Live now, save never: Good or bad advice?

I think a blogger told me this in a comment recently, but I don’t know which post it was on. Live now, save never.

I love the last few days before payday. It wasn’t an easy transition from hate to love, but it was necessary. Hospitality pay means that I don’t have the biggest income fortnightly but enough to get by, so I have to be a bit more careful for the last few days before payday.

I still don’t know whether I’m being sarcastic or not in the first two sentences.

Regardless, this means I have to focus on other things that money can’t buy, productivity for example. Not that I am a big spender, but having hardly anything in my wallet means I can devote my time solely to working hard or working out, and temptation to meet friends for a coffee or a beer can be resisted as I have little option but to decline. This is time I can spend working on myself. I used to get paid monthly and hated it, it was far too long of a stretch and I have a much harder time trying to budget for the month. I would still end up pretty broke a few days before payday, but as this is now fortnightly with smaller paychecks twice a month I have these broke days more often. It is kind of a blessing.

I don’t understand how people build savings on my pay, I know I am terrible at saving, but I am not a big spender. I don’t have a PS4 as much as I would like one, nor do I own a car that I fill with petrol every week. But then again I am still paying off holidays that I had back in 2014 to Brazil and travelling down Australia’s east coast wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I am constantly torn between wanting to save and wanting to enjoy today in case its the last.

Did you hear about the Indian bloggers recently that fell to their deaths from Yosemite? They plunged 800ft from cliff taking a photo for their blog. I tried to read some of their blog entries as I hadn’t heard of them however it is now sadly unavailable. They were a young married couple, only 29 and 30. It’s these stories that influence me to live now and save never. 

But I know this is not a good way to think. But it is how I think a lot of the time. When I think about sitting in and saving I think of those that didn’t get the chance to save and it does me no favours. But saving could potentially lead to a brighter future that I may not have with this current mentality. It’s an inner dilemma I face daily.

What’s your opinion, are you a good saver, and what are you saving for? Maybe you’re like me. I also think that if I don’t sit in and save I am out and about taking photos and making memories for my blog, and I won’t be in Australia forever. 11 more months in fact. I want to look back on my blog with great memories, not a slightly better bank balance. It gives my readers more to look at too and helps give me inspiration and ideas moving forward. In the past I had a reason to save, and that was to enjoy this current moment in a far away land. A working holiday visa isn’t the time to save.

Live now, save never. I still don’t know if I am for or against this and if my mentality will shift one day. There are certainly benefits to both.

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Featured image taken in Manly, Sydney and taken from the post This is not a post about Harry and Meghan

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Happy blogging,

Sam

For those that feel they need to work to avoid boredom

I was reading a blog post yesterday that I could really relate to. One that involves a conversation I have had myself and overheard other people having many times over the years. The idea that one needs to work in order to avoid boredom. The idea that without employment, we are goldfish aimlessly swimming around a small glass bowl.

This shouldn’t be the case for anyone.

Over at Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist, Dr. Jared Casazza (I am always fearful of only stating the first name if there is a ‘Dr’ in front of it!) has had conversations with patients about retiring at 30. And it seems like a common response is ‘well, what would you do for the rest of your life?’. This doesn’t surprise me as I have heard many people responding in similar ways. Not that I have ever said I would or could retire at 30, it is two years away and retirement being an option is a million miles away. Instead, the conversation is often on the topic of gaining a huge amount of wealth in a very short space of time, winning the lottery for example. The responses have often been against the idea of too much wealth.

‘I wouldn’t want too much. A million will do. You know, enough to get by.’

What?! How long would a million last today anyway? It depends where you live I guess. I think here in Australia it wouldn’t last too long.

If I had the option, I wouldn’t settle for enough to simply get by. What is the reasoning for having a limited amount in the account? A fear that too much will change me as a person? A fear that too much would get me everything, the joy of saving up and really enjoying the idea of buying something would disappear after my first Ferrari and private jet purchase? I am confident that a large percentage of people that make the above statement would change their tune if they discovered an eight figure sum at the ATM. I would hope so anyway.

