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I’ve never been big on donating money to charities, but I’ve never really given it much thought. It was more the annoyance of having someone knock on my door and then make demands about how I donate money to their charity.

For example, one night around 9pm a man knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to donate to a charity that preserves rain forests and so on. I’m a bit of a greenie, so I was ready to give him some money but he refused the cash. “We are looking for a donation that we take monthly – as a regular thing”. I explained to him that I was travelling next year and had no idea what my financial situation would be like, but I would be happy to donate as a once-off thing. He refused again and gave me same story about the “monthly commitment”. It was pretty obvious that he was getting a cut of the monthly commitment, and as a result wasn’t interested in my genuine donation. He left empty handed and I walked back inside frustrated with the world.

Ever since a friend asked me to donate to a charity quite some time ago, I’ve given it some thought, and to be honest I ask myself “what is the point”.

For instance, charities supporting cancer research are just misguided, and wasting money on research for a wonder drug, when clearly the solution is a good diet and a healthy lifestyle. Doctors receive essentially no training on nutrition, despite it being the most important thing in our lives, and good nutrition being the most plausible way to “beat” cancer.

I plan to pick some well thought out charities that I believe strongly in, and donate to them only. I think it’s a better way of going about making donations.

I’ve been reading “The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich” by Tim Ferriss lately. It’s the first time that I have read a book that always says “you’re not going to believe this” or “you’re going to think I’m crazy for saying this”, and never actually thinking it. It’s as though my views and goals in life fall in line with everything that he is preaching. Ok so maybe not all of it – I do still have my own opinions and don’t agree with some here and there, but essentially I have the same goals:

• Don’t get tied to a physical location
• Work as little as you can
• Actually do what you want to do in life

This is all good and well, but you really need to financially support the lifestyle that you want. If you have read any of my other posts on this site, it’s probably obvious by now that I’m not a very materialistic person. I’m no Amish, but I’m not very driven to have a lot of “stuff” either.

By not having the need to own a lot of posessions, I personally have a huge advantage – I can get away with earning less in order to have the lifestyle that I want. Of course if you do have a lot of needs by way of posessions, it’s all possible, you just need to raise more income.

How do I plan on doing this? There are plenty of ways, but essentially I am working on projects that require little to no work from myself after the initial setup. I’m not quite at the “outsource everything” stage, so I’m doing a lot of work myself (since I actually enjoy it), but maybe one day.

For instance, I run a website called “Eco Update“. The idea of the site is to aggregate content – basically it pulls the relevant content from other sites and then displays it on mine. The aim is to collect content on a few related topics, making it a “hub” of eco friendly/green living news and information. From the income generating point of view, the site also features Google Adsense advertising, and generates a minor income stream for me which requires little to no effort after the initial setup.

It goes to show that while you can make smart investments to generate passive income, there are also other little projects that can do the same for next to no cost. Some people like me create websites and use affiliate programs and advertising banners to generate income while others will start a dropshipping business. There are plenty of options and you are only limited by your imagination.

Think about it, then do some planning, and make it happen. Start small if need be and aim for the stars.

I’m lucky enough to have been sent to Queensland this week for work. I am here to attend a training/conference/expo of sorts called Microsoft Tech.ed.

Upon arrival to the conference I was given a HP netbook – a HP Mini 2140 to be precise. I’m a massive geek and I love this thing (I’m typing this blog entry on it right now).

I just can’t believe how image driven Queensland is. I know everyone, everywhere is somewhat driven by image, but never before have I seen people so driven by image that their lives evolve around it. Talking to Queenslanders, watching them walk around on the streets, seeing the numerous mini trucks, heavily modified v8′s and turbo cars everywhere, not to mention people riding choppers, etc, etc – it’s just a state driven by looking good – at any cost! They are all trying to keep up with eachother, even though only few of them can afford to.

Obviously this sort of thing happens everywhere – certainly in Adelaide where I live, but just not on this scale.

While I’ve been here I’ve also had some time to catch up with my sister who lives in Queensland too. It’s been great to catch up with her, and finally meet my niece – who is just awesome.

Spending time with my sister and her family has once again reinforced my opinion that “things” and ”stuff” is just so unnecessary. I completely understand that people need their hobbies, they need their few luxuries, but at what cost?

