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More parameters are needed, in my opinion. What you want is possible, but not with only $10k. That, or give up some requirements (internet, unless you want to walk to a public library) and be prepared to squat on someone else's property.

I live close to your desired existence. I own my humble hermit's cabin outright, have no debt at all, and a few grand in savings. I grow some of my own food, hunt some more, but I still need supplies. I could conceivably coast through a few years without any external income, but it would be a very Thoreau-like existence (which isn't a bad thing, just too primitive for me). I own my car and home, but still forced to pay insurance and yearly registration/taxes (cheap, as the car and home are old and of very low value, but they're non-negotiable and will surely rise over the years and are unavoidable). I still pay for power and internet, which could be trimmed (but what's the fun in that?).

If someone mailed me a check for $100k today, I'd never need to work again, and I'm under 40. I'm that set up and frugal. As it stands, I pimp myself out as a remote admin and local PC support dude, with minor hopes that I can realize a small web site that will bring in a few kilobucks a year.

For $10k you can buy an acre on Hawaii ("the big island" -- subdivisions near the lava flows), fly out there, and start gardening year-round while you live in a tent. Water falls from the sky daily and you can raise some meat to supplement the fruit and veggies you can grow. You'd have enough cash to pay for a few years of taxes, too.

Property taxes will get you every time, though, unless you squat. There's some dude who lives in a cave in southern Utah on public land. He eats bugs and scavenges food from nearby towns. Interesting experiment, but he'd be hosed (likely) if the majority of people weren't wasteful and he lacked stuff to scavenge.

Anyway, it's possible, but you'd either need more money up front, to have everything owned outright when you begin, or have enough passive income/savings to cover taxes and minimal supplies. Like I said before, more information on your current situation and your goals/plans are required for a more realistic analysis.




Hm, it looks like property taxes are amazing in louisiana. Does anyone know the net cost of getting set up with a crappy katrina cottage?


there are vaguely habitable houses available in my neighborhood (seventh ward new orleans) for 50k or even less


So is $100k and whatever you already own the minimum you would say this it's possible to do this with?


The minimum for me. I want in-home internet access for the rest of my days, and of course cover taxes and some other minor luxuries like coffee and ammo.

Again, it all depends on what you require and how you want to live.

Even if I started out with nothing, with $100k I could probably buy a place outright (a truly run-down shack, mind you) and still have enough to bootstrap myself into life-long self-sufficiency(excepting maybe the internet requirement). There are very cheap properties (some rural, some urban) in many states (even Hawaii!), so it all depends if you want 1 undeveloped acre on a tropical island or 5 acres in the mountains of West Virginia with some 100-year-old moonshiner's cabin already built.


Public internet ok, no coffee, no ammo. Cookies sometimes but not all the time. And milk for the cookies.


ammo?


I hunt as well as dispatch livestock for slaughter. Varmint control is a sometimes necessary. Home defense is a side benefit, but not a primary motivator and I hope I'll never need it.

Nothing fancy, just a .22 rifle and a 12-gauge shotgun with a good supply of rounds for each, two of the most humble and versatile firearms one can own.


Are you in the US? Which state?


Utah.




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