Don’t ask Daniel Suelo for a dollar. Don’t ask him for a quarter, either. In fact, don’t even ask him for penny. He won’t be able to give it to you. He’s not cheap, though. He’s not selfish. And, it’s definitely not that he doesn’t want you help you out. He would. But, you see, Suelo has a problem. Or, as he sees it, a blessing. The 51-year-old lives in Moab, Utah and he does not have any money.

It’s not a temporary situation. Quite the contrary. Suelo actually chooses not to have or use any money. In this day and age where we’ve all become obsessed with the idea of money—getting it, saving it, spending it, and investing it to try and (you guessed it!) make more of it—Suelo is living his life 100 percent money-free, according to a recent story done by Good Morning America. He made the decision to do it about 12 years ago and hasn’t looked back since. As a result, he doesn’t buy food, instead eating whatever he can find in garbage cans, frying up insects, and even resorting to cooking up roadkill. He doesn’t buy clothes, instead wearing whatever he can find that others discard. He doesn’t even soap when he bathes himself in a creek near the cave that he lives in just outside Moab. He literally doesn’t use any money. And he likes it that way.

Why? Well, to hear him tell it, it’s partially because of his Christian background and beliefs and partially because, once upon a time, he did use money quite often and he didn’t like himself very much for doing it. Every time he’d use it, he felt guilty. That guilt eventually caught up to him and he decided to make a change in his life. So, after traveling to India and studying the Hindu Sadhus who live without any material possessions, he decided to try and live the same kind of lifestyle in America. And, wouldn’t you know? It worked! He’s managed to be successful without actually being what we normally think of when we think about someone who is “successful.”

And, Suelo isn’t just doing this to prove something to himself. He also operates a blog and regularly updates people on the things he has to do in order to maintain his lifestyle. The point of blogging is to show others that money shouldn’t be the end all, be all of life. But, of course, he doesn’t do it from his smart phone or his home computer. He does it right from the comfort of the Moab public library. And while he has met some resistance to his efforts—despite his unselfish attitude towards life, some people think he’s doing a real disservice to society by sponging off of certain things that are paid for with tax dollars—most people have a pretty favorable response to him once they get to know why he’s doing what he’s doing.

So, call him crazy if you want. Laugh and say that he’s insane. But, Suelo may be onto something here. Maybe the most important things in life are free. Especially when money isn’t an option.

Bookmark to: