View Full Version : How many people here want to be a "bum"
mervynyan
11-07-2008, 04:47
Not eactly homeless, more like a freestyle loner travels, doing sh*t job to get by where you go for a year or two.
I don't know anyone personally but always like to read these kind stories. Given the global recession, my job in banking is comfortable but not secure, everyone stresses out. I was thinking with all the family and financial obligations, can I afford to take an exit, and trek alone for a year or two? And come back with few thousand pix to see if I can sell them, if not, no big deal. I can live budgetly while I am still young.
exasperbated, sorry for the rant.
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 04:51
What makes you think you aren't one already?
I don't think doing a shiite job to get by pays enough to actually get by these days. Selling your travel photos isn't a big possibility, but if you really want to go and travel the world and enjoy life why let anything stand in your way.
OurManInTangier
11-07-2008, 05:13
I got most of my wander lust out of my system before I hit twenty, I say most as I still drop everything for the right trip but travelling throughout the late eighties and early nineties helped open my eyes, made me realise I wanted to get paid for taking photographs and enabled me to see places as many no longer are. Maybe I made it to some places just in time, though maybe I should go back now and see if some have changed for the better?!
I don't have children so a year or two away wouldn't be the end of the world, maybe my marriage but not the world. I guess the question is a weird one, can you afford to be a bum?
Ming The Merciless
11-07-2008, 05:36
I'm so not into my city job. It pays the rent and pays for film & processing. I've got 2 years & 3 months before retirement. I'm counting the days. Then, with my pension(which is garenteed) and Social Security and my cheap coop payments, I plan to be a BUM traveling the streets and doing what I love --Photographing.
You get it wrong, with all respect, you are currently a bum. Reading your post, you are not currently doing what you would like too but yet don't do anything to change, probably because of convenience. I have similar thoughts though ... :rolleyes:
srichmond
11-07-2008, 05:37
I think it's something I'd seriously consider if I were sorta forced into it, i.e., redundancy with severance pay. I often worder if I'd get bored one month into it.
It was something I thought about when the company I worked for went bust in September.
If you are not married with kids then the world is your oyster. Do what pleases you.
oftheherd
11-07-2008, 05:53
Join the Army! (or Navy, Marines, Air Force)
3 hots and a cot, paid every two weeks, travel to new places at least every two to three years. What's not to like? :D :D :D
But beware, you pay in other ways, and it isn't for everyone.
kshapero
11-07-2008, 05:55
In the early 70's I hitched all over the USA. Worked on farms for food money, slept in barns, generally dropped out of sight for about 3 years. A long time ago. It was awesome.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3007/2997206255_edd877d4cd.jpg?v=0
In the early 70's I hitched all over the USA. Worked on farms for food money, slept in barns, generally dropped out of sight for about 3 years. A long time ago. It was awesome.
That is a wonderful snapshot! Looks like the second coming of you-know-who. Did you really wear leather shoes back then? :eek:
kshapero
11-07-2008, 06:06
That is a wonderful snapshot! Looks like the second coming of you-know-who. Did you really wear leather shoes back then? :eek:
Hitching in sandels sucks.
Roger Hicks
11-07-2008, 06:11
A surprising number of my friends and acquaintances live like this, though most actually have an inexpensive base somewhere because you need to be able to store and organize your pictures, and to be able to sell them from a fixed address. I've not had a regular 9-to-5 job in around 30 years, and I gave away my last suits in 1987. 'Take what you want and pay for it, sayeth the Lord.'
Cheers,
Roger
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:42
It's nice to reflect on the pleasures of your future underfunded life as a SS receiving wandering pensioner, but what happens if your plans go wrong and you're dead six months from now?
You could get hit by a bus, get a heart attack, or since you're in NYC like me, what's gonna happen when that suitcase nuke stashed in a cargo container goes off in New York Harbor, hmmmmm??
Don't count your chickens.
I'm so not into my city job. It pays the rent and pays for film & processing. I've got 2 years & 3 months before retirement. I'm counting the days. Then, with my pension(which is garenteed) and Social Security and my cheap coop payments, I plan to be a BUM traveling the streets and doing what I love --Photographing.
