Digital Living Minimalism Simplicity

How the Digital World is Impacting the Spread of the Coronavirus

As February crept onward, the stock market hit an all-time high, unemployment was at a historical low, and the economy was chugging along as though nothing could stop it.  Suddenly, the onward global march of the coronavirus (COVID-19) stopped everything, including the financial markets, in its tracks.

As a fiscally minded individual, I cringed as I slowly watched my 401k and investments erode, completely losing sight of the more important long term implications of the virus.  As the markets continue to fluctuate, I’m finding it hard not to cash out as I see daily punches being landed on my investment portfolio.  So to turn an unhealthy obsession on the financial impact of the coronavirus into a more healthy dialogue, I believe it’s necessary to take a look at how we’re using technology to deal with these situations.

So how has the digital world shaped our reaction to such events?  Let’s take a look at four major areas…

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Digital Living Minimalism Simplicity

The Heart of Home Automation is Simplicity

If one word best embodies the goal of home automation – it should be simplicity.  Such a statement seems to lack insight. After all, isn’t the point of home automation to take the complexity in our lives and simplify it?

Sure it is, but I’m not talking about achieving the end goal of simplicity for our home.  I’m talking about baking in simplicity from the start.

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Digital Living Home Automation

Guide to Getting Started with Home Automation

Turning your home into a digital oasis doesn’t require you to shell out thousands of dollars upfront, nor does it require Geek Squad installation or hunting down your neighborhood tech whiz.  In fact, the easiest way to get started swimming in the waters of home automation is simply dipping your toes into the shallow end and eventually wading into deeper waters.

Here’s a simple approach to finding out if home automation is right for you.

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Digital Living Frugality

My Three Best and Worst Home Tech Buys

Over the years I’ve made a significant investment in home technology and gadgetry. While I’d like to think those purchases were mindfully made and fiscally conservative, the reality is some of them stand out above the rest, and some were downright regretful.

Below are my three best and worst gadget buying decisions based on a combination of cost and usefulness within my digital life.

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Digital Living Frugality

Four Fun Focus Areas For Frugal Digitalism

Many millennials and digital natives have migrated their lifestyle online and in doing so have paid the price of convenience. Such convenience has come in the form of a monthly subscription fee to get access to craveable content. While a single subscription fee may have only a minor impact on one’s budget, when coupled with subscription fees across different digital services, the budget impact becomes more severe. This is further exacerbated by the rising subscription costs being charged by service providers and media conglomerates who have realized content is king and have gone on a spending spree in an effort to acquire digital content.

Thankfully, a convenient digital lifestyle doesn’t need to come with a high price tag. In many areas of your digital life, there’s no need to trade cash for convenience as you progressively shift your lifestyle online. In this article you’ll find ways to practice sustainable frugality in various areas of your digital life. This means getting what you need without borrowing login credentials from friends, illegally downloading the content you love, or managing multiple e-mail accounts in order to rotate through free trials offered by many digital services.

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Digital Living Home Buying

Finding the Right Home for Your Digital Lifestyle

Nearly 10 years ago I purchased a home that had been built in the 1960s. While it was equipped with few technology frills, over the years I managed to build out an impressive digital footprint within its walls. That work, however, came at a cost that could have been avoided (or at least minimized) had I planned out my technology needs up front and found a home more conducive to those needs.

Therefore, as I planned a move to a new city, I spent time assessing the digital attributes I valued in a home and set forth finding a new place that provided a foundation on which to build a meaningful, though more thoughtful and simple, digital footprint. In this article, I lay out six things to consider when searching for a digital-friendly home.

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