In my opinion, refraining from great wealth or an early retirement is to have no ambition outside of a job. If this job is one you enjoy doing, great. But for many of us, we aren’t in jobs that we want to be doing. The jobs we are in take 40-60 hours out of our week that we could be spending dong what we want to do. How many years is that accumulated over a lifetime? I wouldn’t want to know. Think of the time freed up from retirement. Think of the possibilities wealth could bring. All the books that could be written, all the countries that could be visited, all the instruments and languages that could be learned, the apps that could be designed, all the furniture that could be created from scratch. Whatever your personal interests are, they now have unlimited potential.

It could be argued that some of these could be considered work, however if it is something I enjoy doing I wouldn’t call it work. I blog about 40 hours a week now (not intensely, but I am present) and I do not consider it work. If I retired and continued blogging, I would be work free.

Jared (yep, I did it) has put together a list of things he would try to complete upon retirement. One that ends the question, ‘would you be bored?’.

The list is as follows:

1. “Slow travel” internationally 1-3 months at a time in different countries
2. Travel to all 50 states in the U.S.
3. Spend more time with family
4. Reach the summit of all the high points in the lower 48 (possibly 50, but we’ll see…)
5. Learn Spanish
6. Volunteer
7. Learn to play the guitar
8. Get back into playing chess competitively (a childhood hobby of mine)
9. Learn to ballroom dance
10. Hike the Appalachian Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail
11. Compete in a power lifting competition and a physique competition
12. Write on this blog to help educate and motivate others
13. Learn to garden
14. Experiment with diets and eating schedules to find what works best for me
15. Find the sleep schedule that works best for me (I’ve never been a morning person, and despite years of fighting it, I think I will embrace it after retirement)
16. Practice meditation and yoga
17. Learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
18. Take a class on wood working
19. Become more proficient with simple car repairs
20. And finally, have kids and possibly home school them!

I am sure everyone has a list of ambitions. One that may contain five or fifty five bucket list items. What would yours include? Not forgetting of course that our potential wouldn’t be as limited as it is today. There would be so many more doors opened by this change that our boredom wouldn’t manifest as early as we think it would. Elon Musk could right now be riding around the streets in sports cars bored out of his mind if he didn’t have aims. But why would he choose boredom when he can help design a city on Mars? I am sure he doesn’t class this as work. The more we have, the less excuse we have to be bored.

There will be people that say no Sam. I want a simple life. If I was to have the option of retiring I wouldn’t. I enjoy my job as a bingo caller in the local community and this is what I would continue to do. Wealth wouldn’t change this, neither would the option of leaving the role.

I would say to this person congratulations. It seems you have one item on the list and it is one you have achieved. If it is a job you enjoy, I would probably say you have pretty much retired into a life you want with pay and that is all that matters. Now, it is down to the rest of us to follow suit.

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Featured Image by marcus zymmer on Unsplash

Don’t let age decide your fate!

I was browsing LinkedIn recently. I don’t often use the site as I was peer pressured into making a page for my own personal development in a job I didn’t really want to develop in. Maybe one day I will use it with a little more optimism, for now it will remain rather dormant as I travel and blog daily. That is so much more fun.

I get emails from the site and the other day decided to have a browse. This headline popped up.

This may be true, although I didn’t click the link. There is just something about this kind of article that bores the shit out of me. As a millennial I could moan and groan about the news, but what is the point? I only want to associate as a millennial by age. Not my potential, not my financial status, not my limits. As soon as I begin to complain that my prospects are hindered by external factors, I’m on the path to proving it right. To be successful in anything we need to be different. Possess increased work ethic and be different from the rest. Reading the papers or a news article online like some crystal ball deciding our fate will hurl us into mediocrity.

Now of course the are some inequality battles that I will fight for. Equal pay for example. If it is downright discrimination benefiting a bigoted few then I will put my foot down. But it isn’t always that. Some people prefer to moan than be the difference they want to see in the world.

So that is my ten cents. I won’t bother clicking the link as it is a lazier option. It is easier to complain about our lack of opportunity than it is to create opportunity. I would give more than ten cents of course if I wasn’t such a poor millennial with no prospects thanks to every other generation. Damn you all.

Last image: Mike Wilson- Unsplash