Life on a Treadmill - photo by Henry Alva
I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine in Canada. He was talking about downsizing everything in his life so he could have more time and money to do some of the things he’d prefer to do.
What struck both of us was the proportion of a person’s expenses that are directly or indirectly related to having his job. For example, to have a well-paying job in a city means owning or renting a home that is close enough to the city to make daily commuting possible. Those homes always cost more money than rural (or foreign!) homes. So the payment on the home, the maintenance and the insurance are all more. Then you need a reliable vehicle to commute every day and that also means a bigger monthly payment plus maintenance, plus more expensive insurance. If it’s a white collar job you need better clothes. Perhaps you eat more expensive meals while at work. Perhaps the “good” job comes with extra stress. And on and on.
In many cases, at the end of the month there’s almost nothing left over. A huge proportion of income supports making that income. I believe this is the definition of living on a treadmill. My friend is looking for a way off the treadmill so his life-energy can go into something that feels more fulfilling and less like being small cog in a financial machine he doesn’t want to be in.
I think many people are starting to wake up and realize that by one perspective they are working for their mortgage company, working for their car company, working for someone else’s dream, but not really working for their own dream.
My friend was telling me that he could earn an income at home (or from anywhere) with his computer but that it would likely not be as much as he can earn going to a “real” job. That’s why we talked about the financial costs of a “real” job. The better measure is how much money you have left over at the end of the month. In my book, the guy banking a thousand bucks a month while making relative peanuts trumps the guy making big bucks but having nothing left over every month.
It’s a form of Occam’s Razor; the work that delivers a financial surplus with the fewest hours, lowest stress, lowest expense, least complexity and most personal freedom wins! Welcome to the 21st century!
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Interesting points here. It seems like too many people are too willing to become content with being a “cog” and not enough have the energy to break away from it. Everyone I talk to has big dreams they’re doing little or nothing to pursue and I think a big part of it is falling into a work rut like you’re describing here. Part of me thinks a 40 hour a week day job is a more dangerous addiction than any drug.
40 hours a week is fine if you are doing what you want to do. Then 60 hours is even better. 40 hours a week is also good if you’re on one of your stepping stones of your personal plan to get where you want to be. But it’s a tragedy when it’s neither of those. Steve Pavlina has a great post called 10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job, and he’s a little more blunt than I am. But he sure has a point!