"The American Life Is Killing You"

[Cody]

I don't think it's crazy to move to the Caribbean/Mexico/Costa Rica and run an airbnb/adventure hotel and live more relaxed life. You don't have kids, and you possess more than enough marketable skills to contribute to the community in any of a variety of ways that would bring in some income. You'd be far from the first person to make the jump. I'd say now is as good a time as ever as the advantages of modern health care only get more appealing the older you get.

Me, I just multiplied my debt by 30. Not necessarily fueled by pecuniary emulation, but I'm about the most extreme case of stretching yourself outside of your means that you can get. I'll go down with the ship if I have to, then come be your grounds keeper and live off the grid by the name American X.

And honestly, this isn't some new concept that the nouveau "woke" created as a response to modern society. Thorstein Veblen wrote about the faults of cconsumption based culture in "the theory of the leisure class" in 1899. None of this is new.

 

[TurboMinivan]

I've not actually seen your house.. but unless the roof has fallen in, and it's full of rats, You may want to up that price a bit.

Well, Zillow puts the current value at $305,000. However, I know to take that estimate with a grain of salt. Hence the number I entered above.

 

[Houndoc]

As a veterinarian, I hear many of my cohorts complain about the long hours and lack of time off. My question is always "then why do it"?

I was fortunate to start my career with a mentor/business partner who values time off so we have always structured the business that way. We could earn more money by hiring fewer vets to work for us, but have made the deliberate choice to take the quality of life and time away.

My wife and I then made the choice to spend far less than we could on cars etc. to free up more money for travel.

While it does take a deliberate choice to not fall into the trap of work hard to buy stuff you don't have time to use, it is certainly possible.

 

[BlackSheep]

I'm working on the simplification of my life. I've done the corporate gig for nearly 23 years now. I'm not sad I did it. I learned a lot but did get a bit caught up in the possessions / consumerism of it all. Thankfully, except for my mortgage, I've been debt free for the last 10 years. I've stashed a lot in my retirement funds, have a small pension that I'll probably be able to live off once I retire later this year. At that point, I'm looking to have the most simple life I can assemble. working towards that each day.

I totally agree with the earlier statement that we all make choices in our lives. We choose to live the way we live. Be deliberate with your choices.

 

[zmotorsports]

My wife and I had somewhat of a conversation about this last night after she was having a conversation with a co-worker yesterday that was looking at buying a "summer" home and trying to figure out if they would utilize it enough to justify. My wife said she wouldn't want to always go to the same place and would be afraid that after the newness wore off that it would become more of a drain than a motivator and become less enjoyable but everyone is different. Then my wife jokingly said "we already have a second home, but it's on wheels so we can travel to someplace new every day if we want". It lead to our conversation last night about what we wanted our retirement to look because I wanted to ensure we were both still on the same page.

I know there have been several on this thread post about having a simple life when they retire and I guess that is somewhat subjective because it could look differently to different people. My idea of a simple life is just not having to go to work and being able to do whatever I wanted each day, like every day is Saturday.

That being said, I think the lifestyle I want is far from simple as I want to be able to travel in our coach and do many of the things we do now with the exception that we don't have to hurry back to prepare for work. I want the same lifestyle in retirement that I have now, I just don't necessarily want more "stuff" to deal with. I want that freedom to be able to hop in the coach, hook up the Jeep and go out for a month at a times vs. a week here and weekend there.

I also want to be able to spend time in my shop doing the things I enjoy when we're not traveling, again, not acquiring more "stuff" just using and enjoying what we have. That to me is living the simple life.

Mike

 

[johngottfredson]

I think too many of the “nouveau woke” (H/T Cody) assume that simplifying your life means only enough possessions to fit in a backpack that you take with you from couch to couch as you thumb rides around interesting European seaside villages and sit in cafes typing articles online ripping the sad consumerist masses for not living it up like they do.

Well, I don’t care what experiences they are having, nothing is straight up better for me than taking my 4 kids camping, or their joy on Christmas morning as they open gifts they’ve given each other, or the satisfaction of finishing a large project to my home or property, or seeing my business grow in innovative ways. Can I have a simple, satisfying life with a large family in a large home on a large property with large business obligations? Absolutely. It’s all about focusing on YOUR life priorities, and ditching all the distractions. Family, faith, home/community, creative/intellectual fulfillment in my vocation, are all what my life is about, and brings deep satisfaction, much more than the nomadic free spirit life ever could. The key is to know yourself and be true to your life’s goals, and don’t let any outside influence dictate how you spend each day of this one precious life.

 

[N-Smooth]

All of my desires for "stuff" relate to rock crawling so there's that. I need a bigger garage/shop for projects. I need a bigger truck to tow rigs around. I'm not joking either. I've looked into paying very aggressively on our mortgage and paying it off in 10 years but I simply don't have a garage worth owning outright. The only other factor I take into consideration is the size of our house not being conducive to our kids hanging out there when they're teenagers. We definitely want that to be a thing so it motivates us to move into a bigger place.

 

[Bart]

This is a great topic and something my wife and I have been discussing. We are 4 to 6 years from retiring and have a fairly decent plan. I do keep spending too much for this rock crawling thing, but it really makes me happy. I would like doing the motorhome/travel thing for a while but that's not what the wife likes. We could easily live on a beach, but I think it would drive my wife crazy to be that far away from the grand children. Personally I could be happy with a decent size shop and a small house, plus money to travel.

 

[Houndoc]

One of the things my wife and I talk about is the idea of a 'home base' post retirement. I like the idea of having a place to call home between trips, especially were the kids (and grandkids once they enter the picture) can gather. Probably will always want to keep horses, so that will be a factor that way as well.

But we also have some friends who sold everything they had here (turned law practice and large horse boarding/training facility to their daughter and son-in-law) and moved to Ecuador. Own a small coffee plantation in the boonies and rent an apartment in town. Both very happy and relaxed.

 

[Greg]

One of the things my wife and I talk about is the idea of a 'home base' post retirement. I like the idea of having a place to call home between trips, especially were the kids (and grandkids once they enter the picture) can gather. Probably will always want to keep horses, so that will be a factor that way as well.

But we also have some friends who sold everything they had here (turned law practice and large horse boarding/training facility to their daughter and son-in-law) and moved to Ecuador. Own a small coffee plantation in the boonies and rent an apartment in town. Both very happy and relaxed.

I think that's smart, we have talked about something similar... a small lock & leave home.

 

[glockman]

I think this all comes down to your perspective. I work in a high stress, fast paced industry and it burns many people out. I don't really get too stressed, I take a more stoic approach and I absolutely love my job. Some of the guys I'be been in charge of have had crappy attitudes and they are unhappy no matter what. We just had an opportunity to relocate to another plant back east and several of them took it. They literally got close to $100k to VOLUNTARILY move and keep their same job in a different location. They were bitching about the company not caring about people as they walked out the door to that check.

I've had a major perspective shift in the last 5 years and I have realized I can't out earn my spending potential but I can change my perspective and live very easily within my means. I've had friends feed 5 kids on one income and still thoroughly enjoy life while other friends have no kids, two incomes of equal size to the one and can't seem to make ends meet. Want less and work less to achieve your balance if that's your thing. I also try to remember that we are the most fortunate generations of humans to ever inhabit this planet.

I encourage reading Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. It really shows how lucky we are to be living right now vs any other time in human history.