Any bi-nationals here?

[LogGrad98]

If I came into as little as 5 million today, I would quit my job that very second. I could make that work for the rest of my life easily. I do enjoy my job, for the most part, and I am good at it, but I in no way shape or form would choose to spend most of my life at a job. I cannot even fathom what that job would look like.

Like others have already done on here, I am an aspiring author. I have one of those "forever" novels going, in a way, and a few short stories, and my intention is to enter the Writers of the Future contest this year, and I have one story about ready for entry. But I am getting late into this one so it isn't a viable substitute for the income I am making now at work. I would like for it to be, but that is down the road. If I came into 5 million I could just retire. If I came into 250k I would take a couple years off to write and see if I can make a go at it (and pursue a few other passions, like Habitat for Humanity, which has been a great downtime thing for me for about 10 years now, also Walk for Life, among others). But even writing is a stretch, as the vast majority of writers have to do something else on the side. I would like to think I have the chops to crank out a few best-sellers, but at times you have to be realistic too and realize the family wants to eat now, not down the road.

I DO like my job, and now I get to do it in Germany which is WAY harder than I had imagine, but also pretty damn cool. But I am not one of those lucky few who gets to work doing my passion. I do not have a passion for schlepping boxes, or figuring out the best way to store candles so they don't melt in an un-air-conditioned warehouse, or whatever. So I totally get the dream of early retirement.

 

[babe]

Log, just do a good budget somehow. If possible, that is. I used to do that, and I'd work overtime, and call it "buying my 'get outta jail free' strategy". I knew it was a dead end for me, any job would be. I just had to work my way free to work for myself somehow. . . . .

It's like Hong Kong folks looking down the road to when China would not renew the British lease on the port. A lot of them bought businesses in the US and got the visa to come here to run them. They left lucrative careers and businesses in Hong Kong because, long term, they saw it as a dead end. In retrospect, the Taiwan businessmen who bought business in China might have made a better bet. . . .

So, anyway, we all pay a high price for any liberty we really want. . . . a budget just makes it work faster.

 

[LogGrad98]

Oh we work a pretty comprehensive budget. I know just about down to the nickel where all the money is coming from and going. Working on clawing our way out of some debt right now. Everything turned upside down for us a few years ago when I lost my job, and took a close to 30% pay cut in the years since.

 

[babe]

You bet they are. All thanks to globalized popular culture.

This just makes me shudder, actually. . . . define "American". define "globalized popular culture". We are globally sinking into something I don't recognize as "American", really. Global feudalism, with a decreasing upper class becoming more and more powerful, and wages becoming less and less in real terms. The cross current is technology improving our tools and immediate little niche.

The definition I'm using as "American" is the habit of people interested in education and independence and a better life; kinda not the habit of sitting on the couch watching the Kardashians living on food stamps and getting fat and silly. Today, except for the bizarre herd instincts, the Chinese are more "American" in some ways than Americans. At least they work, and save, for a better life. Getting distracted with Hollywood imagery and conspicuous consumption might be a problem, too.

Common Core displacing the kind of education that produces people who can question stuff they're told and think for themselves routinely worries me, globally.