Millenials aren’t skiing enough?

Nuts? Nope. More like awesome.

I can’t wait to be done with school so I can get back to doing a lot more of nothing!

https://www.outsideonline.com/2259136/importance-doing-nothing?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=facebookpost

 Just the opposite here My  work life is based on the commute. Million dollar construction projects some times  hours from my house. That is my price to pay to piss and shoot out my back door.
    My parents raising their children ,never had the  monthly bills that this technical world puts on parents these days.No cable tv bill, no internet,cell phone bills , no monthly garbage bill(had own landfill on farm). No heating bill( we cut firewood all summer). Small grocery bill, we raised beef pork chicken  and never bought eggs milk beef.
  My parents made way less than My wife and I make but never had the monthly bills todays world puts upon you.
   

It's all how we play the hand that is dealt.

raisingarizona wrote

One thing about the tri state and other urban/suburban areas is the culture. I’m not saying this relates to anyone on here so please Dont come back with a defensive post but let’s face it, it’s a material based culture and people tend to live extravagantly or even beyond their means to keep up with the Jones’s. Ski trips might be low on their list.

Oh, ski trips are pretty high on that list. Do you think the Range Rover and X5 set that show up at Stowe and Stratton are there just for the skiing? No, it's something you do to be part of your class, that, you know, club.

raisingarizona wrote

At 4 hours a day commuting it's about 880 hours a year with two weeks of vacation thrown in. Lets say you work this job for 30 years and now you are looking at spending 26,400 hours or 2200 days or around 6 years of your life commuting to and from work. 6 years man!

I'd rather be poor and buy some hiking boots.

Obviously, you have never experienced or appreciated the concept of train time in your life. I used to get so much more reading done when I worked. Kinda hard to read and hike at the same time.

“Your train time is your own time”......may have been a MNR advertising slogan, but also somewhat true.  

My wife is a teacher, works 10 minutes from our house.  Sometimes she envies my commute!  Ok, not REALLY....but her day, short commute and all, is non-stop.  On top of being up at 5am to work on lesson plans and then pack kids lunches, when the kids were younger she was responsible for getting them ready and out because I wasn’t there.  Work all day, then immediately start moving kids around, then home to make dinner, run errands along the way, etc., etc.  Her life has no down time.  Heck, as a teacher she can hardly take a piss when she needs to.  The idea of having an hour and a half to just SIT and do nothing, that has some appeal to her.  I don’t know how she does her non-stop thing, but God bless her......

The commute time isn’t all lost, as we’ve mentioned.  Sometimes you do work on the train (in lieu of spending more hours in the office), I used to read (days before smart phones), now I binge.  A little sleep when needed.  Heck, I could whittle that 4 years down to 2, which most people probably lose anyway.  We almost all have something that sucks in our life, just comes back to the choices we make.

After reading your post I can see how that train time would be something you looked forward to every day or at least a lot of days. Does the train have a cocktail lounge?

There used to be actual bar cars once upon a time.  Now people settle for the drink carts at the head of the platform, or better yet grab a 24oz can (or two) at Rite Aid.

Once in a while I’ll grab a Fosters oil can for the ride home on a Friday night but I’m not a big train drinker.  Heck, you still gotta drive home once you get off the train.  You see some people and party groups that consume a lot of booze on the train, any night of the week.

While I can rationalize and justify with the best of ‘em....I’m happy with no regrets.  Can’t say I look forward to it.....

While I think millenials might be softer today, some of the reasons for that are that there are a lot more things that make it easier to stay inside in the warmth rather than to go outside and go sledding, build a snowman, go ice skating, etc. They have the distractions of video games and other electronic devices that us older folks did not have. Also, my mother was a stay-at-home mom. Most women work today and you don't see as many kids playing outside in the summer either. They're all at daycare.
In regards to commuting, I left a job two years ago for one with a lower salary for among other reasons, the commute. I used to commute 1 hr. in the morning and 1:20 getting home. It was in the opposite direction from skiing and now I can ski after work. Millenials saw their fathers have long commutes and while they are starting to buy houses, albiet later in life than their parents, they are buying smaller houses closer to the cities. They are not buying the McMansions in the outerburbs like their parents did. They don't want the commute, upkeep, heating costs, or taxes that houses bigger than they need cost. They are opting for better quality smaller houses.
As they are getting more advanced degrees, buying houses later, and having children later. Maybe they will start skiing later.

It's a workable compromise for me.  It's true I am far from the mountains. But my complete lack of driving all week helps with my motivation to chase snow when I can.  Basically Plattekill, Gore, McCauley, Whiteface and sometimes VT.

One thing speaks to me is the cost of gas, car, wardrobe and food working in the city, for 30 years, invested instead in the stock market starting back when it was at 2000.

