禁漫天堂

You're on the right track, Fred! Living the dream!

I first retired at the age of 30, and I liked it so much that I did it again whenever employment became boring. Which it never was - I've always enjoyed my jobs - but I quit anyway. I told one boss that he couldn't afford me any more.

Being a good father - in my way - I coached my son to do the same sort of thing, and he has been even more sensibly irresponsible than I was. He and his pregnant girlfriend of the time lived for six months or so in a home-made (by the local Mayan Indians while he was away in Peru) treehouse in Guatemala with her two-year-old toddler, until they flew back to Norway for the birth of a new baby. I never did that. My wife and I once planned to retire to the caves of Crete and live with the hippies there, but we had a baby instead. Sigh... That sort of thing can really slow you down. Well, not *you*, probably, but it did us.

Here's a little piece about the treehouse, for your amusement:


So we ended up in a tiny Caribbean island, with three Norwegian grandchildren - one inherited, one doubtful but accepted, and one not disputed! What can you do, but go with the flow, eh?

I drive a 1997 Toyota Windom, by the way.

Here's one of my personal travel reports, Fred, and I send it to you because you seem to be the kind of person who understands the frustration of being forced to go back on your tracks - and you very probably have similar stories, which I hope you will share with us. OK? So a report of a similar failure, please, if you have one!

Fred wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ5ICXMC4xY

Apart from the terrible acting in Gone with the wind, this is a really handy phrase for life.

When I lived in the UK, I had a fancy TV, a hifi to kill for, and loads of other total crap, but I usually watched films on my portable DVD and listed to radio 4 on a portable radio.
My Sky TV contract came up for renewal but I never watched it so I scrapped it.
The TV licence reminder dropped through the letter box but I never watched broadcast TV - I cut the aerial coax and didn't pay.
No point having a TV you don't use so I sold it
The HiFi went next.
Then everything else I never used went the same way.

My minibus is 7 years old but does exactly what I need it to - Car adverts - middle finger
I don't give a rat's arse about owning property - Middle finger to real estate companies.
We spend our lives working and worrying about cash, but never give a thought to being happy. Apart from my lovely electronic toys, I simply stopped buying crap.

The result?
My bank gave me a fancy account that allows me into their special lounges where you get served coffee while I wait in the queue (in a very nice armchair with coffee table) and I can get really fussy about what work I do.

Stuff consumerism.

Opinions?

Yep.

I now realize it was a serendipitous blessing when I needed to sell my house because of mold problems and crushing debt related to all of the remediation it took to get "mi casa" mostly fixed.

I didn't have as much stuff as a lot of married couples, but I had set up my three bedroom ranch home outside Nashville as a place to welcome friends and family and itinerant songwriters.

I started selling whatever I could at quick sale prices, then giving away and donating and throwing away a large portion of the rest of my belongings.

But when I moved into an extended stay motel, I still had a storage locker with enough stuff to fill a studio apartment.

That's when I stopped reacting to my negative circumstances and adopted a proactive attitude about my future.

It didn't take me long to realize that I could cover my number one concern regarding domestic help by moving out of the USA.

I then decided that sand and salt water were my other two necessities, which led me to the surprising discovery that a return to Vietnam might be my best option.

This led to downsizing to a car load of possessions.

About six months later I had given away even more things I'd previously thought to be essential.

When I finally boarded the plane to Vietnam, I had two large suitcases, a CPAP machine, a tote bag of medications and supplements and other diabetic healthcare related stuff, and a big backpack as my carry on in business class.

I had fortunately saved enough Delta airlines frequent flyer miles to have a free ticket from San Diego to Hanoi.

Fast forward a few months back after I had temporarily been in Mississippi, and I came West to San Diego and then Rosarito with just one large suitcase, the backpack, my CPAP machine and a much smaller tote for my healthcare supplies.

I am still hoping to return to Vietnam soon, or somewhere else in Southeast Asia.

