Trumps: White Angry Middleclass

[gimmethesimplelife]

1 - I wasn't discontent - work was quite engaging, I was doing very cool stuff, with very cool people. I was discontented with the *place* I was living, Silicon Valley, as was my wife. We had a young daughter, and our community didn't seem like the ideal place to raise a child, too many people working too hard, and no real community in our neighborhood. We began searching around the country for a small-town/rural sort of environment, with many constraints. I took a sabbatical, and this was about the 5th place we looked at, and I happened to read YMOYL while I was here.

2- The key trigger was the math, and the observation that your life isn't a rehearsal for your "real" life, but that every moment is precious. Also, I'd had a good friend and mentor die just a few years previous, in his 30s - he was a world-class athlete (climbed Himalayan peaks), and a super-genius, and he walked past me at work one day, went into his office, sat down, and died from an aneurysm. I found the idea of reclaiming my life ASAP quite compelling.

3- We initially thought we'd buy a piece of property here, spend a few years building The Perfect House, then check out of Silicon Valley and move up here. Instead, we bought an OK house our first week of looking around, went back to Silicon Valley to pack up, and were back up here about a month later. I continued to telecommute for my company for the first year or two, then dropped back to simply consulting now-and-then. I don't know if I would have survived completely downshifting and quitting fully immediately. Also, while I believed the math, emotionally it was quite scary.

4 - I haven't really regretted anything. I worried I'd tire of this place/community after a short while, or find it unappealing, as almost all incomers here do after 1-2 years, but I've continued to grow fonder of it over time. Intellectually stagnant? Perhaps at times, until I redirected my efforts into other pursuits. I think I'm busier and more engaged than when I was "working" for a living, and have had to master several new disciplines over the years.

5 - my wife/daughter loved the idea. My wife's parents were dubious, and remained so. My mother liked the idea so much she moved here as well about a year after us, "retiring" early to do so. My Dad also, upon hearing my reasoning, retired early and moved with his husband to their dream "retirement" location, where he is busier than when he was working for real as well. Our friends-who-were-merely-acquaintances were/are dubious, and many drifted away. Our real friends seemingly understand, visit frequently, and some have purchased seasonal places here. We provoked a minor wave of early check-out/retirements in Silicon Valley, almost always to some island or mountain top somewhere.

So, YMOYL was a good thing to read at that time in my life.

Bae, even though we often don't agree I find your story interesting and I also agree that every moment is precious.....you really don't know when your time here ends. Best to enjoy it, which you seem to be doing. Rob

[Teacher Terry]

Bae, very interesting story. Not knowing how much time we have left is our main inspiration to travel more at this time. We have lost some friends and I want to make sure I am spending my time and $ the way I want. I have had a few people ask why I still teach my online class and I still do it because I love it and it fills my soul. When that is no longer the case I will not teach it anymore.

[LDAHL]

1 - I wasn't discontent - work was quite engaging, I was doing very cool stuff, with very cool people. I was discontented with the *place* I was living, Silicon Valley, as was my wife. We had a young daughter, and our community didn't seem like the ideal place to raise a child, too many people working too hard, and no real community in our neighborhood. We began searching around the country for a small-town/rural sort of environment, with many constraints. I took a sabbatical, and this was about the 5th place we looked at, and I happened to read YMOYL while I was here.

2- The key trigger was the math, and the observation that your life isn't a rehearsal for your "real" life, but that every moment is precious. Also, I'd had a good friend and mentor die just a few years previous, in his 30s - he was a world-class athlete (climbed Himalayan peaks), and a super-genius, and he walked past me at work one day, went into his office, sat down, and died from an aneurysm. I found the idea of reclaiming my life ASAP quite compelling.

3- We initially thought we'd buy a piece of property here, spend a few years building The Perfect House, then check out of Silicon Valley and move up here. Instead, we bought an OK house our first week of looking around, went back to Silicon Valley to pack up, and were back up here about a month later. I continued to telecommute for my company for the first year or two, then dropped back to simply consulting now-and-then. I don't know if I would have survived completely downshifting and quitting fully immediately. Also, while I believed the math, emotionally it was quite scary.

