Rob Greenfield on Money, Health Insurance, Age and Death

Hey everyone. Rob Greenfield here

and today we are going to talk

about some bigger picture things --

Money,

Health Insurance,

Age,

Death --

and how these are a part of my life,

what I am doing.

A lot of people ask this.

It is one of the most common themes of

questions because I have designed my

life in a different way.

There is no doubt that the way that I am

living is not typical in the society that

I live in, here in the United States.

So, of course, I am going to have

questions of those bigger picture things

and I want to share those things with you.

Now, I have put countless hours of thought

into these topics, into money and how it

is involved in my life, into health, and

ultimately, the question of health

insurance, into what I am going to do

when I am older (I am 33 years old now)

and the thought of death.

These are essential parts of our life and

I have put so many hours of thought into

them. In fact, almost everything that I do

is very much designed, through many hours

of thought, through much practice,

and through general consciousness,

deciding to live in the way that I want.

Now, my life is designed around living

in a way that is beneficial to the Earth

my community, and myself. That is the

central theme you are going to see running

through all of this. I have designed my

life to try to live in a way where I am

imparting goodness into the world,

and not destruction, giving back or

giving to, without taking. That is really

the design. To start with, I am going to

go into money a little bit first. I have

committed to living below the Federal

Poverty Threshold. What I mean is making

less per year than what is considered the

Federal Poverty Threshold. I am not trying

to simulate poverty. That is not what I am

doing at all. For me, what that is is

a way to create a measure to make less

than that per year, to keep my life not

focused on money and only make the money

that I need. Currently, in 2019, the

Federal Poverty Threshold for an

individual is about $12,000, so my

lifetime commitment is to make less per

year than the Federal Poverty Threshold,

which changes from year to year.

Now, at the same time,

I have made a lifetime commitment

to donating 100% of my media earnings

directly to nonprofits.

Not being paid any, but to have it

instead donated directly to nonprofits.

So, it says in my contracts with TV,

with books, that I am not being paid.

They are making a donation to

environmental nonprofits.

Now, some people look at my life,

and think that I am not contributing by

deciding to earn minimal money,

then I am not contributing,

and one of the big ones is taxes.

I have intentionally made a commitment

to not pay federal taxes,

and the reason why is because

I do not support war and a huge

percentage of our taxes goes into war.

They go into the destruction

of our planet.

So, the thing about our tax system is,

it is not a just system, it is not an

equal system, and it is causing

destruction to the world.

I am not going to put money there.

That is something that I decided.

But what I have done is I

have given myself basically a 100% tax.

100% of media income goes

directly to nonprofits.

Those are underfunded things

in our society that need more,

that benefit our society as a whole,

so I choose nonprofits that really are

working at benefiting people,

especially benefiting people that are

under-served, those taxes that are

being disproportionately sent around and

not being sent to the under-served people

and, of course, the under-served species.

So, the idea is not paying into

what I don't support and paying

into what I really support and what

is beneficial to the bigger picture.

Now, because I have committed to that,

that means that I am not paying into

Social Security. Because of that,

I have made a commitment to not

withdraw from Social Security.

My goal through this is always

to be fair, to be honest, and

it is easy for people who

might not believe in what I am doing

to just make these assumptions, like, "Oh,

well, he is going to take Social Security"

or "He is just going to mooch off the

system," but I, again, have thought this

out very deeply. I have decided that I

will not take from Social Security, if

Social Security even exists in the future,

when I will be eligible for it. But not

taking from Social Security. Then, the

other big thing is health insurance. I do

not have health insurance and because I

do not work a job that that provides it or

I do not earn enough money to pay for it,

what that means is I do not have
health insurance.

Now, I do qualify for free

health insurance because I make less than

the Federal Poverty Threshold,

but I am not taking it because I

am not paying into it.

With that being said,

I will talk more about health insurance

later on in this video.

Continuing on with money,

the question that many people have is,

how do I make money?

How do I earn a living?

I do that through public speaking.

This year, 2019, I earned $9,760

and that is all I earned for the year.

Last year, in 2018, it was $8,000

and in 2017 it was $5,000, I believe.

Now, I list all of this on my website.

