How to Make $50,000 a Year

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Ryan: "I grew up born as I show in the documentary. Our furniture, a lot of it was homemade and every house we ever lived in was like a fixer upper" He says his dad told him that if he could make $50,000 a year, he'd be happy. Ryan's parents were on food stamps and government assistance; they moved to escape their abusive father who had mental illness. Can you tell us about your minimalism? We're not anti-stuff or anti-consumerism but rather consumerism is compulsory.

Have you ever noticed that no matter how much shit you buy, it never really does it for you? There’s always that next purchase.

I’m no anti-capitalist, but I don’t think it hurts to acknowledge the lie—or if you want to be generous, misunderstanding—at the core of the enterprise: that somehow acquisition will lead to lasting satisfaction.

This insight about the limits of materialism is what animates my friends Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, who together, are known as the Minimalists. Several years ago, they released a documentary on Netflix. It focuses on how to declutter your stuff and life and how that can lead to decluttering your mind and reduced anxiety.

They actually interviewed me for it—even though I am not really a minimalist—and to this day it is the interview that generated perhaps the most attention of any I have ever done. For years, people stopped me on the street about that one.

Anyway, Joshua and Ryan are now bringing their documentary – aptly entitled “Minimalism” – to YouTube, for free and without commercials. In honor of that, we are reposting an interview I did with them back in 2021.

We hope you enjoy this bonus rebroadcast, and don’t forget to check out the Minimalists podcast, Youtube, website…they’re everywhere. Oh, and just to say that when we originally posted this interview, we paired it with a supplemental conversation with the great meditation teacher Oren Sofer, so if you want to hear the original, you can check that out here.

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