Living Well & Peacefully on $12,000 a Year

I stumbled upon this wonderful story today about a woman who has found contentment in her life yet lives at the “poverty” line.    I can relate to her story because when I was a resident I blogged in detail about my own budget which was also at the poverty line ==>  MD Living in Poverty .  It was through the cutting of unnecessary expenses and eschewing the greed fueled American lifestyle that I was able to escape medicine.   No fancy car, latest high tech gadget, or gaudy piece of jewelry was worth giving up my freedom for as long as I was chained to a job in healthcare.  Thanks to this realization, I will never step foot in a hospital again unless it is to visit a dying relative  (I made a vow to not spend my last days in a hospital bed no matter what the circumstances!  I consider myself a DNA- “Do Not Admit”).

Anyone can do this if they really want to make a change in their lives.  By living within her means, Ms. Wilcoxon has been able to escape the relentless and punishing American rat race.   Unlike most other Americans who work themselves to death so they can buy things to justify the countless hours they clock in everyday and to impress others within their social circles, this woman has courageously turned her back on all that.   She appears to have found a MUCH easier path to achieving happiness and peace in her life without all the needless sacrifice.   Instead of slogging away, 12 hrs a day, at some dreaded soul sucking job, Ms. Wilcoxon instead lives on a charming boathouse on the bay in San Francisco and leisurely spends her days taking in the beautiful environs and doing what she loves to do…paint.    Kudos to You, Ms. Wilcoxon, for discovering the secret on living well….and all for a mere 12K year!!  Here are some highlights from the video portraying her lifestyle:

“I don’t have huge payments, I’m not stressed out by a job, I make just enough money to pay for my lifestyle, I don’t need a lot of money for a big house with 3 cars and 5 bedrooms and big payments, it‘s not what I’m interested in.”

Wilcoxon lives on about $12,000 a year, paying a small monthly fee to the cooperative for berth rights (which includes sewage and laundry). Her electric bills are only about $12 in the summer and $60 during the frosty winter months.

Her minimal expenses allow Wilcoxon to live as an artist. Her work has been shown in the American University Museum (Washington DC) and she’s represented in New York (Brenda Taylor Gallery) and San Francisco (Jack Fischer Gallery), but her most enduring work is her boat home itself.