I’m 55 , child free, divorced & dating, and my last earthly responsibility is to make sure my cat has a beautiful life and that I outlive her so she isn’t alone and scared.
I have refused to rescue other animals, I refuse to have children, I will never remarry, I own my sailboat (home) outright, I own my 2002 Toyota Echo (with almost a quarter of a million miles) outright. My monthly bills are around $400/m excluding food. When I sell the car and ditch my cell plan my bills will be under $200/m. I’ve done all of this to minimize the effect of ‘things I have to do and don’t want to’. And it’s beautiful. I’m as much a master of my own life as I have ever been.
Last year I left my position and I have no intentions of ever being a FTE ever again. Contract work, that I have negotiated is fine, but I’ll never be someone’s ‘property’ again.
I live on a small boat, I drive an old car, I shop at Goodwill & used lots (of clothing) on eBay. I’ll never have the hot girlfriend, the fancy car, the tailored suits again. It was and still is the best trading I’ve ever done.
Don’t get caught up in who you are ‘supposed to be’, be who you are. If you discover things about yourself you aren’t fond of, change it and/or seek the guidance of a professional to assist you.
There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s perfectly ok to live a life others don’t understand.
[edit] The part I left out is I felt similarly at 30. I climbed the corporate ladder because I was supposed to and because my peers and friends were doing the same. I wasted 15 or so years doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Don’t do the same. Enjoy who you are, fix the things you don’t enjoy, AND NEVER EVER NEVER LIVE YOUR LIFE BY COMPARISON.
An important detail from your story is how much money you started with and gained during your corporate life. Living the way you do now can absolutely be a privilege even if it is simpler. Your core message about being yourself and not what society or specific people want you to be is still good, also assuming what you want to be is ethical in nature.
I started off with several thousand in the hole in 2015 and became debt free in 2021. I took a position in 2019 I was qualified to do 20 years prior because I wanted less stress and more time to myself for $68k/year and I stayed at that position for 4 years. I paid $11,800 cash for my sailboat (29 feet) and $1000 cash for my car. I currently have less than $20k in cash and savings.
All of the big money I had was wasted on the right car, the right clothes, the right watch, the right girl, the right condo. All of it of course was a waste, at least for me. I lived like an average American, wracking up debt so I could ’ live the life '.
[edit] I am a highschool drop out, having only made it though 10th grade. No college, no tradeschool, I self taught how to use a computer (1994) and moved forward from that. I hold no degrees, no certifications. I ended up in System Engineering and Infosec.
Now I repair laptops and phones for people who live in the water, and sometimes do manual labor in a boatyard.
If that doesn’t clear it up please let me know what I’m missing in details.
No, no I don’t. I worked yesterday for 4 hours and that made my bills for the next month. How much cash management do you think a cat with $400 of bills a month needs to do?
Actually less than that now, because I switched from $3200/y insurance with Giecko to $800/y with progressive.
So go be pissy and dismissive in the mirror, but being snarky at me because I figured out a better deal is just childish.
I’m 55 , child free, divorced & dating, and my last earthly responsibility is to make sure my cat has a beautiful life and that I outlive her so she isn’t alone and scared.
I have refused to rescue other animals, I refuse to have children, I will never remarry, I own my sailboat (home) outright, I own my 2002 Toyota Echo (with almost a quarter of a million miles) outright. My monthly bills are around $400/m excluding food. When I sell the car and ditch my cell plan my bills will be under $200/m. I’ve done all of this to minimize the effect of ‘things I have to do and don’t want to’. And it’s beautiful. I’m as much a master of my own life as I have ever been.
Last year I left my position and I have no intentions of ever being a FTE ever again. Contract work, that I have negotiated is fine, but I’ll never be someone’s ‘property’ again.
I live on a small boat, I drive an old car, I shop at Goodwill & used lots (of clothing) on eBay. I’ll never have the hot girlfriend, the fancy car, the tailored suits again. It was and still is the best trading I’ve ever done.
Don’t get caught up in who you are ‘supposed to be’, be who you are. If you discover things about yourself you aren’t fond of, change it and/or seek the guidance of a professional to assist you.
There’s nothing wrong with you. It’s perfectly ok to live a life others don’t understand.
[edit] The part I left out is I felt similarly at 30. I climbed the corporate ladder because I was supposed to and because my peers and friends were doing the same. I wasted 15 or so years doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Don’t do the same. Enjoy who you are, fix the things you don’t enjoy, AND NEVER EVER NEVER LIVE YOUR LIFE BY COMPARISON.
An important detail from your story is how much money you started with and gained during your corporate life. Living the way you do now can absolutely be a privilege even if it is simpler. Your core message about being yourself and not what society or specific people want you to be is still good, also assuming what you want to be is ethical in nature.
I started off with several thousand in the hole in 2015 and became debt free in 2021. I took a position in 2019 I was qualified to do 20 years prior because I wanted less stress and more time to myself for $68k/year and I stayed at that position for 4 years. I paid $11,800 cash for my sailboat (29 feet) and $1000 cash for my car. I currently have less than $20k in cash and savings.
All of the big money I had was wasted on the right car, the right clothes, the right watch, the right girl, the right condo. All of it of course was a waste, at least for me. I lived like an average American, wracking up debt so I could ’ live the life '.
[edit] I am a highschool drop out, having only made it though 10th grade. No college, no tradeschool, I self taught how to use a computer (1994) and moved forward from that. I hold no degrees, no certifications. I ended up in System Engineering and Infosec.
Now I repair laptops and phones for people who live in the water, and sometimes do manual labor in a boatyard.
If that doesn’t clear it up please let me know what I’m missing in details.
Whaaaa life is hard and you have to figure out cash flow.
No, no I don’t. I worked yesterday for 4 hours and that made my bills for the next month. How much cash management do you think a cat with $400 of bills a month needs to do?
Actually less than that now, because I switched from $3200/y insurance with Giecko to $800/y with progressive.
So go be pissy and dismissive in the mirror, but being snarky at me because I figured out a better deal is just childish.
You literally did, so that wasn’t aimed at you.
I apologize.
I’ll add to that.
If you DM me and say ‘Hey do you think you could help me figure out something like you have?’ I would actually try to help you.
Take a different tack bro, you’ll be happier