He used to work in finance, quit his job in his late 20s, and went to work moving stuff around a warehouse in the outback during the mining boom.
He did this for two years. He said he absolutely loved it. There was no stress. He just lifted things, got big and strong, and went home everyday tired in body but relaxed and happy in mind.
It's the stress and psychological torment that does you in. This is why I feel genuinely sad when I see guys grinding away at their high paid, stressful, draining, and often psychopathic corporate jobs, who blow all of the salary.
That's just messed up. My savings target is always 50% or more. If you're never going to be free of it, what's the point? Should we all not be trying to buy our freedoms? Rather than handing chains to landlords and bosses and bankers?
Like an old boss of mine, who was getting paid more than all of us, and yet when he switched job, he left us on Friday and started there on Monday. By his own words, he spent 99 dollars of every hundred he made, so couldn't afford to do otherwise.
Personal margin is everything. If your job takes all your energy, and you spend all its money, you're trapped. You have no bargaining power (you can't walk away), and you'll never move to positions with less stress, less politics, less hours, better and more interesting work, or more pay. This is such a critical concept that it's crazy people aren't being taught it at school.