$500k and 33years old, when is enough enough?

[jstoesz]

Yeah I have a few of those friends too. Most notable is a friend with a PHD from scripts who opened a brewery in Kernville. He works pretty hard though…plays hard though as well.

Personally, I am most jealous of my fire and medic friends who have a pretty well paid job with strange schedules. They have ungodly amounts of free time, and money to play with. One of my friends (grew up in SD) works as a fire medic in Mammoth and takes off the better part of a few months every year to chase the snow melt in his kayak.

I am not looking to reopen this subject of public pay, but I bring it up only to say there are plenty of decent paying jobs where recreation and time with the family is more easily accomplished. If you would be happier doing that sort of thing, you will be fine with a 500k buffer.

[UCGal]

Dooh – I have an extended family member that is doing what you’re talking about. He has a paid off house in Philadelphia. He’s very good at living on the cheap.

He’s figured out the system – if he makes less than $8000/year he gets free health insurance and some other benefits (I think food stamps.) Over the past several years he’s had part time jobs that kept him under that wage threshold. Then he volunteered to be laid off so he could collect unemployment.

This is an able bodied guy. He’s always claiming poverty – but he also won’t get a job that might impact his free benefits.

I’m for a social safety net – but what he’s doing is abuse.

FWIW – he’s not the stereotype welfare queen – he’s male, white, college educated, listens to Rush and Glenn and watches Fox News only… The hypocrisy drives me nuts. But you can’t pick family.

I don’t have a problem with people figuring out how to retire early, spend more time with their kids. I’ve been part time since my oldest was born. My husband will be retired when the kids are teenagers. But if you’re able bodied, able to work, can get a job, but choose to sponge off the system… I reserve the right to think of you as a loser.

[UCGal]

Dooh – I have an extended family member that is doing what you’re talking about. He has a paid off house in Philadelphia. He’s very good at living on the cheap.

He’s figured out the system – if he makes less than $8000/year he gets free health insurance and some other benefits (I think food stamps.) Over the past several years he’s had part time jobs that kept him under that wage threshold. Then he volunteered to be laid off so he could collect unemployment.

This is an able bodied guy. He’s always claiming poverty – but he also won’t get a job that might impact his free benefits.

I’m for a social safety net – but what he’s doing is abuse.

FWIW – he’s not the stereotype welfare queen – he’s male, white, college educated, listens to Rush and Glenn and watches Fox News only… The hypocrisy drives me nuts. But you can’t pick family.

I don’t have a problem with people figuring out how to retire early, spend more time with their kids. I’ve been part time since my oldest was born. My husband will be retired when the kids are teenagers. But if you’re able bodied, able to work, can get a job, but choose to sponge off the system… I reserve the right to think of you as a loser.

[UCGal]

Dooh – I have an extended family member that is doing what you’re talking about. He has a paid off house in Philadelphia. He’s very good at living on the cheap.

He’s figured out the system – if he makes less than $8000/year he gets free health insurance and some other benefits (I think food stamps.) Over the past several years he’s had part time jobs that kept him under that wage threshold. Then he volunteered to be laid off so he could collect unemployment.

This is an able bodied guy. He’s always claiming poverty – but he also won’t get a job that might impact his free benefits.

I’m for a social safety net – but what he’s doing is abuse.

FWIW – he’s not the stereotype welfare queen – he’s male, white, college educated, listens to Rush and Glenn and watches Fox News only… The hypocrisy drives me nuts. But you can’t pick family.

I don’t have a problem with people figuring out how to retire early, spend more time with their kids. I’ve been part time since my oldest was born. My husband will be retired when the kids are teenagers. But if you’re able bodied, able to work, can get a job, but choose to sponge off the system… I reserve the right to think of you as a loser.

[UCGal]

Dooh – I have an extended family member that is doing what you’re talking about. He has a paid off house in Philadelphia. He’s very good at living on the cheap.

He’s figured out the system – if he makes less than $8000/year he gets free health insurance and some other benefits (I think food stamps.) Over the past several years he’s had part time jobs that kept him under that wage threshold. Then he volunteered to be laid off so he could collect unemployment.

This is an able bodied guy. He’s always claiming poverty – but he also won’t get a job that might impact his free benefits.

I’m for a social safety net – but what he’s doing is abuse.

FWIW – he’s not the stereotype welfare queen – he’s male, white, college educated, listens to Rush and Glenn and watches Fox News only… The hypocrisy drives me nuts. But you can’t pick family.

I don’t have a problem with people figuring out how to retire early, spend more time with their kids. I’ve been part time since my oldest was born. My husband will be retired when the kids are teenagers. But if you’re able bodied, able to work, can get a job, but choose to sponge off the system… I reserve the right to think of you as a loser.

[UCGal]

Dooh – I have an extended family member that is doing what you’re talking about. He has a paid off house in Philadelphia. He’s very good at living on the cheap.

He’s figured out the system – if he makes less than $8000/year he gets free health insurance and some other benefits (I think food stamps.) Over the past several years he’s had part time jobs that kept him under that wage threshold. Then he volunteered to be laid off so he could collect unemployment.