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:45
Or the few thousand dollars you get for your pension turns out to buy a loaf of white bread or a can of tuna in 2012?
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:53
Yeah, give up living on the grid. Dump those odious computers, electronic cameras, internet forums, clean underpants, etc.
blackwave
11-07-2008, 06:54
I'm reading "On the Road" from Kerouac right now. Does that count?
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:55
What's an "IdeaDog"?
Can you feed it Alpo?
Move to Vermont. I'm not kidding.
Now that Bush has given us another healthy recession, maybe rents will go down again, business will leave NYC, and commercial spaces will again be available for artists for a song. And hopefully all the yuppies (and oppies) will leave when their apartments are repossessed?
Too late, foreigners paying in Euros own most of Manhattan now. :D
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:56
Don't worry, the Euro is sloshing around the bowl along with the dollar right now.
Nobody will be unscathed.
I had the same feeling when I had finished my military service in the early 70'. I was fed up of being bossed around and wanted just to 'feel free'. A friend of mine and I had an old sailing boat in which we sailed up and down the Swedish and Norwegian coast. We took odd jobs - just for food, in many cases, and befriended young women who felt sorry for us, - you can live long on that, and fed us. Occasionally, I telegraphed my father; 'send more money', but he was furious so that well soon dried out. So, we had to return, promise to continue our education and 'fall into line'.
Still I have good memories from that journey, - not much of a travel in today's perspective. But for us, back then, it was a big thing. The world was much larger back then. - I have only good memories and could write a book about all the people we met. - How we survived the journey in that old leaky boat; it was a miracle.
I am three years from retirement I am very much looking forward to that great 'free' feeling.
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 06:59
You could, of course, package up all these questionable municipal bonds into a super-bond fund, then issue new bonds on those and sell those.
"Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men..."
-Don Vito Corleone
The world was much larger back then.
That's just the middle age talkin'; the world's the same size it's always been. :D
the Euro is sloshing around the bowl along with the dollar right now.
It peaked at about $1.60 in mid-summer. Many Europeans paid cash, and NYC realtors reported booming sales. Anyway, we'll have to have a full-blown depression before NYC is the capital of the art world again. Even at half-price it's still too expensive. Try Hartford CT, or Providence RI; you can own all the mill space you want up there for less than you'd pay for a parking spot in NYC.
Al Kaplan
11-07-2008, 07:06
My second ex- is always yelling at me to get a haircut, that I look like a bum. We're still good friends, although sometimes I wonder if it's just to keep me around to put new rolls of film in her Minolta X-700.
A couple of weeks ago I "destroyed" my image, shaved off my scruffy beard, and got a haircut for the first time since January. I had to renew my drivers license for another 8 years! I even wore a tie and jacket for the occasion. I was the only one at the license place "properly attired" and yes, they do treat you differently!
I've been active in local politics for decades, getting appointed to city advisory boards, being on the boards of directors of the N.M. Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, Mayor's Economic Task Force, etc. as well as the photographer for the local congressman and a small college. Enough years in suit & tie I thought. I started dreassing like a greying hippy in hopes that I could just retire in peace, no more breakfast and luncheon meetings, no more evening board meetings.I grew the beard, stopped cutting my hair, picked out jeans with the most holes to wear to board meetings. Nothing helped...LOL...but what the hell, I'm having fun! I guess that's what being a bum is all about. Carrying a cheap little Bessa L with the 15mm Heliar, flirting with the "girls" my age and the ones still in high school (why discriminate?) And as my ex puts it "You're a respected member of the community! Why do you have to go around looking like a bum?"
Saganich
11-07-2008, 07:12
I think everyone wants to live as you described if what you describe is how you want to live. Either your living how you want or your resigned to the notion that you can't live how you want. Many people endlessly distract themselves so they never realize their lives are not what they wanted. Some have postulated that because the self is a synthesis of baseness and nobility (ala Dostoevsky) or of necessary and possibility (ala Kierkegaard), or facticity and freedom (ala Heidegger) one can never be happy in the present. The only possibility is maintaining the self in equilibrum or having an unconditional commitment to something or someone. Going off for a year can't be a decision, you should have no other choice and therefor everyone else around you will understand or else you have to keep silent and just go and have faith that it will all work out in the end. Not many people can make these movements, the resignation is the easy part.
