OT: Quitting the Rat Race

[li10up]

I don't think I could leave the rat-race. I was unemployed for about 4 months after I graduated, there were NO jobs in my field and it darn near killed me.

What was killing you? The decrease in income or not having "anything" to do? Were you bored those 4 months?

[Geonz]

Whoo Hoo!!! I was going to point to this page anyway - because there are some neat essays on *exactly* this simplification thing - but hey! My "Drafting Story" gets me a T-shirt... (they're only in huge sizes but hey, the whole bike club can share).
http://minuscar.blogspot.com/

Mine is I think the only silly essay.

Right now I have a very nicely fitting non-rat-race job in education... with health insurance (tho' thankfully that's not an issue at this time and it's really just true "insurance" against sudden accidents).

My bicycle really moved me forward in the "cut back and simplify" direction.

There are lot sof other things I just don't spend on (makeup... MP3s)... but I do have a weakness for music and blenders :-)

[KnottedYet]

What was killing you? The decrease in income or not having "anything" to do? Were you bored those 4 months?

All of the above. DPITA supported me, so I had food and a place to live. But no money of my own. I couldn't stand not being useful. I got kind of depressed and just sat around all day moping. I didn't even watch TV. I kept trying to find jobs, but the market was glutted and folks with more experience were hired over me. And that was discouraging.

[mlove]

I will be quitting the rat race in November, but my solution--retirement--will not be of much help to most of you. With a job at a university, at least I have had some flexibility to help cope with the job stress (I am not faculty and don't have the summers off). But I am looking forward to turning my desk over to someone else so I have more time to ride.

If you are into simplifying your life, there are a lot of websites that you can check out for tips and tricks. And Joe Dominguez's book is really helpful.

[Geonz]

I think to quit the rat race and not go into a swamp you have to join something else ... not be outside looking in at the rat race. I guess you have to join the kiwi race or somehting :-) Or maybe join the rat co-op instead of race?

I hadn't thought of it, but ... bicycling was an important thing that gave me a chance to channel my energies into something when I was out of the loop. the other thing I did was build a website (I'm a pretty serious introvert, gregarious as I am) about learning disabilities, put together some book-type stuff and stay active on discussion groups. I"m not sure, but I think the bicycle really helped enable me to stay productive and not just put things off.

Of course, you can end up wallowing online for ... [heading off now to prevent that...]

[betagirl]

A little over a year ago I quit my well-paying job in corporate IT to go back to school to get my doctorate in clinical psychology. While today I find myself more busy than I was at my old job, my stress level is 75% lower. Why? Little, if any, politics. Plus I actually love what I'm doing. I think that's key, and if you can find it and actually do it for a living then you're truly lucky. I do still consult on the side so I'm not a poor grad student persay. Plus my I live with my boyfriend, so he pays more of the bills now. I can say I do NOT miss the corporate world and am so happy to have escaped it.

[li10up]

I took the suggestion I saw here and borrowed the book, Your Money or Your Life, from the library. This is a VERY good book. It still doesn't answer my questions though. Even though there is a chapter on How Much Is Enough it takes a lot of record keeping to come to that conclusion. I'm looking for answers - now. That's probably my problem. Plus no answer fits everyone, of course.

So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself." I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

[Trekhawk]

I took the suggestion I saw here and borrowed the book, Your Money or Your Life, from the library. This is a VERY good book. It still doesn't answer my questions though. Even though there is a chapter on How Much Is Enough it takes a lot of record keeping to come to that conclusion. I'm looking for answers - now. That's probably my problem. Plus no answer fits everyone, of course.

So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself." I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

Its not embarrassing at all. Plenty of people make career changes or life changes later in life you have nothing to feel embarrassed about - frustrated yes embarrassed no. Do Americans get Long Service Leave??
If so is this an option you could use??

[yellow]

So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself." I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

li10up, you can do it, but it will be hard. No doubt about it. It depends upon how far you are willing to step over that line out of your comfort zone.

I spent about 10 months skiing and riding and generally doing whatever I felt like doing expecting to have some kind of ephiphany. Surely "what I should do with myself when I go up" would come to me, right? I enjoyed the time and skied some wicked powder, but the ephiphany never came. I had this vision of being on the chairlift and having a giant "ah ha!" moment.

We had saved money in anticipation of me taking time off (approximately 25% of my annual salary), so while things were very tight, we learned to adjust. It helps that we were already a little unconventional: no TV, no expensive cars, small house with no storage, no kids, and no desire to be one of the Joneses, so to speak. Giving things up was really pretty easy. That's not to say that we didn't make some mistakes. It takes a while to adjust to the new lifestyle, that is for sure.

