--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "dhamiltony2k5" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Thanks for making this point Jeffry. In dismissing FF you (& others > do it too) assume that wealth is happiness. Yet there are a lot of > folks living very fine lives as 'transcendentalists' here living > under the wealth standard you are applying.
An excellent point, and one that isn't emphasized enough about places that one moves to for their "vibe quotient" rather than their money-making potential. I have this thing about living in or near "power places." I stupidly picked up and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico for that very reason, unaware of the local one-liner, "What can you get for under five dollars in Santa Fe? A job." :-) Some of the lowest wages in the nation, but the "vibe quotient" balanced things out for me, and I was able to find ways to make more money by telecommuting and real commuting. Since then I've lived in Paris (a disappointment, vibe quotient-wise), and that was fairly expen- sive, although only about half per month as I had paid for my living expenses in, say, New York or L.A. or Chicago. Then I moved to a remote village in France where the cost of living was about a tenth per month as those cities. Now I live in a place where the cost of living is about a third of those cities. Are any of these places (excluding Paris) where one would want to live if one's focus is making money? Not on a bet! Another Santa Fe one-liner is, "How do you make a million dollars in Santa Fe? Arrive with two million." :-) But some places more than make up for their lack of "money-making quotient" with their "vibe quotient" and "quality of life quotient." From what I've heard of Fairfield on this forum, it is one of those places. Its quality of life does not depend on the TMO (thank god); it stands on its own. And from what I've heard, living in an area where the monthly cost of living is low has the benefit of adding to your "discretionary income." If you have money "left over" every month, you can save it up for a SV house, if you want one, or for other things. Through another forum I'm still in touch with a few of the former Rama (Frederick Lenz) students. A lot of them are still on the "how much money you make is an indicator of your level of personal power" trip that he used to espouse, and thus they still live in New York and L.A. and Chicago and the SF Bay area. They make more money than I do, every last one of them. But when this subject comes up, I ask them what percentage of the money they make each month they get to keep or use as discretionary income. It's usually in the range of 5-10%. I may live in a backwater beach town in Spain that isn't where *anyone* who wanted to make a million bucks would ever live, but I get to keep about 75% of my monthly income. Plus I get to live in a neat place that offers me benefits I can't get in a big city. Like living in a psychic atmosphere that isn't "polluted" with the thoughts of millions of people who, sadly, are not the happiest of campers. Like not having to worry about random street crime. Ever. Like having cheap medical care. So living in the boonies *works* for me, and I can completely understand why living in Fairfield *works* for many of the people here. Do we all have little things that we *bitch* about with regard to our chosen "high vibe quotient" places to live? You betcha. But are any of those things we bitch about enough to cause us to move? Not hardly.
