It's a good concept, and good to try to teach; but some things just have to be internalized.
You have to live it. I'm not a big fan of this guy; but I do watch many of his vids. On my list of alt-news sites; he's largely unknown and thus unfiltered. And it's easy to parse what he's saying - it makes sense or it does not, and here's why not, and why the opposite is true (his support for moar ZIRP, for example).
But to this topic...I came to Minimalism the hard way. The only way, IMHO. I just didn't get it, until I had overextended, and then found my escape (sudden money, a one-time thing, coming in) and then living for the months and years afterward, withOUT the stress of worrying about how to balance bills, loans and immediate needs.
And then the Magic Moment. Michael has lived this, as a FORMER real-estate sales agent. As did I, caught up in a corporate merger, with new management that was ignorant, insane and brutal.
Both of us, and so many Minimalists...had that Johnny Paycheck moment. Take this job and SHOVE IT.
I could do that. The first time, I really sweat it - not that I was short money, but that I was seeing it only go one way. Michael, had he not planned for such a time...he's a guy with a high-school diploma and a real-estate license in a state that makes getting one, easy. He had few other skills, but he had money, and already knew how to use the New Media.
I didn't, but I had deep cushions and a skillset that was relatively rare. So...and there were many in railroading, "Boomers," they used to be called (has nothing to do with the OK-Boomer meaning or term of today) I started ten years of job and region hopping.
The day you realize that your short-line job is unsustainable - not for the pay, but that 72 hours a week, every week, only a week's vacation a year...the grind would never end.
The day you see you're a scapegoat. Even early-on in railroading, I'd seen young guys, first couple of years, step in a bucket of dung and get fired...and come apart with drink or drugs, or otherwise melt down. I'd been scapegoated. To me, it was just another pause between jobs. I'd gotten used to pulling my cost of living down to, food, rent, and incidental expenses...less than $1000 a month, a few years ago.
Which is now why I'm far from panic, even as the price of everything looks to double or moar for the next couple of years.
But, to the point: You have to LIVE it. I don't know that you can teach this - it's so much blather until that day when you're sitting there, bills are due, there's no money to cover it. The day the Sheriff puts your furniture out on the curb, after giving you an eviction notice.
Self-denial and modulation of appetite, is a life-skill, and one I don't know how to share.