I practice transparency and I have links

to all of these resources that are on my

website in the description of this video,

so you can click through and you can

go a lot further and learn a lot more.

Now for me, I have decided that I will not

earn money in a way that is causing

destruction to the world, or

stands against my beliefs.

That is why I love the fact that

I can make the little bit of money

that I need through public speaking,

because I am actually sharing my message

and it is something that I love.

Speaking is my passion and I would

do it for free, and I do do it for free.

In fact, most of my public speaking is

done for free, whether it is at libraries

or for nonprofits. I charge for a

handful or so of my talks per year and

most of them are actually done for free.

That is the way that I am able to earn

the minimal amount of money that I need

in order to live, and live comfortably.

I definitely do have a desire to

live with a reasonable level of comfort,

not over-comfort, but enough comfort

to be able to live my life and

do the things that I am trying to do,

to make the impact that I am trying
to make.

I am going to talk a little bit about

what I do not have in order to be able

to do this. There are a lot of things that

I do not have. Over the last eight years,

I have been drastically simplifying
my life.

I do not have a bank account, no debit
card

or credit card, and no online financial

accounts at all. I had PayPal, but I got

rid of that recently, so I deal with cash.

Cash is the way that I primarily deal

with money. When I am paid for public

speaking, it is a check and then I cash

that check, or a money order and then I

cash that money order.

In order to live simply, I also have no

monthly bills. Now, I can do that because

I have simplified my life. I used to have

dozens of bills, along with half a dozen

credit cards and all of that. I had that,

but I have been simplifying my life over

eight years, so I have no bills, I have no

cell phone. I got rid of that around

2015, four or five years ago.

I use WiFi instead. I have no car.

I got rid of my car in about 2012-ish, so

I think that was seven years ago, so no

insurance, registration, maintenance. The

average American is spending $7,000 per

year on their vehicle, is the statistics I

read online, so that is $7,000 a year that

I do not need by not having a car.

Along with that, I also have no mortgage

because I do not own a house.

I practice non-ownership. I also do not

have monthly rent. Instead, I do work

exchanges, which I will get into a little

more in a little bit.

I also have no investments. In the past,

when I was in my late teens and early

20s, I worked really hard. I actually was

working 80 hours a week, selling

educational books door to door and

I was making a good amount of money.

At the time, I was maxing out my Roth IRA

and I had life insurance for the financial

investment of it, but I divested from

all of that, for multiple reasons.

One, I researched where I was invested.

I was invested in cigarettes.

I was invested in fossil fuels.

I was invested in all sorts of things

that I did not support, so I took

my money out of all that.

The other thing was I wanted to

live for now. I think we are in a time

where we need to put in the resources

now for humanity, for other species,

and for the Earth. I am not saving the

money for when I am 60 or when I am 70 or

when I'm 80. I do not even know if the

Earth, as we know it -- the Earth will

exist, but humanity as we know it

will exist 50 years from now. I am using

my life now to bring up the people

around me and to benefit humanity.

That is why I do not have a personal

savings, because I think I can use that

money better for the global community.

It is not about me and saving my life;

it is about the life that exists today

that is just as meaningful as my own.

I also have no debt.

I had that before I was on this path,

but I decided that is not something

that I wanted to have anymore, so I

worked it off. I paid the debt I had off

and I have no debt and I do not intend to

accrue any debt. In fact, I do not even

have a credit score anymore. I looked

it up. Because I have no credit cards

or anything like that, I have no credit

score. I have designed that

intentionally because I do not want to be

able to access those things, so I did not

destroy my credit; I just let it actually

disappear, but that is intentional.

I do not want to be able to re-enter.

I have made it actually challenging for me

to re-enter because you can easily,

quickly do that thing.

I have also chosen a life of primarily

non-ownership. I have chosen not to

own a house because the reality is

that there are millions of houses out

there that are empty or practically

empty. The resources already exist.

I do not need to own a house of my own.

So, you have seen some of the things

that I have done. I have lived in two tiny

houses, both of which I ended up

donating afterwards. The first one,

in San Diego, I raised funds to build

houses for people without homes by

auctioning it off. Then, the second one,

in Orlando, I gave to a community, where

it will be used for their eco-volunteering

program. So, I have chosen a life of

non-ownership because I believe in sharing

resources. I think that is something that

we need more of today, of communal

resources. It is something that we have

lost so much of over the last generations,

this idea that we can just work together

and share. Generally, I do not believe

in the idea of ownership much at all.

