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Downsizing your life

Many Baby Boomers find pleasure in a simpler life of fewer bills and less work

Dale Atkins / Special to The Detroit News Alix Ott no longer pays $200 a month for clothes. Now she wears jeans to her job at the post office.

By Deb Price / The Detroit News

    Ah, San Francisco. Just the mention of it brings to mind the sparkling Golden Gate Bridge, the happy ding-ding of cable cars, the fragrance of freshly baked sourdough bread. Or, if you're Alix Ott, the agonizing memory of crushing debt.
    "I can't exactly tell you where all the money went," says Ott, 44, who ultimately fled a high-paying legal secretary job to become a postal worker in Kalamazoo. "All I know is that seven years ago, my husband and I were working 12-hour days on a regular basis, we made $99,000 that year, and we were broke!"
    Like a growing number of Baby Boomers in Michigan and elsewhere, Alix and Dennis Ott have become what are variously known as "downsizers," "downshifters," "simple livers" or even, not totally in jest, "tightwads."
    Between 1990 and 1996, 19 percent of American adults made a voluntary lifestyle change, not including a planned retirement, that meant earning less money, according to Juliet B. Schor, a Harvard University economist and author of The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting, and the New Consumer (Basic Books, $25).
    Most of them -- 55 percent -- expect the change to be permanent and nearly all of them -- 85 percent -- say they are happier. They have voluntarily given up stressful, high-paying jobs for simpler lives without all the trappings.
    In California, for example, the Otts paid $975 a month to rent a house they could never have afforded to buy. In Battle Creek, they bought a home for $37,000. Alix no longer pays $200 every month for flashy clothes and pantyhose or $5 for lunch. Now she heads off to work wearing jeans and carrying a sack lunch.
    "You get into the mindset, 'Oh, I deserve this because I work so hard,' " Ott says, looking back at the $3 cappuccino she felt she just had to have every morning before work. "But you work so hard because you have that mindset."
    The problem, as the Otts discovered, is that it's no longer enough to keep up with the Joneses. Now we're trying to keep up with the Trumps.
    That's what economist Schor argues in her new book. We're exposed to wealth far beyond most of our means. "The average American is now more likely to compare his or her income to the six-figure benchmark in the office down the corridor or displayed in Tuesday-evening prime time," Schor says.
    Instead of the American Dream being defined by a little house with a white picket fence, it's increasingly identified with luxury items: option-packed BMWs, Michael Jordan sneakers, designer kitchens, personal computers, private schools and cell phones. Even our pets get caught up in this spend-spend culture: 75 percent receive Christmas gifts and 40 percent birthday presents.
    And it's never enough. In 1987, asked how much annual income they'd need to "fulfill all of your dreams," the median response was $50,000. By 1996, the figure had nearly doubled to $90,000. Another survey cited by Schor found that only 15 percent of Americans said they'd be satisfied ending up middle class.
    But downsizers are hungry for other kinds of luxuries. Having a job that helps others, for example, and having free time to enjoy hobbies, family and friends.
    Mike and Christie Nowak of Ann Arbor, who've scaled back expenses to pay off debts they brought into their marriage, hope to retire in five to 10 years. What's surprising is that Mike, a research programer at the University of Michigan, is only 33, and Christy, who's just finished her master's degree at U-M's School of Information, is 27.
    "Christie and I went through a series of gradual changes," says Mike Nowak, "not so much to re-examine our values but to figure out what they were and to realign our life and goals to match."
    They've launched a debt-reduction plan that they hope will enable them to pay off credit cards and student loans by next year. Here's a sample of what they've done:
   * Switched to cheaper telephone service that limits outgoing calls.
   * Phased out many magazine subscriptions.
   * Made eating out a special occasion, not a routine.
   * Shifted their entertainment more to free concerts and activities as well as the "cheap theater" that runs older first-run movies for $1.50 to $2 a seat.
   * Turned in a $400 annual U-M parking sticker. Now they bicycle, walk or ride city buses (free for U-M employees commuting to work).
   * Planted a vegetable garden that is composted with kitchen scraps.
   * Fixed more themselves, such as replacing car headlight bulbs.
   * Borrowed, bartered or bought secondhand instead of buying new things when possible.
   * Taken camping vacations.
    "The high is not from not spending money," Mike Nowak says, "but the high you can get from the experiences that you now have time for -- reading a good book, watching a sunset, camping, talking together. There is a strong appeal toward being debt-free and having even more freedom than we have now."
    A simpler life enables downsizers to live their values. Peter and Suzie Schermerhorn, "30-somethings" in Ann Arbor, have essentially sworn off cars, for example.
    "We have made do by taking the bus, walking and biking everywhere, even in winter," says Peter Schermerhorn, a typist. "It is difficult not being able to visit family and friends far away, but we are increasing our bike range dramatically to compensate."
    They went "carless" because of their anger over "the politics of making gas cheap," he says, and "the environmental damage done by roads and parking lots." They recently got a "junker" for emergencies and camping trips. But they plan to continue to rely mostly on their bikes, inviting friends to visit them, and communicating more by phone and e-mail.
    "Wow," he adds, "is life a lot cheaper!"
    Not only is life cheaper for Joyce Robinson, but she's found her new "less-is-more" lifestyle has enriched her relationship with her children, Kelly, 13, and Brad, 11.
    "They go with me to the East Lansing food co-op, where I buy many things in bulk, with our own recycled containers," Robinson says. "And that has taught them frugality and not to waste.
    "I tell them how much things really cost when we go to the store -- packaging, environmental effect, processed and fast foods vs. home-cooked. They don't embrace my ideals and still like fast food, but I know they will remember these things later and will incorporate them into their lives as long as we live an example."
    Downshifters tend to be female (52 percent), have attended college (69 percent), have no children under 18 (53 percent), white (85 percent) and married (54 percent), according to Schor's research.
    Most are Baby Boomers (defined as being born between 1946 and 1964). In Schor's study, 34 percent of voluntary downsizers were ages 30 to 39, 27 percent were 40 to 49, and 15 percent were 50 to 64. The top reason for downshifting, named by 31 percent, was "wanted more time, less stress and more balance."
    By the end of the year, the Otts expect to have paid off all of their California bills. Alix and Dennis -- who traded his stressful managerial job in San Francisco to become a truck driver in Michigan -- no longer rely on credit cards. And they take advantage of deals, such as the strong U.S. dollar that they'll make use of on their vacation to Toronto next month. In six years, by paying extra on their mortgage each month, they will truly own their home.
    "We make significantly less than half of that $99,000 we made several years ago, but we seem to have more," says Alix Ott, who hopes to retire at 50 so she can spend more time writing and working on crafts. "It'd be nice to have a bigger house, but then I'd have to be working longer. I'm trading off the bigger house and getting more free time instead."
    What's her advice to those who'd like a simpler life?
    "Cut up your credit cards," she says emphatically. "You have to live by a philosophy that if you can't buy it with cash, you can't afford it."
   
