I love everyone Reacher. The evidence is clear. The TV series, based on Lee Child's novel about a former congressman who travels across the country without an address or belongings, generated a whopping 1.7 billion minutes of viewing in the first three episodes alone, according to Nielsen data. The time was recorded.
It takes many minutes.
According to my old Texas Instruments BA-II calculator, there are 525,600 minutes in a year, so in total I spent about 3,234 minutes. Year Currently watching early. That's about 42 American lifetimes, according to recent CDC life expectancy statistics. (These CDC numbers may be lower if: Reacher Considering the number of bad guys he dispatches on a regular basis, it was real. )
Freed from changes in possessions, accessories, and clothing; Reacher You are free to fight crime. He swiftly dispenses bone-crushing justice to the rotten, murderous, money-grabbing sociopaths he encounters as he walks across the country.
Reacher We have a lifestyle that millions of us admire and perhaps envy.
That got me thinking.
Why not step away from the mayhem and live like Reacher? Isn't that cool? What can you do if you cut yourself off from all the conventions of the American lifestyle that require millions of storage facilities to store everything you don't use or don't have space for?
That's when I had an idea. I know someone like that! Someone from my family. He's one of my brothers.
This is the story.
My brother Doug retired from his maritime career about 10 years ago at the age of 62. He has captained yachts on the East Coast, Europe, and the Caribbean. He spent years as a tugboat captain hauling cement from Maine to the Big Dig in Boston. And he worked for many more years as a captain for the Maine Ferry Service, operating ferry boats to the islands.
He's also an athlete.
That's why he decided to retire at the age of 62. He wanted to participate in Ironman and marathon events full-time. His retirement savings are small, but he manages them carefully. At Chipotle, for example, he orders a kid's lunch. He says it only cost him $5 and is exactly what he needs. Nothing more, nothing less.
He soon realized that he was spending more time on the road going to events in Maine, Florida, California, and Colorado, and less time in the home he had bought and restored from foreclosure. I did.
So he sold it and invested the proceeds to rent a small apartment.
After a year, he decided to live rent-free. He picked up a post office box and called home.
Where is he? Well, right now he's visiting me here in Texas. Before that, he was house-sitting for our brother in Los Angeles. And he has a huge network of friends who participate in running events across the country.
Has he achieved the truth? Reacher Lifestyle?
No, not yet.
But it doesn't have to be. He's light enough that he has much less overhead than most of us. Almost everything he needs fits in his 2007 Mini Cooper, which he bought for $3,400. That includes a wardrobe of fancy bikes, all kinds of his running gear, repair tools, his t-shirts, short pants, and sweatshirts that he used at his running events.
He proves every day that if you can fix things, the cost of living will go down significantly.
Yes, he has a cell phone. And he's thinking about replacing his old iPad. I mean, he's fully connected. He has a digital library of books and music for when he's alone. He has a more active social life than most people. Believe me, he doesn't appear in any article you read about the dangers of loneliness for millions of Americans.
Why am I telling this story?
I'm not saying that because I think you should leave everything behind and start a new life as a full-time athlete.
No, it's bigger than that. The more we look around us, the more we see that the rich life is not where we have been trained to be. It's certainly not a far cry from the overwhelming volume of media articles about extreme wealth, what it buys, and how much it costs.
Abundance is all around us. It's all around us now. Yesterday it was all around us. All we have to do is recognize it.
Best of all, it's easy to do. Forget some conventions and customs.
