Minimalism the art of living solely on what is needed in your life. And what is needed, or considered a need, is completely different per individual. As I look at my life; and everything I own. I again find myself over cluttered. It wasn’t that long ago that I had trimmed down on almost everything I own. Fast-forward a year or so later, I find myself throwing away more of what I own.

Ok so what exactly is justified minimalism? I like to thank it's a minimalist that steps slightly outside the boundaries of traditional minimalism. The traditional minimalist may only own exactly what is needed for them. For instance, they may only have a few articles of clothing. 1 bag, 1 pair of shoes, and so on. Their apartment can be seen as crappy and boring to most.

On the other hand, the justified minimalist will have a lot more things and stuff. YouTubers such as MKBHD and Justin Tse fit this description perfectly. These YouTubers can be seen dressing extremely simply sporting a tee, a hoodie, simple pants, a modest watch, and 1 everyday car. Everything else in their life is utilized towards their business. Separate further, you’ll notice the majority of their assets at least are all business related.

I’m the same way I wear essentially the same thing every day, when I do, it's mainly a tee shirt, sweatpants, Adidas shoes, and a simple watch. My apartment is extremely minimal consisting of my futon, 3 monitor desk setup, posters, 2 lamps, my server, 2 bookshelves, dozens of books, and a printer. Add in my clothes a few kitchen equipment, and business equipment, etc. That’s me, and even that 95% of what I own is all business purchases.

That’s my justified minimalism. I don’t need a server for myself nor an excessive 3 monitor setup, but it's needed for my trading, investing, and coding. A justified reason for stepping beyond the traditional minimalist. It may not seem like much now, but I have to add much more equipment, for various business and product making.

My justified minimalism will be different from others who are minimalist. Everyone has a different reason for its justification of owning a lot. I own 2 pairs of shoes, but some other person may own 20 pairs, but they need each one for specific reasons. Which can be work-related or personal. That can go for just about anything in their possession. And that’s their justified minimalism. Mine like the fellow YouTubers listed above just happens to be tech and business-related.

So you may find yourself having more things than usual on occasion. It’s okay, just remember to only keep what you need and what can be justified for your everyday life. As long as it makes sense to you for your essential needs, go for it. As for me, if it can’t be justified, I’ll just throw it away. Why do you ask? It's to send a strong signal to my brain to not waste my money on that crap again. To stay within the realm of only what's needed, as I do occasionally. You don’t need to take it to this extreme, but find your method to keep yourself from overspending and over cluttering. And make sure everything has a justified purpose for your needs.

I wear the same thing every day, and maybe you should too. The short answer as to why I do it; I stopped giving a fuck. So let’s break this down into three simple reasons.

1. Simplicity & Priority

I’m a simple person with simple taste. I don’t want to spend too much time on what I wear. So I keep it simple. I want to focus on important things in my life like this platform, planning, coding, writing scripts, YouTube, and so on. What I wear is not a priority. 

Ask yourself, how much time do I spend on clothes? It could be figuring out what to wear, what brand of clothing, where to buy them? What’s in style, the materials, the price, shoes, belts, bags, jewelry, and so on. If you're female then the complexities of wardrobe, time, money, and makeup multiplies. If your brand is appearance then the time spent on how you look is a lot more justified.

My brand and who I am are built on justified minimalism. Ironically I’m working on a clothing brand kodowear. Which will consist of a minimalist and fitness line, with the occasional sublimation designs for those who do like that particular style. When that’s complete I’ll be wearing my minimalist line. Which will be simple muted color shirts with timeless high quality, durable, comfortable materials. Pants will be sweat pants made with the same materials.

2. No friends

I got rid of every “friend” I have. Give or take a few that I decided to keep. Thus I don’t feel the need to impress anyone. I also don’t care to impress anyone. I’m not saying you should get rid of everyone as I did, but having fewer people to impress never hurts.

When I was younger I found myself owning a lot of clothes that weren’t me. It was the style of the “friends” not my own as I figured out later on in my life. When I was around certain people I saw myself gravitating to the styles around me and seen in the media. I dressed like my favorite artist and my closest friends at the time.

At some point in my life, I preferred being alone. In that time spent alone, I got to understand what I liked. I started to gravitate more towards simple plain clothing and shoes. Wearing these clothes I felt, focused, relaxed, comfortable, and stress-free. I moved away from name-brand overpriced clothes that I honestly could never find the perfect design or feel for. And gravitated towards cheap muted color shirts primarily gray. Black pants, brown belts, and black or khaki (tan) shoes. I can even see myself sticking to one simple color shirt and a pair of pants like Steve Jobs.

