Heres my sitch; bought 3x investment properties over the last 5 years, bought a 4th 2 years ago, didn’t like the closeness of the neighbours. Bought our (or more my Wifes) ‘dream’ home on 2.5 acres 1 year ago and rented out our old home, I liked our new home but it’s not what I would have picked because of the closeness of one noisy neighbour that absolutely annoys the crap out of me! (my Wife doesn’t even notice them apparently) and I just don’t love the layout of the gardens, nor the home. I assumed I’d be happy here because there is wayy more space and we’d be far away from our neighbours. I can tell you now that I’d need 50-100 acres to be happy in that regard because I find it extremely hard to manage subwoofers out country way, they drive me NUTS. Anyway, the neighbours were at it again last night and I couldn’t help myself and vented to my Wife, I told her I just can’t stand the noise! And that I am not happy in the home like she is, and it was really sad for both of us..

Our plan and goal is/was? to wait 5 years, sell one of the investments, pay out the mortgage and be financially free. Now, can I stand to keep living where I do? Will I even be happy anywhere else? I don’t really know.

I’m now trying to give some thought to what it is we’d do when we retire optionally in a few years time. To be honest, I’d be miserable at home because I just don’t like the place, and it’s sad I’m enjoying coming to work and not enjoying going home or weekends anymore when I once lived for this time.

Do we keep working and buy a bigger house with more land? then we have to stay on the treadmill and we certainly don’t want that. I’m miserable because I feel trapped. And I don’t know if moving would even help at all. I’m more miserable at the fact that I’ve finally realised that this money and freedom won’t actually be as great as I envisioned it would.

I don’t care for new cars and doo-dads, but the sad part is: I don’t know what I do care for.. and suddenly I can see hoe people just lose all faith and even take their own lives because sometimes life just seems pointless and I struggle to find happiness or even a happy medium. Maybe I’m putting too much thoght and emphasis where I should just be taking things slow (get rich slowly) I ry to plan ahead too far and that can’t really be done. I’d love some input or advice..?

I think what gets at some readers is Sean’s titles eg “Why I’m so successful”.

Perhaps its just a Western world thing where we need to boast?

In the East, we try and let our work speak for itself.

All Sean has to do is highlight his income reports.

I think, though, the frame of “if you were rich” is, if not misleading, inexact. What this is truly about is what you would do *if money were no object.*

Because “rich” is an extremely subjective term. “Wealth” is, too. Both are interpreted by most as being strictly financial measures, and by a vocal minority as being spiritual measures.

So for those considering these questions, I suggest taking money out of the equation. I for one would find it very boring to think about how I would spend a million dollars, or a million dollars a year, or infinite money – just for the sake of spending it. That is ultimately just fantasizing, the way people do on the drive home after buying a lottery ticket.

I am much more interested in what I would *do* if I truly had no need to consider how my living expenses were going to be covered.

What I would *do* might indeed cost money. But as this poster points out, it might not.

As a 35 year old dad with 2 kids, I can tell you from experience that travel and kids do not exclude each other. Smaller kids may not remember each trip as fully as they would later on, but they still can enjoy it quite much. Our 5 year old son fully remembers our trip to thailand (13 hour flight, he was 4), and the trip to Madeira (3 hour flight, he was 3). Next to that, we visited the UK, Ireland, and Spain (home base being Netherlands) with him.

There is of course a monetary limit, but you can plan for that. Have fun travelling.

My kids saw me go to work every day, refuse help from people (mostly everyone) who attached strings to their offers, and keep us going while figuring out how to make it better for us. It is not easy. There is no easy. But like I mentioned, it’s worth it when you get there!

‘Nuff said there. Bless you. Always keep your dreams alive — whatever they are.

However irritating such articles may be to many — I too get cranky reading that ANYONE can do such-and-such (no, anyone can’t) — there are countless others who could and just don’t know it.

I did, and fell on hard ground when things went south — but only because I had too few resources and took too little care of that which I had.

So why am I here? I haven’t given up yet. I have no one else to be responsible to so I’m going off again — as soon as I put together the resources.

It always must be remembered that you may not live to retirement and life shouldn’t be all about waiting-and-saving, waiting-and-saving …

There is a place for saving, and a place for not waiting but planning.

Sometimes reviewers get freebees and sometimes they write about things they’re doing on their own dime. Sometimes the reviewer knows the writer or artist and that influences their review too. (Publishing and artistic circles are tighter than you might think.)

You can be a highly regarded reviewer or critic — but that’s not the same as being a highly regarded journalist.

Just a bad choice of words on the part of the OP.

Sure, I could also chuck it all, ditch the spouse, lose the job, stop supporting the kids, ignore an ailing parent’s plight, all in the name of “finding myself”. Then again, isn’t that the definition of mid-life crisis that most people would condemn? So if I do it while single or with a willing spouse, I’m to be lauded. Do it while I have responsibilities to others and I’m to be called out as a self obsessed moron.

But while chucking it all may be attractive, especially when faced with a number of tough and unpallatable life decisions, the vast majority of us won’t. We don’t have the luxury of only being responsible to ourselves. When making decisions we have to take others wants, needs, and desires into account and many times the result may not be what we would have chosen for us alone. While that is a choice, it doesn’t mean that such choices don’t chafe us, sometimes raw, especially when we are getting a parade of articles with people with no responsibilities other than to themselves telling us how great their lives are while we’re dealing with yet another family or life crisis.

