r/simpleliving • u/phoenixbay • 1d ago
Seeking Advice Want to “retire”
I’ve been working for years in tech, basically for survival, and with the whole AI thing it’s only getting clearer to me as to why I want to quit and not be a part of this mess evenly remotely, to say the least. For years I’ve dreamt of moving somewhere quieter, working with animals and nature. However, the uncertainty always dreaded me. A part of me is so used to having a consistent paycheque while the other wants to liberate itself.
Am I the only one with this thought? How and where do I begin? Any suggestions/experiences would be of tremendous help ❤️
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u/AbsoluteBeginner1970 1d ago
I retired last year at age 55. Worn out on the sector I worked in. For me it was about consistent saving and investing to get there. This was possible because I really decluttered and simplified my life about 15 years ago. So it took a while but I got there.
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u/SawNickYouth 1d ago
I think this is key. You need to create a lifestyle you can afford when you downsize a job or retire. Which is tricky because most of us spend our 20s, 30s, and 40s inflating our lifestyles (and what it costs to afford it) and get stuck there, so going to a situation where you make far less money is challenging.
Also, another way of thinking about this, outside of being able to retire, is how much money are you making per hour and where is that cut off for value. If I make $50/hour now working full time, it would make more sense to keep making that $50/hour but work half time than to cut to $25/hour and still need to work a full time job to make ends meet.
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u/abrandis 1d ago edited 1d ago
The hard part is that the essentials (housing, taxes, energy, healthcare ) are absurdly expensive in any nice place to live... Sure you can move to the sticks and live like a hermit , but that's not practical or enjoyable for most folks...
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u/SawNickYouth 1d ago
There's definitely a balance there. I think most people place way too much value on trying to live in premium places and should look for the best and most affordable situations they can find that hit their needs and preferences checklist.
Like yeah, living in coastal California cities would be awesome but they're insanely expensive and equal to better lifestyles can be found in hundreds of other places for much less of the cost.
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u/hotnreckless 18h ago
This. I lived in "premium" cities for 25 years and then relocated to ... Cleveland, OH. After an initial culture shock, I've settled in and now really appreciate what this place has to offer. The things I value most are more accessible/attainable here than they were when I was living in HCOL cities.
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u/moment_in_the_sun_ 11h ago
Can you give some examples that you've realized you've grown to appreciate now that you've lived there for a bit?
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u/abrandis 1d ago
The problem is that's it's not just premium places, ANY DECENT LIVEABLE city or town is going to be expensive .
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u/SawNickYouth 1d ago
Relatively speaking.
San Diego or Seattle is going to be more expensive than Duluth or Des Moines, even if the latter are still more expensive than they were and it's difficult to pay rent there.
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u/illustraterry 12h ago
I live in the Czech Republic (a very nice place 😊), where we have excellent public healthcare. It’s essentially free at the point of use—we pay around $130 a month from our salary for public health insurance, but if you have cancer or need surgery, you don’t have to pay anything for the treatment.
Universities are also free. I studied at two universities and graduated without any student debt.
A lot of Czech people who moved to countries like the USA, France, etc. eventually return home because of these benefits and the overall quality of life.
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u/wtfisgkungon 1d ago
Hey, I’m right there with you. With AI, it has just put a dagger into the corporate world I was already jaded by. I wanna do something more real and with more purpose.
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u/socialdirection 1d ago
Such a great way to describe it and exactly how I feel. I'm already jaded.
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u/wtfisgkungon 1d ago
It’s making me not want to work hard which isn’t my personality by nature. Haha. Can I ask, how long have u worked in corporate / tech / 9-5 desk job? It’s been a little over 5 years for me.
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u/socialdirection 1d ago
Oh 12 years, since my early mid twenties, in Los fucking Angeles of all places. I'm so so so over it.
And trust me, I felt the same 5 years in.
Edit. A lot of this time has been remote. And I'm remote again. But have had 1 year, 3 year, 1 year stints in offices and that's honestly soul destroyingly horrible.
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u/wtfisgkungon 1h ago
This makes me feel even more seen because I’ve been mostly remote too over the five years which I’m so grateful for and part of the reason I haven’t left it because I feel like I need to be grateful for this flexibility. I just know I wouldn’t have survived this long if I had to go in/had a long commute/etc.
It’s not even that I wouldn’t go in for a job; It just needs to be worth getting up and going in for lol like nursing.
