Here at 1DisignerLife.com, The Engineer sees the structure of the world as game, more specifically a Game of Life that has been in development since the dawn of civilization.
The participants in the game are categorized as –
- The Game Changers
- The A-Players
- The Players
- The Spectator
From the financial perspective, the Spectator is positioned in the lowest pecking order in any societies. Right or wrong, good or bad the Spectator is not driven to compete in any facets of the Game of Life.
The Minimalist Money Play is tailored made for The Spectators of the game.
The play is designed for one single person resides anywhere in the United State – the framework can be used to model the Money Play economically appropriates for anyone anywhere in the world.
The discussion will not make a distinction between needs and wants – this is too restrictive for many to include in the discussion.
If you need a Starbucks latte every morning to start your day – go for it as long as it meets the final budget objective.
In any corner of the world where the modern economy has an influence, the same financial rules of engagement are activated – the price of a dozen of egg, a pair of snicker, a personal mode of transportation, a home and hundreds others.
The sum of all these costs is tabulated into a concise easy to understand number, the standard of living of the specific local economy.
Private along with public enterprises determined the financial compensations based on the standard of living and the level of skill required for the specific role within the company.
If the lowest compensation in any company does not keep up with the cost of living for all of its employees, the organization will be driven out of existence by its peers who are properly equipped with the needed labor resources with the more attractive pays.
The Minimalist Money Play generally has the following characteristics –
- The income to be earned requires bare minimum level of education – high school is the norm in the United States.
- Low footprint with regard to personal consumerism.
The design will begin with the research for the costliest city in United States, yielded San Francisco, California – by deductive reasoning if the Minimalist Money Play works for San Francisco, it will work for anywhere in the United States.
In a typical budget anywhere around the world, a shelter protection from the elements and momentary separation from the external world comes with a hefty price tag – ranging from 20% to 50%, with the high end typically incurred in high cost of living cities.
On the surface, it seemed that the scarcity of land is the issue. In reality, it is about the modification of the hunting and gathering ground – the location where the basic resources for survival are organized.
Fifty thousand years ago, all the basic and necessary resources were naturally placed in the wild. All lives began and ended within the forest.
Modernization brought on urbanization and in turn the rules of engagement in the hunting and gathering game changed.
According to the average reported inputs on the cost of living from a popular website Numbeo, an apartment outside of San Francisco center is around $2000 per month – the lower end.
A quick such on San Francisco Craigslist Private Room for share cost on the average is $645.45.
The data aggregated on Craigslist is a better rental number to design the Minimalist Money Play due to the fact that it can easily be verified with just a phone call away.
Let’s use the cost of living on Numbeo and the rental rate on Craigslist to construct the Minimalist Money Play budget. According to the users’ input on Numbeo, the monthly expense for a single person without rent is $1153.85. Combine with the average rental rate $645.45 on Craigslist, the rough total budget is $1799.3.
The remaining four major areas cost of living for consideration are –
- Food
- Transportation
- Communication (mobile)
- Entertainment
Food – initially, the data from Numbeo is used to construct a typical groceries list in San Francisco.
The groceries list composed of 5 food groups, fat, carbohydrate, protein, fruit and vegetable – a mid-price range bottle of wine is a reminder to enjoy the Game of Life.
The cost of these items seemed reasonable and if needed can be verified with the actual shopping trip to the groceries store – hopefully, a reader of this blog who lives in San Francisco can help.
Transportation – this budget is designed with the following assumptions –
- The age of the personal vehicle is between 5 and 10 years, and it is fully owned.
- It is a mixed mode travel between personal vehicle and public transportation – typically, public transportation in large metropolitan is cost effective and highly available.
- Liability is the chosen option for auto insurance.
A quick research for an informal quote of a 2008 Honda Accord yielded a liability insurance coverage in the range of $500 to $600.
Communication – there are many prepaid options and in combination with the ubiquitous WIFI, the $30.24 communication budget will work seamlessly.
Entertainment – is budgeted for $13.96 per week for a movie rental or a low end cheap dining out option.
Below is a final design of the Minimalist Money Play for a single Spectator living in San Francisco and anywhere in the United States.
The average yearly inflation rate should be applied to budget of $18,146.25 calculated in the year of 2018. For future planning purpose, the three percent average inflation rate can be used to approximate the budget for the next five years.
The required income to execute the Minimalist Money Play is $10.00 per hour or approximately $20800 per year – with $2853.75 tax for single filer in 2018, the net income is $18,146.25.
This is an obtainable salary rate with minimal investment of effort in 2018 for most places in the United States – effectively starting February 17, 2018, Walmart’s starting wage is $11 per hour.
The Minimalist Money Play is designed for the following segments of the population –
- New generation of puberties who do not have a clear plan for the future.
- The group of the population whose core ideology does not in line with the general population – money, title, power, consumerism – and has a self-reliant mindset.
- The people who reject many of the rules of engagement of the society, but do not want to invest time and effort in searching for alternatives – and has a self-reliant mindset.
- Lastly, for participants who would like to take a short sabbatical from the Game of Life to formulate a new game plan.
As depicted in Fig 1 above, the separation between the Spectator and the Player is the inspiration that may take awhile for some of us to find.
The execution of the Minimalist Money Play ensures the participants do not financially stray far away from the reality and fall deep into the gravity of poverty.
It gives the participant the opportunity to get back in the game – the decision of the appropriate time and place belongs to the executor of the play.
Let’s play the Game of Life!
