Self-Sufficiency in Style
don't panic!
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Self-Sufficiency in Style don't panic!
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The opportunity for self - sufficiency often happens by chance. Redundancy or down sizing, loss of paid employment often drives people to become self-sufficient Alarmingly, the individuals concerned are often ill at the time and with money troubles too. |
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If you think about it, it is not too surprising that anyone who has lost
their job feels pretty sick.
Or that someone who is ill is likely to lose their job as a result. It is not surprising that someone who is ill and out of work also has money troubles. So the three things do go together and self-sufficiency can be the answer to all three. |
Sick and stunned. |
Down and out. |
Even in our equal opportunities world, men seem to take losing their job harder than most women. Women tend to get mad and take it out on the kitchen. Men tend to go into a fit of depression and take it out on their wives or the bottle - often both. Whether the loss of employment is genuine down-sizing or as a result of illness, it devastates most men. A psychologist would provide an explanation - something about a man's job still being a part of his identity, but whatever the reason, the problem is very real. ...and the woman is left to try to deal with the consequences. |
| There is no universal solution
anymore than everyone's circumstances are the same.
But there are circumstances where self-sufficiency can be a good solution. |
Alternative solutions |
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Things can only get better. |
A lot depends on the age of the couple and their health.
At 50 plus, you can't take the world by storm, emigrate and start a business on the other side of the world, but to compensate you probably do have some savings and the children have become less of a financial responsibility. The frequent male ills of heart and prostate may well improve in a less stressful lifestyle. It certainly lends itself to working at your own pace in your own environment. Depression seems to be always helped by exercise. |
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...but older people, those that can most easily adapt to self-sufficiency,
are usually the most nervous about money and conservative when
contemplating change.
They need to remind themselves that they only have one life on this earth - and that they should be prepared to make the most of it. |
You will be on your way soon enough. |
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Life is a gamble. |
Advising the younger couple faced with the trio of redundancy, illness and
financial problems seems trickier.
They are likely to have little savings and heavier outgoings. But, if they can manage it, illnesses often improve in a healthy new lifestyle. Redundancy becomes a distant memory and depression lifts. If you really have no money, difficult health and no job - and little prospect of changing things, you have nothing to lose. |
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It is similar to litigation: the only people able to afford it are those
with multi-millions or absolutely nothing.
If you have nothing, you have nothing to lose. |
No downside |
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The crucial thing is that you do make the decision together. An
over-anxious wife desperate to find salvation for an unhappy husband is
likely to make things much worse. Don't Panic.
Self-sufficiency is not an easy option. It is hard mental and physical work. It takes a certain eccentricity in an increasingly conformist world. How does the writer know all this? Well let me tell you a story about a romantic Dinner for Two in provincial France and an unexpected confession. There is also an article about Finding the Money to go self-sufficient, but read about Dinner for Two first. |
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taking our chances at the perplexingly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
