What's your ideal lifestyle?

We all arrange our lives around our work, because that's what puts food on the table. But if you didn't need to work your current job, what would you do? What would be your ideal job, if any? And if not a job, then what?

For me, I am not sure. I certainly can't quit my job. But I'm in the process of buying a very rural, completely undeveloped piece of real estate. It's a big investment for me, but still a tiny fraction of the cost of a home. For now I can only go there on the weekends, because I work in the city, but I hope to someday be able to live there. I'm going to plant trees there, garden, stargaze. I want to build a yurt to stay in, with a wood stove for warmth. I'd love to feel more connected to the environment around me, and more responsible for providing for my own needs like food, water, shelter. I'm tired of living in the city. Right now, to me, it just feels like boxes within boxes.

So, what about you?

I don't dream of labor

Creating and growing an experimental publication revolving around the combination of food, film and music.

Smoke weed erryday.

Away from other human beings. Probably in the country. Playing a lot of video games, making video games, watching movies, reading, working on projects, maybe some fishing.

@navster15: Way ahead of you breh

Sleep until whenever I felt like it every day, play video games, read, listen to music, and/or hang out with friends whenever I wanted.

Traveling. Being able to go and explore all the nooks and crannies of this big world and experience all the different cultures within it.

Hanging out

All leisure all the time is tempting, but knowing myself, and how stir crazy I go during extended vacations, I'd actually need to do something else with my time than play games and hang out with friends.

Ideally? A ton of time for individual writing and game projects, every day.

I'm awaiting acceptance letters for mathematics Ph.D programs. I'm destined for either 1) a life in academia 2) an industry job.

Either way, I have a lot of work ahead of me. In terms of lifestyle I want to live below my means, saving money so I can support socialist organizations such as food/housing co-ops or credit unions (that support co-ops). If I have the opportunity I would like to get involved in developing math pedagogy for open-source universities or potentially even a research co-op.

I don't use a smartphone, and I try to commute via bicycle. I'm also a polyamorous queerdo.

Let's say I have a windfall of lottery winning were I take the low lump sum after taxes: $1 million US Dollars, $10 million US Dollars, $50 Million US Dollars, or $500 Million US Dollars.

$1 million US Dollars
If I will the lottery and the lump sum after taxes is $1 million dollars. I would buy a house 3Br in the $325 K to $400K range in and around city Boston [40 mile radius]. Any town that close to public transposition, city of Boston, and perhaps beaches or lakes. I'd likely buy a fixer upper since I would want to tear out the walls to update electric, date connections, etc. Maybe add a heat-pump heating system and solar. Likely keep working, but invest what is left over from house and renovation for retirement at 65+.

$10 Million US Dollars
Same plan as above but buy a house in the $2M -$5M dollar range. Again renovate the house but add more amenities. Still work, but retire at age 60. Very likely to pay off my niece and nephews college loans, buy my parents home and allow them to liv in teh house w/ a daily house keeper.


$50 Million US Dollars
Buy a $2 million dollar piece of land, so I can build EXCATLY what I want. Turrets, hidden rooms, amazing suites for my guests, and everything top quality hand made. I would immediately stop working! I'm going on vacation to the South Pacific. I would set up am investment fund that acts as a trust for my niece and nephew that would be at least $10M at the start. Set up a second $10M investment trust that makes it own money, this one exists for any future spouse as part of the Prenuptial Agreement - my spouse gets that trust. I would of course try to find someone great, but l'd like to find someone young enough to have a kid or two kids with me. Probably find a great personal trainer to get into good shape for a 50 year old.


$500 Million US Dollars
Same as above. ALSO but start non-profits in 100 low income cities to work on housing, job, and education efforts. So I still use $50 million and I use $425 Million for the non-profits. I would reserve $25 million to tip all sort of workers. Food servers, Uber drivers, hotel maids, coffee baristas, OnlyFans models, or anyone who works for a living.

Not working. Having a lot of money. That’s a start.

@fantasticasm89: That's awesome. I've been through grad school in math, feel free to pm me if you have any questions about it.

that overweight computer vampire from blade

Pretty much as things are for me right now. I have no real obligations. I am on my own.

When Covid lifts, I would like to break out, travel, and at least or even the most, go see some music, club acts. Simply get out in the world more, music and people.

What surprises me though, is that I have been living my life like this for a while now, and I am still pretty sane. In fact, I would declare I am better off now then I was a good X number of years ago.

But I wouldn't say it's necessarily healthy over all. I don't really like getting stoned. Being a 'long hair', I do have proclivities. But on the day to day, I appreciate reading usually science based and associated books. And I am truly amazed by the amount of videos on You Tube that pass the ole bull-shit filter. Closer to Truth, Crime pays but Botany doesn't, Big Think, and others. And of course Video games, work around and on the house, and so on.