Having learned what I've learned about stuff and the ability to buy what I need cheaply in Vietnam, I will probably be able to do without either the backpack or the big suitcase this next time, and the healthcare bag will probably not be much larger than an American football.

This concept has truly transformed the way I think about life and how I set priorities.

Better late than never...

All I care about now is my computers - and those things are mostly for work (and the forum). I use them for entertainment as well, but the 3 screen Chromebook is pretty much for work

How you retire at 30? What are you doing for living?

Moving to a new country and living a life that evades consumerism is not necessarily the same as retiring.聽 Never let yourself believe that you will be happy doing nothing.

When you no longer desire the stuff that the adverts tell you to buy, when you really understand that the most valuable things in life are your friends, and when you are earning your living doing something you love doing, then you will forget about the concept of retirement.

Expat42inVN wrote:

Moving to a new country and living a life that evades consumerism is not necessarily the same as retiring.聽 Never let yourself believe that you will be happy doing nothing.

When you no longer desire the stuff that the adverts tell you to buy, when you really understand that the most valuable things in life are your friends, and when you are earning your living doing something you love doing, then you will forget about the concept of retirement.

I'd rather be living a life doing nothing than be a critic of those who are

I hope not to offend anyone, but I don't believe it should be a decision to retire or to not. I believe the decision to make such a move should be more about the type of environment to continue your life.

James Valentine wrote:

I hope not to offend anyone, but I don't believe it should be a decision to retire or to not. I believe the decision to make such a move should be more about the type of environment to continue your life.

I would quote back the title of this thread to you.

This thread was doing very well with people sharing their personal experiences.

Then along came those who apparently have no experiences to share but instead share opinions and philosophies about other people's lives.

So off-base, Valentine!

禁漫天堂 members get to make a decision to retire any time they like.

cccmedia

I'll retire when I can't work because I'm either physically incapable or my brains have turned into a mushy mess.

Not sheeping my way into buying a new car or super-size TV because some advert tells me to is very different to retiring.
I love working - I like the challenges and working out ways to operate others can't see.
Being a tight arsed Barnsley lad doesn't hurt. One project a few years ago involved visiting sites all over Indonesia - I turned an average per visit cost of 10 million Rupiah into a little under 1 million, but got more done, and in half the time. Pairing sites halved transport costs with zero impact to work completed - in fact I doubled the number of visits so got a lot more done.
I took the traditional way of thinking, tossed it in the bin, and started again.
As my non-consumerist expenses, even with 2 kids in private school and a nanny, came to less than half of my salary, my bank manager loved me.
The result - Sod all stress and the absolute freedom to work when I want.
People work like idiots in jobs they dislike because they have to pay for their house, new car, fancy TV, and all the useless crap they buy - The obvious answer is not buying all that crap.

As a bonus for the tree huggers out there, my carbon footprint is way lower that a consumerist's.