M. Valdemar
11-07-2008, 07:19
"I dream of cheese, toasted mostly"
-Old Ben Gunn
I can't quite tell from your post, do you have kids? If yes, then "following your bliss" has to take a back seat for a bit. :)
kshapero
11-07-2008, 07:24
I'd love to do this too but my obsessive-compulsive side says no to sleeping in barns, riding in cars with strangers and eating beans out of a can.
trust me, sometimes it was a real bummer. But still I have great memories.
Roger Hicks
11-07-2008, 07:29
Going off for a year can't be a decision, you should have no other choice and therefor everyone else around you will understand or else you have to keep silent and just go and have faith that it will all work out in the end. Not many people can make these movements, the resignation is the easy part.
Exactly. I assume that you mean by 'no other choice' is that the drive to do it is so overwhelming that the alternatives don't really get a look-in. When I hear people agonizing about it, I can't help feeling that they are not ready, and will never be ready.
This is not the same as the original post, which was couched in more general, 'just idly thinking about it' terms. And, for the OP, I'd add that it may make you unemployable in conventional terms. Or of course it may not. But I don't think I'd last long as a wage slave after this long out of 'The System'.
Cheers,
R.
I don't know if I call myself a bum (other may!) but I travel allot just to photograph and document event. I do a handful of weddings/advertising shoots during the summer to put a few grand in the bank and that combined with what the wife makes we do just fine. Not rich but we have never been happier. I just got back from Chicago, slept in a hostel, ate pizza, and witnessed an amazing moment in history. Your friends in the corporate world will hate you......but want to be you :)
Dave Wilkinson
11-07-2008, 07:47
I've allways made a living 'on the road'!
bean_counter
11-07-2008, 08:56
When in college, I had an internship during tax season with a public accounting firm. When one of the partners offered me a job upon graduation, I replied "I would rather be a bum and ride freight trains". The uppity set didn't suit me, I preferred to go into manufacturing.
I had an offer to be a semi-pro road racing cyclist, working in accounting part time for a company that sponsored a team. Figured I was too old to live with my parents, and out out of the back of a pickup truck during the season. I passed, but it probably would have been a blast, and I sometimes wonder "what if".
photogdave
11-07-2008, 09:26
I met a couple in their forties at the camera store. They had just sold their business and were planning to take "loser jobs" here and there to see what it is like. They had already lined up jobs picking berries and had interviews scheduled at Tim Horton's. They said they would work each job for two weeks, quit and move on to the next.
I found their concept somewhat condescending because their attitude was one of "slumming it" with the working class for kicks. They probably came from money nad had never had to pick berries or work at Tim Horton's. Probably didn't realize they would be screwing over any business that invested the time to train them, only to have them quit straight away.
The husband bought an M8, the wife a D-Lux 3.
Anyway, I'm not implying this is your intention Mervyn -- just thought it may serve as the other side of the coin.
I second Memphis' suggestion of working on a cruise ship. I worked on Princess Cruises for four years. I got paid pretty good money to travel the world, party with young girls and even learn a thing or two about photography. Look into it!
I have slept on park benches, had local cops give me the 'eye', and citizens avoid me and all this on a weekend motorcycle trip. Can't say I'd enjoy it for longer than that. I also dreamed of sailing around the world but the world got too small too quick and and too mean at the same time.
Guess I'll stay home.
photogdave
11-07-2008, 10:07
you eat 3 gourmet meals a day
I guess you never worked for Princess :eek:
The food is horrible. Even worse for the crew! Doesn't matter though because as a photographer you barely have time to eat. It's actually one of the hardest jobs on the ship. The cabins are horrible too. No porthole until you move up to manager and you share your dingy little hole with another booze-soaked partying photog. You only get shore leave if you don't have other work to do that day - printing passenger D&P, setting up the gallery, In Port Manning for safety drills.
