"'I wanted to feel a bit more like I was alive and living,' she said. She turned her attention to building up her savings and quit her job in May 2023 to take a year off. 'It’s a huge privilege to have been able to do it, and I really recognize that'.... Almost two years later, Ms. Falls is in Mexico... and working on a freelance basis for a travel agency. The flexibility of the job was enticing... Most of her belongings are still in a shed at her mother’s house in Washington State.... 'I’m not in the mind-set of, "Let me grind as hard as I can right now so that I can retire at 55," or whatever... I can work and I can make money and I can save, and I can also live my life now.... I’m still trying to do what makes me happy rather than being in the grind of it all."
I've also been reading Jack Kerouac's 1958 novel "Dharma Bums" — full text at link — and I've been looking for a place to quote this paragraph:
I'd also bought milk and we had just steak and milk, a great protein feast, squatting there in the sand as highway cars zipped by our little red fire. "Where'd you learn to do all these funny things?" he laughed. "And you know I say funny but there's sumpthin so durned sensible about 'em. Here I am killin myself drivin this rig back and forth from Ohio to L.A. and I make more money than you ever had in your whole life as a hobo, but you're the one who enjoys life and not only that but you do it without workin or a whole lot of money. Now who's smart, you or me?" And he had a nice home in Ohio with wife, daughter, Christmas tree, two cars, garage, lawn, lawnmower, but he couldn't enjoy any of it because he really wasn't free. It was sadly true. It didn't mean I was a better man than he was, however, he was a great man and I liked him and he liked me and said "Well I'll tell you, supposin I drive you all the way to Ohio."
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48 comments:
"It’s a huge privilege to have been able to do it" And she wouldn't claim government benefits after she returns from her sabbatical, would she? Nor go on Medicaid? Nor vote for Dems promising higher Social Security benefits for people with spotty work records?
Am I having deja vu or did someone here recently (within the past 3 months) quote this Kerouac passage?
'I wanted to feel a bit more like I was alive and living,' she sad.
Easily accomplished with a large meal of Mexican food and a pitcher of Margaritas. You'll hate yourself the next day, but you'll definitely know you're not dead.
Also; young people just keep getting more and more precious as time goes by.
Yeah, it certainly is nice to take a year off in your 20s and know you can just pick up where you left off. Very few people have that option.
I don't know anyone over 60 who looks back and says "Y'know I wish I'd spent time at work when I was young". So I think she's going the right thing.
There's a lot of people my age (early 40s) that are living like there's no life after 60, and from what I can see, a lot of them won't.
BTW, I wonder how long-distance truckers in 2025, are able to support a daughter, a stay at home wife, and afford a house on their salaries.
"Now who's smart, you or me?"
who's smart? the Ant? or the Grasshopper?
more importantly, does the Ant have a moral (or legal) responsibility to take care of the Grasshopper??
Which answers the question so often asked by my career advancing well renumerated friends of why I was and stayed a school teacher. I only worked 196 days a year having 8 weeks at summer, 20 days at XMas, and 9 days in the spring. I was on Surfari to stay. 8 weeks desert vacation and surfing in Baja, Mexico. Overland trip.to Costa Rica, 10 days in Vienna for XMas, Between my self and the Sig Other teacher gfswe spent a lot of time in awesome places chillin' out and recharging lived batteries all with great public service bennies. It was a great vacationing lifestyle if in a lower key than jet setting. I have friends who are wealthy and did nothing but acquire wealth and the things wealth buys. And now they're old and that stupid jet ski is worthless
good luck with that.
"wonder how long-distance truckers in 2025, are able to support a daughter, a stay at home wife, and afford a house on their salaries. "
well, for many (most?) of them now..
their family stays down in Mexico, and the driver wires them the money
"Am I having deja vu or did someone here recently (within the past 3 months) quote this Kerouac passage?"
I've been reading the book. A few weeks ago, I quoted: "Oh my God, sociability is just a big smile and a big smile is nothing but teeth, I wish I could just stay up here and rest and be kind."
I don't think I'd used the "hobo" quote yet. A search of the blog doesn't turn up anyone else using it. I know I found the quote by listening to the audiobook, not nicking it from somebody else's comment here!
Your inner compass reading depends on how you're tipped, owing to the strong vertical component of earth's magnetic field. In an airplane flying north, the compass in fact can turn the wrong way as you turn.
Jack Kerouac and Tom Wolfe (and the other Tom Wolfe?): car crazy guys in love with America.
It sounds like Falls is still working and probably spending less than she would in the US. Not "leaning into'" the corporate grind isn't taking early retirement.
It also may be that she's not somebody going to the Times to publicize her lifestyle, but someone a reporter had to seek out. If so, there's no need to put her down as an attention seeker.
As Falls Isabel, So Falls Isabel Falls.
