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Turned 50 recently and I have come to the same conclusion. I just want to live a simply life with simple joys.

However that would only be possible because I've been working and saving since I was 15 years old.

I think in most developed, even developing countries, a simple life with simple joys does not require extraordinary effort and commitment to career. The issue is mostly the inflation of expectations for what is "required" in life, such that "simple joys" becomes a $10 coffee every morning.

We used to be like that, but now we have coffee made in a $25 drip coffee machine bought at Wal Mart. The coffee is actually better because I ultra optimized the preparation process to perfectly suit our taste (100+ days of tweaking parameters during Covid).

There was a department secretary we used to have. Whenever she'd make the community coffee, it was insanely great. She told me she just used less coffee. But when I do that it just comes out weak. I have friend who could do that too, but now she uses a Keurig. Coffee is an art. I never understood why people like the bitter, acrid Starbucks coffee.

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