Ah, I'm starting to miss it! :D
pesphoto
11-07-2008, 10:59
I guess you never worked for Princess :eek:
The food is horrible. Even worse for the crew! Doesn't matter though because as a photographer you barely have time to eat. It's actually one of the hardest jobs on the ship. The cabins are horrible too. No porthole until you move up to manager and you share your dingy little hole with another booze-soaked partying photog. You only get shore leave if you don't have other work to do that day - printing passenger D&P, setting up the gallery, In Port Manning for safety drills.
Ah, I'm starting to miss it! :D
What about the chicks? Must be some good stories there somewhere? :)
photogdave
11-07-2008, 11:05
What about the chicks? Must be some good stories there somewhere? :)
I have fuzzy recollections involving hot tubs, glass elevators...
John Lawrence
11-07-2008, 11:07
Harder to do this if you've got children and / or other committments.
My late father told me he waited until I was 16 before becoming a professional gamber - 'though he certainly seemed to do a lot of "preparation" in the intervening years!
I'm currently living in weed california by mount shasta developing a backlog of a film for my friend for a roof over my head. When the film runs out I'l go somewhere else.
Dave Wilkinson
11-07-2008, 11:27
Harder to do this if you've got children and / or other committments.
My late father told me he waited until I was 16 before becoming a professional gamber - 'though he certainly seemed to do a lot of "preparation" in the intervening years!
A professional gamber ? ....:confused:
If it were fun it wouldn't be call it work.
Roger Hicks
11-07-2008, 11:37
If it were fun it wouldn't be call it work.
Many years ago I worked with a company called KREAB (as far as I recall, Kreativ Information AB). This was their company's guiding premise:
Whatever you do, do it excellently. If you don't do it excellently, it won't be fun, and it won't be profitable. If you're not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you in business for?
Cheers,
Roger
alan davus
11-07-2008, 11:39
The last thing you want to take to your grave is regrets. I offer young people two bits of advice. Don't settle down until you've been up and don't waste your youth, it only lasts for a short time and middle age much longer. I spent 7 years travelling in the '70's and don't regret one minute. I also believe if the best time of your life isn't right now, it's time to change something. If you left the bank for a couple of years to bum around then came back would you be the same person?. Go for it.
Dave Wilkinson
11-07-2008, 11:39
This thread is certainly more fun than all the political wrangling, - on the 'Raid channel' :D
John Lawrence
11-07-2008, 11:59
"A professional gamber ? ....:confused:"
Yeah ... times were hard. We had to sacrifice Ls to stay afoat.
Petroleum V. Nasby
11-07-2008, 13:12
You can go to Nebraska and dump off your kids and they have to take them, then kick out the wife.
sepiareverb
11-07-2008, 15:54
I had a friend in NY back in the 80's who did it right. She worked as a corporate lawyer for a year, then took three off. Lived in a tiny apartment, but lived every minute. By the time the money ran out she was ready to enjoy the work again. Looked like a completely different person- I suppose she was a pretty different person for that year, but it worked out great for her. I certainly saw the logic in this approach, working my assisting jobs and not having much money. But I didn't have the foresight or the brain to go to law school.
When I lived in NM I would work from April to October, then take the winter for photography. I've spent most of my life without a regular job, and those have all been part time. I've also gone without a lot of things many people take for granted (like indoor plumbing or electricity) for stretches. You gotta be happy. I guess by your definition I've always been a bum!
pesphoto
11-07-2008, 15:56
sounds about right - the chicks on my ship were as randy as the guys --- it was all fun -- very few took the sex seriously -- tight quarters, we all had fun on my ship
uh...i hate you :eek:guys.....
whilst i understand your point i have a wife and kids and the world is our oyster.
thankfully my wanderlust is matched in severity by my wife's
You are a lucky man and I salute you.
Carlsen Highway
11-07-2008, 21:55
Living as a poor traveling artist gets old real fast. In fact the first thing to go is the art. Survival becomes more satisfying than makes things that dont seem to matter nearly as much as some heating.
And you'll start thinking, why cant I get a nice normal job like evreyone else, and then I can do pictures in my spare time and still live like a human!
This idea will hit you with the force of genius.
Unless you are truly stubborn and then you will end up going halfway in both directions and end up working for real estate agents taking pictures of houses for sale for next to nothing, and you ll tell yourself, its STILL photography...
