How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#1

Post by mman » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 10:17 PM UTC

Let's say i have $10000. Is it possible to build the following existence (for one person's lifetime)?

- Food/water (or equivalent), shelter from elements and predators, comfortable temperature, ability to stay clean and free from disease.

- Upper limit for time spent on daily involuntary tasks (say 1hr/day) with definite certainty on ability to maintain existence. Assuming no outstanding terrestrial occurences, there should never be any stress from fluctuation of shelter or resource availability

- Visibility at night; fire/candles ok, i guess

- Bed, chair/desk, say 10 sheets of paper a day, writing utensil to fill 10 sheets a day

- Internet access, say 100 hours lifetime total, accessable at some definite rate, say at least once a month for an hour at a time max (Richard Stallman style is ok)

- Ability to receive shipment of goods whose requirement cannot be predetermined (such as books), with finite extra funds set aside for purchasing of said goods

- Ability to escape the system as i see fit

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#2

Post by pilom » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 11:11 PM UTC

Where you will run into problems is food. B/c you only want to spend 1 hour a day on involuntary tasks, you'll have to buy food. Regardless of how efficiently you buy, your 10k wont last very long that way.

If you are a little skilled and live in the right area, you can get food from hunting/trapping but you're still looking at significantly more than 1 hour a day. Farming is right out.

To live that life you really have to be willing to work a little harder or spend a little more. No Minority Report ending, sorry.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#3

Post by russell » Fri, Sep 10, 2010, 11:31 PM UTC

It's an interesting question. but if you are an old hacker in the US or probably anywhere else in the developed world you qualify for a retirement income. At age 70 it would be something on the order of $2500/month. If you had an unmarried old lady, you would have something on the order of $60K per year plus reasonable health benefits in a few years.

The real problem is shelter. It is probably very difficult to build your shack anywhere near civilization, because of building code restrictions. The minimum, cost is probably some kind of used RV. You could theoretically avoid the code restrictions, because you could drive to a waste pumping station, etc. However if you blend in to a rural community sufficiently to be considered an asset rather than a nuisance, say by continually improving you property, you might get along quite nicely.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#4

Post by mmphosis » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:00 AM UTC

Yes, but the $10000 or whatever amount of money becomes redundant. And, I do not recommend this path, as it is not for everyone because dropping out is instant "boot camp" rewarding in ways only you know, but boot camp. It's difficult work. Let go of one thing that you intuit you no longer need in your life, and watch what happens. Be gentle with yourself.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#5

Post by Ixiaus » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:38 AM UTC

A mentor of mine did this, with $300,000.00 for four years. He bought a plot of land in Wyoming, built and underground cabin, and bought a Backhoe to help himself build it. He lived there for four years before moving on with his life...

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#6

Post by ambiate » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:47 AM UTC

All those who venture in caves: return to the world, or go mad from loneliness. Some may seem interesting, but there is a thin line between insane and interesting.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#7

Post by fleitz » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:48 AM UTC

pilom wrote: post #2

Where you will run into problems is food. B/c you only want to spend 1 hour a day on involuntary tasks, you'll have to buy food. Regardless of how efficiently you buy, your 10k wont last very long that way. If you are a little skilled and live in the right area, you can get food from hunting/trapping but you're still looking at significantly more than 1 hour a day. Farming is right out. To live that life you really h…

If you are willing to live on rice it's about $200 a year for 2000 kcal per day. This is at supermarket prices, if you were willing to buy by the tonne I'm sure it's much less, just buy a futures contract and bring your truck to the delivery point.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#8

Post by Tomco » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:55 AM UTC

Pilom is right. Your life would become revolved around food.

You should check out the following three things:

Emergency by Neil Strauss in which Neil detail his experiences in trying to become more self sufficient and gaining the abilities to escape from the system

Island to Oneself by Tom Neale for a first hand account of trying to survive on a deserted island for 16 years.

And Survivalistboards.com, which is full of conspiracy nuts but has lots of information about becoming more self sufficient.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#9

Post by swah » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 12:59 AM UTC

Respect if you do it because you're harmful to society, childish if its because society is harmful to you.

Re: How do I become a self-sufficient old man in a shack?

#10

Post by mman » Sat, Sep 11, 2010, 1:35 AM UTC

russell wrote: post #3

It's an interesting question. but if you are an old hacker in the US or probably anywhere else in the developed world you qualify for a retirement income. At age 70 it would be something on the order of $2500/month. If you had an unmarried old lady, you would have something on the order of $60K per year plus reasonable health benefits in a few years. The real problem is shelter. It is probably very difficult to build…

Sorry, there is a catch: I'm not actually an old man, i just want to live the life of an old man in a shack. What i really want is to maximize the hours per day dedicated to sleep and whatever else i want to do, which currently is only reading and writing. I had a relatively bad undergrad GPA and basically want to live the life of a professor without having to worry about grad school, then phd, tenure, teaching if i don't want to, meeting with people i don't like, etc.