When I realized the "ah ha" moment wasn't going to come I actually had to apply some logical thought. How much was I willling to work and how much was I willing to sacrifice? How would it affect my spouse? What would he be comfortable with? How would it affect our lives 10-20-30 years from now?

So I started looking again for a "real" job (I was working a PT extremely low paying job at the time that had a great schedule but hated being treated like an idiot and it just wasn't working out). I ended up in a job similar to my old one but I was able to negotiate a part time schedule and the ability to take leave without pay without hassle. When I tell my new coworkers that I only work 4 days a week they get that "why didn't I think of that?" look on their faces. I may stay there a year or 10. I don't know. But I think that's OK. My life is still centered around my family and what I do outside of work. I never plan to work full time again.

Review your finances, decide what you can live without (it's a lot more than you think), how you can make changes, and go for it. Don't expect the ephiphany, but if it comes, great! Make sure you have a "back up" plan as well; it may be drastic (such as drawing on your retirement funds), but it helps to know that it's there. I never came close to needing my back up plan.

Better to do it now than to spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened had you done it.

Good luck. What killer shape you will be in!

[tprevost]

I took the suggestion I saw here and borrowed the book, Your Money or Your Life, from the library. This is a VERY good book. It still doesn't answer my questions though. Even though there is a chapter on How Much Is Enough it takes a lot of record keeping to come to that conclusion. I'm looking for answers - now. That's probably my problem. Plus no answer fits everyone, of course.

So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself." I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

Check out www.cheapskatemonthly.com there is a fee to join (minimal) but they have great discussion forums and lots of people and advise and great stories about many different financial situations etc.

[DebW]

So let me revise my original question. How can I quite the rat race for just one year? I really don't want to stay in the I.T. field even though the money is good. I just don't enjoy it. So, I'd like to take a year off. I want to spend 6 months of it thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the other 6 months just riding my bike, decompressing and "finding myself."

For info about the AT and the expense of a 6-month thru-hike, check out whiteblaze.net (maybe you already know it). Trailjournals.com is another good site. You can get by with $3000-$5000 for a 6-month hike if home expenses are minimal and you already own the gear.

[eofelis]

I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Anyone else out there in their 40s and still not know what they want to do for a living? It's embarrassing and frustrating!

I'm a geologist-in-training but I'm not sure if I really want to do it for a real job. I just really love rocks. I love going to school too. Maybe I'll just go to grad school.

[spokewench]

In 1996, my husband and I moved from the Bay Area to Flagstaff Arizona (small town) to get away from the rat race (no long commutes anymore, less money, still pretty expensive housing, but we had a little extra put away so we are okay that way.)

So, when we first moved here, I worked full time at at least 1/2 of my Bay Area Salary, my husband worked part time at a little less salary than he made before. we managed, we did fine and still started saving money.

Then, I went to 4 days a week (I'm a paralegal) about 2 years ago. A little less money coming in but not bad - I like my job and I have a lot of time off.

Then, about a year ago, my husband quit his full time job (xray tech) and did not work for about 8 months and then has worked part time (he does ont work as much as I do right now) and we are still doing okay! I even went to the Colorado Bike tour last year, went on a 3 day cruise and went surfing for a week in LaJolla last week! Lots of riding and small trips as well.

So, yes, we are out of the rat race although we still work some and it is wonderful! You just have to plan, and execute and don't go out to dinner as often, eat your lunch at home, don't commute as far or do it on your bike, etc. It really is not that hard once you make up your mind to do it!

Life is GOOD!

[DebW]

I've been in the same job for 23 years (though the title has changed from research associate to senior staff scientist in that time). We had a group of 6-10 atmospheric chemistist here at one time and it dwindled down to just me about 5 years ago. Not such a good working environment as I have to keep myself funded with proposal writing, and the way science funding is these days that gets tougher and tougher. Next January my major contract ends without replacement. So I might be 25% funded or 75% funded (if another current small contract gets phase II funding). I'm pretty near burn-out anyway - my mind just doesn't focus on science the way it used to. If I end up on part-time, I'd like to take month-long periods off to hike or bike tour, then work solidly for a month or two until my contract obligations here are fullfilled in a couple more years. Then maybe I'll go back to being a bike mechanic. I could live pretty simply as I don't watch TV or like to shop and the house is paid for. Just have to watch the retirement funds.