I threw everything we owned, on top of and inside of our hand-me-down (a hundred times handed down) old antique car that unbeknownst to me was now dragging its rear bumper on the ground every time we hit a tiny bump; obviously I still hadn't deleted enough "possessions" from my life (actually possessions own you, not the other way around) and had it been a ship in the water they would've made a movie about it called Titanic Returns and Sinks Again. Long story short, we arrived in a rain storm, everything soaked, midnight, door was locked... finally got inside our new trailer home and all fell asleep quickly on the cold floor (the water and electricity and hence any heating hadn't been turned on yet; at sun up a few hours later it would be turned on thank heavens). In the daylight, rain gone, as we toured our new mountain top home deep in the forest which had cost us almost nothing (except risking our lives on the voyage to get there) we realized it was even more of a paradise than what Google search results had led me to believe. Complaining turned into gratitude as my crew turned from mutiny to heralding me as their hero (don't worry, this story still has plenty of violence and horror and tragedy and romance up ahead, you'll love the ending if ever I tell it, and that was 3 lifetimes ago, I have 2 other best sellers I haven't even yet begun to tell). The reason: To get away from consumerism, be healthy, raise the kids in a better environment, fleeing from dictatorship, impending war, doom, apocalypse, and so on. And for the 5 years that we were on our deserted paradise island, it was worth it. I've since escaped from the world many more times, and lived on many more deserted islands... and every time the risks and sacrifice to get to those islands was worth it. Whether it was an actual island or simply me kicking old destructive eating habits, and escaping laws that I didn't agree with, and expenses I didn't agree with, and cultures I didn't agree with, and so on. Total freedom, peace, freedom, health, freedom, longer life, happiness, and so on. I met hundreds of new people along the way who taught me a hundred lifetimes more of knowledge than I had already known. And they made that time period of my life that much sweeter, whether they were a rich person wining and dining me, or a homeless person sharing his/her whisky with me, every memory, every relationship, whether it was with a person, a dog, or a beach, or that octopus who got out of his tank and was trying to make it to the water but got stuck to the pavement (or seared/fried rather; by the sun) who I rescued (just joking, I took him home, gave him to my buddy who barely spoke any English who then made the most amazing stew)... it has all been worth it (except for the octopus part, wish I had thrown him back in the tank or the ocean and my conscience would be 100% clear right now... and that dog soup thing). This has been one of my favorite threads yet, here on this forum. Most people talk about already having arrived, and what it's like being in paradise. You guys makes it sound like we're still in the airport, excited, standing in front of that mysterious portal, ticket in hand... gives the reader a sense of thrill indeed! Hope! Anticipation! And the suspense of not knowing what's going to happen next! Whether it's a beach, or minimalism, or whatever adventure, or any changes that a person is craving and needing... after reading your thread, I think anyone not already on that beach, in that lifestyle, or whatever plunge, reading this thread will take more courage. Will feel the energy and be compelled to take the leap. Hope to see many more arriving on the beaches, or their dream destinations, or change in life, anything that brings joy and excitement or peace and contentment back into a person's veins. This is a thread that the whole world could definitely use a dose of its call to adventure, to live life on each person's own terms! To take that leap! Cheers and happy travels!

At the end of the day, that sort of sums up why I moved to Indonesia.
You take the UK's social and economic rule books, make paper aeroplanes out of them, then live.

Humans -in general- are creatures of habit, they don't like changes and are afraid of the unknown. Dream and talk of changes never materialize, instead they get bogged down in jobs they don't like, a lifestyle they don't like, buying all this crap they don't need (on installments) and use it as an excuse as to why not make changes. All it changes as with everything in life is the 1st step! 鉁岎煆�

bennl wrote:

...All it changes as with everything in life is the 1st step! 鉁岎煆�

"Came to believe that my life had become unmanageable; that I was powerless over _____________"

bennl wrote:

All it takes as with everything in life is the 1st step! 鉁岎煆�

And our lives had become unmanageable !!!!

I have always relied on luck, to some extent, and so has my son. We pretend to believe in Loki the Old Norse god of luck and caprice. We don't actually worship him, but we're sort of in business together. The only thing he requires is that you meet him half-way in any venture; that's where the caprice comes in. My son changes jobs pretty frequently, and usually takes time off in between switches. He doesn't get rich, but he gets by comfortably. (Loki is not sympathetic to people who desperately want to get rich; he's a bit of a hippie, that way.)

He got mixed up twenty years ago with a Norwegian hippie girl and her toddler in Guatemala, and ended up in Norway, off and on. Of course that meant he had to learn Norwegian, but the best way to learn a foreign language is the pillow-talk method - I think we all know that. And the best way to "retire" anywhere is to be flexible. Get yourself a decent God, for a start...

The women's lib movement of so many years ago burnt their bras as a symbol of freedom.
I don't have any bras but I feel very liberated. So many people work 9 to 5 in jobs they hate just to buy the trappings that advertisers say we are failures if we don't have.
Stuff the lot - and that has a bonus.
Once you realise norms are a construct, you can think in completely different ways and examine everything else in your life.

It's amazing how much we do because we're supposed to as a social norm - not because we want to.