When I talk about UBI ( “universal basic income” ), the question comes: how big should the monthly distribution be?
When I offer something in the range of $1000/month, I get shocked stares, but i then broaden the frame.
It’s ridiculous to answer these questions out of context. Out of context, the question yields answers like “clip coupons” and “eat rice and beans”. It yields answers that smack of deprivation. That’s what “poor people do” as in, I never ever ever want to be that poor. It may even be classist or racist – like that’s what people who are too stupid or lazy to earn money do.
This is not what I talk about. I talk about a full, rich, expansive (not expensive) life, a life with fun, meaning, learning, adventure, influence, caring and sharing. Living on a limited income might be a necessity or it can be a choice. You might want to save for your education or FI or travel. You might want to write or paint or perform or go on a research trip to the Amazon.
The keys are both strategic and attitudinal. Some strategies are listed below, but my latest nugget: If you don’t want something more than money and stuff, you will always be deprived no matter how much you have. And my universal nugget comes from Helen Keller: “Life is either a great adventure or it’s nothing.”
Here’s a dozen of my answers, from big picture to personal choices:
- Without some generous version of Medicare for all, health care expenses (insurance, doctor visits, hospitalization) could eat up to 50% of that $1000 a month. If you can only get health insurance through a corporate job or the open markets where prices are unstable, you can’t control a major expense category. Blessedly, those on Social Security do have Medicare. When I went on Medicare I got twice the care for half the price. My cataract surgeries were free! My hip replacement was a couple thousand dollars until my annual out of pocket spending limit was reached! I want this for everyone.
- Without access to low cost education beyond high school, our young people will continue to be burdened by debt. It can be a 4-year or 2-year liberal arts education or a technical school, but if you don’t have monthly payment for college debt, whoosh, another big chunk of expenses gone!
These two big changes will take policy development and political and may take time but they are essential if we don’t want a growing and impoverished underclass. - Home cooking. Yes, you can halve (or more) your food budget and double your nutrition if you can cook – and it’s one of my great pleasures. Fish sticks in a box versus a filet of fish baked or fried. Meat and potatoes at home versus a restaurant. Fresh veggies chopped and steamed versus canned, frozen or delivered by Hello fresh. Coffee brewed at home for pennies versus a $4 Starbucks. Use online sites for recipes if you find a bag of apples or potatoes on sale and want to turn them into a variety of dishes. And on and on and on. If you grow some veggies – even patio tomatoes and herbs, it gets better. A $400/month food bill becomes $200.
- Geo-arbitrage. Live somewhere less expensive for a while – a few months or a year or more – to build up savings. Live inland, live in recently distressed but on the rise neighborhoods, live with your family or friends or live outside the US which can be very inexpensive as well as fascinating. Connect with friends and experiences online if you are bored out of your tree in the outback.
- Volunteer. You can do registrations for conferences or concerts or theater and get in free so pick an interest, find out where the experts and fans are gathering and offer to help. You can often go to private events for speakers/performers. Or do it for good organizations for the helper’s high. Or as an intern to learn something new, from farming to marketing.
- Freebies. Every city or village has lots of free events. And an online calendar of them. Entertainment. Art. Lectures. If you are really limited, there’s no shame in using the food bank – it’s there for all of us if we need it. Churches often provide free meals once or more a week.
- Used. Be it clothes or kitchenware or jewelry or cars, you pay a tenth of new for nearly new. And the variety is astonishing. Sure, buy new when you love something but wander thrift stores rather than malls, used car lots instead of dealerships. I got my dream camper that way, from a used car lot and bargaining 40% off the price for some minor fixes. You can’t get my camper new anymore; it’s vintage. New with equal features would be 15 times more… or more. And how often do we use our campers anyway.
- Sharing: a house or apartment, a car or carpooling, tools, services, fun and games, clothes (swaps are great), gardens, social or support circles or even online groups and on and on and on and on. Libraries are also sharing – books for free! A resource shared is an expense halved and social relations doubled. But you have to share, not mooch.
- Go outdoors. It’s free. You don’t need a jogging outfit, just some decent shoes. Walk on a park path with a friend. Bring sandwiches and water and sit on a bench for lunch instead of going out for lunch. Garden (they say the soil itself calms the body and restores the mine). Wander the city and discover new places. Chat with people. Offer free hugs and see what happens. Be a kid in the burbs or country again – just go out and play.
- Plan. Know your purpose. Set some goals. Consider multiple strategies for achieving your goals. Find the highest quality for the lowest price things or services if you need to pay for anything on your way to your goals. Learn to bargain, look for sales, get it for free.
- Care about something bigger than yourself. Let some issue worm under your skin, be it making something better or preventing something getting worse. It can be electoral politics or activism or just your community. Write letters. Get signatures. Innovate. Lead. Inspire. Get known as someone who cares and you will have a support system for both fun and meeting needs.
- Be grateful for what you have. This may be the true secret of Step One of the 9-step program. For some people, tallying up what they’ve earned in a lifetime and what tangibly they have to show for it is such a big shock they don’t want to do it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about every possession, every person, every experience. Savor them. Experience your joy every time you do, have to participate with them. Living in gratitude is a great way to prevent over-consumption. Try it for just a day. Say thank you for everything. I call frugality having a high joy to stuff ratio. It’s the joy that makes all the difference.
So let’s look at that $1000 a month budget:
Rent (unless you own): ~$400/month
Food: ~ $200/month
Insurance, transportation, entertainment, savings and all the rest: $400/month
That’s baseline for the adventuresome or strapped or unemployed/retired or creative types. Is this ideal? Probably not, but then you add gigs, side hacks, odd jobs, part time work or even full time work, and build on top of that foundation to your enough point – having everything you want and need and nothing in excess. And when the job income dries up, you can pull in your horns and live on your basic income