Man who 'left his life savings in a phone booth' and 'quit money' explained how he survived

Daniel Suelo lived without money for 15 years, after making the decision to ditch his regular life and live among nature.

It's a bold move to say the least, but the American chose put all of his life savings in a phone booth one day in 2000, walking away from a money-driven lifestyle for good.

Not only that, but he also chose to be house-less, which gave him a sense of 'freedom', living in the caves of Utah at one point, getting his nutrients from wild vegetation, scavenging roadkill and dumpster-diving for remnants of food.

Friends and strangers may help from time to time, but Daniel would boast that he didn't take food stamps or government handouts during his time in the wild.

Daniel spent 15 years living in the wild (YouTube/Daniel Suelo)

Daniel was interviewed in 2012 about his alternative lifestyle, and proudly said that he had 'few possessions and no money, because it's ironic fun to boast about nothing special'.

He added that wild creatures have no money anyway, and said that he likes 'to boast about what the rest of our commercial society debases'.

However, he ran a blog at the time, and admitted to using the public library to update that - as well as his website - and to check his emails and read books.

But how did the idea of this way of living come about for Daniel?

"My first thought of living moneyless came when I was a child. In my Evangelical Christian upbringing, I wondered why, if we were followers of Jesus, we didn’t practice his teachings–namely giving up possessions and doing not for the sake of reward (money and barter), but giving freely and receiving freely," he explained.

After finishing college, he studied other religions and claims that he found that all major religions teach giving up possessions and doing things without expecting a reward.

He says that religion and his interest in wildlife drove him to the lifestyle (YouTube/Daniel Suelo)

He continued: "My dad also took us camping a lot, and I was a nature freak. I couldn’t help but see how perfectly balanced nature was, and it ran on no money.

"Why, then, couldn’t we?"

Daniel explained that it even made sense as an adult: "I thought it through more thoroughly. Nature’s economy is a pay-it-forward economy."

"You never see 2 wild creatures consciously bartering," he highlighted.

Opening up on what further pushed him towards living like that, Daniel explained: "My next impetus for living moneyless came from observing the world economy and politics. Do our economy and politics function well? It’s self-evident, isn’t it?"

"My next impetus for living moneyless was to find authenticity for myself. To do out of one’s heart is to be real. To do for somebody, expecting something from them, is ulterior motivation, which is to not be real, which is to prostitute oneself," he stated.

He also says that society had driven him to live that way (Facebook)

"Money only exists if two or more people believe it exists," Daniel stated, but now, 24 years on from his initial decision, he leads a very different life.

Writing in the description of his YouTube channel, Daniel said that his 'house-less and moneyless freedom' had to be paused as he had to care for his aging parents, though his father passed away in February 2016, as he last said that he was caring for his mother.

He added: "With a few exceptions, I still don't take or use money for myself. But I did have to get a state ID, I manage my mom's finances, I pay her bills, and I shop for her, dealing with general bureaucracy. I don't have a driver's license, though I've been offered the gift of a car several times but have refused it."

Concluding, he said that he is still 'passionate' about a moneyless world, and will 'return' to his old lifestyle once he is able.