3. Stop giving a fuck

Why does it matter what people think of you? For the majority of people dressing to impress may be in their best interest. For instance, dressing for a job interview, a business meeting, maybe a date, etc. For me, I work for myself, so no need for dress attire. I prefer to date casually and those that just as simple and minimalist as I am,

People are going to judge you no matter what you wear. So I stop caring. People may think that I’m poor or cannot afford clothes. They may think that I’m homeless, a slob, or lazy. The list goes on and on. People judge you before they even speak to you. Decisions of who you are made before they even know anything about you. So fuck it.

I wear what I want where I want. Let them judge. I don’t feel the need to impress people I’ve never met, and didn’t know existed before meeting them. Very few will understand that I don’t need the opinion of others, luxury brands, and so on to goner the attention of people I don’t know. Very few will see that I’m a minimalist. Very few will understand that I prefer to throw my money in investments, needs, and business rather than cars, and clothes. 

Conclusion

Billionaires such as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg don’t feel the need to impress, so why should you. Their accomplishments and net worth speak for themselves. Be yourself. Don’t know yourself, separate yourself from your “friends” and the media. You’ll see who you are, and what your wardrobe preferences are. I can’t tell you what to wear or why you shouldn’t dress for others. This is me and three reasons why I keep it simple.

What to you makes you happy? Or if you aren’t happy what changes, needs, or wants in your life would make you happy? It seems like every day for the past few years I’ve been asking myself that question. Days go by and I still feel a void in my soul that I’m lacking something. As I look around me I’m surrounded by stuff, things upon things that I once believed made me happy. In fact the more and more I acquired the more distant I felt.

Minimalism - “a preoccupation with or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual things “ - Merriam-Webster

The Minimalist

As I revisit my love of minimalism, I began throwing most of my shit away. I start with things I rarely use or at all. Then I move on to things I used on occasion like clothes and tech, laptops, and other things that were once extremely vital to who I was. I first reduced what I owned by 20% and noticed how good it felt and just how much my life became more fruitful. Then I got rid of more and more while doing so it felt as if I’m relieving a huge boulder on my shoulder. It felt so good. I'm almost to a point where I can name everything I have. I believe I'm down to owning less than 700 things now. A far cry from the thousands I did own. I’ll do so below by separating personal items and ones owned by the business. And notice just how little furniture I have. There’s a lot on the list by my place looks fairly empty

Personal

1. 2 suitcases of clothes
2. 2 duffle bags of clothes
   1. About 60 pieces of clothes including undergarments
3. 4 storage bins of books
4. 2 Bikes
5. 1 Garmin GPS locator
6. 1 bin of wants (Rubix cubes, games, PSP, etc.) (30 items)
7. Futon sofa with frame
8. Bed with frame
9. 1 65” 4k Oled TV
10. 2 Lamps
11. 2 Cell phones (iPhone 11 pro max/Samsung S22 Ultra)
12. 2 Garmin watches
13. Toiletries/ hygiene
14. blender
15. rice cooker
16. two pots
17. cooking utensils (4)
18. Water/ blender bottles (4)
19. Passport/license/2 wallets (20 items)
20. Tech/ laptop bag
21. Everyday bag
22. Yoga mat
23. fitness bag (20 items)
24. MMA bag (20 items)
25. Google speakers (3)
26. Bluetooth speakers set (1)
27. Google home

Business

1. 1 surface pro tablet
2. 1 surface book laptop
3. Alienware m17 w/ bag
4. Alarm systems
5. security cameras
6. 1 Bin of binders, paper, folders, receipts, tax documents, etc
7. 1 custom build water-cooled pc
8. Custom 1 monitor laptop desk setup 1
9. Custom 3 monitor multi desk setup 2
10. Printer
11. Server rack...

I’m sure there are a few nuances I’ve missed but this list currently represents everything I own. At least everything I have in my apartment that I can see and recall. So don’t get any ideas, everything is insured, heavily surveillance, and monitored. As for my business, It owns a hell of lot more assets, stocks, Crypto, bonds and casual offices (reselling) items like packing tape, tape guns, packing paper, scissors, pens, pencils, cables, wires, laptops, desk setups, and the list goes on. Even though I own the business* These things aren't personally owned by me.

The Materialist

And then there's the side that makes you believe more is better. In all honestly having more has made life a little more enjoyable for me. I understand some people prefer to have little few possessions as possible owning less than 100 things, exactly what they need. However, I find myself running back to a few indulgences. For instance, even though I don’t need or use TVs, I do have a 65” 4k OLED TV mounted to the wall. I justified this purchase for the rare occasions I game, invite “friends” over, or watch occasional movies. I have two desk setups and again justified for business purposes. A Mac-oriented setup and a Windows for software development and testing.