JSM
It's very nice to have options. People don't have to stay on a single path. The key in this for me is gratitude, which she seems to feel.
Some people get stuck in a gap year for a lifetime, too. Some are grateful, and some are not. Options are options. Most folks don't get any.
I haven't read that much Kerouac. I'll be listening to Gil Evans and reading Dharma Bums in a bit. It's so nice to have the time. Grateful.
Follow me here...
If in a 30 year career someone:
- saves $5,000 in year 1,
- increasing to ~$10k retirement savings per year
- Increasing to $24k retirement savings by year 10 (i.e. maxxing out 401k)
- And increases a bit more to $36k per year by year 15 (i.e. a 20% savings rate for someone making $150-175k per year by age 36, not including employer matching)
- Maintains that inflation rate, no increases, for the next 15 years...
....
They'd have ~$2.6 million (nominal) in retirement savings after 30 years using a nominal rate of return of 8%. So let's say age 53. About $4.4 million if that continues to age 60. A very nice nominal nest egg.
They lose about 5% of that nest egg if they take a year off after 10 years of their career and don't even touch the nest egg - just don't contribute.
I'm not saying it's not worth it, I'm just looking realisitically at what a 1 year career break early on does.
A 1 year break in your 40s or 50s is much different in terms of net impact.
🤖 enhanced fight club scene : ”they told you it’s all normal”
Lets come back to her when she is 60 without any savings and a minimal social security income.
We're all different and move in different directions at different paces. And life takes so many turns that you cannot predict, you don't know how she'll end up. She doesn't know either.
But it does seem like this generation- her generation- seems less willing to put in the hard word. She may be fine. I know others- friends kids- of that age range, who may not be so fine.
I wish them all good luck. But don't expect the government to take care of you as you get on. And don't blame those around you who have, when you do not.
Life in a safe and prosperous era and society allows more options than living when times are hard and failure is dangerous to self and others. Enjoy it while it lasts, and remember gambling that the good times continue is a sucker's bet.
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee always said he was taking his retirement in installments, just working long enough to be able to stop working for a while.
TreeJoe said...
“
They lose about 5% of that nest egg if they take a year off after 10 years of their career and don't even touch the nest egg - just don't contribute.
I'm not saying it's not worth it, I'm just looking realisitically at what a 1 year career break early on does.”
Yes, the mathematics of compound interest are unforgiving to lost years of contributions, especially early in life.
"Lets come back to her when she is 60 without any savings and a minimal social security income."
If Indivisible is still around paying aged-out boomer-hippies to protest Tesla or Trump's kids, you'd probably find her holding up some pre-made sign for $400 (not adjusted for inflation).
My husband and I worked a ton in our late 20s and 30s, especially my husband as I was home having all the babies. Very, very hard work. Now we are in our late 50s, and today we are sailing on our yacht (I hate that word but it makes my point) from Grenada to the Grenadines. We have four happy young adult children, plus a bonus daughter, and a great marriage. That compounding worked for us.
Thanks for the legwork, Althouse. Deja vu it is.
30 years of being a free spirit followed by 30 years of dependency on the kindness of strangers (and Uncle Sucka). No family, no savings. I’ve seen a ton of Boomer women in this situation. Cool that you spent a week surfing off the coast of Morocco in ‘73 but now you need a charity worker to pick you up from your rented hoarder’s room so you can shop at Wal-Mart.
There’s a very good reason you spend the energy of youth grinding.
She's investing in reckless abandon, but it's hard to pay that future rent with memories. I see too many old grey-hairs working at Lowe's and Starbucks and etc. to endorse her 'hippy happy-ness'. It's not like she's focused on self-development and growth, like an artist.
You have to have some industry when you're young - if you can focus, you'll end up laps ahead of your peers. My daughter married in her early 20s and has 2 kids now, and a career where she's advancing. Her employer has underwritten her Master's, and she's finished that, too. All of this, before she's 30. Her cousins are around her age, not married yet, no kids - but have careers. My S.I.L. works investments for one of the big brokerages, and he's constantly telling me horror stories of people that reach retirement age with completely unrealistic expectations, when their net worth is taken into account. They find they have to defer for a few more years, or take part-time work.
And I think back to my youth, when I lived in a tent for a while in Florida, working 2 different jobs to earn money for university. There was an old drunk that would paint signs for beach businesses, had a collection of brushes and scrounged plywood. He'd paint a sign for a curio/souvenier shop, or a food shack, or a dive bar, whatever - get a little money, buy some rot gut, and pass out under the palmettos. He was maybe 50 and looked 75. Looking at Harold cured me of any inclination to sloth.
Instead I took overseas work, working straight out 7 days/week, usually 14 hours days, a month at a time, operations - and then, blissfully, a whole month off. I started my retirement on the installment plan and invested along the way - the magic of compounding is real.