I do not believe that we can own the

land. I think that is overall a delusion

of the human experience. This Earth

exists with or without us. We do not own

this land. Even owning a house, for most

people that own a house, they have a

mortgage and who really owns it

is the bank. If they do not pay those

bills, if they get sick and they are not

able to pay, a lot of times that is not

their house anymore. There is a lot

of delusion in this. You have people

that think they are secure. You have

the 2009 or so housing market

crash and a million people lose their

house that they thought they owned.

Personally, I have chosen a life that is

largely of non-ownership and that

means I have very few possessions as

well. By choosing to have few possessions,

that is another way that I need a lot less

money because I work much more

with the Earth, you could say, than the

average person. I do believe that the

Earth can provide for our basic

needs in many ways. So, that is a part

of the bigger picture around

non-ownership and how that fits

into money, needing less money because

I do not choose to own things.

I also choose very much to work with

my community. I believe that we live

in a time where most of the resources

are there. We have the knowledge and the

expertise, and we have many of the

resources to work with our community

and not have to depend on corporations

and not need to be sending our money

outside of our community.

One way that I do that is through

work exchanges. My tiny houses

have both been set up in someone's

unused back yard that they were not

benefiting from. In exchange for me

setting up my tiny house and living there,

I improved their land. In Orlando, I

turned the whole front yard into a garden,

helped the woman live more sustainably,

which is something that she had been

trying to do for 2-1/2 decades.

So, not paying rent, my rent was my work,

in exchange with other people.

I do work exchanges for many things.

To have my yoga membership, I built them

a garden and managed it. I also started a

composting program, where I would

pick up their compost. These were things

that they wanted and I was able to provide

to them, to benefit one another.

Last year, I had a filling that fell out

and it would have cost $200-300. At the

time, I had less than $1,000, I believe,

so it was not money that I wanted to
spend.

So, instead, I found a dentist where I

could do an exchange. I actually used one

of my old skills, or still a current

skill, social media and marketing,

which is not something I use a lot today,

but still know that, so I helped them with

their website and I helped them with

their social media in exchange for filling

that cavity and just overall a check-up.

There are so many ways that we can

exchange with each other, without money,

and that is largely the way that I live

with far less money. It is just through

exchanging and it is always about how

can we be mutually beneficial?

How can we share resources?

How can we share our time to ultimately

be much more a part of our community

and work together.

Now, one of the most common things

is people asking about what about having

a family and what about getting married?

I have chosen a different path in that way

than a lot of people would.

I have personally chosen not to have
children.

When I was 25, I got a vasectomy.

I am 33 years old now, so that was eight

years ago. I did that for many reasons,

but one of them was that I decided

I was not going to have children.

I believe that the Earth has a lot of

children on it that could really use

my time and energy.

I do not need to create life to leave a
legacy.

Some people, that is how they feel

they want to leave their legacy.

That is not something for me.

I would rather spend my time

speaking at schools or volunteering

with children or working with nonprofits

that are uplifting children in need.

To sum it up, there are enough children

in need out there and that is where

I have decided to put my time into,

rather than having my own.

Then, as far as marriage, I do not

intend to ever get married.

The reason why is that the government

does not need to be involved in my love.

My love has nothing to do with paper

and it has nothing to do with contracts.

I may be with someone for the rest of

my life and I may not, but regardless, no

contract has to be done on that behalf.

So, because I have chosen a life of not

having people that are dependent upon

me, that is one of the main factors in me

being able to live this way.

It is important to keep in mind that

I have designed my life for my life.

I have not designed my life for other

people to live it. Everybody has to

choose to live their own life and,

with what I am sharing today and what

I am sharing in my life, there may be some

things that you take from it that you can

adapt that can really add value to your

life and help you live in a way that is

more in alignment with your beliefs

and in service to the world. That is the

idea. You can take from it what you

can use. A lot of people look at me and

they say this is only possible because

of this or that. This life is possible

because it is my life and I am designing

it that way. Everything that I do is

not designed for a family of five that

has different needs. It is designed to be

a message. My life is my message. In many

ways, it is extreme. I have designed it to

be extreme, largely as a wake-up call,

as a way to get people thinking

about their relationship with money,

their relationship with the Earth.

