living simple, not poor

I was chatting with my mother on the phone the other day, and she was asking me how my business was going, and if we still liked our new hometown. I told her yes, but in truth I've been a little bummed out lately. Mostly about my work. I'm getting frustrated with the internet, which is a bad position for a web designer to be in. I'm just not as excited as I used to be about the web. I used to be one of those guys who stayed on top of every new technology and all of the latest software. Now that I have a family (and a life), who has time? It's not just a matter of time, either. I'm just not interested in most of what is happening on the web these days. Perhaps I'm becoming even more of a luddite.

But this approach works for me. I like to live my life simply. I don't blow cash on the latest technological gadgets anymore, and I enjoy trying to survive on as little cash each month as I can. I sometimes think I enjoy saving money more than spending it, which is a very powerful position to be in.

But my parents will never understand. They're too wrapped up in whatever their television tells them to buy. And they can't understand why we're not. Not having television obviously helps, but they see the way that my sister and her husband live and can't understand why we don't want to live like that. Why don't we want a huge house with tons of extra space? Why don't we want a new car every other year? Why don't I want a "crotch-rocket" motorbike? Why don't I also want to have my own media room complete with wet bar, plasma TV and custom beer pong table?

The truth is that none of that stuff makes me happy anymore. I've been there and done that. I lived in a half million dollar home and it didn't make me any happier than I am today - in fact, less. I drove an expensive sport sedan with all the bells and whistles and required premium gas for its high-horsepower engine, and it was no better than the aging minivan I drive now. It didn't take me long to realize that none of that stuff matters in the grand scheme of things. I've got my family time, and that's number one on my priority list. Any money that I blow on techno "toys" is money that could be better spent on the kids - or even the house. Sure, our peers think we're a little behind-the-times since we don't carry a cellphone or ipod, but I can live with that. I just hope that my kids can, too. I know that at some point, it's going to be hard on them. Schoolchildren can be downright nasty at times.

In the end, I had to explain that we don't see this as living poor, but as living simply. It's not as though I couldn't return to that high-dollar lifestyle if I wanted to. The corporations and jobs haven't disappeared - just the allure of their employment and all that it entails.