Is it possible to live comfortably in today’s American culture without money or a job? So begins the article "Life Without Money" published on the website Zenzibar.com, described by the creators as "an alternative portal and directory of alternatives to Western mainstream culture."

John (not his real name) has lived a nearly moneyless life for the past seven years, yet he enjoys a freedom that others, slaving at their jobs, only dream of. He is not suffering either. He lives in a house in a beautiful mountain area. He eats well. He is warm in the winter and has time to spend studying nature, relaxing, and traveling. His living costs average less than $200 per month. Once a year he helps someone remodel a house for a month and this pays his entire year’s expenses. Sound impossible? There’s more!

Liz (not her real name either) owns a house that she rents out. The rent covers her mortgage, plus a little left over to live on. She camps on a rock ledge next to her house and trades reflexology massages for just about every thing she needs from shoes to gasoline for her car. Every other year she spends six to eight months in Asia, traveling.

Royce Carlson maintains that there are ways we can meet our needs without working 40 hours a week, without debt, without depending on welfare or other government benefits, without a trust fund, and without lack. But it sounds like it takes a great deal of courage to be able to sacrifice "material comforts" and be willing to settle for just the bare necessities of air and water, food, clothing and shelter. And some of the suggested methods of adding a few luxuries like computers, phones, furniture and the like would take even more courage. "Dumpster diving" as Mr. Carlson calls the act of retrieving little luxuries out of people’s trash isn’t something most of us could bring ourselves to do because we equate such an action with homelessness and abject destitution, something only the most desperate and pathetic person would do. We would never want to be seen looking through someone’s trash. We would rather die.

Obviously such an alternative lifestyle as Mr. Carlson describes in "Life Without Money" isn’t for everyone, but there’s still food for thought in the piece. Even if you don’t quit your job to consciously embark on a journey of living without money, you might get some ideas for improving your present situation or at least your outlook. As Mr. Carlson writes:

You may not want to push the limits of living without money, but you can change your lifestyle so you can live on minimal money. If you can somehow come up with $200 to $500 per month you can practically live like a wealthy retiree. What you do have to buy, you can find a way to get it cheap. Everything from real estate to sports and travel can be obtained outside the usual system for much, much less. Living the simple life will give you time to find the unusual opportunities and good deals as well as time to hike the mountains and deserts and lie on beautiful beaches. You won’t have to cram all your fun into a weekend. You can have every day to play and enjoy life.

Notice that one of the key things that you will have to do away with is an apartment or home for which you are paying mortgage or rent.

So you want to start your own clothing line. What kind of clothing do you plan to design and for whom? Do you plan to design a hip new line of maternity wear? Do you plan to design dresses for women with imperfect figures so they too can look and feel like a million bucks? Do you plan to design new and interesting clothing for boys, baby clothes, clothing for seniors, evening gowns only, sportswear only, intimate apparel? Will you specialize in designing a specific type of clothing, like jeans, t-shirts, sweaters, jackets; or will you go for broke and try to get your hands into everything? If you don’t know the answer, it might make the process from business concept to development run more smoothly if you first figured out what kind of clothing you want to design and who you’ll be designing for.

As a rule of thumb, if you are considering developing your own clothing line because you love to sew or love to draw fashionable clothes, you should plan to specialize in the area where you do your best work and have the most fun doing it. If, for example you’re better at making dresses for women and you enjoy that more than making jeans which you aren’t necessarily very good at, you should plan to specializes in making dresses for women to start because you will have an advantage in already being good at dress-making and loving to make dresses. In every profession success depends on being good at what you do and loving what you do. The loving what you do part can come in handy when other things start to frustrate you, like not making sales etc. If you’re in the business because you love it, you will not quit as easily on account of not making the kind of money you want to make in the time you want as when you’re in it just in the hope of making money

If, on the other hand, you’ve never made a dress before in your life and can’t draw but you want to start your own clothing line, you need to have some other strengths to offset your weaknesses. You should know enough about the fashion business to be able to solve the problem of not being able to sew or draw your own designs. Ignorance never pays and you’re almost certainly setting yourself up for failure if you go in not only lacking skill but also lacking knowledge.

Why do you want to start a clothing line?

You must have a reason for wanting to get into the clothing design business, even if the reason is to make money; but if you’re entering the world of fashion as a designer of clothing because you want to make money, you should know that the majority of people who have ventured into this field have failed to make a success of their clothing design business. This is not to discourage you but rather to encourage you to do extensive research to make sure this is the best industry for you to venture into before you proceed. There is plenty of money to be made in fashion, however, making money in fashion is not easy.

Here are some excellent online resources for starting a clothing company:

Startingaclothingline.com - Since 2004, we have been providing quality resources to apparel entrepreneurs worldwide. We are Startingaclothingline.com by Harper Arrington Publishing and Media - specializing in educating aspiring and established fashion designers on the full schematics of how to start their own successful clothing line.

Powerhomebiz.com - Starting a Clothing Line Business - Apparel manufacturing is one of the most in-demand businesses today. Find out how to start and run a clothing business.

Dobizo.com - how to start a clothing line from scratch - fashion facts, news definitions and reviews