Australian woman left job, closed bank account, deciding to become cash-free. 12 years later, she has no home or savings and is living rent-free with family

Is it possible to live not just one day, but 12 years without cash transactions? That’s what a woman in Australia did. A decade ago, in 2015, Jo Nemeth decided to quit her community development job, gave away her money to her daughter Amy, and closed her bank account.

How Her Cashless Journey Started

Jo, who is from New South Wales, told RNZ’s Saturday Morning that she decided to change her lifestyle after she started feeling more and more concerned about how much her spending was hurting both people and the environment.

She mentioned that two important reasons led her to make that choice. One was financial pressure. She was having a hard time paying for her daily needs and was always waiting for the next pay cheque, which was causing her a lot of stress.


However, she was really worried about how consumerism was affecting things. She had gotten sick of always hearing, reading, and seeing how the products she bought could lead to big problems for people in other parts of the world and harm the environment.

Shopping had become frustrating because she felt that the options available were seldom truly ethical. Instead, she often ended up choosing between one option that felt bad and another that looked even worse, which made her feel more and more stuck and confused by the whole thing.

Her viewpoint shifted after finding out that some individuals in Western nations had found a way to live without depending on money. The thought made her think about whether she could live like that too.

According to a Guardian report, she came across the book ‘The Moneyless Man: A Year of Freeconomic Living by Mark Boyle.’

To figure out what she really needed, she wrote down the things she thought were important for staying alive. She thought the exercise would be hard, but it only took about 10 minutes to finish. What she thought would be hard ended up being much easier than she expected.

“It turned out to be a short list because I already had things like pots and pans and a toothbrush, and I discovered I really didn’t need much to be comfortable. Then I just started ticking things off, figuring out how I could meet my needs without having any negative impacts,” she said.

A Look At Her Life Now

Now 56, Jo doesn’t have any house or property, or any savings, or emergency cash, or welfare payments, reports The Guardian. She grew a lot of her own food, and many friends would give away extra food that they were not using. She soon started using the gift economy – giving without any expectation of a return. Jo said that she had never feared going homeless.

“I actually feel more secure than I did when I was earning money,” she says, “because all through human history, true security has always come from living in community, and I have time now to build that ‘social currency’. To help people out, care for sick friends or their children, and help in their gardens. That’s one of the big benefits of living without money,” she said.

How She Operates

During the first three years of her money-free lifestyle, Nemeth stayed on a friend’s rural property, where she constructed a modest shelter using salvaged and unwanted construction materials. She later spent time housesitting before moving into an off-grid setup for about a year, living in a small blue trailer parked in the backyard of another friend.

In 2018, she eventually settled permanently in her friend Sharon Brodie’s home. Over time, the property evolved into a multigenerational household shared by Brodie and her new partner, one of Brodie’s sons, Nemeth’s daughter Amy, Amy’s husband, and their three young children.

Rather than contributing through conventional rent payments, Nemeth supports the household by taking care of cooking and cleaning, tending the vegetable garden, and producing useful homemade goods. She prepares essentials such as soap and laundry detergent, along with fermented foods, helping the family lower its expenses while also limiting the environmental impact of their daily lives.

For Nemeth, the arrangement has worked remarkably well, and she says she has never been happier with the way she lives.

When she needs some dental work, she says she works around it by teaching people how to make tofu or apple scrap vinegar. She doesn’t have a car – she goes where she needs to via walking, biking, or hitchhiking. She also revealed she was building a cubby in her backyard that would have no electricity or running water.