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I have a similar story from an old acquaintance. He used to work in finance, quit his job in his late 20s, and went to work moving stuff around a warehouse in

I have a similar story from an old acquaintance. He used to work in finance, quit his job in his late 20s, and went to work moving stuff around a warehouse in the outback during the mining boom. He did this for two years. He said he absolutely loved it. There was no stress. He just lifted things, got big and strong, and went home everyday tired in body but relaxed and happy in mind. It's the stress and psychological torment that does you in. This is why I feel genuinely sad when I see guys grinding away at their high paid, stressful, draining, and often psychopathic corporate jobs, who blow all of the salary. That's just messed up. My savings target is always 50% or more. If you're never going to be free of it, what's the point? Should we all not be trying to buy our freedoms? Rather than handing chains to landlords and bosses and bankers? Like an old boss of mine, who was getting paid more than all of us, and yet when he switched job, he left us on Friday and started there on Monday. By his own words, he spent 99 dollars of every hundred he made, so couldn't afford to do otherwise. Personal margin is everything. If your job takes all your energy, and you spend all its money, you're trapped. You have no bargaining power (you can't walk away), and you'll never move to positions with less stress, less politics, less hours, better and more interesting work, or more pay. This is such a critical concept that it's crazy people aren't being taught it at school.

neilalexander 7y ago
> My savings target is always 50% or more. This is a pipe-dream for most workers. Salaries just aren't high enough in many industries or places in the world to be able to put away 50% of your earnings and still live comfortably (or even not comfortably).
- epicgiga 7y ago
  Place in the world doesn't affect margin (%) -- if you work in London you'll make more than in Lahore, but your landlord is making the same "more" in turn. The goal isn't to live comfortably, it's to live minimally, to open up margin so you can spend time upskilling and trying to get higher paying jobs. I get that 50% is hard. I don't enjoy it myself, but I've been broke before and I've had really crap jobs before and so now it's fear that makes me save that rate. Rather than having my apartment be twice the size, I'll take a smaller one and funnel the surplus into my skills and my business pursuits, which in turn raises income and thus margin further, in a virtuous cycle. I just don't buy all the people saying a few percent is the absolute best they can do. Usually they're buying things, which I get -- the pleasure of those things are like the "reward" of the painful work hours. I think if they tried harder they could hit at least 25%. After a year that gives you a 4month runway -- a world of difference if you lose your job vs a 1 week runway. At a minimum, everyone should work out what their genuine subsistence level is, so they know what they're spending on comfort.
- kyuudou 7y ago
  While I'm a big believer in this kind of saving, inflation is a reality and a huge deterrent for long term savings that doesn't involve some kind of interest, compound or not. But then there was that 2008 economic crisis... sigh still, better to have savings than not and there are some decent (5% ish) savings accounts that generate interest with minimal risk.
  - epicgiga 7y ago
    Putting it all in cash is unwise when you've got a substantial amount -- at which time people naturally look to diversify anyway. But for the people this is good advice for, worrying about diversification is out of scope. Get 1 year's USD in the bank before that.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I believe the GP's point is that it was sad to see people who could be saving 50% but blew it on expensive luxuries instead.
ryanmercer 7y ago
>and went home everyday tired in body but relaxed and happy in mind. One thing I miss about being a grave digger, and working retail, is that you just had a lot of time to think. It takes minimal mental effort to straighten things on shelves/shelve things/cut grass/weed eat/dig a hole. With retail, especially at Lowes, you'd occasionally get some conversation with customers and again with Lowes they'd often have some problem they were trying to fix/solve and you got to think about the best way to help them. At the cemetery I just listened to talk radio when I was tired of my thoughts, or I'd have one-sided conversations with random 'customers'. I'd come home and be tired but actually feel like reading or talking to a friend, now I analyze paperwork all day trying to meet quota while interpreting laws and trying not to make any mistakes and go home and just want to turn on some video and go mildly catatonic until bed. >My savings target is always 50% or more. I can't even afford 7% to get the full employer match for 401k and now that they've nuked our pension to instead contribute more towards 401k I won't even have that as a half inflated cushion augmenting me. Unless software replaces teachers, then she's up the creek too.

neilalexander 7y ago

> My savings target is always 50% or more. This is a pipe-dream for most workers. Salaries just aren't high enough in many industries or places in the world to be able to put away 50% of your earnings and still live comfortably (or even not comfortably).

epicgiga 7y ago
Place in the world doesn't affect margin (%) -- if you work in London you'll make more than in Lahore, but your landlord is making the same "more" in turn. The goal isn't to live comfortably, it's to live minimally, to open up margin so you can spend time upskilling and trying to get higher paying jobs. I get that 50% is hard. I don't enjoy it myself, but I've been broke before and I've had really crap jobs before and so now it's fear that makes me save that rate. Rather than having my apartment be twice the size, I'll take a smaller one and funnel the surplus into my skills and my business pursuits, which in turn raises income and thus margin further, in a virtuous cycle. I just don't buy all the people saying a few percent is the absolute best they can do. Usually they're buying things, which I get -- the pleasure of those things are like the "reward" of the painful work hours. I think if they tried harder they could hit at least 25%. After a year that gives you a 4month runway -- a world of difference if you lose your job vs a 1 week runway. At a minimum, everyone should work out what their genuine subsistence level is, so they know what they're spending on comfort.
kyuudou 7y ago
While I'm a big believer in this kind of saving, inflation is a reality and a huge deterrent for long term savings that doesn't involve some kind of interest, compound or not. But then there was that 2008 economic crisis... sigh still, better to have savings than not and there are some decent (5% ish) savings accounts that generate interest with minimal risk.
- epicgiga 7y ago
  Putting it all in cash is unwise when you've got a substantial amount -- at which time people naturally look to diversify anyway. But for the people this is good advice for, worrying about diversification is out of scope. Get 1 year's USD in the bank before that.
StavrosK 7y ago
I believe the GP's point is that it was sad to see people who could be saving 50% but blew it on expensive luxuries instead.

ryanmercer 7y ago

>and went home everyday tired in body but relaxed and happy in mind. One thing I miss about being a grave digger, and working retail, is that you just had a lot of time to think. It takes minimal mental effort to straighten things on shelves/shelve things/cut grass/weed eat/dig a hole. With retail, especially at Lowes, you'd occasionally get some conversation with customers and again with Lowes they'd often have some problem they were trying to fix/solve and you got to think about the best way to help them. At the cemetery I just listened to talk radio when I was tired of my thoughts, or I'd have one-sided conversations with random 'customers'. I'd come home and be tired but actually feel like reading or talking to a friend, now I analyze paperwork all day trying to meet quota while interpreting laws and trying not to make any mistakes and go home and just want to turn on some video and go mildly catatonic until bed. >My savings target is always 50% or more. I can't even afford 7% to get the full employer match for 401k and now that they've nuked our pension to instead contribute more towards 401k I won't even have that as a half inflated cushion augmenting me. Unless software replaces teachers, then she's up the creek too.