And then you 'll meet a girl. She love the art stuff, until it gets in the way of you getting a real job becasue you both need money, and then you'll end up working at the bank again and watching CSI shows on TV and playing the kids playstation just to stop yourself from thinking nights....
These are dangerous thoughts compadre. Do you need to have a crap job to do some good pictures? Whats stopping you making some decent money while you do the same thing? Whats the difference?
The troubel with being poor is you cannot afford to do anything. Even take photo's.
Carlsen Highway
11-07-2008, 23:30
No, I dont think so. Talent is highly overrated. Lots of people have talent....
What Im driving at is that this concept is a fantasy, and like most fantasy's they are generally - for most people - better off staying as one.
Once again what wrong with being a bougoise middle class banker while you get your 'art' sorted out? Einstein used to work in the Patent office as a clerk.
Does one really have to be poor and wander the earth having adventures? I have wandered the Earth and I have been poor and have found not much to recommend either.
Well back in my traveling days, (most of the 1990s) I got by on teaching english and other odd jobs overseas for many years and certainly didnt live like a bum, but I didnt stay at the ritz carlton either, which was fine with me, A nice Guesthouse or a sparsely furished apt was fine. I never went hungry, just the oppisite I ate some of the best ethnic food around (chinese Thai indian etc..) for pennies. Food you have to pay 10-15.00 a meal for here in the states!! I took many fantastic photographs along the way, some of these images are my best sellers. I also met a number of other liong term travelers, one ex english professor had been traveling for 15 years, another traveler had been on the road for 18 years! So it can be done, and done well, and without living like a bum! But if you have kids, which is not clear, consider working overseas, some companies will pay for most of your movihg expenses. A friend of mine did so with his family in China for a two years. if your not ready to move the whole family, stick to short vacations and take early retirement if you can afford too.... Bon Voyage! - Michael
Roger Hicks
11-08-2008, 00:35
Interesting how there's a polarization here between 'You can't do it' and 'You can do it'.
Of course there are variables we don't know -- children, marital status -- but the simple truth is that a lot of people have done it, or are still doing it, and are/have been both successful and happy, so it can't be impossible. Of those who say it can't be done, I suspect that there are quite a few reasons for their assertions:
1 They are unable or unwilling to live up to the and pay for it clause in 'Take what you want, and pay for it, saieth the Lord', in the sense of e.g. fitted kitchens, central heating and new cars.
2 They are congenitally afraid of doing anything unusual, and so have never tried it
3 They have tried it, and been unlucky
4 They have tried it but (as Fred suggests) are so talentless and uncommitted to photography that there is no point
5 They don't see why anyone would do it, cf Carlsen's "I have wandered the earth and . . . not found much to recommend [it]' This is the exact opposite of my own experience.
As my wife and I grow older, several things get in the way of our travelling, especially her health: if it weren't for that, we might well be living in India now. But otherwise, we both love to travel as much as we can afford, and so we do. As I said in an earlier post, we've always had a base (like most of the people I know who've done this for years) because it's much easier to earn money from a fixed base and because it's a good place to rest between trips. But it's a rare year that we're not on the road for at least 2 months, and our record in one tax year was 7 months.
Cheers,
Roger
I came to think of Hemingway and 'the Lost Generation' (Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.) Americans who 'freaked off' after WWI and lived classical bohemian lives in Paris. Well, Hemingway was supposedly a war correspondent, covering the Greco-Turkish war - from an expensive hotel bar in Paris. - What 'bum' life!
Things were a bit different back then. For the value - in dollars, for a well written, but heavily biased newpaper article, you could stay a few months at 'The Ritz'. Today, you can't even cover the bill of getting drunk in the bar.
Carlsen Highway
11-09-2008, 00:25
I am being unnecessarily negative I know. Ignore me. I am using sleight of hand to try and confuse the side of me that would stow away in your combi van when you go....
I do understand entirely, perhaps too well, sometimes I get bright ideas myself...really brilliant ones, usually to do with going exploring....
I dont really like the travelling itself though, meanign the part that Roger likes - being "on the road". I like going somewhere and staying and exploring it and living there. Constantly on the hop from place to place goes against my grain.