Being able to continously travel. Whether road tripping around here in the US or ideally visiting all over the world.

Move to Los Angeles, become an improv comic and a budding screenwriter, fully embrace being genderqueer, and get real weird with it. Instead I'm a lawyer in Vermont. Still want to work on coming to terms with my identity, but otherwise I'm happy to relegate the rest of that lifestyle to idle thinking, even if I had the opportunity. I'm quite comfortable with my life and my career is looking a lot more lucrative and socially productive than my daydreams.

Buy a house half a mile from the nearest neighbor. Or at least as far as I can get and still have decent internet.

Build a home gym.

Sleep.

Never work again.

Ideally I wouldn't work but still have money to do whatever. If I had the means and wasn't chained to my job because of the pay check I would spend my days creating instead. As it stands, I have to try to juggle all my creative aspirations (photography, writing, music production etc.) on my spare time and since all of them take a lot of time if one wish to be any good I'm getting somewhere very slowly. In fact, it's not so much money that's stopping me as lack of time.

To be frank though, my initial reaction when someone asks me "what would you do if you won the lottory?" is always "Nothing." Because right now I just don't have the luxury to do nothing and boy do I love to do nothing.

Live in LA or some other big, hot, American city. Stay inside all the time watching TV.

I like the city and the country. Sometimes I dream of a place in the mountains. Maybe in North Vancouver, in the woods but not too far from the city. Building a sustainable home, preferably high up in a tree would be cool. Not that I know how, but I enjoy watching tiny home and building videos on TV.

I'd like to explore and discover new things, visit new places. In my own neighborhood or around the world. Avoid driving by biking when the weather's warm enough, as I do now. I don't love my current job, something more creative and collaborative with a small team would be cool.

Spending summers at our family cottage by the sea and backpacking around the world during winters. I'm trying to save up and budget to make this a feasible early retirement plan for myself.

Kind of already living the dream. Always have. Ideally though i'd like to live somewhere that has multiple languages that i slowly begin to master so i can unlock my mind even further. A job like a Foreman where i have to speak Spanish. While living in Chinatown where i get my groceries in Chinese. Live, dream, and talk to myself (and you folks in English). Vacation in places where i stay long enough get a little competency (Finland, Iceland, and Japan). At some point someone will pay me for that knowledge. I'm already quite happy with none of that but it colors some major life decisions.

This one takes some preamble, pardon my guts-spilling:

I'm in a weird spot, in that I'm 34, live where I work (I'm an innkeeper), and due to a series of arrangements, I basically get paid in reduced rent. It's worth it to me since I don't drive and get to live in a literal mansion in the heart of my city despite being broke as hell.

However, I'm deeply unhappy with my life, as I rarely leave the house, my social circles are way too small, I have barely any traditional work experience due to my mental health getting me fired from every normal job I've attempted, I dropped out of high school for similar reasons which really fucked me... it's a whole thing, and I sank into my internet and gaming addictions from 18 until now instead of fixing the problem. Call it an early mid-life crisis, but I've had enough, and I'm starting the arduous task of making up for all of the lost years.

My first step I actually took a year ago by signing up for and taking voice lessons (my main dream is to be a singer, as cliché as that sounds). However, that's a journey that'll take quite more than a year of lessons before I can even attempt do anything lucrative with it, and I still need a day job and a social life worth a damn either way.

So, basically, I'm actively hunting that ideal lifestyle from the ground up as I speak. Job I can actually hold on to, GED, maybe belated college if I can swing it, another shot at therapy, continued vocal training... that's pretty much why I'm sharing all of this, putting it down in words helps my motivation to actually do it and not balk at the first sign of difficulty as is my usual M.O.

@shagge: you cool man. Keep on improving your predicament. Never too late. I’d suggest a healthy diet and exercise as well. Healthy body, healthy mind. Does wonders for your self esteem as well.

@nickm: Very true! For years I justified my shitty diet and lack of exercise through the fact that I *look* in shape due to good genes and an absurdly fast metabolism, but all I've been doing is making things worse than they need to be, physically and mentally. But yeah, "never too late" has been my mantra now. Life is terrifying, but I'm willing to face it head on for the first time ever, and I couldn't be more excited.

@shagge: Never underestimate the power of starting small and working at the small stuff first. I struggle with mental and emotional issues, which I don't think will ever go away, but I know for sure it's been much easier to manage when I got my diet and exercise in order. It's tough at first, but when you stick it with it long enough, it really becomes a routine that becomes difficult to shake off, and a lot more sturdy when you have someone (anyone) to keep you in check.

