People who work full time: Does it ever bother you that your productive years are being spent toiling when you could be really enjoying your life?

I happen to enjoy my work, which I suppose is not technically full-time but takes more than 40 hours a week to do. I suppose my question to you is this: how are we to enjoy our lives without some means of supporting ourselves given the realities of contemporary society?

Hell yes! That’s why I took 2 years off from life a few years ago. No regrets, but, I am back in the saddle again, riding waay harder than I want to. lol

I swear though…what are you saving for?

If you can find a way to downsize, work part time, live simply, but well, and do what you want, go for it!

Read:

Choosing Simplicity by Linda Breen Pierce

She follows a bunch of people over 10 years that dropped out and found satisfying alternatives to the rat race.

This has been, and IS, my only true ‘goal’ in life. :-)

No because what I want most to experience before I’m either old and decrepit or dead costs money and involves planning so that’s what I do with little treats along the way. I work to provide security or else I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the good stuff much with doom lurking just behind.

My choices also makes the good times I have all the more precious, I pick more carefully now and justify some bigger expenses than I would have when I felt “young”. An example is my decision to work some extra days in order to spend $500. to fly somewhere for two days rather than spend $300. but drive 12hrs each way and know damn well I’d be exhausted beyond belief once at my destination. I’m willing to pay for comfort and convenience these days, my time feels more valuable.

I probably have it better than 99% of people who have ever been born.

But yeah, I wish I had it easier. All the time.

SIgh.

@SavoirFaire: I mean this in a rhetorical fashion – the question is more of a fantasy, as in a perfect world.

There are so many alternatives.

Work half the year, work a year on, a year off, save, save, save, travel, rest, enjoy!

I have managed to live very well on about 22K a year, with a decent nest egg for the last 8 years or so.

Things have changed again with the state of the economy, no more skimming interest off my savings, but…I have LIVED, before I die!

I highly encourage anyone that feels the way you do to find some creative ways of getting more of what you want.

Being debt free, or, close to it, is ticket!

@jca The question only really makes sense as a practical one about the real world, though. In a fantasy world, we would presumably be free from toil. There would be no opportunity costs, and so the question simply wouldn’t arise.

I 2nd what @Coloma wrote about going debt free. Get rid of your credit cards, get rid of car payments and start paying for everything as you go or up front. It makes a huge difference and you will surprised at how small an income you can get by on.

I think balance is important in all aspects of life. If I did not work my life would lose structure and I am the sort of person who needs structure. I did start my life doing what society prescribed, education, employment in a high stress, high remuneration, high everything path. I tired of that and went to the dogs. Chucked it all in and built a kennel. I trained, showed, handled, groomed, boarded and basically breathed dogs for about 30 years. I am now semi retired but still work 3–5 days a week because I still like dogs and money and what money can buy and I still need structure.

I think it is a question of whether you choose to live to work or work to live. I started with the former and then moved on to the latter and that is a better way for me.

If I didn’t work I would probably become a bum and wouldn’t like myself at all! I like a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

So true. I worked countless hours for someone else in my early career. I had to make a conscious decision to work less, enjoy more, and bypass some opportunities that would have been seen as irresistible. I made the right choice and now do exactly what I want.

I always enjoyed my work and I had many different jobs. While I was young, I followed things I liked to do when I wasn’t working on the job. That’s easier to do if you don’t have a family, but once I had a family, I waited until they were old enough to babysit themselves and went back to work and also to the interests I pursued: theater, singing, dance and art. I suppose it depends on whether your interests can be accomplished in off hours or if they require wandering elsewhere in the world, etc. Some dreams may not able to be accomplished because they have requirements you can’t meet, like money, time, physical condition, or talent. You have to live with that or find a substitute activity.

I have a completey different way of looking at your question. I worked for 44 years as a police officer. Of those 44 years, I worked two and three jobs for 20 years. And no, I was not wandering off into lala land, I was working and doing what most people should be doing.

I knew that my time would come, sooner or later and that time is now. I planned for the future and now I am enjoying the fruits of that planning. Life is not fly by night.

Sure, I had my daydreams, but my work and future planning came first.

Yeah, it bothers me, but I also like driving and eating food so….....lol.

No not at all…the last 14 years allowed me to buy a dream home and my company I worked for. Now I own the whole place and can do what I want WHEN I WANT!!! XD

I enjoy my work. I don’t see it as wasteful and I spend a lot of time helping other people reach their goals. If I didn’t do this, I would undoubtedly find other ways to fill my days that involved working with others.

Ha! I was just thinking about this the other day. Yes it bothers me a lot. I heard of this university professor who teaches six months then travels abroad the rest of the year. I would not mind being able to do that.

You should not assume that for everyone working is not enjoying life. Working and being productive is a very enjoyable part of life. When you are older, you look back over time and that which you have accomplished. Your “work” will be part of that.

I’m 22 and have been working 9–5 for two years now. I do really feel like I’m missing out on a lot especially when I see my friends going on roap trips and travels and just basically not having the stress of the daily grind. Unfortunately for me, I need the money and I WANT it as well. So I guess I have made this choice.

But to answer your question yes I do wish that my circumstances were such that I would work only a few hours a day/week and had enough money to maintain the lifestyle I want AND go crazy.

@SavoirFaire: obviously the question works because many are answering it. Can you play “make believe?”

@jca I didn’t say the question doesn’t work, though I would suggest the answers are mostly responding to a related question implied by what you actually asked. Regardless, my first answer still applies: the reason it doesn’t bother me is that I enjoy my work and because the existential angst that might arise out of realizing that one-third of my productive years will be spent working is countered by understanding the realistic alternatives.

If I were wealthy and free, not much about my life would change. My time would be spent in a very similar way, and my money would be used to make sure my parents and my wife’s parents were secure. I wouldn’t quit graduate school, I wouldn’t move to a larger home, and I wouldn’t buy expensive things.

When I am feeling sorry for myself or overwhelmed with life this really annoys me. There is so much I want to do but I need money to do it, in order to get money I need to work full time which means I have very little time to do all the things I would love to (travelling for example).

It is really bothering me right now. I need more free time to pursue the things most important to me, have a more active social life and spend more time in creative endeavors. I feel like the clock is ticking and I am trapped in this endless cycle of repetition. I need to make a change soon.

@Earthgirl I know I feel exactly the same way: clock ticking, endless cycle. I feel like I’m wasting away the most important years of my life sitting behind a desk… :(

I turned my career into a calling.