Barter Best For Simple Living

In the 1800s, the barter, pledge and sharing networks formed the backbone of the economy of many small communities in North America. These networks often were based on family connections, but also found strong support in community development. Today, particularly in the USA, such cooperatives are viewed, at best, as socialistic, and at worst, communistic. It is unfortunate that we allow the label to define the concept, and, in turn, allow great ideas to be discarded because we chose to pigeonhole them.

Barter networks have regained some of their former popularity in restricted circles, and cooperatives, in general, have found niche appeal. Their implementation, though, could have been employed effectively to mitigate the impact of the 2008 economic downturn. Sharing networks have become the domain of eco-freaks and urban environmentalists, who focus on community-owned bicycles and other transportation assets. Unfortunately, our evolved innate distrust of those that we do not know, and our fear of losing material assets have led us to reject the concept of sharing and pledging as too Utopian to work.

Barter systems, today, most commonly rely upon the business members to provide most of the goods and services that are traded or banked to keep the network functioning. While many programs have city, country or world-wide membership, an effective local barter network can be developed with ease. Think of the old country doctor, as an example. Often, the fee for his work was paid in livestock or food. Travelling repair handymen could count on room and board in exchange for a day's work. Neither of these would be considered retailers or manufacturing businesses.

I belonged, for several years, to a local barter network with international reach, through its affiliate program. I could trade off services that I provided for restaurant meals, business services, auto repairs and even travel. While it proved to be quite valuable for me, it had limitations. Only those with a marketable asset could participate. Yet, I often bought goods privately, and found that there was no capacity for one-on-one, personal trading and banking. There was no structural reason for this; merely a philosophical one.

While working as a rural business development specialist, I structured a community-driven barter system that enabled every member of that community to participate. When I concluded my work with the community, however, no one was willing to take on the task of maintaining interaction lists between members. Yet, as the network would grow, it would be capable of providing an income stream for whoever chose to operate the system.

Barter networks require one essential ingredient, aside from the capacity to input something of value to the group that can be traded or banked. Each member must be willing to input a reasonable value of goods or services, to be banked, thus eliminating the "trust me, I'm good for it" factor. That good faith gesture often hampers the growth of barter networks, yet should be viewed as its strength, because the input of something when joining means that there is a liquid asset to the operation, creating value. In the alternative, barter networks require small cash inputs and contractual indebtedness to ensure viability.

Many look at barter systems skeptically, assuming that they must be somehow illegal. In fact, they are not only legal, but are recognized by the tax systems of all major democratic countries. That, sadly, means that the value of goods traded is taxable. There are some minor concessions allowed, though, that enable the free trade of goods and services in a non-business environment.

Sharing programs, like barter systems, require an element of trust, but also require the charitable (or in-faith) inputs of key members. Sharing programs generally have been limited to urban bicycle-sharing groups, or even automobile pooling, but may be designed to share almost anything, including technology, apartments, equipment and even vacations (think "timeshare"). These programs generally operate as true cooperatives, but offer very viable ways to reduce individual costs while maintaining lifestyles.

Pledge systems are similar to barter network, with the major difference being that items or services are pledged at a future date, while gaining the benefit that you desire today. Some of the community-built or Habitat-style housing projects operate on that premise.

Should you desire more information as to how to set up and operate any of these systems, contact the writer.

How To Retire In One Year Part 3

The most common reason we give for being unprepared for retirement is that we have debts and responsibilities that do not permit us to leave our jobs. These liabilities generally revolve around financial commitments, but obligations go far beyond monetary debts. Family, friends and community duties play a role, as well. Oddly, the easiest debt to resolve is that involving money. Family responsibilities, often overlooked at the initial planning stages, bind us o our current situations more strongly than escaping or resolving the financial constraints. In many instances, the money concerns may not, in fact, be liabilities, but assets. 

We have been inoculated with the belief that, in retirement, we have obligations that are immutable, and that our retirement should be an extension of our current life. We are told that we need to leave a sizeable nest egg for our offspring. We have been led to believe that our only assets from which we can generate income in retirement are our savings and tangible goods.  All of these assumptions are incorrect.  Retirement changes our lives dramatically, and, with that change, alters our priorities, obligations, needs and wants.  We need to rethink retirement.

