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I'm a person who don't make a lot of money. Not because I don't have the skills and knowledge to make much more money than I actually do. I do have those skills and knowledege. I just don't feel any need to prove that I have them. I just don't bother to prove anything to anyone. I don't bother to make money. I just make enough money to live a simple life, and I'm happy with that.
I'm a person who don't make a lot of money. Not because I don't have the skills and knowledge to make much more money than I actually do. I do have those skills and knowledege. I just don't feel any need to prove that I have them. I just don't bother to prove anything to anyone. I don't bother to make money. I just make enough money to live a simple life, and I'm happy with that.
Is this normal? Or do I have a medical condition?
I am just the opposite of you. However, I think you're perfectly normal.
I'm a person who don't make a lot of money. Not because I don't have the skills and knowledge to make much more money than I actually do. I do have those skills and knowledege. I just don't feel any need to prove that I have them. I just don't bother to prove anything to anyone. I don't bother to make money. I just make enough money to live a simple life, and I'm happy with that.
Is this normal? Or do I have a medical condition?
Not everyone is a "rise and grind" kind of person. Some people enjoy the hustle. If you're comfortable and happy and not mooching off of other people, then go off and live your life.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer
I am just the opposite of you. However, I think you're perfectly normal.
You decide what floats your boat.
Yes, you are both normal, as is everyone in between. For some making money is what life is all about, but for many it's like the OP, just enough to get by is fine. The only problem is that you have to plan for the future, and if making "just enough" means no savings for retirement, it can be a real problem when you get old.
Yes, you are both normal, as is everyone in between. For some making money is what life is all about, but for many it's like the OP, just enough to get by is fine. The only problem is that you have to plan for the future, and if making "just enough" means no savings for retirement, it can be a real problem when you get old.
^^^This. I've lived a simple life on the salary of a nonprofit sector worker because I love my work and my field. I have, however, made as much money as I can while doing it, not because I'm trying to prove anything to anyone but because, as much as I love what I do, I want to retire before I'm 70. The more I earn in salary during my working years, the more I will receive in Social Security during retirement. My "as much money as I can" is very little by the standards of the private sector or tenured faculty, but because I've been careful with it I will be able step out of the 9-to-5 ring and continue to happily live that simple life while doing what I want in my field for the love of it rather than a paycheck.
About retirement, I'm fortunately in a situation where Brazil's social security system will just give me enough to keep my simple life when the time comes. Also, I have no kids and don't intend to have any. So, I have very little motivation to bother to make more money than I currently do.
I'm a person who don't make a lot of money. Not because I don't have the skills and knowledge to make much more money than I actually do. I do have those skills and knowledege. I just don't feel any need to prove that I have them. I just don't bother to prove anything to anyone. I don't bother to make money. I just make enough money to live a simple life, and I'm happy with that.
Is this normal? Or do I have a medical condition?
You are not "proving" anything to anybody by using your skills/knowledge to make money. Nobody asks me how much money I make and if they did I would politely decline to answer. Why not use all of your skills/knowledge to maximize your income? There will come a day when you realize that you are tired and would like to spend more time on things you enjoy rather than working a low-income job.
I would say this is not normal but also not a medical condition. I have known people like you in my life and they were all just lazy. Hate to say it but you sound lazy to me. The last few years of my working life were at a small manufacturing plant doing cost accounting. I regularly talked to our production workers and quite a few of them were "Career workers" having worked at the place for 20+ years. The pay for production workers was quite low. There were nearby manufacturing plants that paid 8 -10 dollars an hour more to start but these workers never left. 10 bucks an hour more would have been 400 dollars more a week! Imagine being able to live the same lifestyle but having 400/wk more to save and invest.
It's your life. If you feel secure at your present income, wealth, and standard of living, then I say you are doing just fine. You don't owe anything to anyone else as far as putting in more effort or work or gathering up more resources if you don't feel as though you need them. As long as you've got a plan in case of emergency, since life does tend to throw emergencies at us now and then...what's the problem?
I think that this is going to be a hard thing for any American who is in a stable situation to sympathize with, but a lot of that is how different our country is to many. Our social safety net isn't great and we are morally beat upside the head our entire lives that if we need to access it we are a huge failure and a burden. Half of our political leaders for the entirety of my life (and sometimes both halves) go on and on about how what little social safety we have should be burned to the ground. And yet at the same time, the same people believe that if you REALLY, REALLY need it...like if you are truly disabled and really cannot provide for yourself...there are "programs" that will "help you"...and secretly they think that such individuals get to live the good life. In reality it's brutal to get help, especially if you really need it here.
We have a huge contingent who are deeply rooted in ideology that promotes suffering as necessary, and important to contrast the good from the bad people. It is an old idea. So most of us are working our butts off just to feel like we deserve to exist up here, and obsessing over our money whether we've got a lot, a little, or none at all.
Maybe you are lazy, OP. To that I say, so what? If you're content where your efforts have got you...so what. I've also in other posts talked about how I admire some people's work ethic, and I do, but I also admire those who are genuine about what really matters to them in life, and who walk their talk. The only thing that I would wish for a person of your sentiment, is that they would do creative things. Make art. Music. Write something. If you have managed to create space in your life that need not be devoted to wealth generation (or working just to survive) then consider putting your energy into making the sort of thing that makes human life worthwhile. Do it for those of us who sell so much of our time and energy we have nothing left to leave behind when we're gone.
Nothing wrong with a low level of comfort. It's better than playing "Keeping up with the Jones".
Less stressful. Just try to save for when you're ready to retire.
old age has a habit of creeping up on you.
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