So I do things in an extreme way

to shock people, to get them outside

of their comfort zone, but not to live

just like me. Again, to take the lessons

that they can and use them for good.

That is really what that is about.

A little bit more about money,

because a lot of people want to

know some of the details, such as

how do I buy things and what do I

spend money on, and things like that.

How I am living without a credit card

and a bank account is that I try to shop

local as much as I can.

Buy things locally.

I am primarily buying used things.

My goal is to buy used as much as I can.

So that could include thrift shops.

When I built my tiny house, that was out

of 99% secondhand materials.

Buying used things locally,

that I can generally do with cash.

Now, I do some transactions online.

Because I do not have accounts,

what I can do is have someone else

purchase it and then I pay them cash.

That is an example of sharing.

I do not need to have a credit card to

use it a few times per year, which would

change everything, having that.

I have no problem giving someone cash for

them to purchase something.

In my ideal world, I would not purchase

anything online, ever, but I am not living

in my ideal world. I am doing a great job

of living the way that I am trying to

live, with my actions in alignment with

my beliefs, but it is not perfect.

I do some online transactions, for sure.

That is the way that I manage that.

As far as expenses, what I actually

do spend money on, that really does

vary. For example, right now, I am in the

project of growing and foraging 100%

of my food for a year, which means I am

not buying any food.

Food is actually one of my main expenses,

generally, but I also do a lot of
dumpster diving.

We throw away billions of dollars worth

of perfectly good food at grocery stores

and everywhere, really, so I take that

perfectly good food and I eat it.

It is a way of nonmonetized food,

eating in an environmentally friendly way.

So, that is two ways.

Growing and foraging

100% of my food for a year meant no

spending money on food.

Then dumpster diving

for food is a way that I have gotten a lot

of my food over the last six years.

But, with that being said, I do a lot of

traveling and food is life.

It is one of the most important things
to me,

So that is one of my main expenses.

My expenses vary from time to time.

Sometimes it is travel.

Sometimes it is some new possessions,

whether it is clothes or possibly
a backpack.

During this year of growing and

foraging all of my food,

I did buy items for food, like a blender

and a dehydrator and things like that.

Building my tiny house, that cost about

$1,500, so that was an expense.

So, my expenses really do vary.

It is hard to sum it up.

There are different ones, but that is

a bit of an idea of what I spend money on.

Now, again, as I have said many

times, the goal is to live in the service

of others. One of the ways that I do that

is through my nonprofit work. I had a

nonprofit called Happy, Healthy, and Free

from around 2014 to 2019. I just dissolved

it this year. I dissolved it to live more

simply again. My name was on that bank

account and it was one way that I was

involved with money. Instead, I have

decided to partner with other nonprofits.

I can work with different nonprofits and

get the things accomplished that I want

to, without having to have a nonprofit of

my own. Some of the programs that I

currently have are Gardens For the People,

where we build gardens for people that

would not otherwise be able to afford or

create them. We have Free Seed Project.

I have sent out 5,000 free seed packs to

help people all across the country to be

able to grow their own organic, healthy

food. Then, Community Fruit Trees, where

we've planted over 200 fruit trees in

public places, where they will not be

monetized. It is just people picking

delicious and nutritious food that is

growing abundantly around

them, on the streets, in front

yards, next to the sidewalk, church yards,

schools, wherever they are accessible to

the public. This all does take money and

I do that through partnerships. The main

nonprofit that I work with right now is

Live Like Ally Foundation, and I do these

programs with them, in partnership with

them, and they are the ones that have the

money to be able to do them. So, again,

It is all about partnerships.

It is all about working together.

My life, although I personally have

very little money, money is still
involved.

So my goal is to use money as a tool

for positive change and not a tool for
destruction.

It is a whole different way of looking at
money.

From what a lot of us have thought about

it, and for me, even for the first

two-thirds of my life. I cannot explain it

all in this one video. It is complex.

