Quite the irony that the thread started with reminiscing about life and purpose and needing time and valuing relationships and you guys go into the "need to make more money" spiel.
Here comes a secret: It will never be enough for you. It's not the money that counts. It's the ratio of income versus expenses, if anything. And if you grow one and don't stop the other one from growing in unison, then you have gained nothing.
I know lots of people with 5x the income of me, but their expenses and lifestyle overcompensate, so they are much deeper into the hamster wheel than me.
I could retire any day (late 30s). I currently don't do it cause my work is fun and I like the people, and the more I keep going the higher my expenses could become if needed. But the finances don't keep me in my job. And if anything comes along that looks sustainably more fun I will quit in a heartbeat.
Why is parent's advice ironic? I, like probably most people, would have more time for relationships I value now if I had followed their advice. Your first sentence reads as if their advice was "earn money at the expense of relationships and well-being" and that isn't the case at all.
You can't be certain of that, though. If you had (for example) pursued work and money more ambitiously in your 20s, maybe those relationships you value now would never have formed in the first place. Maybe then-existing relationships would have suffered to the point of estrangement.
I'm lucky: I worked very hard and did decently well in the startup lottery, but I still left myself enough time to forge valuable relationships. I've witnessed people who chase higher and higher salaries but aren't that lucky, and end up using the years of their life where their mind and body are at their peak of their ability for work instead of play, and regret it.
I'm in my 40s now, and see some younger friends and acquaintances doing things like taking multi-month world trips, diving head-first into new hobbies/skills that take hundreds/thousands of hours to get good at, and I wish I'd done things like that in my 20s and 30s. In part because my responsibilities today make it difficult to do now, but also because I just don't want to do some of those things anymore, because they sound kinda exhausting at my age. But I still wish I had those experiences in my past to look back fondly upon.
I guess what I'm saying is that nothing is certain, and we can't reliably look back and say "if I'd done X 15 years ago, today I'd be able to do Y". Life just doesn't work that way. I think we should do what makes us happy whenever we have the ability to. Sure, look hard for and always be open to opportunities to take on work that could make a big change in your financial life. But be careful with those sorts of choices, because there's always opportunity cost.
I want to retire early and make music and games for 40 years after I turn 40.
I don't want to wait until I'm 69 to retire for at most 11 years.
Plus none of us know how much time we actually have. A lot of people plan to retire at 68, die on the job at 67, and your replacement is in your chair next week.
> Plus none of us know how much time we actually have
Precisely because of this, you should be making music and games now. You never know if once you reach the amount of money you desire, death will knock on your door.
If you are already doing it, that's great. But so many people defer the enjoyment and overwork themselves waiting for that future where they hit the number.
That's a good point, I make plenty of music, and every now and then I release a really small game. I can't imagine more than 100 people have played them, but in a strange way that's okay. It was never for other people.
I'd love to check out your games, if you'd be willing to post. I've spent 10 years dabbling in indie game dev when I was young, there's something nostalgic about seeing people's projects. Never published anything myself btw, it always stayed firmly in demo stage haha.
> Here comes a secret: It will never be enough for you. It's not the money that counts. It's the ratio of income versus expenses, if anything. And if you grow one and don't stop the other one from growing in unison, then you have gained nothing.
> I know lots of people with 5x the income of me, but their expenses and lifestyle overcompensate, so they are much deeper into the hamster wheel than me.
That's not a good assumption to make for everyone. There are many people who do grow income without growing expenses (see the whole financial independence movement).
I spend about as much now as I did 7 years ago when I made 4x less.
The issue is that for many FIRE people optimizing everything becomes THE main game.
You retire and then you are constantly thinking "how could I do if XYZ happened?".
It's probably better than having to write your own performance review or grind through a job you don't really enjoy, but it's still not what "live your life" is generally supposed to be.
What would that look like? Do you have kids or a family to support? I'm one of two gainfully employed breadwinners among an extended family of 13 adults and 2 kids (my own).
Here comes a secret: It will never be enough for you. It's not the money that counts. It's the ratio of income versus expenses, if anything. And if you grow one and don't stop the other one from growing in unison, then you have gained nothing.
I know lots of people with 5x the income of me, but their expenses and lifestyle overcompensate, so they are much deeper into the hamster wheel than me.
I could retire any day (late 30s). I currently don't do it cause my work is fun and I like the people, and the more I keep going the higher my expenses could become if needed. But the finances don't keep me in my job. And if anything comes along that looks sustainably more fun I will quit in a heartbeat.