My daily routine

St Lawrence River

My daily routine:

- Get up at 7:30 a.m.
- Have Aloe Vera jell, rolled oats, raw almonds & Vitamin B for breakfast.
- Go for a walk along the river for an hour or so.
- Open the store at 10:00 a.m.
- Sit in front a mirror and cite my Daily Reminder.
- Take a nap till 12:30 p.m.
- Have lunch (cold meal: salad, cheese/ smoked salmon, bread or soup)
- Mind the store while Richard plays his pool (100 balls).
- Richard takes a nap.
- Have supper at 6:00 p.m. (a hot meal with seafood/fish and vegetables)
- Drink a coffee without sugar (Richard is one step ahead of me, he drinks his coffee black)
- Go for a walk along the river for 2 hours.
- Take a shower.
- Sit around in the garden for an hour or so.
- Go to bed at 12:00 a.m.

I consider not working for other people a form of freedom and privilege. In order to keep my status of having the freedom and privilege, I realize that I have to keep a rigid schedule.

It sounds contradictory that you must discipline yourself in order to have freedom. I always thought that freedom is the ability to act according to one’s own will, which in my younger years was interpreted as to do whatever I liked. I definitely do not like to get up early in the morning. If it is left entirely up to “me”, I like to sleep in till noon and stay up all night until 3:00 a.m. At one time of my life, I literally reversed night with day. I stayed up all night till 7:00 a.m. and slept all day till 4:00 p.m., and realized that nothing good came out of it. Both my mental and physical health deteriorated.

As I grew older, I slowly discovered that there are a few parts of “me” and they do not always think in sync. One part of me would like to stay healthy for sure. The easiest way to stay healthy is to form healthy habits. Habits are formed by repeating a routine day after day.

Hence, the daily routine has started.

AH, I S THIS NOT HAPPINESS (1)

Pansy

Richard came home around 11:00 p.m. After a hot summer day, we sat in the garden by the creek, listening to the sound of water running, sipping cold Pu-Er tea and having a good conversation. We felt a little bit hungry. So I cut a few cubes of Brie cheese, took out some frozen grapes, ate them under the stars. We went to bed around 2:00 a.m. As soon as we lay down, I realized that I forgot to put the tea in the fridge to make a cold pot for tomorrow. So I said to Richard “Can you go? I am too dizzy”. He actually got up and walked to the kitchen, which was not possible a month ago. AH, IS THIS NOT HAPPINESS!!!



c-cassia

Sooner or Later

Richard Mark Didsbury & Ping Chen

I know that my husband and I are in the minority, which is that we do not depend on somebody offering us a job to live. And saying it out loud in this environment when unemployment is high and people are losing money will sound insensitive. Still, it is something everybody has to learn how to do it sooner or later. Most people retire at around age 65. In addition, this blog is to help organize and cultivate my own thoughts.

Even though we do not work for any one else, we do not like to label ourselves retired, not because we are not at the age of retirement. I believe that the concept of retirement can get one in trouble. Retirement means that you no longer work. In my mind, if your whole or partial income derives from savings invested, you still work. You have to work on your money, which involves thinking about, checking on and changing your investment strategy. A lot of people get into trouble, when they let go control of how their retirement savings are invested.

I am not defending criminals who commit fraud and I do sympathize with people who have lost money in this manner. On the other hand, if you have ever hired anybody and the person stole from you, do you ask yourself whether you have made a bad judgment or somehow your system has aided this type of behavior? When it comes to your money, you should ask the same thing.

We know we are on our own; we do not depend on, nor do we wish to be employed for our living. We live on a pool of income – apartment rentals, sales of my artisan beaded jewelry (c-cassia) and dividend from stock equity. We are constantly working on every single source of income. We do not do a perfect job, but all the mistakes are our own. We learn from and improve upon our mistakes. To achieve maximal freedom is to put all the responsibility on our own shoulders, therefore, is to live a self-disciplined life.

Abundance

“Simple living is not a virtue; it is a preference”.

- Leonard Cohen

In this economic downturn, many sites that advocate simple living and frugality have become increasingly popular. As for myself, simple living is a preference rather than a virtue, to quote Leonard Cohen. I had done a fair share of shopping with friends in the past as leisure outings. But it gave me more headaches than pleasure.

Even though impulse shopping is a very rare occurrence in my day to day living, it happens to me when I am on holidays. Every year we spend 2 to 6 weeks on the same tropical island in Southeast Asia. Whenever I am on the beach under the tropical sun, I have this urge to take a break and go shopping in the mall next to the beach. I do not understand the change in me except by saying that the sun has cooked my brain. I was in denial when this was first pointed out to me. Look at deals I get. Now at least I am aware, which is the first step towards cure. The next step is to set a budget and keep it. I am now at this stage. After that, I will take a look at the inventory and see whether I have been wearing them. The final step would be to plan what I need to buy and stick to my plan.


Simple living is not a virtue, but I do believe that impulse shopping is a vice and is not the opposite of simple living. The opposite of simple living is lavish living. I personally know people who are like that. They still shop according to their plan except that their needs are greater than folks who prefer simple living. I have a brother, who constantly upgrades all electronics in his household and buys brand name clothing. Since his need is greater, he uses this as a motivation to earn more money, therefore, he is never under water.

The point I am trying to make is that frugality is not a solution to all the financial woes. Living within your means is. It is not a matter of how much money you make, as long as you have money left over in the end of year, year after year, you have abundance.

Picture explanation: a Chinese abundance charm that literally says “surplus year after year”.



c-cassia