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Comment by nextlevelwizard

2 months ago

Yep. I am not even rich. In fact compared to US software engineers I am making pennies, but I am hitting above average for where I live. And at times it is hard to find meaning in every day life. I like my job, but realistically I could quit now and just about coast with my savings for the rest of my life. On other hand I could increase my spending and live more luxurious life style, but that isn't for me. I just like to code, play video games, and be alone in peace and quiet.

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nextlevelwizard

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purplethinking  2 months ago

Almost at that point myself. Thinking about doing another year or two to save up an additional buffer, and make sure we're not right before another 2008-like event before I pull the plug. Start my own company, maybe make some money, maybe not. I'm tired of the grind. I'm tired every single day, and there's no time or energy to try to fix it. At this point I just want to be left alone, in peace and quiet...

Freak_NL  2 months ago

Honestly, if I ever reach the point where my savings would keep me comfortable with a pension to look forward to pick up the slack at the end, I'd quit my job and just focus on my interests, providing a clean house and having a good meal ready in the evening for my wife and son, and develop some side gigs I can give up if they don't give me fulfilment.

As it is, I am acutely aware of my privileges as part of a household with two IT-based incomes and not too many worries, and that the world being what it is right now is giving rise to so many uncertainties that I wouldn't dream of abandoning this unless I had a really big bag of money like the author.

  • wing-_-nuts  2 months ago

    The big question for me has become health insurance. Yes, I know ACA plans are a thing I just <side eyes incoming administration> don't trust it not to be messed with. Protections for preexisting conditions are the only reason retirement is even an eventual possibility for me.

    I worry that I don't have enough of a life outside of work to make retirement fulfilling, and actually, I don't actually mind working if I'm completely honest. I just never liked the stress of needing a job.

    • swiftcoder  2 months ago

      This was one of the main reasons I emigrated from the US. My savings constituted a couple of years runway in the US tech centres, or a decade somewhere with affordable housing and healthcare...

  • swiftcoder  2 months ago

    > Honestly, if I ever reach the point where my savings would keep me comfortable ... I'd quit my job and just focus on my interests

    Pretty much everyone says this, but surprisingly few people actually seem to succeed at it when push-comes-to-shove

    • tjr  2 months ago

      https://philip.greenspun.com/materialism/early-retirement/

      Ask a wage slave what he'd like to accomplish. Chances are the response will be something like "I'd start every day at the gym and work out for two hours until I was as buff as Brad Pitt. Then I'd practice the piano for three hours. I'd become fluent in Mandarin so that I could be prepared to understand the largest transformation of our time. I'd really learn how to handle a polo pony. I'd learn to fly a helicopter. I'd finish the screenplay that I've been writing and direct a production of it in HDTV."

      Why hasn't he accomplished all of those things? "Because I'm chained to this desk 50 hours per week at this horrible [insurance|programming|government|administrative|whatever] job.

      So he has no doubt that he would get all these things done if he didn't have to work? "Absolutely none. If I didn't have the job, I would be out there living the dream."

      Suppose that the guy cashes in his investments and does retire. What do we find? He is waking up at 9:30 am, surfing the Web, sorting out the cable TV bill, watching DVDs, talking about going to the gym, eating Doritos, and maybe accomplishing one of his stated goals.

      Retirement forces you to stop thinking that it is your job that holds you back. For most people the depressing truth is that they aren't that organized, disciplined, or motivated.

JumpinJack_Cash  2 months ago

> > but that isn't for me. I just like to code, play video games, and be alone in peace and quiet.

Lack of desires is the first canary in the coal mine of a decrease in mood.

As much as it sounds empty those who are able to distinguish between a 500$ TV and a 5000$ one have a very fine tuned sense of desire which doesn't collapse at the tail end.