Still there are exceptions. I was in Suva for less than an hour before I had a rifle pointed at me, been swindled and then mistakenly picked up by the police for something I didnt do. I was ready to go after that....
stefan_dinu
11-09-2008, 00:48
Too late, foreigners paying in Euros own most of Manhattan now. :D
If they pay in Euros, they are not foreigners. They are Europeans, just like most of people who live in US. They are just a bit late. :)
cubastreet
11-09-2008, 00:55
I've been alternating between working my ass off for a year or two and living off that money for two or three for the last fifteen years or so.
Never really thought of selling photos but I used to live quite well off making and selling clothes.
My favourite way to travel is by van - you decide where to go and your kitchen and bed are always there when you need them.
I do plan to explore China by motorbike with my girlfriend in the not-too-distant future.
Sometimes I've been very poor, sometimes I wished I could do a regular job year in and year out but that's not me. Fortunately I grew up in a country with a national health system - a year in USA really showed me that poor people there are really no better off than those in developing nations. Even with insurance I was denied care with two fingers half cut off because I wasn't carrying identification.
I've always managed to get some food, never had to beg, but it's often not easy.
Petroleum V. Nasby
11-09-2008, 03:24
All those wishing to bum around with no money should read THIS book by George Orwell:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_and_Out_in_Paris_and_London
It remains one of the best narratives of the "bohemian" life ever written. (you may also never want to eat in a restaurant again)
You can read it free here:
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/books/downandout.htm
I would also recommend some of the works of Max Bodenheim.
Roger Hicks
11-09-2008, 03:57
'Down and out' is also a classic example of a writer slumming it in order to write a book, holding his nose while doing so. The account of his throwing out the hot milk, because a fly had landed in it, removed all credibility from the story for me. I've not read the book in decades, but that is the one part that sticks in my mind.
It's also a very long time ago, and Europe has changed quite a lot since then (though I fully take your point about the restaurants).
In other words, yes, it's a fascinating book (as are most of Eric Blair's books) but I'd dispute its value to anyone contemplating the bohemian life in the early 21st century.
Cheers,
Roger
I can't decide if it is tougher to be a bum these days or if I'm just too old for it.
My own Down and Out in Paris in the late seventies, consisted of living in a boat shed by the Seine, doing a little decoration and restoring old posters, didn't own anything beside a duffle bag full of clothes. It was freezing cold but, I remember eating fairly well and drinking lots of not too bad Cotes-du-Rhone wine (it was cheap). Lots of art openings and fashion shows to attend and wonderful times dining at friends' places and partying.
I had the time of my life and I'll "always have Paris," But I wonder if one could replicate the experience today and if so where.
Pherdinand
11-09-2008, 06:53
you bunch of hippies.
:)
Worse, we're probably beatniks at heart.:o Where's Mervyn the OP and beneficiary of all this wisdom from olden times?
If I were addressing an 18 year old person, I would have said "Complete your education, and then see what life has in reserve for you."
I am lucky to have lived a good life in three countries so far. Being exposed to many cultures is what life should be about. In your case, and if you have no dependents to worry about, then do what makes you feel happy, given that you somehow can secure a stable future for yourself as you get older.
cubastreet
11-09-2008, 13:57
In my last year of university I used to moonlight as a cab driver. Often i would sit at the taxi stop by the uni and pick up students - somehow they were nearly all commerce students.
I don't remember any of them liking what they were studying - but as they put it 'it'll get me a job'.
To this day I find it depressing that a large proportion of people work most of their life doing something that they don't enjoy, so they can buy alcohol, big screen televisions and a BMW.
sepiareverb
11-09-2008, 14:01
Yeah, give up living on the grid. Dump those odious computers, electronic cameras, internet forums, clean underpants, etc.
One can have all of this and live off the grid. Without electricity it becomes harder, but electricity doesn't mean tied to the grid.
sepiareverb
11-09-2008, 14:54
"the grid" really refers to the electrical grid, although it could refer to the highway grid, but that is a stretch, or the phone grid, however until the introduction of the internet the phone system was sold as a point to point system, not the grid it actually was.
Yes- I meant that living without electricity is harder than living of the electric grid. I've done both, so I speak from experience. I ran a darkroom off solar powered deep well water, first with a generator for electric, then panels for the electric. Completely without electricity I printed cyanotypes and salt prints, but gravity fed water (in Vermont anyway) can be iffy for archival quality prints.
