Hello, Phil here. I hope everyone’s doing well. Actually, I’m not even sure if I have any readers left, but hopefully that’s going to change over the next little while.

I just want to start off with an apology to those who have left comments over the last eight months and didn’t see them appear on the site. I’ve been going through a terrible time trying to keep ahead of the spambots. At one point, there were over 35,000 spam messages in my comments section. I have a policy of manually approving all comments on the site before they go live – and it’s a good thing I do, otherwise you’d see nothing but ads for Viagra, porn, credit repair, and so forth.

The good news is that I will be implementing measures to prevent this from ever happening again. At present, the comments are turned off, but I hope to have everything up and running very soon. Maybe even today.

One of the things I want to talk about in this post is the fact that I’m going to be changing the format of this blog. Over the past year or so I’ve discovered many things about myself and what I really want out of life. I don’t feel that I’m the same person I was when I started this site in 2005. I’ve had a lot of tough lessons, hardship, and many eye-opening experiences since then.

Back in 2005, my mission was clear: to escape the rat race, establish some sort of meager existence, and live happily ever after. Well, I got off to a good start. I managed to get a place in the country, I started a seasonal business, and I was content to live well below the poverty line.

What I discovered about myself is that I wasn’t cut out for that kind of lifestyle. I was so tired of being dead broke and always worrying about where my next dollar was coming from that I was unable to enjoy the freedom I fought so hard for. For the first year, things were okay because I still had a bit of savings. This allowed me to relax and pick up whatever extra money I could, however, there was no sense of urgency. Life was good. I was finally doing things on my own schedule and I had plenty of leisure time to pursue my interests.

All that changed last winter when I found myself in a desperate situation.

I sunk pretty much everything I had into buying a beat up, old house. I don’t regret doing that because you’ve got to have a roof over your head and it sure does beat paying rent. Nevertheless, it drained my bank account down to dangerous levels. I was bringing in some money on my own doing handyman services and window cleaning for local residents, but it was a pittance compared to what I actually needed to pay my bills and buy groceries. Each month I had to supplement my income with a few hundred dollars from my savings account. Once winter arrived, and my business came to a standstill, I was left with just enough money to make it until March.

I’ll probably make a separate post about my business adventures later.

I would say that January of this year was my lowest point. Only having enough money to pay the bills for another two months, I started panicking. It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had. In fact, I almost packed it in and headed back to the city to start applying for a job – any job.

Fortunately, I was able to sell some personal items online and got enough money to bring me into May. That wasn’t so bad because my business would be booming again and I’d be able to make enough money to get me through till the fall. I didn’t know what would happen after that – I couldn’t think that far ahead. This was basic survival and for the time being I had to live month-to-month.

I quickly realized that I was in a losing situation. I couldn’t make enough money during the summer to survive the entire year. Something had to be done.

I did have one other option available. From the time I left my job, I had been tinkering with making money online. Yes, I know, as soon as people hear that, they think scam. Fortunately, I had been doing it part time and I knew that it was real.

From January of this year until now, I have been working eight hours a day, seven days a week to make money on the Internet. This was really my last hope. If it didn’t work, I’d be selling my house and moving back to the city and the rat race.

Up until my last post in December of 2007, this site had a, decidedly, left-wing feel to it. I just wanted to escape the rat race, buy a shack in the woods and live off the land ( metaphorically speaking, that is). I wanted nothing to do with our capitalistic society and the hyper-consumer lifestyle that was sure to eventually consume me.

Well, I’ve had quite a wake up call since then and it has forced me to look at my life and reevaluate my wants and needs.

Being poor sucks.

That’s what it comes down to for me. Because of this, I’m changing the format of this blog and will be concentrating on ways to make money to escape the rat race and become self-reliant. While many may look at this as selling out to the system, I’ve come to the realization that I’m not as left-wing as I thought I was. I’m not obsessed with making money, however, I enjoy having a few extra dollars in my pocket and a little buffer in my bank account. I hated being brought to the fringe of poverty – it’s not a great feeling.

So, in a nutshell, my new goal is as follows:

To try to establish a reliable online income to pay the bills and have a bit left over to save.

Why online? Because, of all the ways to make money without having to go back to the 9-to-5 grind, Internet marketing is by far the best way to go. It makes money 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. I can do it from anywhere provided I have an Internet connection.

I love living 100 miles from the gridlock traffic, the pollution, and the stressed-out office environment of the 9-to-5ers. Internet marketing allows me to make my own schedule and provides the freedom that I crave more than anything. Best of all, it gives me peace of mind and money to pay my bills.

I realize that I’m going to be losing a lot of readers by making this change, but I’m also hoping to gain visitors that, like me, are neither left nor right wing, but somewhere in the middle. People that are sick of the rat race and are looking for real solutions.

Filed under: A new life • Becoming self-sufficient

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