@ghost_cat: Very good way of looking at it, thank you! I always had a bad habit of letting my disorders control my life, to the point where *not* doing that seemed impossible. Unsurprisingly, my lifestyle made things worse and worse until, as of last year, I was having suicidal breakdowns twice a month. After a major wakeup call post-New Year's, I knew something had to change ASAP.

I'm a programmer, in that it is both my day job and my passion. However, building software for other people sucks, so if I didn't need keep a day job I'd retire to a beach house here in Ecuador and just write the stuff I want to write.

If there's extra money, I'd hire more programmers so I can tell them to write the boring parts and I just get to play with fun new technology while all my employees do the work of turning my ideas into reliable applications ;)

If I had crazy extra money I'd hire a DJ to spin tunes for me and my team of programmers and curate my music library. (also other staff like house keepers and such, but that's obvious if you have crazy money ;)

@wollywoo

Hey I thought I would just share some of the details, then I'd love to hear what you studied and if you're still working on anything.

I've applied to some interdisciplinary math programs, but am not sure what I'm going to study yet. A few of the programs are computational bio, one is mathematical finance, the other has a strong emphasis in quantum mechanics. In quantum mechanics in particular I am intersted in De Broglie-Bohm theory. All other things equal, I would probably pursue representation theory, but I'm also also interested in semiclassical mechanics, stochastic modeling, PDEs, and SDEs, hence the interest in computational bio and math finance.

Should find out in March if I'm accepted to any of these programs. I'm pretty confident that I will have a few choices but nothing is guaranteed, especially since the pandemic and all that.

Thanks for reaching out!

@fantasticasm89: That's a lot of things! Cool. I'll pm you, would rather not reveal a ton about myself on here.

When you win the lottery, the real prize isn't the great big pile of money you now have, the real prize is that all of the time you have on Earth is now yours. Somebody's gotta make the world go 'round, but now it ain't you.

With that in mind, if I could check-out and literally do whatever I want, I'd probably find a house that's far enough away from society for me to live in peace but close enough that I could get back without much trouble and just dig into whatever hobbies struck my fancy. I know that I'd like to be able to get into woodworking, something that I don't have the space or money for right now. I'd like to say that I'd learn how program, learn more about drawing, learn how to play an instrument, improve my writing, and so on and so forth, but I have the capabilities to dig into those now and I don't really do that so who knows. I might just play video games, read books, and post on forums until I die, which sounds depressing but that's what I've been doing for almost three decades now and it's worked out so far.

I'm the kind of person that needs to be doing something. I would love to travel the world in a 1-2 year stretch but I'd need something that feels like work to go along with it. Or come back to.

Wallowing in my own corpulence.

If I could screw off and not worry about money, I'd go the Ryan Davis route and would like to volunteer driving one of those mini trains through the natural habitats of all sorts of living creatures (without somehow disturbing them or the environment). People get one free ride to observe and then another ride to take pictures... after that, I would grade their pictures...

Also, I'd like to have a family some day and be able to spend time just doing dumb, fun stuff with them. I can't complain about anything in my life really. I'm pretty well insulated and fortunate but most things that go wrong for me are my own fault. Outside of being a bit socially oblivious, my dream job is probably being a teacher. I think education is important not just for skill development but for personal and social well-being. It'd be awesome to make an impression or any sort of positive contribution to a future generation, especially one I feel like is being more and more left out to dry.

Same for me. I've had periods of longer but financially stable unemployment in my life and as much as the thought of not having any responsibilities sounds appealing, it's important for me to have something grounding me. Even if I were to spend my life mainly traveling the world I would probably restart some projects I've had to let go because of lack of time and energy. I could finally take a shot at writing that book that's been on my mind or actualize one of my documentary ideas.

Actually one "hobby job" I've been always dreaming about is running a small restaurant that wouldn't have to make a profit. The restaurant game is brutal and because of that I've never wanted to steer my career in that direction, even though I'm immensely interested in food and restaurant and bar culture. If I didn't have to really worry about the financials of the whole situation I could run a small place serving the kind of food I like but that I know is not very commercially viable and keep it open or closed whenever I want to.

There was a bar called "Geronimo" in the town I grew up in whose owner was a curmudgeonly guy who treated the place like his home. Sometimes the bar would be empty and he would just be reading a book on the couch and telling anyone who came in that he doesn't really feel like running the bar today so please go away. Sometimes it would be absolutely full of customers but when some of his good friends suddenly came in so he'd kick every paying customer out the door and offer free drinks to his 4-7 friends instead. It was no way to run a business and the place did eventually, after a surprisingly long time, go bust. Even though he was a bit of an asshole at times, I admired the guy for not giving any fucks and for keeping a certain clientele in there. I think if I did find 10 million euros in some hidden pirate treasure I'd try to do something similar.

