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Don't Waste the Good Days

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Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#91

Post by serjester »

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,…

Here’s an interesting thought experiment for you - if you could trade 20 years of your life for 10 billion dollars, would you? Just step in a room and walk out a billionaire.

I have yet to meet someone that would accept the offer. So if you do the math, they value their time at a shockingly high rate. I’d argue, trading the best years of your life for an early retirement is the same proposal.

Steve Jobs would have given his fortune many times over to have a couple extra years. Why trade the best years of your life for an uncertain future?

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#92

Post by thelittleone »

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?

First four years tourist visa with extensions. Then a KITAS (limited stay permit).

You can setup a company here which entitles you to a KITAS.

It's not as hard as it sounds, and much easier than a foreigner staying in the USA, however it will vary a little depending on your country of citizenship.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#93

Post by gchamonlive »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #78
gchamonlive wrote: post #50

Friendly reminder that being able to pack up and take a sabbatical year off is still privilege. If you can't just get up and leave to enjoy your good days, don't blame yourself. Most people can't.

> is still privilege The guy worked hard and earned his year off, don’t dismiss it by calling it privilege. He has the skills and intelligence and hard working habits to earn the year off, this is not privilege. Successful people aren’t successful because of privilege, that’s just a label for an excuse by those who aren’t successful. You get what you earn in life.

Can everybody earn a year off after working hard?

No, because this is privilege. To be born in a rich country. To have family structure to study and go to college, to have a stable job and a successful career after graduation. To be lucky enough to choose a career that is in demand. Or to open a business that is successful.

People underestimate A LOT how much of a role luck plays in successful careers. Sure hard work is necessary, but you can very well burn out and still be unsuccessful.

If you can't see this, maybe this is your privilege that is blinding you from what most people go through in life.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#94

Post by chii »

manachar wrote: post #45
ryanSrich wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 fe…

> 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.

But then what of the work that nobody wishes to pursue, but is required? Like farming for food, generating electricity and water, and many of the modern comforts?

I'm sure everybody wishes to pursue their own passion, regardless of the value of that passion to _someone else_. But this is why it cannot be done today, because there isn't enough wealth and energy and resources to allow for this. The star trek style replicators don't yet exist.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#95

Post by chii »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #21
readingnews wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with you from my angle... I read this and immediately though to myself, what kind of financial position must I be in to wake up and decide "I feel like doing "x", I will go do "x" today?". I will admit to you, it is a financial decision that to a person of my means is a total pipe dream. I consider myself middle class, I have advanced degrees and work in a scientific field. There is no way, none whats…

"I consider myself middle class, I have advanced degrees and work in a scientific field" Maybe what we understand as middle class is actually just a well-fed pleb. Real middle class probably should have control of their day at least, so we have almost no middle class.

> Maybe what we understand as middle class is actually just a well-fed pleb.

I think that has always been the case - the middle class is what civilization rests on for productivity and creation of goods and services. They are the most exploited bunch, but some smart ones have managed to save and invest enough to escape that middle class, and into the financially independent class (which may be previously called the landed gentry).

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#96

Post by randallsquared »

nightowl_games wrote: post #51
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,…

> I'd have played fewer video games, traveled less, and relaxed on the beach less. This seems totally opposite of what old people say on their death bed. You sound so obsessed with money here. My guess is your probably very wealthy relative to the average peer and your too naive to realize it. You have to keep telling yourself this philosophy to justify not wind surfing in Bali. You think your gonna wind surf when yo…

Old people on their death bed are telling us what they want to do now, couched as what they would have wanted to do. But they made the decisions they did for reasons that seemed good at the time, and it might well be that they'd make the same ones. Wishing things were different is not the same as a plan to make them different.

Or, as I've said about this before: why worry about what death-bed you wants? That person literally has no future, but you do have a future to worry about!

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#97

Post by hnthrowaway0315 »

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…

Congratulations bro. You have the gut to do this with a family. My wife is going to rip me open if I do something similar. Actually after second thought, work is probably more interesting than whatever residual life after it. I'll keep working.

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#98

Post by toastal »

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…

I support this. I took 5–6 months off and moved to Thailand a few years back without a real plan other than the minimum to fulfill a student visa. I've done a lot of incidental travels renewing visa. Probably the best move I had made. ชีวิตชิวดี

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#99

Post by shove »

bebop wrote: post #67
shove wrote: post #9

Reminds me of one of my favorite poems (which expressed a similar idea far more eloquently imo) Telephone Booth (number 905 1/2) BY PEDRO PIETRI woke up this morning feeling excellent, picked up the telephone dialed the number of my equal opportunity employer to inform him I will not be into work today Are you feeling sick? the boss asked me No Sir I replied: I am feeling too good to report to work today, if I feel s…

Thank you so much for including Pedro Pietri’s poem! I have not heard that poem for 15+ years and it brought back some wonderful nostalgia from my teenage years!

I’m old!

Re: Don't Waste the Good Days

#100

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

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…

Multiple mini retirements are where it's at. Enjoy your year off!
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