There is the saying, "Money makes the

world go around." It does not. The world

goes around without money, but the

saying exists because it seems that way,

with everything being monetized.

Because most of our actions today

are monetized, to unravel that is more

than, really, I can explain in this one

video or even in a day of sitting down,

but I am able to sum this up and give

you an idea. But you have to go deeper.

It is all a lot deeper than just what

I am able to explain here.

But this does give you a pretty good

foundation of why I am doing things

this way with money, and how, too.

A central necessity to all of this is

transparency. Transparency is what is

lacking so much in our government,

in our politics, in our corporations.

Simply, if transparency existed in those

areas, we would be living in a different

world. For me, I lead by example and

practice transparency. This information is

on my website, where the money is coming

from, where it is going, all these things.

My website has a lot more with

transparency and I will continue to

update that throughout time.

So, let us talk a little bit about health

insurance now. That is absolutely one of

the most frequently asked questions.

When it comes to not having much money,

what about health insurance?

It is a totally understandable

question because it is a very central

part of our current society.

What I want to do, though, is zoom back

a little bit. One of the important things,

if you are looking at my work and you are

trying to understand the way that I am

thinking, is that I zoom way out and look

at the bigger picture. A lot of the way

we think today is very much designed

based on our singular society, when there

are hundreds of societies. There are 200

countries out there. There are many

different ways of doing things, but most

people around me look at things through

their lens, their society.

At the same time, they are looking at life

through the lens of this time.

Now, I have chosen not to design my life

purely based on the present time and

the present society that I am in.

You do not have to do that.

Just because you are born in a place and

time, does not mean that you have to

adhere to that place and time.

Health insurance in the United States

is a part of this place and this time.

I have chosen not to just blindly

buy into that system.

If you look at the bigger picture,

humans have existed for 99.999% of their

existence without health insurance.

It is a blink of time on the map
of humanity.

It is not absolute.

It is not something that is absolutely

needed to exist.

That is a pretty basic thing.

I am looking at things through the basics.

The other part of health insurance is that

it is a system that I do not support

in many ways. A lot of our healthcare is

highly destructive. What we do is we take

from other areas, we take from other

cultures that we do not look upon as high

as ourselves, in order for our own health.

That is not something that I support.

There is so much destruction in our

healthcare system. Then, the other thing

is there is so much recklessness.

People might think what I am doing
is reckless,

but what I see as reckless is smoking

cigarettes, eating fast food, not getting

exercise, living in an extremely stressful

and anxious way, not paying attention

to our bodies. This is what is called

preventative healthcare, taking care of

our bodies to prevent the need for doctors

in the first place and the health

insurance. It is something like, I think,

over 3/4 of healthcare visits come down

to what we are eating,

if we are moving our body (exercise),

and then stress and anxiety.

So, I practice deeply preventative
healthcare.

That is central to my "health insurance."

My insurance is investing in my body

every single day.

And taking care of myself.

So that is very much the center of it.

Now, of course you have bigger things

that preventative healthcare can not

necessarily handle -- getting into a car

accident, breaking an arm, major
accidents.

That is where health insurance

for me, would make the most sense, with

catastrophes, so I have done a lot of

research on this. For example, I looked up

how much it would cost if I broke my arm.

It looks like, on average, maybe it would

be about $5,000. I can pay for that out of

pocket. If I do not have the money, I can

get a bill and I can work it off.

Again, I have committed to not accepting

free healthcare because I am not paying

into that system. One thing I would like

to say with that, is that I believe that

healthcare is a basic human right.

I think in an advanced society, with

trillions and trillions of dollars, we

should be able to take care of each
other.

I definitely do not believe that we should

make trillions of dollars off of people's

lack of health because that gives an

incentive to want people to be unhealthy

so that corporations can make money off of

their lack of health. So, that is another

part of the bigger picture of it.

So, if I have things that are more minor,

like a broken arm, I can pay for that with

cash out of pocket. Now, there is the

bigger picture, the bigger things.

Let us say the bill would be $250,000
or $500,000.

Well, the reality of our healthcare system

is that it is far from flawless.

I cannot tell you the number of stories

I have heard of people having that kind of

bill; they have health insurance,

the health insurance will not pay for
all of it.