In the late 1970s, I constructed a machining facility for my new father-in-law in a remote northern community in Saskatchewan, Canada.  The building was to be nearly one hundred and eighty feet long by forty feet wide, with a roof line over twenty-five feet high – a sizeable structure in a farming village of fewer than four hundred people.  Yet, it was almost miniscule compared to the building next to it.  That building measured more than two hundred and fifty feet deep by four hundred feet long.  Not only did it reach five storeys in the air, but it also had a basement, a sub-basement and a tunnel below the bottom level.  It had been twenty-two years in the making.

While the immensity of this unit may have been extraordinary in that region, the architect, engineer, contractor and owner of it was even more extraordinary.

John Chimko had retired at the age of sixty-five, from one of Canada’s national rail lines. He had decided, years earlier, that he would build a hotel in his home community. He stuck to that plan for over twenty-seven years.  But why was that so incredible?

Chimko built the entire structure, by hand, paid out of his own pocket and from his pension income. The building would never have been adequate for use as a hotel.  John, being smaller than five feet tall, constructed each of the scores of rooms based on his requirements, with room dimensions of seven or eight feet by eight or nine feet.  There were no washrooms in any of the rooms.  The building never did receive full electrical power.  Its only heat source was a large wood furnace, significantly inadequate for the heat demands of a climate that saw six months of temperatures lower than 0 degrees Celsius. Aside from that, there never had been a construction permit or architect’s stamp of approval.  Yet, this tiny man had built a building that was more durable than most contemporary hotels.

He began by excavating the site down to bedrock.  Then he began working upward, recovering rock and stone, and chiselling each by hand, so that the outer edges were flat.  He had poured concrete, using a hoe and a wheelbarrow, and setting stone after carved stone into place.  At the base, in the sub-basement, the walls were more than four feet thick.  They needed to be: he originally intended to build an eight storey hotel. Day after day, week upon week, year following year, he laboured seven days a week, from sunrise to eight p.m. at night – typically, fourteen hours each day. Slowly, the hotel rose from the ground.

Chimko invested every pension cheque into his project, and, to supplement that meagre amount, he would buy fruits and vegetables from the locals cooperative, add a few pennies in price to each item, and sell them to people in the community.  Most neighbour bought their produce at least once each week from John, although they could have paid less at the coop.

When I met him, he was in his mid-eighties, but, when I would start my day working on the machine shop at 7:30 a.m., John already would have completed nearly two hours of work.  Trudging up the inclined slope of the concrete walls, he would push the wheelbarrow laden with wet concrete, set a few stones in place, wheel back down, and begin again.

John Chimko never completed his dream.  At 93, he developed pneumonia, and well-meaning community members decided to place him in a personal care facility so that he could enjoy his last few years.  He didn’t.  For twenty-eight years, he had been living his dream, but having his pet project taken from him sapped his will to live.  Although he recovered from his pneumonia, he never recovered from the loss of his source of happiness, and died a short time later.  For years later, it took nearly three months for the authorities to be able to demolish the structure, using a wealth of heavy equipment.  Dreams do not disappear easily, it seemed. 

Chimko’s view of retirement was unconventional at that time.  He saw it not as a time to sit back and relax, but as a time to do what he had dreamed of doing.  Part of the pleasure he derived from life while still working was to have a dream.  The town did not need a hotel.  It rarely saw tourists.  But he wanted one, even if he had no plans to make a huge income form it.  His plans for a commercial venture were not realistic, but his plans for a fulfilling retirement were.  He lived his dream.

Probably, your retirement strategies are more conventional.  But are they what you really would love to enjoy after your current working career?

When I retired, I had already changed major careers three times.  But my retirement was to be an opportunity to explore the areas of life that I had been unable to investigate while working.  I wanted to travel.  I do that.  I wanted to delve into alternative energy and environmental projects (more so than in the last five years of my working life).  I have done that.  I wanted to move to a yurt in the woods.  My wife and I did that, and now we build innovative yurt designs as a moneymaking hobby.  Most of all, I wanted to continue to embrace life.  I do that.  But, although I have earned a very good income throughout my career, I have not even a dollar set aside for “savings.”  I am living life today, instead of hoping to live life tomorrow.  My assets are my interests and abilities, and they have served me well.

So, is it time to re-think your retirement?  Let us start with what you believe to be liabilities.  And let us turn as many of them as possible into assets.  Indeed, money is far from our greatest asset:  our greatest asset in retirement is time.

