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Don't Waste the Good Days

seths.blog

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Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#41

Post by ryandrake »

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest, a dollar made in your 20's is far, far more valuable than a dollar made in your 60's. Every morsel you make and save early means your retirement comes earlier. There will never be a more efficient time to earn those days of leisure that will come later if you stay healthy.

Take that vacation to Bali when you're young, and you are wasting your prime, strongest days that could be making you financially secure and/or independent. Go windsurfing for a year in Ibiza after college, and you're adding 5 years to your working life--retiring at 62 instead of 57. It didn't sound like much time when I was young, but today, as I turn elderly, I'm counting down the years until I can finally retire, and kicking myself for goofing around when I was younger. If I could do it all again, I'd have tried harder to get into big tech early, I'd have taken comp and 401(k)s and advancement more seriously. I'd have played fewer video games, traveled less, and relaxed on the beach less.

Life isn't short--it's LONG, and you have a brief moment in that life to maximize your preparation for the rest of it. Use it wisely.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#42

Post by bobthepanda »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

> Take that vacation to Bali when you're young, and you are wasting your prime, strongest days that could be making you financially secure and/or independent.

Are you not taking paid vacation?

Paid vacation doesn't impact your wages.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#43

Post by paulcole »

paulpauper wrote: post #5

>The calendar belongs to everyone else. Their schedule isn’t your schedule unless it helps you get where you’re going. I guess this works if you are self-employed and or live alone

I’m neither and it’s true for me, my partner, and our jobs.

If I don’t want to work, I take PTO and the meetings happen another day.

If I want to go for an all-day run or bike ride, I let my partner know my plan and when I’ll be home and whether I’ll pick up dinner. Once I came home to find she left a note on the fridge saying she was doing a spontaneous century on her bike and could I get her a soda.

Does this stuff happen all the time? No. That’s why it can happen.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#44

Post by dragonwriter »

ryandrake wrote: post #41

I feel like there is wisdom in "Make hay while the sun shines." When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to work and earn. Min-max that salary and stay healthy. Due to compounding interest,…

> When you're young and unencumbered by responsibility and family, when your cognitive abilities are at their peak, when your energy is endless, when your body is strong and healthy, when your knees work, and your fingers can type without arthritis: that's the optimal time to

...capture the value of those ephemeral capacities directly yourself, whether in recreation or otherwise, rather than yield them to the capitalist capturing the surplus value of your labor.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#45

Post by manachar »

ryanSrich wrote: post #29
manachar wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reframe this critique: This should be the point of civilization and society. We should be working to free everyone to be able to go surfing when able. I dislike that some people get to be "privileged" enough to be able to do so as much as the next guy, but I also dislike when people act like it's wrong to aspire to this. The problem isn't that this is bad advice; the problem is that our civilization currently prevent…

> The problem isn't that this is bad advice; the problem is that our civilization currently prevents this for most people, and instead aims to convince the 99% that they are the essential workers who can't go surfing. I guess I’ve never formalized my thinking about this, but I believe it’s a sad outlook on humanity if the goal is to partake in pleasure at will. There seem to be much more fulfilling pursuits. Maybe I’…

What you choose to be a fulfilling pursuit is what you should get to do.

For some, that's surfing. For others, that's building a rocket to Mars.

My point is that ideally we build a society where as many people as possible get to choose what they find fulfilling, and pursue it as much as they wish.

The problem we have right now is that opportunity, training, and investment for many things are restricted to the very few.

I agree that an exclusively hedonistic outlook on life is empty, but so too is letting the very few enslave the others to their dreams.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#46

Post by JTBooth »

jsemrau wrote: post #33
amznbyebyebye wrote: post #25

People look at me like I’m insane when I tell them I’m packing up and taking a year off. I’ve f’in had enough. And that’s me, the wife and our two kids- not quite school age. No I haven’t FIREd. No I’m probably passing up a raise and a promo (or maybe not). Super linear growth requires super linear decision making. You either follow the sheeple or decide enough is enough and make some drastic change. Im not getting t…

That was my 1999. Left for Hawaii. Then CA, Berlin, Tokyo, Singapore. Goodspeed.

I took off right before the pandemic. Now I'm living in Tokyo, engaged, and like my job. Doing weird shit rocks.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#47

Post by JCharante »

mrkentutbabi wrote: post #36
thelittleone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the same but 1 year in Bali has now been 8. Couldn't be happier.

How did you get the visa to stay in Bali for 8 years? Genuine question. What nationality are you?

Is it hard to stay there for that long? Most people just keep doing visa runs on 3 month tourist visas in SEA. The Bangkok visa run is a treasured pilgramage.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#48

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

mrkentutbabi wrote: post #36
thelittleone wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the same but 1 year in Bali has now been 8. Couldn't be happier.

How did you get the visa to stay in Bali for 8 years? Genuine question. What nationality are you?

You only need 1Bn IDR (~$70k USD) for an investor visa.

I would hope if you're planning to take an entire year off - you have AT LEAST $70k net wealth...

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