Tired of the rat race....

grainger12002 · May 5, 2004

Little off subject, but anybody else tired of the rat race? I am tired of running from one thing to the next,day in and day out- All I want is to be able to pay my bills on time,spend time with my friends and family and get a little reward from the daily grind. IS that asking too much? Seems like the job requires more & more while returning less,I am not going to work my life away while my son grows up by himself,its just not worth it-Cost of making a living is getting to me......Thanks for letting me vent

DaveNay · May 5, 2004

Hey Grainger, I agree completely. My wife and I have a theory (philosophy?) that it seems rediculous in modern life that we all are urged to work like mad for 45 years of our life (more like 50-55 years for people my age) just so we can "get ahead". At that point, we are expected to have made/earned/saved/stolen enough money to continue existence in a state of "retirement". Supposedly at this point, we will be "earning" (distributions/interest/gov't plans) approx 1/3 - 1/2 of the annual income we have become acustomed to in the last 45 years.

PFFFTTTTT!!!!!

Our plan is to skip the whole process (rat race) and move as quickly as possible to the reduced income, happy content way of life. Granted, we will still be running a horse business with paying customers that we will be responsible to, but we will not be....as they say....owned by "the man"

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Dave

Boondox · May 5, 2004

My wife and I decided long ago to step aside and let the world go by. It wasn't easy. Forget a lifetime of being trained to be a good little materialist. My personal struggle was to learn how to not give so much at work that there was little left for home. Oh, and to resist the urge to buy new stuff just because I had great credit! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

But we started sinking funds for all the major things we knew would have to be replaced periodically. Paid off the car and kept making payments to our savings account...so when the car finally died completely we had cash to buy a replacement outright. Ditto the tractor, clothing, etc till our monthly expenses were down to fuel and food. Then we started gardening in earnest, hunting, and now raising our own livestock. In summer and fall we're probably 90% self-sufficient now. Winter and spring still require trips to the grocery.

But this local penchant for out-of-staters to come here and build huge look-at-me homes has driven property values so high our taxes are beginning to threaten the life off the rat race way. Guess that's the next worry!

Good luck! Pete

EastTexFrank · May 5, 2004

You guys have my admiration. You figured it out a lot faster than my wife and I did. We were in our 50's before we realized that it never was one of our ambitions to be the richest corpses in the graveyard. So we "retired". No more 12/16/20 hour days, 7 days a week, weeks and months spent away from home in some terrible, terrible places in the world just to chase a dollar. You know what?.... we've never been happier and healthier. We still have some long days working around the house and at the family farm but it's FUN!!!!! We don't have nearly the life style we once had but that doesn't seem nearly as important as it once did. We're debt free and still get enough to eat. I'm just glad we figured it out in time to have some happy, healthy, active years together, surrounded by family and friends, before old age slows us down to a dead stop. Gotta go, got a pasture to mow and a deck to work on while my wife is down tending to her vegetable garden. Life is good.

LSmith · May 5, 2004

At 40 I finally figured out that if I won the rat race I would still be a rat! My wife and I bought some land. (After the WorldCom fiasco, I figured land was a better investment for our funds than most stock. ) I got a tractor and we are looking to build something (small) soon. We are still in the rat race, but we are slowly working our way out. As we get closer to our dream, I finally can feel that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train. I own my land straight up and a trailer on it. I finally have the satisfaction that if everything went to crap I would still have shelter and a place to rebuild from. We are almost debt free and I'm lovin it. Keep dreaming and work at it. Trust me good things will happen.

Lane Smith

Golfgar4 · May 5, 2004

Agree 100% with you. As the others have stated, it took us a while to figure it out too! But I'm retiring next year at the earliest that I can so that we can be doing the things that WE want to do. We won't quit working. In fact, we'll probably be even busier than we are now. But it'll be OUR busy, on our terms, the way we want it to be. And we're downsizing too. In fact, over the last couple of years, we've been selling stuff off. I don't think we'll reach the point that Pete and Tamara have, but we will reach the point where we won't need to worry about where the next car or mortgage payment comes from.

Regarding the job requiring more and more, it's easy to get into that. A really good friend gave me some really good advice a number of years ago. He said, "I don't get too carried away with worrying about getting everything done each day, because it'll be there tomorrow when I come in again." I've used that a lot to keep myself from getting too wrapped up in work. I've been told that I'm not a team player. So be it! Some people live to work. I work to live! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

kevincook · May 5, 2004

I read someplace a saying that went something like this: Nobody that was dieing ever wished they spent more time at the office.

When my daughter entered kindergarten I decided I wanted to be there when she got off the bus. I changed my work schedule and now go in early and am home at three when the kids get home. The kids now have after school activities but I get to see all their games and chauffer them around to all their activities and help with their homework before dinner.

The taxes in NY are ridiculous and everyone knows that kids are expensive so we are still not out of the rat race. But, I like the style of life we are able to provide for the kids right now. It won't be that many more years and they will be away at school.

At some point I would like to buy a BIG boat and move aboard. No property taxes if you register it in the right place. If you get sick of living somewhere you just pull up anchor and your off /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Tired of the snow? Head to the south pacific for a couple of years /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I turned 40 this year so I need to get this stuff done before I get too old.

cowboydoc · May 5, 2004

Well I'll go the other way. I love the rat race. But to me everything I do is not work. Even if I won the lottery I wouldn't change one thing from what I am currently doing. The only thing I hate is dealing with insurance companies. Other than that I'll take the 20 hour days til the day I die.

OkeeDon · May 5, 2004

My retirement came as a bit of an unplanned surprise. The people I had working with me in my business became either sick, disabled or died, and I was suddenly alone, with no easy way to replace them. I was depressed for about 6 months, then we bought the property in Okeechobee and I came alive again. I'm working as hard as ever, but it's on my terms, at my schedule, and for us.

My wife hasn't retired, but she has cut back. She loves her work (she's a physical therapist with home-bound patients) and has often said she'd do it for free if they weren't so anxious to pay her. Over the next couple of years she'll cut back some more, but I don't think she'll quit until she's physically not able to do it any longer.

We have everything paid for and are selling a commercial property to finance the Okeechobee project, so we're OK there. We have enough income to retire moderately, but not enough to afford toys or serious travel. So, the plan is to still bring in some income -- on our own schedule. Betsy will still see a few patients, and I plan to dismantle a car at a time in my future barn, and peddle the parts on EBay. I have 5 VW Rabbits with many valuable parts just waiting for the day, as a start. My research shows that everything sells, from wheels and transmissions to door handles and dash boards.

I can't imagine a better life. A few hours on the tractor, a few hours making things I want, a few hours taking things apart without having to put them together again, and a few hours on the computer selling the stuff, then being able to shut it all down and take off in the motor home for a few days, whenever we want to. Betsy is an avid quilter, so she's happy wherever we go. I can't take my tig welder along in the motor home, so I'm thinking about signing up for some art classes at the community college, even though I've never held an artist's brush or pastel in my life. I don't have to be good at it -- I just like the doing. I suspect I can make nice frames...

Life is good. But, it was a hard road to get here.