Self-Sufficiency in Style
finding the money
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Self-Sufficiency in Style finding the money
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There are two kinds of money - capital and income.
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Capital is what you need to buy the
smallholding, to equip it and, of course, to provide a little security for
that unexpected expenditure.
You need income to pay the taxes and utilities on land and house, and to buy whatever necessities you cannot provide for yourself. There are a lot of these too - everything from tea and coffee to animal feed and vet's bills. It is usually possible to forgo income to increase capital spending or vice versa. |
Let's make it a time between leaving full-time education and assuming the responsibilities of a family. Self-sufficiency may well be a dream at the back of your mind - keep it there. This is the time for seeking the bright lights, for making a career and a love-life. Grubbing about in a potato patch can wait for another day, another time. Anyway, even though your income may be good and your essential expenditure low, you simply don't have the capital to buy a smallholding. Even if you have just inherited a million, you can't just stop the world. Live, love and enjoy life to the full. |
There are three ages when self-sufficiency seems possible and sometimes desirable. Let's look at the first...
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The second age of possibility comes at a time when self-sufficiency can look very attractive.
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The
family man and woman can start to see a life in the country as very
desirable.
Visions of teaching the children to ride in a new safer environment can look attractive. The daughter's lust for a pony of her own in a buttercup meadow behind the house seems irresistible. Fine, if that's what you want and can afford. Do it. It can be a very good way of life. But don't kid yourself you can bridge any financial gap with a little smallholding on the side. Living in the country and commuting is more expensive than living in the city in both money and time. Save self-sufficiency as a dream for another time, when your daughter is teaching her daughter to ride, and the nest is finally empty. But of course, if you are impossibly stubborn, then you should go on to read the Second age of self-sufficiency. |
| The man and woman approaching retirement,
perhaps still a good few years off suddenly experiences some quite
dramatic and often unwelcome changes.
It is often a time of great uncertainty and confusion. A kind of reverse puberty, when opportunities becomes less and constraints overwhelming. Health can threaten job and income. Redundancy and business changes the same. But the responsibilities of a family have gone with the associated costs. Pensions and compensation may be on the table. Businesses can be sold. Insurances mature and sad inheritances materialise. Experience, circumstances, need and finance have come together to make self-sufficiency possible for most people. Let's go for it together. We can look at Capital and Income separately. Some unexpected ideas can be found on Fishy Alternatives |
The third age of possibility comes unexpectedly towards the end of a working career.
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"I think we can afford to do this." So we bought the oddly named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