If I were addressing an 18 year old person, I would have said "Complete your education, and then see what life has in reserve for you."
Unfortunately in the US that means working to pay off an enormous (can I say ginormous?) amount of debt these days. As a college professor I see too many people completing an education only to do it, plunging themselves into a lot of debt.
I'd say do the living now, go to school at 26 or 30 when you know how to focus and understand what you are doing spending so much money. The 'adult learners' I have are much more sure of themselves, and take a lot more care to get all they can from every credit they pay for.
photogdave
11-09-2008, 15:03
To this day I find it depressing that a large proportion of people work most of their life doing something that they don't enjoy, so they can buy alcohol, big screen televisions and a BMW.
Not everyone's "enjoyment" can actually translate into a decent paying job. That's why people spend money to enhance the enjoyment of their spare time.
I'm getting a little tired of the condescension towards people who work jobs that aren't directly related to their passions. It's just not feasible for every single person to accomplish this.
sepiareverb
11-09-2008, 15:11
I'm getting a little tired of the condescension towards people who work jobs that aren't directly related to their passions. It's just not feasible for every single person to accomplish this.
To a certain extent it is a matter of degrees- how much one is willing or able to do without. All through my twenties I watched many of my friends outpace me in income, but I also watched them give up a lot of the things they enjoyed. I was certainly not willing to do that, and so made do with the one pair of shoes and home haircuts. Nothing wrong with going the other way- in a lot of ways it is smarter, especially as one starts to see the 'golden years' on the horizon.
cubastreet
11-09-2008, 19:46
I'm getting a little tired of the condescension towards people who work jobs that aren't directly related to their passions. It's just not feasible for every single person to accomplish this.
Not when greed, competition and status are the ideals of society.
I don't love my work, it's just work. I just make sure that I do a lot of rewarding stuff in between.
I just think that it's sad that so many people get tricked into thinking that a big house and a fast car will make them happy. They buy the big house with the marble staircase and from then on going away for more than a week or two is impossible.
photogdave
11-09-2008, 19:59
Not when greed, competition and status are the ideals of society.
I don't love my work, it's just work. I just make sure that I do a lot of rewarding stuff in between.
I just think that it's sad that so many people get tricked into thinking that a big house and a fast car will make them happy. They buy the big house with the marble staircase and from then on going away for more than a week or two is impossible.
I hear what you're saying but I fear you may be generalizing. I know people who are truly happy with fast cars and big houses. They work hard to get them because that is what they truly want. They could give a hang about travel and experiencing other cultures or living like a vagabond.
It's not to my way of thinking but if they are happy with their lives I'm not going to try and tell them that they shouldn't be.
They aren't greedy or status seekers. They just like nice things. It doesn't mean their lives are shallow or empty.
st3ph3nm
11-09-2008, 23:07
I think the key is to keep an eye on your goals. If your work is helping you to achieve those goals, then you'll tend to enjoy the work. If it's getting in the way of the goals, then it's time for a change.
A number of years ago I left a high paying corporate sales career that was sucking too much out of my personal life (one of my goals is to continue living very happily with my wife) and took a job in automotive aftermarket retail. I may get paid half what I used to earn, but the hours are easier (more time for photography), and I get to stand around and talk about cars all day!
One day I'll get some land and do the whole hippy self sustaining lifestyle bit - I can save enough to get there on what I'm earning, I just have to wait a little longer for that Canon P I'd like someday. :-)
Cheers,
Steve
mervynyan
11-10-2008, 01:21
thanks for all the replies. I have been done the same kind of job for last 10 years. I love my job, it is most interesting part of the finance. it pays well, afford me things (including cameras). But as I said, given the current recession, I don't see my area will recover any time soon, as much as 50% of people I dealt with were gone. I am on a very thin ice, perhasp I can keep my job, no one knows.
I just moved to London begining this year, now I am totally stressed out. I have decided that if I were to go, I will backpack EMEA and Asia and go back to NYC.
Perhaps I can afford to drift for a while but eventually I have to come back to reality.
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