What is your takeaway? What did you mine from really thinking about the meaning and direction you want to take with your life?
*clarification: I mean it earnestly, as I have not done anything that you have.
*clarification: I mean it earnestly, as I have not done anything that you have.
It's on me, and that is equal measures exciting and (some days) terrifying.
I lost my Mum to cancer earlier this year, and she was exactly 30 years older than me. If I live to the same age as her I only have 30 summers left for all the hiking and camping and exploring I want to do. I only have 30 winters left for all the snowboarding and winter fun I want to have. Most important of all I only have 30 years left to spend time with family, friends, community, food, laughs and good times.
I have a lot that I want to cram into those 30 years, and I'm going to be my own pilot to make damn sure it happens.
In my humble opinion, as it applies to me and me alone:
Earning money is the worst of all false gods to chase. We in the western world have lost our path, and it's making us miserable. I met thousands of people in Africa that are happier and more joyous than virtually everyone I've ever met in Canada, Australia or the US.
Money is not the path the happiness, and I don't ever want to fall into that. I only ever want to earn enough money for food and shelter, and every minute otherwise I don't want to be at work making someone else rich. I want to spend those remaining 30 years enjoying myself and bringing happiness to those in my life, not earning money thinking it will somehow get me there in an abstract way.
But, what do I know? I'm only 37 after all. I have a lot to learn.
Moloch is pretty bad, but Gnon is worse. uwu
Making a good amount of money and then giving it away to causes that can meaningful help others is a highly underrated pursuit.
Aimlessly traveling is not happiness. I predict you’ll learn that lesson soon.
I found it difficult until recently to make decisions about career and money, mostly because of the way status and security are attached to them.
Giving that up has been really hard, but as I’ve learned to live with less security, my happiness and freedom have increased to the point where I’m happier than I’ve been since I was a kid.
There's no point in thinking this way and it just creates more stress. Think of work as something you do for yourself. There's no shame in earning a living to then pursue your passions. Don't worry about or compare yourself to others.
It's not like the economy is zero-sum anyway.
I don’t disagree with your point.
IMO earning money isn’t the problem. The key is the balance between earning enough money to not struggle to do the things I enjoy, but not letting work and responsibility become the only thing in my life, blocking me from the things I enjoy.
But I will concede that western society has placed an emphasis on consumerism and we evidently all need more stuff. Consumerism is killing our planet as well as making us spend more and save less.
I’m similar in age to you, and despite my privilege, life can seem pretty pointless without time to self-direct, enjoy our interests and not be consumed by our jobs without a break.
Also, losing people close to you can change your perspective on what you spend your time doing. If I only have 20 summers left, I wouldn’t want to spend them working. But I still have to eat and pay rent for that amount of time, and working is the way I pay for it.
Oof, that is a very uncomfortable statement for me to ponder upon. For the last couple of years, I have been focused on saving, saving, saving. Your comment makes me think about whether that's wise. Thanks for sharing that bit of wisdom.
I really just need enough to survive, and more free to time to actually pursue my passions and dreams. I think that's the true way to live.
My coworkers are obsessed with working as hard as they can, putting it all into their 401k so they can retire in 30 years. What an awful way to think about life.
"I'm only a slave for 40 years then I can do what I want".
No, do what you want now!
How do you expect to live out those 30 years without working consistently? Do you have means of enough passive income ?
There's nothing out there that I know that gives you a consistent 6% return and the stock market is a fickle mistress. 2007 to 2009, VTI dropped over 50%. That 1% reduction in drawdown isn't going to be of much help much when your $1M turned into $500K, you'll need a job.
But you stopped working for a while, so now your resume makes you less desirable than the competition and exactly when you need more income (at the bottom of the recession) the job market is at its worst. Likely it took you a few years to get that $1M and age discrimination is rampant in IT, further decreasing your odds of finding that job.
I think realistically, you need a significantly lower drawdown, more likely in the order of 2% or less to weather economic downturns. Without subsidized healthcare, that's going to be very hard to do with $1M, but I think it's doable with $2M.
Index and real estate funds pay actual dividends, which you didn’t mention, outside of just relying on rising share prices.
There are some slightly more advanced ways to generate income like selling options premiums that can generate income when prices are relatively flat.
I think you are right $1m is becoming shallow these days, but that doesnt change the significance of my statement