That's great...will check out that blog. In principle i agree but when things get in the way like elderly parents needing care, redundancy, and inflation, it's hard to predict how much you need to live on in say 5 years time. I prefer being self employed I can work around elderly relatives and keep an eye on growing trends in the self employment world! But renting is easier self employed because you are not fixed. The car however makes like easier gets my husband to work and me to my business meetings. I think sometimes what counts as necessesity is relative to different cultures and social groups.