Posted on 07/26/2018 6:17:20 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Sarah Solomon had a pretty sweet life. The 20-something publicist was always out at fashion events, dinners and parties — and even hung out with John Legend during Fashion Week.
“It was definitely New York glamourous — the black dress, leather pants and high heels, and an hour putting on my makeup,” says Solomon. “Anyone would think I had a really fun life, meeting cool people and celebrities.”
But she yearned for something more and resented only having two weeks of vacation a year. So, last August, she quit her seemingly great job at a plum downtown p.r. firm.
“I wanted to travel more — I didn’t want to have to ask for time off and grovel for extra days, you know?” says Solomon, now 25 and living in a rental house in Kauai, Hawaii, overlooking the beach.
Over the past 10 months, she’s scaled volcanoes in Guatemala, soaked up the waterfalls of Bali, Indonesia, and basked on glorious beaches halfway around the world. She gets by doing freelance p.r. work on the road, so long as she can get decent Wi-Fi in paradise.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
People can’t afford to save money for retirement. Especially when married. One spouse may want to but the other basically makes the decision by spending all the money as rapidly as possible.
Most people under 40 today will die at their desks.
Wait. Am I supposed to feel sorry for this whining little parasite? I must have missed that memo. Ah well. I’ll continue to see her as a whining little parasite, I guess.
Yep. She's a carousel rider.
Wow, so much negativism about this article! Nonstop gas about sugar daddies, living off her body, fun until the money runs out, mommy and daddy paying, living off welfare, etc.
I detect a lot of sour grapes from decades long cube dwellers here which is really sad. I say more power to these bold youngsters! Go live life to the fullest! Be adventurous.
Powerful laptop computers, the internet and ubiquitous global broadband communications has given incredible opportunity to people to work anywhere in the world that they want. Why not take advantage of that and explore? Why be tied to a cube for 40 years? Why think “I’ll do what I REALLY want to do after I retire?” Is that a healthy way to go through life?
Our oldest daughter is doing something along these lines. She is working for a small company and she structured her position to allow her to work anywhere in the world. She has learned to live very frugally, makes good money, and has great savings and investments. Right now she’s backpacking a couple hundred miles of the John Muir Trail in the California Sierras.
Adulting is hard!
Exactly right! Thanks for finding what she is doing upbeat rather than sour and miserable like so many commenting here.
Stupid woman. There no longer is any "retirement" at any particular age except for government service, and that, too, is going away. Life now involves doing what you can, and want, for an indefinite period and then you stop, either because you have enough money, or you die. I have several fixed-benefit annuities. Most people don't. She is smart enough to know that an uncertain future create more choices.
From those burned out older folks who had more sense and didn’t quit their jobs...
Maybe you’ll earn two weeks after ten years on the job.
Seriously, what company starts somebody at one week? If you don’t like that policy, why did you take that job? Why not change?
it’s a bad investment if one’s goal is trying to accrue assets with a financial value. it’s a good investment if one wants to convert cash to life experience, which can’t be taken away. they had the trip of a lifetime. their grandkids will quite literally be aware of and talk about this trip that their grandparents had. to some people, that has value.
it’s funny: spending money actually takes risk off the table because banks can go under, but life experience can’t be taken away.
but as you say, choices.
one just needs to be aware of what it means to them to build a life. then determine what $$$ is necessary to do that. might be a little. might be a lot. but there’s a lot of personal preference that goes into that.
and then of course, everyone should pay their own way. :)
Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie. A fantasy we create about
People and places as we'd like them to be. But you know what truth is?
It's that little baby you're holding, and it's that man you fought with
This morning, the same one you're going to make love with tonight.
That's truth, that's love
My current gig starts at 2 weeks and after so many years, goes up a week.
I’m a few months short of the vaunted third week. Assuming I get there, it will be something good. Every one who made it there says it is a noticeable difference.
The max here is 5.
My daughter had an apartment in Waikiki for four years and it cost her less than $700 per month. She just moved back to the mainland a couple months ago. You just need to be clever, persevere, be patient, know how to charge market rates to roommates, and live without a lot of space. It can be done.
Pastoral work.
It was one week for the first year with them; two weeks after that. I was grateful enough to HAVE a job after 8 years of the Obama economy.
And with an understanding congregation that usually means that I can take some time between Sundays to go and visit family without taking vacation time off.
Y3ah — for grins I looked on Zillow for rental houses in “Kauai, Hawaii” ...
a 1 BR studio in Kapaa (nearby) was $1850/mo, plus utilities etc.
Other homes went as high as $25K per mo ...
Most were $3-4K per mo.
What sort of PR does she do, for whom???
Sad but true.
“I deserve it!”
Pretty common for a lot of these freelance wastrels. Still, if they are making it work and not raising my taxes, enjoy it.
Life returns rather harshly though.
Yes, globalism has debased the value of work in the USA. So the previous generation that didn’t have to compete with entire protectionist world has to help the generation coming after them.
A friend of mine is all butt-hurt. He worked at a big computer/tech company and got let go when they got rid of his department. He had 6 weeks of vacation there.
He went to a big healthcare company. Because of Obamacare they cut back their presence in the state and let him go. He had 4 weeks of vacation there.
He is currently working for a local advertising firm. They are only giving him 2 weeks vacation.
Is he upset that his income has dropped from $120K a year to $60K a year? Not so much.
Is he upset that he works at a much less prestigious company and a lower seniority position? Not really.
He is vocally and intensely pi$$ed off about having less time off.
Go figure.
As for "why not change?" Well, that depends on your circumstances. If you have kids in high school, moving them can be traumatic. If you are a white male over the age of 50 your chances of getting hired by anyone are less than 1 out of 10. Maybe you have elderly parents nearby and moving away for a new job just isn't an option.
Then there are the companies that hire virtually no full time employees just to avoid having to pay for their vacation...
Oh I’m not against life experience. I have had my share of expensive vacations as well. I just did them when I was financially secure. I regret nothing in life and I am satisfied with my life choices. Just saying from a perspective as someone who worked his way through college, never stepped on a plane until I was 23 and didn’t own a vehicle until I was 28. Essentially someone who had almost nothing financial handed to him. That when I had a decent amount saved I made an investment that completely altered my life course and that of my children. That being said, my work me prior to this brought me all over the world and I saw Paris, Rome, London, Hong Kong, the Great Wall of China, Scotland, India, etc on my employer’s dime.
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