JTG4eva! wrote

“Your train time is your own time”......may have been a MNR advertising slogan, but also somewhat true.  

My wife is a teacher, works 10 minutes from our house.  Sometimes she envies my commute!  Ok, not REALLY....but her day, short commute and all, is non-stop.  On top of being up at 5am to work on lesson plans and then pack kids lunches, when the kids were younger she was responsible for getting them ready and out because I wasn’t there.  Work all day, then immediately start moving kids around, then home to make dinner, run errands along the way, etc., etc.  Her life has no down time.  Heck, as a teacher she can hardly take a piss when she needs to.  The idea of having an hour and a half to just SIT and do nothing, that has some appeal to her.  I don’t know how she does her non-stop thing, but God bless her......

The commute time isn’t all lost, as we’ve mentioned.  Sometimes you do work on the train (in lieu of spending more hours in the office), I used to read (days before smart phones), now I binge.  A little sleep when needed.  Heck, I could whittle that 4 years down to 2, which most people probably lose anyway.  We almost all have something that sucks in our life, just comes back to the choices we make.

My wife has been commuting 1.5 hrs to NYC for the last 25 yrs..She likes her job but hates!!!!!! the commute..
crossing the TZ at 515am to catch the 540 train then leaving work at 430 home at 615 because of the F'n TZ bridge and thruway...
I have similar hrs ..the thought of driving 2 hrs to ski on my only day off is more then I can deal with..

Wow I must say you guys have been busy with this thread.  12 pages in under 2 days is impressive.

Yes it’s cold but the skiing has been awesome get out there and get some.

Life is all about choices.  I’ve lived in jersey and had the hour plus commute and the 4 hour drive north to ski.  I could make more money down there but the cost of living is way higher than up here in the Daks and the quality of life is not nearly as high.  My advice to the young guys is pick an education and career that is portable so you can live where you are happy.  Don’t get a worthless degree in Econ like someone did a few pages back.

To the old guys I’d say today’s economy Makes it way easier to work remotely than ever if you aren’t happy move and no excuses about the wife not wanting to leave the good old city or burbs.

The one post about 8 pages back I think from brooklynrob about living in a small expensive apartment with 3 kids really stuck with me.  Rob why would anyone choose to have 3 kids when your economics would force you to live like that?  Moving should be a priority now that you had them.  If you worry about the climate just have one kid is a greener way to go and you can also afford to ski more then.  

Millennials spend money on stupid stuff and have there phones terminally attached to thier eye balls no wonder they aren’t skiing.  I also know plenty of multi generational committed skiers that now have young kids and are making it work raising a skiing family but it’s much easier if you live here rather than in a city or burb.

Don't pin that on me I skied every day this week.

Clearly real estate is cheaper in the mountains and skiing. What else?

Harv
What do you pay a yr in real estate taxes?
Gas for commuting and driving to Gore? Wear and tear on your car etc
Car insurance?
Food - we get a big portion of our food grown within 20 miles of our house including almost all our meat

If you could buy a nice house for less than 200 grand and have lower costs on just about everything else how much less money would you have to earn to break even?  You then have all those extra hours you spend commuting to spend time outdoors and with your family.  

Like I said real estate and skiing.  If you want to separate out real estate taxes from real estate ok. It's high and like 75% school tax. How much is your school tax?

I commute about 10k per year. If you do a similar amount then we probably pay the same.

For me it's moot. I own this company now it makes the most sense to ride it out.  Plus my girls aren't ready to move.  5 more years.

You'll be in Driggs by then?

My school , town and county real estate taxes are about $4500 which is high for up here as there are not much ratables in my town.  Wilmington is considerably less as they go to LP schools.  

People I know in NJ pay $15k or more per year for real estate taxes.

I have 10+ years to retirement in Driggs.  Could have been less but ski racing is not a cheap sport.  Really happy with the education at Northwood for my son though.

If your Northwoods is less than a few thousand you are beating me on school tax.  To me the cost of real estate and schools are the same thing to some extent. Parents usually are willing to pay more for a house with good schools. I could get a house super cheap within 20 miles but we'd probably want a private school. Where I live great public schools are much cheaper than decent private.

I the summer I sail quite a bit and note that sailing is also a dying sport mostly because of cost. 20 years ago a big Hobie cat regatta would have 75 boats. Now it's more like 20-25. There just aren't too many younger folks participating. This is true for smaller boats like a Hobie cat as well as larger boats. I've been told that some yacht clubs are struggling for members.

Another problem with sailing is that there is a fairly big learning curve (like skiing) and it seems like young people would rather turn the key on a jet ski and just go.

75 years ago rowing was a big sport and it, too mostly died off. Times change.

tom

If he wasn’t a ski racer he would be going to the public HS but the education is a better for sure at NW.