From time to time I think about having multiple cars, though it’s unnecessary. In fact, at this point in my life, I don’t want to own anything directly. Cars will get old, and outdated, racking up repair costs and millage. It’ll be an endless purist to sanity making myself happy chasing the approval of those who’ll never matter. So Leasing seems to be the better option for me. My apartment, and future high rises or condos, It’ll be rented or owned under my business name.

A car I’d like to lease is anything Tesla. From the Cybertruck to the Tesla Roadster 2. There simple electric, autonomous, and powerful. They’ll do more than enough of what I need them to do. When I get tired of the model I can return it and lease another one avoiding the issues of owning one long term.

Even though I consider myself a minimalist owning less than 700 things. These things that I do own have been justified and hold a purpose for either my personal or business life. What are some of the things you own? And have you reached a point of Nirvana as I have? Regardless for me, I believe I’m happy, with the list listed above. I have everything I need to be happy but a bit more than I need. And I’ve made it a rule to never own more than 50 garments of clothes, and 500 personal things total not including business items.

So I’ll be getting rid of a few more things and will revisit this list later.

My ultimate goal in life is to own nothing. Yep! You heard that right, And I bet you don’t hear that every day. If you’ve heard similar to this phrase before, you’ve probably heard of Robert Kiyosaki and the famous quote from John D. Rockefeller “Own nothing, but control everything.”. I won't dive too deeply into this in this article but I leave links below so you can further understand for now. 

This will be my reasoning for owning nothing and why it aligns with limitless living. I’ll start with Minimalism. I’m a minimalist, and I don’t like owning anything. I want to be free and border-less as humanly possible while not being on the level of an actual hobo, extreme minimalist, or monk. More information can be found in the link https://www.kodoninja.com/view.php?t=blog&c=Minimalism&v=27. I’ll say 90% of the things I have in my possession, are owned by my s-corp. The only things that are attached to me are my clothes, books, food & cooking utensils, MMA, fitness, hygiene items, and more stated in the article link above.

"I had strings but now I'm free, there are no strings on me." - Ultron

As for housing & living, I don’t like being confined to one place or area. Some individuals may label this style of living as homeless, but this is completely fine with me as Elon Musk, and countless wealthy individuals indulge in similar behavior. If you know me I move around a lot. Thus you’ll learn how to use craigslist, Airbnb, libraries, gyms, and friends accordingly. It's almost impossible to keep track of me. Typically the foolish will confuse this lifestyle with something else... Unkowingly the individual is quite finically stable motivated, has a business, invest/ trades daily and typically has a plan.

Anywhere from a few months to a year, I’ll be well on my way to a different city and state. This is made possible through the month-to-month leases, friends in certain areas, hotels, craigslist ads, room shares, and Airbnb. Although I prefer to live by myself I’ll occasionally use friends, and temporary room shares for a few days or weeks until I find myself an apartment or condo. My favorites or high-rise apartments ranging from $1,600 - to $3,500. I love the floor-to-ceiling windows, concrete walls, stainless steel appliances, and wood flooring.

I don’t like houses. Maintenance fees, taxes, land cost, HOA fees, appliances, DIY, appearance cost, lawn maintenance, mortgage the list goes on and on. It ties me down. Most love them I prefer to not have them. Being a minimalist I can’t justify owning and having so much space. The things I have in my immediate possession, confines perfectly to apartment-style living, or perhaps one day a penthouse. And yes I will own multiple condos, high rises, and penthouses under my company’s name. When I’m not using them I’ll rent them out for lease or loan them to employees. I’ll even rent out rooms to save cost. That’s the goal at least.

As of now. I don’t plan on settling down anytime soon; Thus I plan to continue traveling from place to place, as a digital nomad. Trading, investing, coding, MMA training, working out and meeting like minded individuals (traders, developers, etc.) wherever I go. I can bring and send my studio anywhere so recording videos for YouTube for the platforms shouldn’t ever be an issue. For when I ever have kids, I’ll stay in one area sort as the main hub and occasionally travel around much less frequently.

Conclusion

It’s your life you live It however you please. If you like houses get a fucking house. If you like your town stay there get married, etc. For me, this is my life and how I tend to use it as of now. I prefer to not be constrained to one location as stated above. I like to meet new people from all over. Running my business remotely with contract employees, coding, trading, etc. Eventually, I’ll travel the world when I start using my passport. But for now, I plan to keep doing what I’m doing. However… There’s much on the goal (to-do-list) list So I plan to be in my current area for a few months until the work is completed. I.E. YouTube, kodoninja, kodospace, kodohealth, kodotrading, kodoacademy...