This is an able bodied guy. He’s always claiming poverty – but he also won’t get a job that might impact his free benefits.

I’m for a social safety net – but what he’s doing is abuse.

FWIW – he’s not the stereotype welfare queen – he’s male, white, college educated, listens to Rush and Glenn and watches Fox News only… The hypocrisy drives me nuts. But you can’t pick family.

I don’t have a problem with people figuring out how to retire early, spend more time with their kids. I’ve been part time since my oldest was born. My husband will be retired when the kids are teenagers. But if you’re able bodied, able to work, can get a job, but choose to sponge off the system… I reserve the right to think of you as a loser.

[NotCranky]

[quote=walterwhite]when we were young we were far more ignored than children are today. your parents kicked you out into the world and you spent a day exploring and mixing it upw ith various neighbor kids and generally amusing yourself. you came back at nightfall to be fed, like some sort of feral animal int he process of being domesticated. Now we pay more attention to children, much to their detriment. they do not need this much parental attetion. they need to be ignored in the best sense, in that the parents set up the right situation for them, and then let em grow. the last thing a kid needs is a parent who dropped out of the workforce to “focus” on them. what a nightmarre. parents aren’t friends to chidlren. they should be slightly mysterious. separate. above. not hanging out buddies.

however, you ignore your wife at your peril.

it might be best to occasionally delete certain things she says though during certain episodes of anger, despair or craziness, or at least not listen entirely carefully.

what would have happened to calvin of calvin and hobbes if his mom and dad had “focussed” on him more? Would that have been a good thing?[/quote]
We can’t kick our kids out into the streets today while mom and dad go to work. Why not contrast that ideal tutelage with the kid going to day care 6Am to 6PM, standing in the corner puking from the stress of his lonely life and a diet of crappy factory box food?

There is a serious tendency here to paint this idea of Mortgage free, semi-employed family life as dysfunctional and scary without valuing the opportunities and potential it creates. What is dysfunctional is so many people living beyond their means or up to the max of them.

On the dark flip side, look at the suicide rates and other failures of the ambitious child as product sector of the ascensionist “upper middle class”.

It all comes down to personal choice, Nobody is perfect, we don’t all have the same backgrounds. What is ridiculous to some, is genius from another.

[NotCranky]

[quote=walterwhite]when we were young we were far more ignored than children are today. your parents kicked you out into the world and you spent a day exploring and mixing it upw ith various neighbor kids and generally amusing yourself. you came back at nightfall to be fed, like some sort of feral animal int he process of being domesticated. Now we pay more attention to children, much to their detriment. they do not need this much parental attetion. they need to be ignored in the best sense, in that the parents set up the right situation for them, and then let em grow. the last thing a kid needs is a parent who dropped out of the workforce to “focus” on them. what a nightmarre. parents aren’t friends to chidlren. they should be slightly mysterious. separate. above. not hanging out buddies.

however, you ignore your wife at your peril.

it might be best to occasionally delete certain things she says though during certain episodes of anger, despair or craziness, or at least not listen entirely carefully.

what would have happened to calvin of calvin and hobbes if his mom and dad had “focussed” on him more? Would that have been a good thing?[/quote]
We can’t kick our kids out into the streets today while mom and dad go to work. Why not contrast that ideal tutelage with the kid going to day care 6Am to 6PM, standing in the corner puking from the stress of his lonely life and a diet of crappy factory box food?

There is a serious tendency here to paint this idea of Mortgage free, semi-employed family life as dysfunctional and scary without valuing the opportunities and potential it creates. What is dysfunctional is so many people living beyond their means or up to the max of them.

On the dark flip side, look at the suicide rates and other failures of the ambitious child as product sector of the ascensionist “upper middle class”.

It all comes down to personal choice, Nobody is perfect, we don’t all have the same backgrounds. What is ridiculous to some, is genius from another.

[NotCranky]

[quote=walterwhite]when we were young we were far more ignored than children are today. your parents kicked you out into the world and you spent a day exploring and mixing it upw ith various neighbor kids and generally amusing yourself. you came back at nightfall to be fed, like some sort of feral animal int he process of being domesticated. Now we pay more attention to children, much to their detriment. they do not need this much parental attetion. they need to be ignored in the best sense, in that the parents set up the right situation for them, and then let em grow. the last thing a kid needs is a parent who dropped out of the workforce to “focus” on them. what a nightmarre. parents aren’t friends to chidlren. they should be slightly mysterious. separate. above. not hanging out buddies.

however, you ignore your wife at your peril.

it might be best to occasionally delete certain things she says though during certain episodes of anger, despair or craziness, or at least not listen entirely carefully.

what would have happened to calvin of calvin and hobbes if his mom and dad had “focussed” on him more? Would that have been a good thing?[/quote]
We can’t kick our kids out into the streets today while mom and dad go to work. Why not contrast that ideal tutelage with the kid going to day care 6Am to 6PM, standing in the corner puking from the stress of his lonely life and a diet of crappy factory box food?

