Posted on 01/06/2025 1:36:18 AM PST by RomanSoldier19
The trend, which is reportedly growing in popularity, has been picked up by generations of people who aren't anywhere near retirement age yet, but who want to make more of their lives outside the confinements of a nine-to-five.
After years of changing schools, trying out hobbies, and eventually starting a new job, it can be daunting to think that this is 'it' - so, young people are now fighting back.
Essentially, the trend refers to taking a chunk, or multiple chunks, of time off work to experience life and travel while you're young, rather than waiting until actual retirement age in your 50s or 60s.
After years of changing schools, trying out hobbies and eventually starting a new job, it can be daunting to think that this is 'it' - so young people are now fighting back.
(Excerpt) Read more at unilad.com ...
This trend, if that’s what they want to call it, is widely prevalent.
There is even a meme floating around that shows how to best utilize PTO in 2025 to turn it into 50 days off work to travel! Sure there is always those few in the past that worked the system of vacay, PTO, and every holiday but this post covid generation have realized...life is short.
They find it incredibly difficult to return to the office to start. Some lost family or friends to the covid, others have been permanently traumatized by it.
But they have all arrived at the same place, life is short and slaving away at a job to make some billionaire/oligarch rich isn’t for them.
They have long been more about ‘experiences,’ than starting and raising a family, having a home, etc. In fact, many view that is no longer a potential path or reality. So, instead of working and slaving away to have it and enjoy the world later. They are choosing to enjoy life, travel, nature, now.
Are they lazy? Or are they smart? Even the later Gen-X is looking around at their lives and have started a trend of Swedish Death Cleaning. Nobody wants your stuff.
Their version of frugality is microretirement. They don’t buy things, they sacrifice to have experiences. Others to have time with their family and children. The only reason it comes as a warning to them is because they pay less taxes to the government, they won’t have as much saved for retirement...but they will have already lived life by that time. Their view of retirement is going to be very different than the 401K and millions of dollars tucked away. That’s not this generation of workers/careers. They’ve already decided full retirement isn’t going to exist for them.
And once you reach that conclusion, life and career management look very different in a future where the old work ethic has been badly jaded. My parents died at 60 years old. They had little, worked hard all their lives for nothing. I wonder how different life would have been for them if they had micro-retired instead.
In a world where college degrees are worthless in many regards, home ownership out of reach, wages and business profits mismatched...people are redefining what a happy life means. Their not only walking away from the full-time career, their walking away from college life too. We’re watching an evolution to a desire for a simpler more meaningful life in a matrix of high technology.
+1
I can fully understand the concept and feeling.
Time off was way more important then my career.
After then first ten years.
[In a world where college degrees are worthless in many regards, home ownership out of reach, wages and business profits mismatched...people are redefining what a happy life means.]
I have had to come to that conclusion but not because I wanted to.
I ALWAYS enjoyed my I/T career especially (despite a few users and a boss here and there)
30 years ago, I would have had a barn filled with classic muscle cars - in today’s crazy world, my dream is a double-wide trailer in a place that experiences moderate temperatures and AWAY from the cities - on about 1/4 acre or less.
And to be doing some work for the Lord somehow because His Kingdom is the only thing that’s going to last for Eternity.
Naaa. It’s time for them to hitch up to that plow and start paying taxes to pay for all the free stuff they’ve already been given.
Life in Reverse by George Carlin
“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends.
I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time.
What do you get at the end of it?
A death.
What’s that, a bonus?
I think the life cycle is all backwards.
You should die first; get it out of the way.
Then you live in an old age home.
You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch,
you go to work.
You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You drink alcohol, you party,
you get ready for high school.
You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb,
You spend your last nine months floating…
Then you finish off as an orgasm.”
ditto. It used to be called being a sponge, scrounger, bum, laziness. Lack of work ethic.
It’s great if they can pay their bills but 99% can’t. They go on some sort of government assistance while maintaining a horrendously low credit score (you should SEE the applicants for my apartments!) Meanwhile the gov’t tries to outlaw screening of said applicants.
You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.
It is an emulation of the Euroweenie work ethic. IMO, one of the things that made America an industrial powerhouse was the ingrained work ethic.
No more, apparently.
The over taxation and lack of reward for work is why this trend is increasing.
I’ve worked for myself much of my life so I could stock up equity in ways that was not taxable (or at least not immediately taxable).
If you are a mere cog in a machine, I get the logic.$
You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.
Exactly correct. If you want people to delay gratification in order to achieve something and contribute to society then they need to benefit from their efforts. The inflation we've been experiencing was the Obama crowd's planned route to redistribution of wealth. If everything you've worked for becomes less and less valuable because of inflation, then everyone will be equal..
Making a virtue of irresponsibility.
The funny thing is to be on government assistance one doesn’t have to be poor, many business are subsidized and the tendrils of government assistance are far ranging and deep, like research grants.
I had to do a lot of travel during my work years—hated it.
I totally never got why people enjoy travel.
Since I have retired it has been six years since I even saw an airport.
Great years!
I know a lot of people who work remotely and can live and work anywhere they want. Some rent a vrbo in the Florida Keys, Aruba, Savannah etc for a month and work from there. It’s awesome! You’re still working but when you’re done you’re in a fun new place!
“My parents died at 60 years old. They had little, worked hard all their lives for nothing. I wonder how different life would have been for them if they had micro-retired instead.”
They’d have had less for starters. It seems this trend is driven by a sense of hopelessness regarding their ability to build up a financial cushion thru the early and middle years. I can understand their feeling the way they do but one thing they’re not taking into consideration is the maladies that start reading their ugly head thru middle and old age. They might be better off wondering where the jobs and security went and doing something about that.
There is nothing more important than financial security and stability. Sacrificing that for “experiences” is why they are always complaining about not being able to pay their bills and being in debt.
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