I guess articles of working 9-5, managing your money well, enjoying your family, and retiring smartly just don’t have the punch and attention grab the chuck it all for your dream style articles carry.

“1) You have no family responsibility tying you down.”

Most of the time (note, I said most…not all), this is a choice. And are we talking about true responsibility, or just the fact that a parent is trying to guilt-trip us into staying? Hey, it’s fine if you choose to stay…just know that it’s (probably) a choice.

“2) You have little debt and/or financial obligations.”

Isn’t this part of what the site is trying to teach? That if you have little debt and/or financial obligations, a whole world of opportunity can be available to you?

“3) You already have considerable savings to live off for an extended period of time.”

The less you need to live off of = the less you need in savings. What I’m trying to say is…our savings are paltry compared to many here. But we need very little to live off of ($18,000/yr to live comfortably including vacations, $12,000/yr if we really cut back). Or in other words…maybe you do have considerable savings to live the lifestyle you want, you just don’t know it yet.

“3) You have a support structure that can keep you off the street in case everything goes south.”

I often think in terms of worst case (but still realistic) scenario. If the worst case scenario is we still have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and transportation to get us where we need to be, then I feel much more comfortable taking risks. Coming to Australia was a very big leap, but we still have a house “back home” and enough money to fly us back if everything were to come crashing down. In short…yes, I agree with you here.

“90% of people toil away at jobs they don’t love because they have everyday bills to pay”

But what are these everyday bills, and just how necessary are they? An expensive cellphone plan and a cable bill are definitely everyday bills, but you can do without them (even if your job requires a cellphone, you can probably do with a much cheaper prepaid). Is a huge 5 bedroom house necessary when you have your first kid, or could you make do just a bit longer with what you already have? That new car payment is an everyday bill, but could you have bought a reliable used car with that downpayment instead?

I think what this article is trying to say…is to take a look at what you would like your life to be like, and then see what it’d take to get there. Maybe it’s just not possible…or maybe it is. Or maybe you end up compromising a bit. Just spend some time looking at all your options, at the choices you make, that’s all.

Thanks for sharing!

The correct quote is “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…”
Notice it’s the LOVE of money, and it’s not the root of *all* evil, but rather, *a* root of all *kinds* of evil…meaning, it’s not the only evil thing out there. It’s just a tool, like any other, that can be misused for bad purposes instead of good.

If your friend won the lottery, he could do a lot of good with the money, helping the poor and needy.

But I dunno, your idea of an Evil Lair with laser sharks is pretty sexy too.

I so relate to that at the moment, as my dream is all I have left after going for it for years. It will never die until I do.

I love Sean’s spirit and willingness to step way outside of whatever box happens to be in the way. I’m also in total agreement that there is no one right way to go through life.

At the same time, if you’re going to go in a similar direction … you absolutely must secure resources before setting out. You must have a way to feed and house yourself first.

Don’t expect anyone else to do it for you. They may well offer, and if you ask and get a yes — great. But that’s not guaranteed. Don’t automatically expect help; you may not get it. Not everyone supports your dream.

Some may help at the outset, then withdraw support if they see failure.

Just make sure you have the resources to set out. Sean obviously did.

This stems from a friend who only took part in an office lottery pool because he didn’t want to feel stupid if we won. He then said not to ask him again because he didn’t want to win anyway. When asked why he stated “Because money is the root of all evil.” So I promised him that if I became rich the first thing I would do is build an Evil Lair.

Next I’d give 10% to various charities with a focus on helping sick kids. And then I guess I’d start working on building my army of smoking hot FemBots. There is world domination to plan after all.

The only thing I really want to do right now is go back to Scotland. If I were rich I would go right now and stay for a month. But just because I’m not rich doesn’t mean I can’t go; it just means I have to plan. This year I started an ‘opportunity fund’ to save money for that trip. I’m not going to wait until the rest of my life is perfect, but I am going to wait until I have the money.

What do we do differently, nothing. We keep working, we both have professional jobs that require long hours. We also have real estate investments that require additional work to manage and keep up.

We keep working b/c we are not rich enough, we need to have more in the bank for a decent retirement, we need to have more in the bank b/c Mr. Sam’s job is threatened due to a corporate buy out. We need to keep working b/c we want to get all our debt paid off (at this point limited to our mortgages).

We live a good lifestyle, but its not one of excess, we enjoy travel, but its hard to fit that in with our jobs, Mr. Sam has an antique car that he enjoys, I enjoy art and charitable functions. We live comfortably, but we’ve still got house projects to do and still, even though we bought our home in 2004, furniture to buy. We both drive paid for cars, etc.

The difference between him and most people, is that a pay cut or job loss isn’t a time for self reflection about how you’d rather be living in the tropics, skiing in the Himalayas or having your every whim catered to in a luxury hotel, it’s a scramble to make ends meet so you (and your family) aren’t out on the street. Which, contrary to popular belief among the priviledged, actually does happen to people.

He trivializes the struggle that the vast majority of people with aspirations have to overcome, as if it was merely a matter of just asking the right person nicely enough.

I get that the founder identifies with the lifestyle – its a great one if/when you have a chance to live it (I did for a while). On a blog entitled get rich slowly, where I’ve come expect sane advice about careful decision making and not just acting on a whim, this just seems out of place.