Best Life Plan

raisingarizona wrote

The most successful skier on the mountain is the one with the biggest smile at the end of the day! :D

Haha I win!

warp daddy wrote

For me , a type A young guy who wanted to be married and have a family and work at a job i loved ( university life ) it worked . Great job , great bennies and income , ample consulting opportunities for side income , good vacation periods , interesting work , great campus recreation facilities , staying young at heart being around bright young kids and others IT WORKED . But some may have found that terminally irrelevant .

My wife and i set a goal  to retire young . She went back into the work after our youngest graduated HS .  So All of My consulting income and my wife's entire salary was invested and my employer had a defined benefit pension and a 403 b which i maxed out  .  .

I think you neglected to mention your biggest success.....not getting divorced.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

If someone tried something and failed miserably, they probably wouldn't post about it on NYSB.

I have failed more times than I can count and in more ways than I thought were possible.

The statement is true and I think should be the opening line of a commencement address, especially at a prestigious university.  One should know how to handle failure.

D.B. Cooper wrote

   One should know how to handle failure.

Good God NO!! Trophies for everyone bro

D.B. Cooper wrote

I have failed more times than I can count and in more ways than I thought were possible.

Start this thread. I'm interested.

Also, my "failures" are mostly limited to things like "spent more than I wanted to at the bar last night", "miscalculated my timing so had to hike out in the dark", and "didn't get travel insurance, so had to pay $400 for a plane ticket when my flight was cancelled"

Kids today are punished so harshly for "failure" (financial ruin, enormous debt, destroyed credit rating, terrible living situations, etc.), it's no wonder that they don't want to take risks that could substantially improve their lives. Also, the things people need to improve their lives (education, experience, ownership stakes, etc.) are out of reach for many.

Goes back to the beginning of the thread, I guess. The collective advice seems to be that if people are going to ski bum, they should do it while they're young and free, but they should probably just get a fucking job you fucking hippy, because these widgets aren't going to make themselves.

Fuck the widgets and to some degree fuck being a productive member of society. That’s some serious Anglo Saxon cultural thinking. How’s about I don’t feel like it! I’d prefer to spend my short time on this planet staring at clouds and walking in the forests. I don’t need much. If you tune all the BS out ya might find that you feel the same.

I seriously have hobo fantasies. :D

I’ve always felt that the only real failure in life is being to afraid to make an attempt. Taking a chance, even if the complete desired outcome isn’t reached is in a lot of ways a success imho.

Any attempt is a chance to learn and grow. If you take a risk you are overcoming fear and there isn’t any failure in that.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

Also, the things people need to improve their lives (education, experience, ownership stakes, etc.) are out of reach for many.

Well that's total BS. In many states College tuition is free (see NYS). Experience is all about getting a little training (see free college) and taking an apprentice or intern position for a short stint, you won't run the company from day 1. An ownership stake is also easy, just start your own business and that's not hard either.

Silly PT.....don’t you know it’s easier to say those things are out of reach than it is to do the hard (or in some cases not so hard) work of reaching for them!

Of course you are right.  For families making up to $125k a year SUNY/CUNY tuition can be free.  But..but...but (MC Stammers) you still have to pay for room, board and expenses!  Yeah, and most kids qualifying for Excelsior will probably qualify for other Fed/Stare aid to help with that.  Of course, for whatever isn’t covered in aid there are always jobs and loans.  I put myself through college, and the Excelsior program makes it easier now than it was then, with a lower debt load, if at all. On the experience front, internships are a vital (and free, sometimes they even pay you) part of most college curriculums these days.  Then you get a job (unemployment is pretty low, right?), and you do it the old fashioned way....you earn your future.

But for some that is too much work.....plus it cuts into skiing time, time to create art, and explore, and walk your dog, and hang with friends, and didle yourself (boo hoo)!

It's a lot of work to get a job that you don't really want.

If you love and I mean LOVE your job then I get that but.......I can't imagine working that hard to be miserable and a slave doing shit I didn't love just to make money.

I know I have some level of depression in my life but honestly, I can't help but think I'm going to be dead before I know it so what's the fucking point? I might as well be broke and do the shit I like doing. F it.

There are many ways to skin a cat and none of them are wrong. The only wrong would be in not trying.

JTG4eva! wrote

Of course you are right.  For families making up to $125k a year SUNY/CUNY tuition can be free.  

Yes. It would be a great program. If it worked:
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/report-nearly-70-of-students-who-applied-for-new-yorks-free-college-program-were-rejected-2018-08-16

 On the experience front, internships are a vital (and free, sometimes they even pay you) part of most college curriculums these days.  Then you get a job (unemployment is pretty low, right?), and you do it the old fashioned way....you earn your future.

Ahhhh, yes, unpaid internships and menial jobs that barely make minimum wage... The true keys to success.

You guys keep talking, but all I hear is: "I did this shit in the 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s, and since the education system and job market have not undergone any changes since then, it's just as easy to do now!"

raisingarizona wrote

It's a lot of work to get a job that you don't really want.

If you love and I mean LOVE your job then I get that but.......I can't imagine working that hard to be miserable and a slave doing shit I didn't love just to make money.

I know I have some level of depression in my life but honestly, I can't help but think I'm going to be dead before I know it so what's the fucking point? I might as well be broke and do the shit I like doing. F it.

Hell yeah.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

 
  but all I hear is:  

Right. We already know you hear what you want to hear.

campgottagopee wrote

. We already know...

.
You "know" a lot of things that happen to be total bullshit.

MC2 5678F589 wrote

 

You guys keep talking, but all I hear is: "I did this shit in the 60s or 70s or 80s or 90s, and since the education system and job market have not undergone any changes since then, it's just as easy to do now!"

I was a ski bum in the 80's. Please explain how being a ski bum in the 80's would be different to being a ski bum now.

I'm trying to do my best to understand your position.

JTG4eva! wrote

Silly PT.....don’t you know it’s easier to say those things are out of reach than it is to do the hard (or in some cases not so hard) work of reaching for them!

Of course you are right.  For families making up to $125k a year SUNY/CUNY tuition can be free.  But..but...but (MC Stammers) you still have to pay for room, board and expenses!  Yeah, and most kids qualifying for Excelsior will probably qualify for other Fed/Stare aid to help with that.  Of course, for whatever isn’t covered in aid there are always jobs and loans.  I put myself through college, and the Excelsior program makes it easier now than it was then, with a lower debt load, if at all. On the experience front, internships are a vital (and free, sometimes they even pay you) part of most college curriculums these days.  Then you get a job (unemployment is pretty low, right?), and you do it the old fashioned way....you earn your future.

But for some that is too much work.....plus it cuts into skiing time, time to create art, and explore, and walk your dog, and hang with friends, and didle yourself (boo hoo)!

NYS has a great community college system and it usually close enough you can attend from home so no R&B required, oh but that’s not a super elite college like Middlebury where you’ll learn to be a useless liberal arts major with no grasp on reality.

campgottagopee wrote

There are many ways to skin a cat and none of them are wrong. The only wrong would be in not trying.

BINGO!

You’ll never hit the bullseye if you dont take a few shots.

campgottagopee wrote

I was a ski bum in the 80's. Please explain how being a ski bum in the 80's would be different to being a ski bum now.

I'm trying to do my best to understand your position.

Housing was more affordable. Wages were better (relative to living costs). After you were done ski bumming, you got a (relatively) cheap college education so you could pursue a normal career.

That's it?

You need to go without. I lived in a house with 7 other ski instructors. We didn't have cell phones, video games, go-pros, internet, computers, TV, etc etc

It's still done all the time ---- you can't go into it with debt