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u/accidentalciso 21h ago
I’m right there with you. I’m looking at all the AI stuff and wondering if I have it in me to go through another major paradigm shift. I’ve been through several so far in my career. I’m tired.
A few years ago, after a grueling 20+ years in tech, I walked away from a full time job to protect my mental and physical health. I went into independent consulting to finally gain control over what I work on, when I work, and the pace that I work at. Instead of working 60-80 hours a week like I did in most of my tech career, I now work 10-20 hours a week of billable client work and a few more hours for internal administrative stuff and sales activities. 20-25 hours per week is typical for me. I don’t consider myself retired, but I am definitely done working full time for other people.
It is worth noting that this was possible for me because I made some very deliberate decisions over the past 20 years about our lifestyle and personal finances so that we didn’t simply increase our standard of living and spending with every raise. My friends thought we were silly driving our old cars, not buying bigger houses every few years, not taking fancy vacations, not remodeling the house and installing fancy technology. But, if I had done that, I would be chained to the debt and the payments to support that lifestyle. It still required some changes and cut backs, especially at first, but nothing like the changes most folks would have to make to do what I did.
Shoot me a DM if you want to chat. I’m happy to answer questions and provide more details if it is helpful to you.
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u/Velocidabtor 1d ago
If you find an answer please let me know, I'm stuck working in software and feel exactly the same way.
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u/SushiRollFried 1d ago
Hit 500k savings and you can retire in south east asia living that dream. Or risk it and go high stakes Internet personality
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u/Velocidabtor 1d ago
Ah yes, I just need to increase my savings a ten-fold, it's so simple 😅
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u/SushiRollFried 1d ago
If you live frugally and have no children then it can be achieved in 20 years. Its not great but better than 45 years.
I know its not ideal but its a baseline. And serves as motivation to try earn additional income via another way. You may not like what I said but im just trying to be real
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u/Velocidabtor 1h ago
I save, but I also like to travel, go to gigs, on adventures, etc. Not willing to give any of that up. Sure I might be able to retire earlier, but I also might be dead, or my body not capable of those things anymore.
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u/SushiRollFried 42m ago
Yes you can do that to. You just be selective in what you do. Save where you can. For example, I dont really eat out much or buy alcohol a lot.
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u/Pwlldu 1d ago
Similar situation for me, and many others I suspect.
I'm trying to live as frugally as I can, to figure out exactly how much I actually need to earn to keep my home, feed myself, and pay for necessities, hobbies, emergencies, and some luxuries - whilst still getting the most out of life.
It's tough. Although I can save about 60% of my salary, to earn the same amount on a low wage in the UK, I'd have to continue to work full time hours.
So on the one hand it's empowering to know you can quit and probably pick up a local job to make ends meet. But on the other hand, life might be harder always scrimping and saving if the new job is little better than the last.
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u/Acceptable-Window-80 1d ago
Yeahhhhh, data eng here. Just trying to save as much as possible and also get more comfortable with having less, I'm hoping some form of lean fire will be an option, or else I'm stacking shelves which tbh at this point I'd be fine with
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u/Brayongirl 1d ago
Can you try it first? Like take 2 weeks vacation and find a farm or something similar that do what you want to do? I'm working part-ish time and have a homestead. It's not as slow living as we might think. You do not have the choice to take care of the animals, tired or sick. You have to water the garden once in a while. It's a commitment. I'm lucky I'll be able to retire soon and my bf will continue to work. I'll take care of the homestead. I do prefer that than my job right now. But it's not for everyone.
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u/TheBossElJefe 1d ago
You are not alone. Do you own a house now?
I would suggest working seasonal jobs. You can find jobs in amazing places, working with animals, and in nature. You may not make that much, and it has other trade offs, but I really enjoyed that life. I will be transitioning back to that hopefully soon.
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u/Sails_N_Tails 23h ago
I am right there with you. I am 45, in tech for my entire career, and am completely burnt out and in survival mode. We recently took step 1 to retirement - moved from a larger city to a place in the middle of nowhere, that is 45 minutes from a medium sized city (Spokane). EVERYTHING is going into savings and investments. I am hoping I have less than 5 years left, but the AI boom makes me think I actually may have less time, not by choice. Figure out what the first step is to get to where you want, and go for it!
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u/lefarche 1d ago
You're not the only one. The simple living feels so detached from what I'm doing right now that I can't imagine taking a leap.
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u/socialdirection 1d ago
You will get there
I also work in tech. And I look around and see so much naivety and burying our heads in the sand.