The bill is still crippling enough where

it did not matter if it was $100,000 or
$500,000.

They were going to be in debt.

Paying that for the rest of their life.

So, does our healthcare system

work in that scenario?

For a lot of people, it absolutely
does not.

So for me, the math on my personal life

is that the math works out.

Probably, almost any scenario makes sense

for me not to have health insurance,

just from a numbers standpoint.

But the numbers are not the big thing.

It is the much bigger picture element of
it.

Now let us talk a little bit about age.

That is somewhere where health insurance

really would play a larger role.

Another one of those big questions:

What am I going to do when I get older?

Again, we have to go back to a much bigger
picture thing.

Age has existed for all of humanity.

I do not have to choose to age in a way

that this mainstream society around me

chooses to age. I am going at it from

a whole different base.

You have to look at other cultures

and how they deal with age as well.

Now, when you look at life,

there are many examples of people who,

at the age of 60 or 70 or 80,

are still healthy and are still doing

a lot of what I am doing today.

Now, I am not saying that is going
to happen

or that I depend on that.

But there is the reality that taking care

of my life now is more likely to have

a healthier life as I age.

So, what are some of the things that

could do as I age? I am not going to live

my life this way forever.

I am definitely going to live my life in

a way that is in service to the Earth,

my community, and myself, regardless of

my age, but maybe I will not be living

in a tiny house or biking across the

United States. I am not going to be

doing these things. There are different

ways to do things. So, how can we age

in a way that is dignified and

sustainable, financially sustainable
as well?

A couple of options. #1, community.

There are many communities out there that

are intergenerational, where people work

together. There are a lot of people in our

society that think, when you are older,

you are less important, but every human

is equally important and in an

intergenerational community, elders,

young, middle aged, they all have their
roles.

In an intergenerational community, I could

still be gardening and growing food to

provide for the community. Maybe I

can not be in the garden, but maybe I

could be cooking. If not cooking, maybe

I could be watching children.

Community is one of the big things.

That could be joining a community that

already exists or it could be creating a

community. In my time, that is a

possibility of something I will do, to

create a community of sorts that I will

grow old with, or join one that already

exists, to grow old with. Now, outside of

community, there are other, smaller

forms of community. For example, millions

of people have a guest bedroom or a granny

flat, as it would be called. So, what I

could do is a work exchange.

I do not need to own my own house.

If they have a bedroom, again,

I could cook. I could garden.

I could watch the children.

There are all sorts of things that I could

do to meet those basic needs, even as

I am a much older person than I am today.

As I have said, I do not have any

financial savings, no retirement, no 401k,

or Roth IRAs or anything like that.

But I do have savings.

I believe that by taking care of the world

around me, by living in the service

of others, that other people

will also be here for me.

I believe that if I dedicate decades of my

life to humanity, to other species,

that people will take care of me.

You could call that social capital.

That is a term that is used.

You could call that creating community.

That is a belief that I have.

I believe that we can take care of
each other.

I truly, truly believe that my savings

is the relationships that I create.

My security is the relationships that I

create with other people, with the Earth,

understanding the world that I live on,

understanding the resources that this

Earth has and how to properly utilize

them. I truly have faith in humanity.

I have faith that I will be taken care of

in a time of need, but not in a way that

I am taking from others, but in a way

where I have given and other people will

give to me. I do not think in a linear

fashion, like I give you this and you give

me this. It can be completely circular.

I do not have to, necessarily, help this

person over here for that person to

help me because we are all helping each

other, and it comes and it goes.

So, some people have a really hard time

receiving. Myself, I have a harder time

receiving than giving, but we have to be

able to receive. We have to be able to

work together as a community.

Again, that is my savings.

That is my security.

I do not believe that retirement funds,

I do not believe that necessarily owning

the house, I do not believe that health

insurance, I do not believe that having a

million dollars in the bank, that any of

that is necessarily secure in the world

that we live in, and we have seen plenty

of examples of that.

Security, for me, is the relationships

that I create with humans

and with the Earth that I live on.

I am just 33 years old, so I am not the

best messenger to talk about death.

I am young and I am healthy.

I have not experienced near-death.

