Comments on: Your Money or Your Life: For Love or Money

By: Kathy

Kathy — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:30:34 +0000

It is not work itself that I hate. I love to work. True, I may a lot work harder at something I am gifted at, but I am actually not averse to ANY kind of work. I can shovel manure just as happily as any other kind of work.

It’s the SYSTEM of work that brings me down. It’s the political stuff actually underlying the job that makes it so deadly depressing. It’s the rigid mentality that things can only be done in one certain way…. even if it’s obviously a counterproductive way. It’s the rewards system that rewards its pets, and ignores its less popular members, even when they have made valuable contributions.

The whole thing works together to make a sad, hopeless slave system…. makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

By: rhbee

rhbee — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:55:27 +0000

What is work? Work is the thing you have to do. If you don’t do it someone else will. You can get paid for work, all the way from sweat equity wages to the billion dollar buyout. You can put off work, you can pay someone else to do work, you can enjoy work or deplore it, you can share work, or create work, and you can ignore work but still, it will still have to be done. That’s what makes it work. Otherwise we would call it play or sleep or being bored or eating. Not that those activities don’t need work. Sometimes the more you need the rest the harder it becomes to relax. The more something seems like something you have to do – ”I have to get some rest,” you say as you toss and turn – the more it becomes work to fall asleep. And eating, well unless you eat your food raw, someone has to cook, clean up, find the food, buy it – in no particular order, I might add. That makes those things work. Just about anything can turn into work. The trick is figuring out how to make work pay you back for all the work you put in to it. Pay for work is a key to work satisfaction.

You can hate work but that won’t make it go away. I work so I can have more time to play.

By: Rob in Madrid

Rob in Madrid — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:44:12 +0000

I often tell my wife that if we can get our cost of living under X dollars per month she can leave the coporate world. It becomes a trade off, new clothes equals more years in the rat race

By: Peachy

Peachy — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:21:40 +0000

I have always been a big believer in having an emergency fund. I got laid off at the end of May. A lot of my coworkers and friends were shocked and worried for me. I knew that I would be fine as long as I could get another job, in the next couple months. I ride a motorcycle, and I went on a two week journey after I sent out tons of resumes. I went on an interview right before my journey. The day before I returned home, I had a message from the company saying that they wanted me to come back for a second interview. I ended up getting the job, but it was so nice knowing my bills were covered and I could go on vacation, and I didn’t fret about not having a job ONLY because I had my stash saved from when I was working. I’m glad you’re in the position now where you can enjoy working, but know that it’s not the end of the world if you do lose your job.

By: Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:18:27 +0000

Paid employment serves only one real purpose: getting paid. That’s it. You spend your time doing things decreed by someone else. However, that’s not the only reason to work: work can be emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, and spiritually fulfilling, and those things have significant value as well. Perhaps their value can’t easily be expressed in dollar terms, but they do show up in your day to day well-being.
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Funny how the jobs which pay the least tend to also be the least emotionally, intellectually, psychologically, and spiritually fulfilling. My job drains me but I’m trapped.

By: vh

vh — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:31:45 +0000

FinanceAndFat says, “All the typical person does is focus on how to get a job and what to buy first. That’s sort of the big reason we went to school, right?”

Therein lies a huge source of confusion among Americans, and a major reason young college graduates are disappointed with their job prospects: there’s a difference between education and vocational training. Universities were not meant, at the outset, to be voc-ed schools. Education furnishes your mind, enriches your life, and trains you for clear and logical thinking.

So, no…if you went to a university, getting a job and buying things is not why you went to school. Or at least, it shouldn’t have been.

One reason people with degrees in the liberal arts start out with lower pay but over the course of their careers generally end up earning more than people with technical degrees do is that they start out educated and acquire their job training on the job.

Universities, in their quest to bloat enrollments, now offer vocational training, which they layer atop their historic mission. Today you can get degrees in accountancy and construction and hotel management. The result is that many students are forced to spend time in courses designed to educate them — writing, for example, and various courses in Western and world civilization and history — and they don’t see the point. Folks who are highly focused on getting a job and buying things might be better served by a purely vocational school designed to provide job training exclusively, since the part of a university degree that entails true education may be lost on them.

By: louiuse

louiuse — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 05:46:18 +0000

I have consistently made decisions study and work in the field that I was interested in. I now work in a job I love and have plenty of work to choose from. It is possible to suceed by following your passion, it just depends on your defintion of sucess, to me there is more to life than money. I get up every day and love to go to work. It is possible, but it means breaking out of the mold & mindset that work is all about how much income you earn.
The more you love what you do, the more chance you will have plenty of work because you will do an excellent job.

By: Catherine

Catherine — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:43:24 +0000

I am so intrigued by your blog.. I love it so far. I am trying to catch up with this book- however there is a lot in it!
thank you for doing what you do…for me,someone who is intellegent, creative,, etc… and has really failed in the money department. i am feeling intrigued, informed, and inspired.
Thank you
C

By: Sunshine

Sunshine — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 04:09:45 +0000

This chapter was very eye-opening for me. Your very brief summation, particularly where you refer to your future self working to pay for stuff you buy today, hits it on the head.

I am slowly getting the missus to see the virtue of frugality and I am returning to it myself for the very reason you describe – not being chained to your job.

By: FinanceAndFat

FinanceAndFat — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 21:08:16 +0000

I think part of the problem is that we don’t graduate college and start out adult life with a plan of how to live a frugal, fulfilling life. All the typical person does is focus on how to get a job and what to buy first. That’s sort of the big reason we went to school, right?

I think this frugal, fulfilling lifestyle can be obtained, but most of us have a lot of work to do playing catch up before we will get there.

Maybe some of us can instill these ideas in our children and help them down a different path around that age. I know I could have made a lot of different choices then if I had a better understanding of what is truly important.