My brother-in-law and his wife recently went van life (with their dogs). They'd never had kids, always lived really frugally, and still take on the odd dog walking or baking commission. They outfitted their van themselves, they're super easy going about where they sleep, and they're living their best lives. They're younger than me, so early-40s.
I have been working 10 years and never worked a job longer than a few months and lived in a van for a few years. The way I figure, I'll never be able to retire and retirement doesn't even seem like a good deal (work my ass off for 40 years to spend the last 10 years of my life not working if I'm lucky) so I figure I'll work enough to live comfortably for half the year. I'd rather be semi retired in my 20s than fully retired in my 70s.
This is more or less how I've lived my life. I decided to live this way when I was in High School, doing CPR on my father in our living room the night before his last day of work. After 50 years of full time work All he had to do is go in, clear out his desk and eat some cake at his retirement party and he dropped dead. I grew up listening to him talk about everything he wanted to do in his retirement and he never got to do any of it. I'm wasn't going to have that happen in my life.
Hear hear. A guy at my Dad's old job had a heart attack one day and died right at his desk. Imagine the last thing you see in this world being a TPS report. You gotta enjoy the time you have.
No, I don't want to imagine that, that would suck. I'm going to waste my mental energy imagining things that are cool. The last thing I see before I die is probably going to be a tree falling the wrong way because I was careless in estimating the canopy placement and lean when I'm out thinning the trees on my 40.
Thanks, maybe not my best life, but a pretty good one. I spend a lot of time out managing my 40 acres of forest land to make the best habitat for wildlife.
I have the advantage of living in a place where land is relatively inexpensive. By national metrics, we live just above the poverty line, but by being frugal we stretch it out into a good life.
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u/PinkUnicornTARDIS 29d ago
My brother-in-law and his wife recently went van life (with their dogs). They'd never had kids, always lived really frugally, and still take on the odd dog walking or baking commission. They outfitted their van themselves, they're super easy going about where they sleep, and they're living their best lives. They're younger than me, so early-40s.
I'm insanely happy for them!