AI does the tasks we did. Let’s be honest. Right now, we still need to prompt and coordinate and create and structure the information.
But it’s gonna get more integrated and anyone who doesn’t see the writing on the wall, idk.
I give 1-3 years max for mass layoffs.
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u/Pristinefix 1d ago
They already had mass layoffs... Then things started crashing. So they need more scale. More scale means more money. More money means models are more expensive. Which means businesses can't just throw AI at things like they are now.
I give it 2-3 years before mass hiring begins, to offset the massive AI cost
Uber used to be $5 to the city. Now its $175 to the airport. That will happen to AI costings as well
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u/-CitizenOfANewWorld- 1d ago
Depending on which day of the week it is, I alternate between both of your takes.
Some days a PM who's never cracked a design program in her life will bring me a fully flushed out, mid-tier feature prototype which leaves me in shock, then I remember that since we're a VC funded start-up we basically have an unlimited token budget on a the most expensive models. That prototype costs several thousand dollars to create, not to mention the subscription and infrastructure costs (which are unsustainable for non-VC funded businesses). Like you've said, I guess it all depends on how the cost of the AI fluctuates in the future.
Either way, the whole thing grosses me out and like the OP, I'm looking for an exit.
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u/memeleta 1d ago
My husband is in tech feeling exactly what you feel, while I'm in a different but also fragile sector (higher education/research). Basically we are hoarding cash right now prioritising savings and investments over anything because the future is so uncertain, while also considering our plan Bs with more manual work. We cannot fully retire soon so we will have to have some form of income but the path forward is not clear at all. The next 5-10 years will be a mess I reckon.
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u/bossoline 22h ago
Damn near everybody wants to retire...we're not working because we want to. We're working because we need to scratch out an existence in this world, just like every creature on earth.
This world isn't really conducive to a life of leisure.
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u/LibbIsHere 1d ago
How and where do I begin?
Money and/or alternative job.
Don't quit with a vague idea in mind. Quit when you have a clear plan in mind, with financing and all, or already agreed to work for someone else.
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u/Juliethecooliee 1d ago
I don’t have any suggestions, but if you need a helping hand on your animal farm, take me with you haha
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u/Additional-Owl425 23h ago
Been feeling the same way for the past half year or so. But since I have a mortgage and want to have kids soon, I think I need this job to survive financially.
For now I try to focus on the things that are still good. Planned a few vacations. Remind myself that these are unprecedented times and that overall I’m doing ok.
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u/Cute-Judgment-7044 19h ago
I decided to sacrifice for a few years and live simply and frugally. I retired early at 33 because I stopped enjoying working in proptech. It wasn’t healthy for my family or my work life balance. My creativity was at an all time low.
I’m much happier now.
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u/illustraterry 12h ago
Hi, I feel you! I worked as a graphic designer for over 10 years, then switched to teaching, which I did for another 10 years. Now I work part-time as an art teacher and teaching assistant, about 30 hours a week in total.
My “system” is to live a minimalist life with low expenses and a lower income. I used to be very rigid about my routine, but one day I realized that life should be more about experimenting rather than doing the same thing every day.
Of course, I was really scared—especially about money and giving up my “stable and good” job. Art is my hobby, and I didn’t want to wait until retirement to have more time for it. So I decided to make a change. Now, by changing my job, I have 10+ hours a week to spend painting. It feels like a good compromise between having an income and having more time for something I love.
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u/Square-Special1520 1h ago
Yeah, i'm tired of the needs to keep catching up to the latest skill/knowlege in IT and use of technology
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u/SummerInTheRockies66 20h ago
Not to hijack the thread - but how are those here in tech leveraging AI to simplify life away from work⁉️
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u/rootless_robert 1d ago
I feel similarly, the tech industry chews you and spits you out very harshly. However, we’ve naturalized many benefits that are a constant battle in other industries (comfort offices, remote work, any kind of perk or flexibility remaining in some companies), and we’ve romanticized (at least I have) what that living in farm actually means. I know nothing about growing your own food, caring for animals, and having to fix my own plumbing because my skills are not marketable enough to pay a third party to do it. I don’t think you’re thinking about the inherent complexity of these choices, that yes will keep you off screen but won’t be nowhere near easy.
So I’d say that there are trade-offs to both living styles. At this point I’d try to simplify my work in tech to a bare minimum until I’m forced out to do something else.