I am not just whittling away my last years

on Earth, maybe wanting to get every year

out of it. I am not the best messenger.

But I am going to talk about it a little

bit because, well, I am going to die

and we are all going to die.

I have a very different take on death

than I did 10 years ago, let us say.

What has been interesting about my life,

is that the biggest lessons do not

necessarily come in ways that you

would expect them.

The changes that you make do not
necessarily

create the ripples that you expect

or ultimately the big waves.

I have been simplifying my life

and downsizing for 8 years now.

I have simplified my life to an extreme.

It is an extreme.

Again, what I am doing is extreme.

The thing about the way that I have

simplified my life is that it has created

a feeling of impermanence.

I have designed my whole life around
impermanence.

My goal is to die with almost nothing.

And when I do die,

there is almost nothing to do.

There are not accounts to deal with.
There are not houses.

There are not possessions to split up.

When I die, memories exist,

the impact that I have made exists.

But I am just gone.

I return to the Earth.

That is one of my ultimate,

most important goals in life.

To die with almost nothing.

Because I have very little money

no bank accounts and no possessions,

the interesting thing is that

that idea of permanence is very much real.

I have come to understand my impermanence

so much better than I ever could have
imagined.

Getting rid of items and losing the
material

desire for things has made me embrace

my impermanence and be okay

with the fact that I am going to die.

Again, I am 33. I am young and healthy,

so I am not the greatest messenger
of this.

Only time will tell.

Only as I age will these philosophies

be able to see whether I actually

practice them and put them to full use.

Only time will tell that.

I will be interested.

Maybe you will still be with me.

And you will see.

I truly believe that, with the amount of

intention that I have put into my life,

that I will continue to live out these
philosophies.

One thing I did not mention about

health insurance that goes along

with death is there are scenarios that I

have chosen that I would not choose

medical intervention.

I personally will not get chemo.

If I have something that is likely for

me to die within a period of years,

I am not going to have hundreds of

thousands of dollars and vast amounts

of resources used to keep me alive.

That is my personal will, my personal

desire, and my personal belief.

I believe that death is okay.

I have come to accept that much more

than I had in the past and much more

than my society that I am

surrounded by does.

Now, I, again, am the 33-year-old
messenger,

but you do not have to look to me
for these.

You can look at the many cultures

that exist around the world,

outside of my very young culture,

and see that many, many cultures embrace
death.

They honor it.

They do not fear death.

They understand that death is as

much of a part of life as birth.

That is the bigger picture reality.

Death has to happen.

I actually go a little further and

I believe that our desire to hang on to

every last year is what is, in many ways,

killing humanity and possibly taking life

from future generations.

A vast majority of all of our healthcare

goes into the last few years of human
life.

I believe that the amount of resources

that we are putting into that may be

taking the years from future generations

because of the way that we hold on to all
of that.

That is not easy for me to deliver

that message and I am sure it is not easy
to hear.

A lot of people might not like that.

But that is something that I think

is really worth thinking about.

If we value life, do we value other life

as much as our own that is on Earth now?

And do we value future life

as much as we do our own?

I am trying to design my life around

the true value of life, not just my own.

So, that was a lot.

And I am really happy to have been

able to spend the time

and share this with you.

Of course, it is not everything.

I fit a lot into this short time

that we have together here in

this video and there is a lot more.

So on my website I write in more depth

and there are resources for my thoughts

on health insurance and age and death.

There is my public will.

There is my financial transparency.

There is my vows, information about
income,

where that comes from and where it goes.

All that information is on my website

and all of those links are in

the description of this video.

I hope this time together has been

beneficial to you and that you have gained

some insight, that you have gained some

inspiration, that you feel a level of

empowerment to live the life that you

want and live in a way that your actions

are in alignment with your beliefs.

If that is the case, then I hope you will

share this video with people that you

think it could benefit.

I hope that you will like it, hit that
thumbs up

in order to spread this video and get it

out there across YouTube.

If you have questions, definitely comment.

I will try to answer most questions

and explain things that you might be

wondering about.

Let me know your perspective as well.

If you have not yet, definitely subscribe

because there will be many more videos
to come.

I wish you all a very happy, healthy life.

and I love you all very much.