4 - I haven't really regretted anything. I worried I'd tire of this place/community after a short while, or find it unappealing, as almost all incomers here do after 1-2 years, but I've continued to grow fonder of it over time. Intellectually stagnant? Perhaps at times, until I redirected my efforts into other pursuits. I think I'm busier and more engaged than when I was "working" for a living, and have had to master several new disciplines over the years.

5 - my wife/daughter loved the idea. My wife's parents were dubious, and remained so. My mother liked the idea so much she moved here as well about a year after us, "retiring" early to do so. My Dad also, upon hearing my reasoning, retired early and moved with his husband to their dream "retirement" location, where he is busier than when he was working for real as well. Our friends-who-were-merely-acquaintances were/are dubious, and many drifted away. Our real friends seemingly understand, visit frequently, and some have purchased seasonal places here. We provoked a minor wave of early check-out/retirements in Silicon Valley, almost always to some island or mountain top somewhere.

So, YMOYL was a good thing to read at that time in my life.

I read YMOYL my last year of college, to my great benefit. My take, after scraping off the 1960s-70s New Age candy coating, was that time is the finite resource that we should seek to maximize through the disciplined and intelligent management of our careers, finances and personal lives. The most important element to me was the necessity of a long-term plan, even if that plan needed frequent recalibration as life unfolded.

I seem to recall you once mentioning that during your transitional period you decided to give away a considerable portion of your net worth. As someone not particularly burdened by substantial wealth, I'm curious about how you determined how much to keep and whether you had a formal plan for converting assets into income.

[catherine]

I'm sad that Williamsmith is not here to continue the discussion he started, as Bernie is "berning" out of his amazing run challenging Hillary Clinton.

How are the other Bernie supporters here planning on proceeding? Vote for Hill? Write in Bernie? Vote for Trump?

I honestly don't know what I'll do, and that's because I am a bit emotional about the shortfall in votes Bernie had and the inevitability of his withdrawal from the race.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but knowing the Clintons (and BTW I loved Bill Clinton as POTUS) I don't trust the voting results. There have been reports of votes not counted, voter names missing, etc which led to Bernie not achieving expected results in states like CA. Power wields the privilege to bend the rules, so who knows what happened there? In politics, anything is possible.

My instinct is to write in Bernie, but OTOH, as one Bernie supporter said in an NPR article "I would probably vote for Trump, to burst the bubble, to finally pop the zit."

I simply can't/don't trust Hillary. Those Clintons know how to play the game.

[RoseQuartz]

.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but knowing the Clintons (and BTW I loved Bill Clinton as POTUS) I don't trust the voting results. There have been reports of votes not counted, voter names missing, etc which led to Bernie not achieving expected results in states like CA.

CALIFORNIA HAS NOT FULLY BEEN COUNTED. That's not even a conspiracy theory. It's a FACT. As counting proceeds some counties in California are flipping toward Bernie (not the huge ones yet but nonetheless). The California election results are not in. I make no prediction on what they would be if they were in (if I had to probably a very slim margin for Hills), but they just aren't in.

There was a lot of voter disenfranchisement in many places across the country, but in California the results of actually cast ballots have not even been counted yet.

Not that this state matters much but I plan to vote 3rd party, if you can't run a decent candidate (ie you are running Hillary), why should I vote for your bad candidates. Makes no sense.

[Ultralight]

I am just going to stay home.

[creaker]

I am just going to stay home.

I was thinking of voting for the first female nominee for President - Jill Stein (not that she was really the first, either, but especially given this is her second time the title should not be handed to Clinton).

[iris lilies]

...

I simply can't/don't trust Hillary. Those Clintons know how to play the game.

here in the urban core, during the primary the new voter computerized list went down and so they let a anyone in to vote. Yes, Voting early and often was happening just down the street. Me, I didnt get all up in arms because I knew that no votes were being taken away from any Republicans, theynwould have all been votnv for Hillary. A loss for Bernie and for democracy, of course.
It really is too bad.

[freshstart]

I also was a fan of Bill as POTUS, I even liked Hillary when she was our Senator and Secretary of State, but Bernie has my heart. I think he could've done amazing things for this country. I would never vote for Trump, even if that "zit needs to be popped" and I would never not vote. So Hillary for me. But I am bitter over Bernie