shoulda go onto the internet and tell the world about her lifestyle. She and hubby tried that several times and were told they were lying lazy shills that were leeches on society. So they decided not to bring this stuff up anymore. Let’s be charitable, and it was simply that those people didn’t understand that being a Frugal Prosumer is hard work and takes a lot of discipline in a world that is screaming to take your money and peace of mind.

Maybe she shoulda raise some chickens and get her organic eggs “free” by selling some to her friends. She did that once. …

Maybe she shoulda gather all that free wood around her for her fireplace. Nope, the spouse did that, but now his physical limitations prohibit it. However, they both love the central heat they have now after using wood exclusively for seven years. Yippee!

She does collect rainwater, which offers a place for her 16 big goldfish to happily flap their fins and poop out fertilizer to water her beautiful flowers and herbs. She’d rather spend time on this than the pursuit of becoming a millionaire when she is already a “frugal prosumer millionaire.”

Maybe she coulda scale up and reduce expenses even more by having five or six people “move onto her land and teach them and set the pace for Frugal Prosumers all over the world!” Nah, that sounds like a lot of hard work and stress.

The world probably has many, many FinalFrontiers. Most might enjoy an even easier life if they heard about Frugal Prosumers. And sometimes, she just has to give someone permission to pursue something counterculture.

The following story gives some idea of how FinalFrontier became a millionaire on a peasant's budget. 

The Tale of FinalFrontier Begins

Once upon a time, there lived TheProsumer, his wife FinalFrontier, and their son WildThing. This is the story of how they lived a Frugal Prosumer lifestyle and the 7 Pillars Of the Frugal Prosumer as they traveled the world, had many adventures, lived in luxury, and did it all on a dime. Of course, any similarities to the truth are, well, a-hum, details may have been altered to protect the guilty.

These are all stories that could be taking place in a neighborhood near you. Why, even in your own household, by golly? Some of the facts and figures have been adjusted to protect the identity and privacy of the individuals mentioned and to minimize the opportunity for the master Consumers to silence the voices of the master Prosumers. And the stories are kind of dated as they are much older now, and WildThing is married.

TheProsumer and FinalFrontier were both prosumers long before they were married. They both came from parental influence in a frugal make-due lifestyle.

They met in a place of learning while doing their prosumer college thing. There sat TheProsumer in one of his favorite of all places, the library—a place of unlimited ideas and do-it-yourself skills. FinalFrontier had come there to “accidentally” meet him. The beautiful hand-woven purse she carried caught his attention. Or was it her beauty that captivated him? The bag was just the ice-breaker.

TheProsumer had chosen a technical college because it was a low-cost way to get an education. And as far as he was concerned, it was the best way to get paid to do what he loved. He loved to learn, especially about business. That’s getting ahead of the story, though. First, you’ll have to read the other mini-book of how one person did this: “Adventure Education A True Story.”

Of course, they had a prosumer wedding. They believed that relationships are extremely important, so they planned it with friends and family in mind. And friends and family were all a part of making it economically doable for them. 

TheProsumer would never dream of using his hard-earned dimes to rent a tux or requiring his attendants to do so. It was once required of him, and he had felt that financial burden. It was money through his fingers and nothing to show for it. Because of fine friends and family, the men's and ladies’s outfits were made for a fraction of the cost and with possible future wearability insured (vintage wear is in, isn’t it?) The flowers were provided for the cost of labor by a friend, and the TheProsumer’s mother made the wedding cake. Photos were taken by a family member with nice equipment and a good eye. The honeymoon car was twenty years old (Many millionaires collect old cars). 

The requested gifts of “safari” gear were practical and immediately useful. As it turned out, those gifts remained unused for the honeymoon as someone had canceled their cabin, which made it available to the happy couple for just a few more bucks than the campsite they had chosen. They used the oven in the cabin to make fruit leather from the many berries they foraged for. Isn't that what most people do on their honeymoon?TheProsumer had always lived a somewhat carefree life. This was possible because he believed that if he kept expenses low enough, he would only have to work for actual pay a few months out of each year. FinalFrontier loved challenges in life and saw this as a great adventure. 

TheProsumer had a crazy idea. He wanted to see if you could become highly educated, live below the poverty income level, and live like a millionaire. As you read this article, you will discover that after a 45-year experiment, they confirmed it was possible and had come across others doing the same. Most will never write about it because, like FinalFrontier, they were too busy enjoying the millionaire life and tired of the naysayers.

FinalFrontier’s father saw things more traditionally and decided, "Of course, hubby will now get a good-paying job as an investment banker with his fine education and support, my sweet princess.” He even took TheProsumer out and bought him a nice powder blue leisure suit so he could make a nice impression in job interviews. Well, as it turns out, in the following 45 years of marriage, TheProsumer never did get a chance to wear it to any job interviews. But being polyester, it is probably as good as the day it was bought. Might even fetch a fine price in the vintage clothing category.

The fine couple started their married life living with TheProsumers’ family, split expenses three ways, and started a family business. This community effort allowed plenty of time for fishing and learning. 

One day, TheProsumer had an epiphany. He realized that their whole philosophy of life and living could be divided into seven areas. 

He calls them The 7 Pillars. You must read some of the other mini-books to learn more about these.