Four Reasons to go Homeless By Choice

During my senior year of undergraduate, I was homeless by choice. That doesn’t mean I was living on the street. I was quite comfortable, I slept well, I ate well, I had plenty of money, and no one knew I was homeless unless I told them. It was such a great gig, I continued it off and on for a couple more years in grad school. I got so good at it, I went “unhomed” for most of my one-month trip to Japan, stowing away in youth hostels like a ninja! Here are some reasons to consider trying out an “invisible homeless” lifestyle yourself.

Bear in mind, I did this on a pair of university campuses. A university campus (and a little plastic card saying you’re a member of that university) make the process much easier. It’s possible in other situations, for example if you work at a big corporate building where it’d be possible to sleep in your office (though this might be less “cool” and “romantic” than sleeping on university grounds). On the other hand, I was homeless and carless; if you have a car and are willing to sleep in it, that would make the whole process a lot simpler.

I’m not necessarily advocating living your whole life like this. It’s obviously better suited for young, independent people without a family to take care of. For people who spend all their time on campus, though, this lifestyle is perfect.

SAVE TONS OF MONEY

Look at your income right now. How much of it are you spending on rent or mortgage? Consider this. After all your expenses are dealt with, very little of your paycheck remains as expendible personal income. This is why a $100-a-month raise can be a huge lifestyle boost even when you’re already making $2000 a month, for example. Out of the original $2000-a-month, you might only actually be able to enjoy (and/or invest) a measly $500. Tack on an extra $100-a-month and that’s a 20% increase. Now imagine making an extra $500, extra $1000 or more every month– after expenses, after taxes, after bills. That’s an extra $500 or $1000 or more of spending money (or investing money) every month!

You can get that “raise” very easily– just stop paying your rent. Take that money you normally give to a landlord or banker (who you likely haven’t ever even met), and spend it on yourself.

My family wasn’t wealthy. I put myself through college using my savings from the military. I wanted to ration my money wisely. At first, I got a cheap, crappy apartment, and, aside from tuition, that was my main expense. I ate like a peasant, I bought clothes from the thrift store, I scrimped and saved everywhere I could. With the sole exception of having an apartment, I was living like a bum. All the while, giving hundreds of dollars a month to some landlord, just so I’d have a place to sleep and eat.

When I made the switch to home-freedom, I could suddenly spend liberally in every other area. I could splurge on clothes, I could eat like a king, I could buy the things I wanted, when I wanted– and still save more money when the dust cleared. I didn’t have to worry about money at all. With the sole exception of not having an apartment, I was living like a king.

SECURITY

People are conditioned to think of a house or apartment as security. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Houses burn, they blow away in the wind, they’re washed away in the water. You can lose your home due to things you have no control over. Don’t pretend insurance will cover you, either. Insurance companies are corporations and their bottom line is profit, so in the long run, they’re a losing proposition to you– if not, they wouldn’t keep in business! You think you’re covered, and then comes Hurricane Katrina.

Now imagine you have the skills and know-how to survive, and thrive, without an apartment. You’ve developed these skills during good times, when you could have afforded an apartment if you really wanted. And now, here come some bad times. The economy turns to crap, you lose your job, whatever. Suddenly, you have a lot less pressure on your shoulders. Getting evicted? No biggy!

It’s kind of like being a non-driver when fuel prices go up. You know what I was thinking a few years ago when fuel prices started soaring? I was thinking, “Big deal!” I didn’t drive, so it didn’t really effect me directly.

Who’s more secure? An elite ninja who could, if needed, survive in a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested nuclear winter? Or some chump with a condo and a few thousand dollars a month mortgage payment? I’m that ninja– and you can be, too.

MORE FREE TIME

Freed from wallet-gouging housing payments, you can get by with a lot less hours clocked in the ol’ acid mines where you’d otherwise squander away the precious years of your life. Imagine working part time and still having enough to make all your payments with ease.

But maybe you like your job and want to keep it up. You can work the same amount of hours and still have more free time. When I was a homed student in my undergrad days, I spent a significant amount of my time just walking to and from my apartment. Any time I needed to access something I wasn’t carrying around with me, I had to take time out to traverse a nontrivial physical distance. Since I spent all my waking time on campus, it made a lot more sense for me to live on campus– and in the main part of campus by all the labs and classrooms, not some expensive dorm community off in a remote corner. So, I freed myself from that crummy little apartment and lived where it was most logical to live.

Imagine spending a year or two without any of the following time-sucker-uppers:
* Commuting to and from work
* Cleaning the house
* Paying the rent
* Assembling furniture
* Buying groceries, toilet paper, etc.
* Taking out the trash
* Feeding pets
* Mowing the lawn
* Cooking & Washing dishes
* etc.

(If you actually like some of these, like cooking or shopping, you can find ways to do them while without a house or apartment. Me, I was happy just eating out all the time, which may be expensive but not even in the same league as rent.)

A lot of “homed” people call time like this (without all those chores) “vacation”. While I was living on universities, I called it “life”.

BE MORE SPONTANEOUS

When I was homeless, I didn’t have the anchor around my neck and my time schedule saying I had to be in a certain place at a certain time. I can definitely see why the people in charge want us all to be homed. They’re literally tucking us away in organized boxes for easier processing– and we’re paying them to do it!

Last Summer, I took a one-month trip to Japan. I would’ve gone for two months if I hadn’t miscalculated the length of the Summer quarter. The trip was quite spontaneous, and it would’ve been a lot more difficult to make a snap decision like that if I’d been anchored to a house. I’d've had to ensure everything was taken care of while I was gone. And I’d've had to pay rent for a month when I wasn’t even living there– expensive storage!

I took a good chunk of my worldly possessions on that trip with me. Minus books and clothes, I probably took around half my worldly possessions at the time. Guess how many bags I had to check in at the airport? Zero, I carried it all onto the plane. How long did it take me to pack? About an hour! How does that compare to the amount of time and baggage the typical North American tourist would take for a trip to Asia?

CONCLUSION

If your house is currently just a place to eat and sleep (like it was earlier in my life), consider doing your eating and sleeping somewhere else and having a whole lot more money, time, and peace of mind so you can live your life as an adventure instead of as a bill-payer.

FURTHER READING

Read more about my own time as an unhomed person in the article: Homeless By Choice. It’s an article less focused on the why and more focused on the story behind my own experience. Until this year, I never would’ve published such personal, controversial details about my life (or even told anyone in private, except my closest friends).

Going homeless by choice will expand the heck out of your reality, by which I mean you’ll really see things in a new light. I’ll never be able to look at a big, expensive, cookie-cutter house in the same way. The objective truth of reality (to whatever extent that exists) was always the same, but I just didn’t see it as clearly before; it wasn’t part of my reality. Read a little more in my article, Reality Expansion.

My time as an “unhomed” person really made me aware of how society tries to box us in and tell us where to go and who to pay. Read my article Urban Exploration to learn about the art of defying all those societal forces.