5 ms·
It does seem appealing to compress it into a few years, doesn't it. But I don't think it works for me at this point. First, the math. I believe 20k gross is ~1
by admissionsguy 5y ago
It does seem appealing to compress it into a few years, doesn't it.
But I don't think it works for me at this point. First, the math. I believe 20k gross is ~10k after tax where I live. My absolute minimum acceptable lifestyle costs 30k/year. Which leaves the possibility of saving 90k/year. So I get three free years for every year worked. Brings to mind the Ciolkowski equation.
Three years for every year worked, neglecting investments, but also opportunity cost, and the fact that I absolutely detest working for others and even a year of working full-time is a dreadful prospect to me.
Assuming life expectancy of 85 and no state pension, I would need to work full-time for about 13 years, no time-off, optimistically assuming no mental breakdown from all that work. So I end up at 45, possibly bald, with no savings except to fund what I considered the minimum acceptable lifestyle at 32. That is not good.
The opportunity cost. I now work for about 2-3 months / year (and benefit from lower tax at lower income), building a quite possibly successful business venture on the side, and devoting lots and lots of time to my hobbies.
Aging. I would not want to sacrfice a year of my 30s for three years of my 50s.
- throw_this_one 5y agoYeah seriously, who wants to "travel the world" in your 60s lol.
- VirusNewbie 5y agoDude if you sacrifice two years in your twenties to bank ~300k you can have plenty of time to travel the world while you're young and single or dating someone and live it up. There's a huge difference between 'sacrificing' a few years if you can milk a decent gig when you're young and throwing way decades of your life being miserable.
- throw_this_one 5y agoBut 2 years to save 300k means you gotta have a top tier faang job doe right?
- aureli 5y agoI actually agree with you. I think taking long breaks in between jobs/clients is the better path for most people. I just got an amazingly sweet deal: - I was remote so I lived out of my backpack in places around the world for many years (pre-COVID) - I got my work done fast in less than 20h/week most weeks so I had plenty of time to e.g. learn another language to a conversational level - I was able to save $15k - $20k/month - I took 1 or 2 months of unpaid leave every year to pursue hobbies Had I not been able to do that, I would definitely have quit earlier and taken a long break.