From a practical standpoint, we do need to factor our financial burdens and needs into any retirement equation. We may have consumer loans, mortgages, operating liabilities (utilities, insurance, etc.), credit card debt, education funds for children or grandchildren, property taxes, and so on. Itemize each of these, but do not look at them and declare, “I have to pay this much each month when I retire.”  Many of those responsibilities can be either eliminated or mitigated.

One of the interesting aberrations in retirement planning in Canada, UK, Australia and many western countries is that we can conceivably earn more when we retire than we did when we worked.  In addition, with subsidized housing options, we may be able to afford better accommodations when we earn less, because of the affordable housing programs that provide 55 Plus (seniors) apartments at rates much lower than the general rental market may do.  A single senior in Canada, for instance, may be able to rent a good quality one-bedroom unit for under $600 per month, while receiving a minimum of $1,150 in income, either from the Old Age Security & Guaranteed Income Supplement, or Canada Pension Plan, if that person’s own retirement funds are sufficiently low.

Nonetheless, most homeowners in the western world have equity in their homes, and own homes that were appropriate for a growing family, but that now house just a retired couple.  Once the home is sold and the equity invested, myriad ongoing debts disappear.  Home repair, electric, water services and heating bills, property taxes, mortgage, insurance and other costs associated with home ownership now are eliminated, while the only cost is the cost of renting an apartment.  If a homeowner had been paying a mortgage prior to retirement, the rent may be very little more than the mortgage had been, while hundreds of dollars have been trimmed from the budget.  At the same time, the equity, invested, may be drawing a modest income.

Although, when working, extraneous costs such as vehicle maintenance, parking, fuel, insurance and travel costs related to work were ongoing, those costs are reduced dramatically upon retirement.  Many people, for instance, can obtain lower insurance rates once they no longer are using their vehicles for travel to work.  At the same time, multi-vehicle families may be able to eliminate one of their vehicles and contingent costs. Calculate your transportation obligations while working, as well as anticipated costs upon retirement.

Clothing costs and general grooming costs also drop upon retirement.  But the most significant costs are the direct costs of employment: contributions to government entitlement programs and other source deductions. Employees who participated in a company-sponsored retirement plan also will see their input costs eliminated. On average, these cost reductions amount to 12-17% of gross pay.  Lastly, when income drops, so does income tax.  Calculate your tax reduction based on your anticipated retirement taxable income.

These are the simple cost reductions associated with retirement that often translate into a decreased income requirement of 30-45%.  That is contrary to the advice of many financial planners, who forecast that you will need as much, or more revenue upon retirement.  Their motivation in offering that prediction may be self serving: having you save more with them provides them with commissions!

Sometimes, we find that, particularly after the crash of 2008, our home equity has dissolved.  In such instances, we may want to consider renting out part of our home to tenants, in order to create a revenue stream.  Foreign student programs at universities often seek homes in which the students can live while studying.  Revenues generally are several hundred dollars per month.  Two extra bedrooms?  Two students, and a thousand dollars in extra income.  Sometimes, seniors are looking for a smaller apartment.  If you have the space, or are willing to construct a “granny suite,” ongoing income can be substantial.

An anomaly of modern life is the incidence of “boomerang children,” who return home after living apart from their parents.  Yet, most of the parents, regardless of how inconvenient this reversal may be, are reluctant to charge rent.  Even more disconcerting is the number of parents whose grown children have never left home, but who  do not contribute financially to the household.  Why? If you have earned the right to retire, you also have earned the right to expect your children to input appropriately to expenses.

Ongoing maintenance costs of home ownership may be a lucrative source of cost cutting and efficiency.  Many of us have land line telephones, Internet, cable or satellite, cellular telephones with data plans, Blackberry or IPhone packages, and ongoing movie house fees. Within those myriad technology services, we have several redundancies. Do we need cable and movie access, or satellite and Internet? Netflix, for example, offers movies over the Internet which can be channelled directly into our televisions.  Instead of Internet access with our IPhones, why not move to a basic text package, and rely on our home-based Internet? Can we eliminate our land lines, and bundle our Internet only with our cellular packages? Can we plan our telephone calls so that we can reduce our peak-time packages and rely on off-peak calling?  The sources of savings in every part of our daily lives are numerous.

Even with the scores of ways to reduce costs or turn liabilities into assets, we need to know what it is that we want in our retirement, so that we are not cutting randomly, nor being inefficient.  Like the little engine, you need to know before you go.  Itemize the points in your saving strategy and your plan to reduce liabilities. Then take time to reflect on and refine those plans.  After all, this series of articles is about how to retire in a year, not in a day.