All through my professional life, I lived frugally, saved as much as I possibly could, made conservative, yet not "bunker mentality," investments, and avoided personal debt like the plague. Being exactly where I am today, has always been a goal.
I also made sure that every job I did, shipped. I sometimes had to "hode by dose", as it passed by, on its way out the door, but I became habituated to shipping. As a manager, I never stopped coding, but it had to be shunted to "nights and weekends." Again, I always shipped; even my open-source work. In fact, I designed, curated, and eventually turned over, a project that has become a world-standard infrastructure, used by thousands, around the world. It's really still in its infancy, even though I started it in 2008-2009.
I was fortunate to work for a company that is absolutely crazy about Quality, and I learned to have an ethos of personal Integrity, which has worked out quite well. My fiscal conservatism also worked out nicely in my management career.
Then, when my company finally wound up the department I led, and no one would hire me, I happened to have plenty set aside to retire. I'm not happy about being forced into it, but I am happy that it happened, despite my best efforts.
I have been able to pivot -fairly easily-, to a lone-wolf programmer (even though I spent my entire career in fairly diverse and large teams), and I found folks that like the kind of software I write, so my habit of ship is already paying dividends (not really. I don't make a dime, and that's just fine with me).
All through my professional life, I lived frugally, saved as much as I possibly could, made conservative, yet not "bunker mentality," investments, and avoided personal debt like the plague. Being exactly where I am today, has always been a goal.
I also made sure that every job I did, shipped. I sometimes had to "hode by dose", as it passed by, on its way out the door, but I became habituated to shipping. As a manager, I never stopped coding, but it had to be shunted to "nights and weekends." Again, I always shipped; even my open-source work. In fact, I designed, curated, and eventually turned over, a project that has become a world-standard infrastructure, used by thousands, around the world. It's really still in its infancy, even though I started it in 2008-2009.
I was fortunate to work for a company that is absolutely crazy about Quality, and I learned to have an ethos of personal Integrity, which has worked out quite well. My fiscal conservatism also worked out nicely in my management career.
Then, when my company finally wound up the department I led, and no one would hire me, I happened to have plenty set aside to retire. I'm not happy about being forced into it, but I am happy that it happened, despite my best efforts.
I have been able to pivot -fairly easily-, to a lone-wolf programmer (even though I spent my entire career in fairly diverse and large teams), and I found folks that like the kind of software I write, so my habit of ship is already paying dividends (not really. I don't make a dime, and that's just fine with me).