In the summer of 2008 I made a pretty big decision: to stop using money for an entire year, no spending or receiving. Over the course of the next four months, I set about building up relationships, skills and the infrastructure that would enable me to start this by the beginning of winter. These relationships with my local environment and community are what made it possible for me to survive – and thrive – living moneyless, and so much so that I continue to refuse to use money to this day.
What did intrigue me however, was how I would survive if I had to live moneyless on the road, wandering from place to place experiencing the true adventure of life. Living moneyless in one place can be challenging enough sometimes, and that’s when you have a guaranteed roof over your head, the ability to grow your own food and the time to build up the knowledge of where all the local wild food is to be found. These are things that aren’t possible when you’re traveling.
So when a Finnish man called Tomi Astikainen, the author of this book, told me in the summer of 2010 that he had given up money and was going to set off on a fascinating and incredibly brave hitching adventure, I was delighted. I was even more thrilled when I heard he was going to write this book.
Whilst our reasons for living moneyless are not 100% same, they have much in common – we both have seen the horrific social and ecological consequences of the money creation process; we both realise that money separates us from each other, our communities and the Earth herself; and we know that until we reconnect with both, then ecological disaster, social injustice, climate change, sweatshops, factory farms and all the abhorrent social issues we pay lip-service to disliking will remain the social symptoms that they are today.
This book is a testament to Tomi’s courage, spirit and love for the adventure of life. Not only will it open your eyes to a completely different way of living, I also found it to be a book I just couldn’t put down, wanting to see where the adventure took him next and if he’d manage to do it all completely moneyless. By the end of it, I detected a slight spark of envy in myself; as much as I love living on the land and getting to know it intimately, a little part of me wants to hit the road without a penny in my pocket, to open myself to the world, and to trust that life will take me where I need to go. Just as Tomi did.
My challenge to you is to read this book and to not even consider embarking on such a journey – one that is as much internal as external – by the end of it. If you do, then I wish you even just a fraction of Tomi’s bravery and heart. He has my complete admiration and respect.
Mark Boyle
Founder of Freeconomy
Author of The Moneyless Man
