https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/ A guide to financial independence and mental freedom. Control your live instead of being controlled! Blogger.de mrwoodpecker 2012-08-17T17:31:29Z en hourly 1 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2107193/ New post on - Peergroup and happiness - The Welfare Paradox - A frugal trip to Northern Germany and many more can be found here. Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Happiness Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-08-10T11:14:22Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2069758/ In the previous post, we were discussing the money and time-consuming aspect of having a TV. Now let's look on what happiness economics has to say on watching TV: Source of the following is the book "Glück - die Sicht der Ökonomie" from the swiss professor Bruno Frey, who was one of the first to start scientific research on the measurement and causes of happiness.(English version here). Highly recommended reading for those who speak German.On his website there are a pile of publications... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Happiness Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-31T18:33:27Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2062502/ Did these guys need a TV? (seen at the amazing ancient greek city of Ephesus, today in Turkey) Woodpecker's last TV Do you remember these bulky huge TVs, one bought in 90s? Big as a wardrobe and energy-consuming in a way you could heat your flat with them? That was the last TV I owned. I don't know how many hours I spend in front of it... ...until finally it broke down in 2004. I was going to let it be repaired, but it was Mrs.Woodpecker (Mrs.Woodpecker in spe at that time), who voted... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Money Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-18T16:05:04Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2061572/ Seen at Rila Monastery in Bulgaria - a great place to get some distance between you and your job. Saving is a key concept for anybody who strives for a frugal life. Saving can add a lot of freedom and control to your life, because it means to think about what you really need, and to do spending and consumption more consciously. And it can free you from the rat-race, as it will curb your need to ever increase your income. However, I am not a friend of saving on its own sake, and I am so far... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Happiness Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-16T20:30:30Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2057010/ Climb the pyramid of needs. (seen in Palenque, Mexico) As mentioned in my initial post, I started seriously and more or less systematically thinking on how to live a happy, financially independent and free life quite a long time ago. But when I really go back, it probably all started when I was at school, 17 years old, and we studied "Maslow's hierarchy of needs" in Ethics/Philosophy-Education. (I really like the German school system btw. It is often said that school and university take too... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Happiness Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-08T20:49:46Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2052934/ Today, let's start to save some money. Saving per se is a thing many people don't like to think about, because it means to surrender some consumption. So let's look at some tricks that helped me saving and might help you as well: Understand the economic concept of opportunity costsThis concept basically says that you can spend each Euro only once. So you should not look too much on the price of something, but you should look at the utility (or happiness) it gives you compared to other products... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Money Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-02T18:20:21Z https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/stories/2054132/ Disclaimer: This post handles jealousy and is based on my German/European experience. Jealousy is said to be a more common emotion in German society than elsewhere, so I would be interested how your experience is... Your decision Those of you experimenting with downshifting while working as an employee in a company might know the situation: After thinking a lot about your work life, your consumption and the right balance in your life, you decided to downshift. You decreased you costs of living,... Blogger.de mrwoodpecker Freedom Copyright © 2012 mrwoodpecker 2012-05-04T14:23:29Z Search this site: q https://gooddaytolive.blogger.de/search