   Before you spend
    About 53 percent of groceries and 47 percent of hardware store purchases are "spur of the moment," according to the best-seller Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (Penguin). The book advises these steps to cut expenses:
    1. Don't shop recreationally.
    2. Live within your means.
    3. Take care of what you have.
    4. Wear it out.
    5. Do it yourself.
    6. Anticipate your needs.
    7. Research value, quality and durability.
    8. Get it for less.
    9. Buy used.
   
   The good life goes upscale
    Percentage identifying item as part of the "good life":
    1975 1991
    Vacation home 19; 35
    Swimming pool 14; 29
    Second color TV 10; 28
    Really nice clothes 36; 44
    Second car 30; 41
    A lot of money 38; 55
    A job that pays much more than average 45; 60
    Happy marriage 84; 77
    Interesting job 69; 63
    Percentage who think they have a very good chance of achieving the "good life" 35; 23
    Source: Roper Center in "The Overspent American" (Basic Books).
   
   Learn to downsize
    Here are some information sources for those interested in cutting back:
   Books
    The Overspent American by Juliet B. Schor (Basic Books)
    Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (Penguin)
    The Simple Living Guide by Janet Luhrs (Broadway)
    Un-Jobbing: The Adult Liberation Handbook by Michael Fogler (Free Choice)
   Internet sites
    www.newdream.org
    www.awakeningearth.org
    www.slnet.com/
    Michigan e-mail network: simplicity@umich.edu

A recent ABC Daily News article on Voluntary Simplicity.

More Detroit News articles:

Copyright 1998, The Detroit News