Quote: (02-16-2014 01:19 PM)zatara Wrote:
I have so many friends from college who're so similar to me but whose lifestyle terrifies me.
They're smart, educated guys who enjoy both girls and partying. They're not boring or stupid (either of which would make their choices understandable). And when they're drunk they've all admitted to me they wish they had my life. But instead of making any effort to emulate my life they just keep toiling away at their 9-5 jobs they hate. One of them just bought an apartment, at 27. He had £75k saved but instead of quitting his job and traveling the world for 6 months or a year he bought a place. And now hes trapped in the one suburb, of one city, for the next 30 years.
He could easily have quit his job, traveled the world for a year, and then come back and gotten straight back to work for the next 40 years (he's both qualified and experienced so would have gotten another job no problem). But instead he felt the need to put a voluntary 30 year mortgage chain around his neck and will now probably never do any extended traveling. He hasn't even left Europe once in the past 10 years (!).
I have no idea why someone wouldn't spend their disposable income while they have it in their 20s. Does finishing paying your mortgage off at 60 instead of 65 really make much of a difference? I'd far rather have that 5 years of traveling, nice cars, nice restaurants, disposable income lifestyle in my 20s. The idea of settling for a job that 'pays the bills' for 40 years and settling down is...horrifying.
Think about it like this:
- mental stimulation lengthens our lifespan. That is, older people greatly benefit from learning languages, reading books, and volunteering work. Even a bit of traditional work can help.
- given that, it's actually healthier for us to have some sort of work in our later and more vulnerable years, something to keep the gears grinding. Instead of retiring at 65, then, why not stop working full-time at 65, and work part-time for the next ten years or beyond. It should help to keep us going.
- so why not enjoy our 20s and 30s (or beyond) a bit more, save a bit less and do a bit more of what excites us, rather than just getting a job to pay the bills. Coincidentally, this is completely in line with Robert Greene's Mastery - we should use our younger years to fail, to fuck up, to go a bit crazy. We can work it off when we're old.
- all this means that it's better to take your time when you're young, go through the inevitable failure stage where you try to find what you're meant to do, and find it. Even if you don't make bank until well beyond the age of 30, you can make up for it later.