I am now 63. I retired a year ago after four decades in corporate America. I put in a LOT of hours, spent a lot of grinding weeks on the road. had a lot of success, earned quite a few promotions, made a very good wage and banked some nice bonuses. So, my wife and I are now set. But, I also had some fun at work, did some innovative things, mentored quite a few bright people, saw a lot of interesting places while on the road for work. And, I learned a lot too. Work can be about way more than money. I think this generation does not realize how intrinsically rewarding hard work can be. Finally, at least for men, the fire in the belly starts to wake in later years, not to mention the body breaking down. I'm not sure work would be as much fun from the late sixties on
Jim said John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee always said he was taking his retirement in installments, just working long enough to be able to stop working for a while."
Yes, he was ahead of the curve on this.
The lengths folks have to go to find fulfillment when they've decided that marriage and family is not in their future.
I screwed around until I was 30. Then I married, got a job and had children. Now I have 3 houses, a nice retirement savings and barely work at my own business. It can work out pretty well. You just never know how life will unfold.
“ BTW, I wonder how long-distance truckers in 2025, are able to support a daughter, a stay at home wife, and afford a house on their salaries.”
Yes, look at how the economy treated workers in 1958. You could be an actual participant in society. Now the elites want immigrants for low wages and only care about a rising stock market. They are willing to steal the dignity of common people for their on wealth. This is why elites hate Trump, he worries about regular people.
Transportation can’t be done overseas, but a way was found to undercut jobs anyway by importing very poor people and paying them little.
My college room mate is the smartest person I ever knew, and his dad drove a Greyhound bus. Today you are completely defined by your class, and the communist left trustifarians are the offenders. Communists who hate the proletariat.
Call me petit bourgeois, but the fictional truck driver was paying for the bum's future healthcare while paying for his own family's. And today, if these young women can keep their incomes low enough, they can get Platinum-level Obamacare for 1/20th of what we and other families pay for a "Bronze" high-premium, high-deductible, very high maximum out of pocket plan, plus many other government bennies, even if they have lots of family money. You usually need family money. So neither of these stories are about freedom: they are about greedy people taking freedom and resources and choices away from hard-working taxpayers. The Times article is a perversion of its own, talking mostly about some tenured professor studying paid sabbaticals and seeking to expand them for government and nonprofit workers. So the rest of us will eventually pay for that, too. We already do it for tenured professors.
I can't stand the Beats but had to study them. Ginsberg was an "active" founding member of NAMBLA and should have spent his life in prison for raping little boys. Burroughs was the only one who could write well blackout drunk, but that's also how he murdered his wife, for which he served a year or two. Kerouac, though, was a Catholic who despised the infantilizing counterculture that celebrated him. Contrary to the characters he created, he supported his family, served in WWII, and worked hard. His blindness to these contradictions makes him interesting but his writing dull. But if you like his books, you can visit the NYPL and see the manuscripts, which are visually interesting, and also view some of the collection online.
Life on the gilded edge can be so depressing. Constipating.
Kerouac is not a good source of advice for living, unless you want to die young puking all of your blood out.
People can take all the “ mini-retirements” they want if they agree that those of us who worked our butts off to save for retirement won’t be asked to pay for their retirement shortfalls. Of course they would agree and ignore the promise when they hit retirement age. Screw them.
People can take all the “ mini-retirements” they want if they agree that those of us who worked our butts off to save for retirement won’t be asked to pay for their retirement shortfalls. Of course they would agree and ignore the promise when they hit retirement age. Screw them.
Re: RideSpaceMountain:
There's a lot of people my age (early 40s) that are living like there's no life after 60, and from what I can see, a lot of them won't.
That's my age. I had a stroke a few years ago at 40 (right around this time of year), and it reminded me, as I had perhaps forgotten amid the busywork of day to day, that to every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late.
"Of course they would agree and ignore the promise when they hit retirement age."
This thought occurs to me whenever the topic of means testing Social Security comes up. I understand why people reach for this solution, but...
You've got Bob, who was prudent and saved for retirement while Ted didn't put anything away. Ted buys a new truck every two years, has a garage full of toys and his family takes a destination vacation every year. Bob has (and had) none of that, but he does have a hefty retirement account.
So when talks of cuts to SS come up, it's Bob who gets his benefit whacked because he doesn't need it as much as Ted does and it would be unfair to make Ted suffer.
IMO, screw Ted. He had his chance.
We are not a serious people.
A lot of ants commenting in this thread. Is it better to be the ant than the grasshopper? Who can say. If the dollar collapses or your 401k is snatched, may have been better to enjoy life while you could. If the electricity goes out, may have been better to be a prepper.
I am reminded of Joyce's inspired onomatopoeia:
the ondt and the gracehopper
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