@landhawk: funniest thing I read in weeks, thank you

I don't know what I would do for work (I would have to do something) but definitely a lot of travel (a couple months a year), being able to take courses at a university for subjects I'm interested in learning, signing up for rock climbing, dance classes, different experiences to allow me to be active and engaged. I'm very happy with my wife, don't know if I'd want to add a pet in their or have a child someday (I'm not really interested right now) but doing as much of this stuff with my wife would be awesome.

I work in retail sales management and it's not my passion although it pays the bills decently. I've tried to think for a few years if I could choose whatever I want to do for work what would I do and honestly I can't really say.

Active and social, with little time for games or TV. Can't say I've been too social (for obvious reasons) or active recently, though - would love to at least change the latter

@navster15: Hi Bro :)

I'm pretty satisfied with where I am at now. Work is stable enough that I don't really need to think about it when I'm off, which is about as much as I think I should ever care about money making needs. I think the desire to become rich is poisonous to the idea of being happy, at least for me, so making enough to get by and have modest savings each month is totally fine in my book. If I could get more money right now, I'd take it but I don't really find motivation in the idea of wealth in general and just never have. I'm a bad American.

On my off time I do open impov performances and take classes to get better at it. I have no monetary or fame goals on it, it's just fun and I don't care how "successful" I get, just that I continue to have fun with it. I don't have kids and don't want them, so I get to have the simple luxuries like sleeping in on weekends and having long baths after work, and I can play games or have dinner parties to my hearts content (barring covid restrictions). I have a decent casual dating life where most my physical needs are met without hurting myself or others and I don't really want to be coupled right now, so that suits me just fine too. I have friends that I can be both goofy and serious with and while the number of them is low, the quality of those relationships is higher than the average for folks my age, it seems.

If I were to change anything closer to an ideal, the biggest would be I wish I owned a home instead of renting an apartment. I'm content where I live for now but I wont have any assets to show for it when I'm old if I don't buy something soon, as I'm already 40. I'd also like to find a better food/weight balance and exercise more, but both of those are within my power, I'm just being too lazy to get them going currently.

I know that some would look at me and think, that is the image of a sad bachelor blowing on his soup for one while watching rewatching The Matrix. And I'd argue what they are actually seeing is a pretty content bachelor blowing on his soup for one while rewatching The Matrix. Now I'm gonna go jerk off, because I can do that any time I please, suckers. A life well lived.

I would set a completely illogical and borderline unachievable goal for myself, like being the top forum poster on here. KurtJMac is my hero (look him up and be stunned).

I dream of a life where I have enough to be happy and to have all the time in the world for hobbies.

Property, a dog, the ability to live comfortably and healthy.

I have no ambition for wealth or winning the lottery. Either one of those changes your whole life and now your life revolves around protecting your money from being taken away, especially if you make it young. The same goes with any amount of fame.

I would like to publish a succesful book or even make an album, but I would never want to make a career out of those things or sign onto any publication or record label. Luckily, I feel like I'm young enough to still try to do these things.

Surf every day. Play hockey every night. Game on the No swell days.

No job necessary. That's the dream for me, the rest is just gravy. There's a fair chance I do nothing with and squander my extra time but that suits me just fine.

My answer from 10 montsh ago no longer feels right. So assumsing I had the money liets say $50 million.

- Buy some property outside of Eastern Massauchuesst (30-100 acres)
- Build a house, barn and workshop that will last 150 years - something solid
- Lease the farm land to another farmer (that will be 1/4 of my income)
- I would start logging on the land and have my own saw mill (saw mill will be 1/4 of my income)
- Build furnature with the wood, do some light farm-stand farming, invest my monye wisely. (1/2 my income)

My ideal job is something that pays me enough money to maintain a comfortable middle-class existence for me and my family, genuinely do not care what it is. I've kind of fallen backwards into a recruiting career and if that's what it's gonna be, well, so be it. My ideal job pays me well enough and doesn't stress me out long after I walk away from my desk. I think my ideal financial situation is just to have enough money available so that an emergency wouldn't phase me, whether it be a broken down washing machine or a tree falling on my house. I spent a big part of my 20s trying to turn my personal interests and pursuits into an income and eventually I was glad to decide to keep those parts of my life separate. After freelance writing for a few years, it's been a real challenge to train my brain to make art or write something without thinking about a potential paycheck on the other end. My goal is that by 2026 I have enough money to not worry so much about it and have a little house in the middle of nowhere where my family can be weirdos in peace and I can play my guitar real loud or bang on a trash can when the need comes.