bryan said: I've always been a bit weary about having so little physical wealth, living in my van. Other than the van and some precious metals, I just don't have much else: everything is spread across different institutions, accounted for digitally. I figure this is a fine strategy for the world we live in now. Eventually I would like to own more physical goods or productive land (though I do _not_ want to waste my time farming). Then again, owning a fleet of vans or overlanding vehicles may be a wise investment in a Mad Max world
I am very flip-flop ambivalent about traveling light vs. developing a self-sufficient/productive home base myself. I am very focused on my urban perma-culture project as my primary 7 year goal (3/1/2015-3/1/2022.) My DD24 and her BF are very much into the idea of tiny house living, so I was semi-joking with them over the holiday weekend that I might just bequeath my completed project to them, if they will allow me to return to the property when I am 85 (year 2050), at which point I would like to be placed into a sort of elder-compost tiny house wire-mesh-bottom platform structure over a compost pile, so if I become incontinent the urine will just drain unto some wood chips, and then one day they can just pull a release lever and drop my body through the floor. I already have long-standing verbal contract with my 3 younger sisters that we will pool our resources to buy a ramshackle cottage on the shore of Lake Huron and care for each other after all our men are dead. So, the elder compost idea is just a potential back up plan for my last 7 year life-cycle.
I have currently mitigated a good deal of my travel jones by choosing to live in a highly varied immigrant community, but I think it is likely that my next life-cycle (2022-2029) (age 57-64) will involve more exploration. At this juncture, there seems to be a plethora of baby-boomer-about-to-retire-with-an-excess-of-money men who would desire my company while traveling and would likely be happy to cover most of the expenses. OTOH, I have an odd borderline introvert/extrovert personality which causes me to desire/enjoy company when at home, but not so much when I am out and about in the world. For instance, I very much enjoy being completely on my own in a crowded airport or on a fresh hiking trail. So, it may be my preference to engage mainly in very frugal solo travel adventures. For either or both of these options to remain viable, I think maintaining or improving my physical conditioning should be my primary future-me-forward goal with passive income and liquid funds increase being secondary. I have only vague plans as of yet for my 3 potential life-cycles from 2029-2050, age 64-85, but I am reasonably confident that I will be able to rely on Social Security income to some extent.
Sounds like VR porn/affairs/hookups/dating could be a big money-maker market then.
I think it already is. Kind of depressing to me being somebody who came of age before people even started wearing bike helmets. Obviously, sexuality is a huge expense for any individual member of any species that reproduces in that manner, but within the context of payment of bride-price being an important human event related to the invention of money, the cost/benefit of choosing to practice celibacy would vary with what proportion of the population of each gender made that decision given 50/50 gender-neutral birth rate. As the article you posted made clear, under most circumstances the demand for females is higher than the demand for males, but there are obvious exceptions to this rule. For instance, when my recent-ex returned to Iran for a visit after a divorce from an American wife, the war had killed a huge number of men his age, and he was relatively very affluent, so far flung semi-acquaintances were practically throwing their beautiful daughters his way. However, in a situation of peace time affluence, relative testosterone levels and/or primate-dominant-hierarchy dynamics, will cause the sexual demand of the male population to be about 1.6 times the demand of the female population. So, all other things being equal (which they rarely are), if a male and a female human are both anteing up for the expense of pure sexuality, both would likely deem it fair if the male threw down $1.60 for every $1 the female threw down, and that is what is sometimes referred to as P.O.P.
Dancing, I think, has been my main advertisement of attraction in such circumstances. Very lucky for that since I have failed completely in the pure looks/conversation department.
Most women I am interested in tend to have some element of intrigue in their fashion-sense or body language or their individuality/charisma/personality is very apparent and matches what I am... well, attracted to.
I think it's wonderful how varied human preferences can be. There must be a million different combinations of attractive qualities and behaviors. My experience is that I am 80% universal mixer and 20% total freak.