This isn’t a dig at the state at all – it’s beautiful up here… In areas anyway. I’ve considered the idea of moving up here a fair few times now (although never seriously enough to talk with my fiancee about it). I just don’t know if I could keep up with everyone else. I really think that to survive in Queensland you need to be very career drive, have very well of parents, or be happy to live a life of eternal debt.

I browse a lot of Internet forums – Mountain biking, cars, property and so on. You wouldn’t believe how many people are talking about the 90 million dollar Oz Lotto tomorrow night.

“What cars would you buy?”, “Where would you buy a house and what sort?”, and so on. I was talking to the guys at work about it last week and I’m convinced that nothing “amazing” like winning 90 million will ever happen to me, but I take comfort that along with that I don’t believe anything terrible will happen to me in my life either. I’ll just ride the wave, enjoy it to the max, and then die one day.

Australia is the new America. Rampant consumerism, and while I like my “stuff”, it’s insane to think that my life could be that much better just with more money. In fact you only have to look to the “stars” to see how the money ends up owning them in the long run.

For instance – I am relatively healthy, in a good career and with my fiancee who makes me so very happy. I am lucky enough to know my passion – bikes. I love the outdoors and my freedom. Obviously I’m not going to say that money wouldn’t make some of these things easier to acquire – bikes for instance – I could have hundreds if I was loaded, but what is the point? Where is the satisfaction in having a few hundred bikes when in reality you will only ever ride maybe 5 of them regularly? Being rich is a false economy. I’m not going to love my fiancee any more if I’m rich, I’m not going to get any healthier if I’m rich, and I’m not going to feel any more free if I’m rich either.

I’m sure if you think about it in your life too, the benefits will be limited as well.

Winning a lump sum of money like this will just throw all frugality out of the window, and before long you will be “two steps back”.

Maybe I’m just sour about others winning, maybe I’m in denial, but I honestly think that people bank on money (no pun intended), that bit too much. If money is the thing that will make you the happiest in life, it’s time for a reality check. There is so much out there to make you smile, make you laugh, or give you a rush that doesn’t cost a cent!

When I was a kid I was always competitive. I competed in athletics and always wanted to win. Back then I think it was just because I was given the opportunity to compete in an event, and as far as I knew, you only ever competed to come first.

Through the later school years and a year or so after leaving school, I was finding my place in life. It was hard to see mates getting handouts from their parents while I had to work my ass off to get anything, and even then I couldn’t compete in their world.

Nowadays though, I see that everything I’ve been through has taught me some serious lessons. Small lessons like appreciation for money, but more importantly knowing what is actually important to me.

Time after time back in the day, I’d be annoyed that I didn’t have something that one of my mates had, when in reality although it would be nice to have, it wasn’t really that important. (Eg. a mate gets a nice new skateboard from his parents, but I can’t afford one so I don’t get one – in reality I was never into skating anyway). Nowadays, it’s financially a lot easier for me to buy something just because the next person has bought it, in “keeping up appearances”. I used to do this, but now I’m over it – as far as I see it, it’s just another form of competition.

Buying a nicer car, renovating the house or moving to a more upmarket suburb. Even just the places that you go out to dinner. It’s fine when you’re making the choices for yourself, but it’s crazy if you’re just doing something for first place in the game of life.

I know a couple that live well outside of their means, just to try and keep up with the rest of their family. The whole family competes constantly. Houses, cars, TV’s, computers, and now children. You name it, they’ll all try and outdo each other. It’s sad really, because when they actually want to do something, they can’t afford it or don’t have the time, because they commit so much of their resources to their competitive lifestyle. They end up living someone else’s life and not the life that they truly want to live.

I had a (cross country) mountain bike race on yesterday. My first race since last year and in a higher class than before. It was a real challenge for me, but I realised a lot of things while I was racing. A fair few of them unrelated to this post (things about technique, etc) but most importantly that I wasn’t really that interested in winning. I’m more of an “I wonder how fast I am” racer. It’s a personal challenge more than anything else for me. Sometimes when it comes to sport I wonder if I should try and be more competitive, but really, why? For the kudos of other people? I just want to go out and ride, and do the best that I can. If my best is first place, great, if it’s 20th, fine. I came 7th on the weekend.

I’m happy with where I’m at. Sure, a bit of competition in sport is healthy, but to me not being too competitive in life means staying true to what you actually want, rather than living a life of competition between friends, family and colleagues. It means you can live the life that you want, not what others want you to live. I couldn’t think of a better way to live really..