There is a serious tendency here to paint this idea of Mortgage free, semi-employed family life as dysfunctional and scary without valuing the opportunities and potential it creates. What is dysfunctional is so many people living beyond their means or up to the max of them.

On the dark flip side, look at the suicide rates and other failures of the ambitious child as product sector of the ascensionist “upper middle class”.

It all comes down to personal choice, Nobody is perfect, we don’t all have the same backgrounds. What is ridiculous to some, is genius from another.

[NotCranky]

[quote=walterwhite]when we were young we were far more ignored than children are today. your parents kicked you out into the world and you spent a day exploring and mixing it upw ith various neighbor kids and generally amusing yourself. you came back at nightfall to be fed, like some sort of feral animal int he process of being domesticated. Now we pay more attention to children, much to their detriment. they do not need this much parental attetion. they need to be ignored in the best sense, in that the parents set up the right situation for them, and then let em grow. the last thing a kid needs is a parent who dropped out of the workforce to “focus” on them. what a nightmarre. parents aren’t friends to chidlren. they should be slightly mysterious. separate. above. not hanging out buddies.

however, you ignore your wife at your peril.

it might be best to occasionally delete certain things she says though during certain episodes of anger, despair or craziness, or at least not listen entirely carefully.

what would have happened to calvin of calvin and hobbes if his mom and dad had “focussed” on him more? Would that have been a good thing?[/quote]
We can’t kick our kids out into the streets today while mom and dad go to work. Why not contrast that ideal tutelage with the kid going to day care 6Am to 6PM, standing in the corner puking from the stress of his lonely life and a diet of crappy factory box food?

There is a serious tendency here to paint this idea of Mortgage free, semi-employed family life as dysfunctional and scary without valuing the opportunities and potential it creates. What is dysfunctional is so many people living beyond their means or up to the max of them.

On the dark flip side, look at the suicide rates and other failures of the ambitious child as product sector of the ascensionist “upper middle class”.

It all comes down to personal choice, Nobody is perfect, we don’t all have the same backgrounds. What is ridiculous to some, is genius from another.

[NotCranky]

[quote=walterwhite]when we were young we were far more ignored than children are today. your parents kicked you out into the world and you spent a day exploring and mixing it upw ith various neighbor kids and generally amusing yourself. you came back at nightfall to be fed, like some sort of feral animal int he process of being domesticated. Now we pay more attention to children, much to their detriment. they do not need this much parental attetion. they need to be ignored in the best sense, in that the parents set up the right situation for them, and then let em grow. the last thing a kid needs is a parent who dropped out of the workforce to “focus” on them. what a nightmarre. parents aren’t friends to chidlren. they should be slightly mysterious. separate. above. not hanging out buddies.

however, you ignore your wife at your peril.

it might be best to occasionally delete certain things she says though during certain episodes of anger, despair or craziness, or at least not listen entirely carefully.

what would have happened to calvin of calvin and hobbes if his mom and dad had “focussed” on him more? Would that have been a good thing?[/quote]
We can’t kick our kids out into the streets today while mom and dad go to work. Why not contrast that ideal tutelage with the kid going to day care 6Am to 6PM, standing in the corner puking from the stress of his lonely life and a diet of crappy factory box food?

There is a serious tendency here to paint this idea of Mortgage free, semi-employed family life as dysfunctional and scary without valuing the opportunities and potential it creates. What is dysfunctional is so many people living beyond their means or up to the max of them.

On the dark flip side, look at the suicide rates and other failures of the ambitious child as product sector of the ascensionist “upper middle class”.

It all comes down to personal choice, Nobody is perfect, we don’t all have the same backgrounds. What is ridiculous to some, is genius from another.

[NotCranky]

[quote=jstoesz]I am homesick for MN, although I have not lived there for a decade.

I am headed south for Christmas, back with my wife and dog, loading up the rest of our stuff, and heading for the mountains. So my banishment is only for a couple more days!

BG will appreciate this…we have a cabin with some friends rented in June lake for new years![/quote]
Sounds good.Have a great time.

[NotCranky]

[quote=jstoesz]I am homesick for MN, although I have not lived there for a decade.

I am headed south for Christmas, back with my wife and dog, loading up the rest of our stuff, and heading for the mountains. So my banishment is only for a couple more days!

BG will appreciate this…we have a cabin with some friends rented in June lake for new years![/quote]
Sounds good.Have a great time.

[NotCranky]

[quote=jstoesz]I am homesick for MN, although I have not lived there for a decade.

I am headed south for Christmas, back with my wife and dog, loading up the rest of our stuff, and heading for the mountains. So my banishment is only for a couple more days!

BG will appreciate this…we have a cabin with some friends rented in June lake for new years![/quote]
Sounds good.Have a great time.

[NotCranky]

[quote=jstoesz]I am homesick for MN, although I have not lived there for a decade.

I am headed south for Christmas, back with my wife and dog, loading up the rest of our stuff, and heading for the mountains. So my banishment is only for a couple more days!

BG will appreciate this…we have a cabin with some friends rented in June lake for new years![/quote]
Sounds good.Have a great time.

[Author]

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