How to align happiness with capital accumulation phase?

[theanimal]

If you wish to skip the capital accumulation phase then get serious about a Tim Ferris 'muse' aka lifestyle business.

Or skills.

[Did]

If I lost it all and had to radically and immediately retire with no capital I think I would sell everything, get some (even if very little), then go super extreme (camping/car/friends etc) and reduce costs to almost zero, then only do things that take my fancy. then I would take advantage of commercialisation opportunities that present themselves, and use that revenue stream to cover my reduced costs. I'd also automate/set up passive revenue streams if that presented itself as well.

[jacob]

Charles Long's How to ... without a Salary is another alternative focusing on the ability to always being able to pick up small jobs for money. This "handyman"-strategy requires technical- and social capital.

Mainly though, I have tended to prioritize happiness over capital accumulation. The result was that it all worked out and I ended up with more capital than I really need. Of course there's a limit somewhere but even having the low income of an academic I found that I made enough given that I need what seems to be in the lower range of people here. If I wanted 20k+/year instead I might have made other choices.

[JamesR]

It probably is not universal, but I believe the psychologists and such would tell us most people do better with some amount of structure to their lives. One of the bigger challenges that face many traditional retirees is a sudden loss of the routine/structure provided by their jobs/careers.

I can believe that if you've spent a large part of your life following a certain routine, it can be a problem if it suddenly goes away. It's another question whether that has anything to do with getting older per se. The reason the statement caught my attention above is that I just recently realised I've been getting less and less tolerant of routine as I get older:)

Henrik, when I think of an introvert (since we're mostly INTx on this forum) without a routine, I think of someone whose sleep schedule has slipped to the point where they're consistently going to bed in the morning (8am-11am). The result of this is further isolation since they're not on the same schedule as friends & family, also at night they're just on the computer or watching TV (because.. introvert). It wouldn't be surprising for that to cause depression.

That is an extreme example, and not the only way to get to depression from lack of routine! Mainly lack of routine makes it easy to end up isolated and for bad habits to creep in.

Personally, I've always maintained a good sleep schedule. But I have developed bad habits which caused depression in other ways during my un/self-employed years. Fortunately I've rarely gone without friends as roommates which helped prevent isolation.

[IlliniDave]

It probably is not universal, but I believe the psychologists and such would tell us most people do better with some amount of structure to their lives. One of the bigger challenges that face many traditional retirees is a sudden loss of the routine/structure provided by their jobs/careers.

I can believe that if you've spent a large part of your life following a certain routine, it can be a problem if it suddenly goes away. It's another question whether that has anything to do with getting older per se. The reason the statement caught my attention above is that I just recently realised I've been getting less and less tolerant of routine as I get older:)

Ah, I see what you mean now. I have no idea if there's an age correlation other than retired people tend to be older. I've progressed in the opposite direction from you in that I'm a bit more tolerant of routines now. I don't always have great enthusiasm to go off to work or rake the leaves (today's chore on an off day from work), but even on weekends and holidays I prefer to get up and get busy doing something fairly early in the day, then relax in the evenings, and go to bed at a modest time. I'd have to say it's more of an evolution of my personality than specifically a side effect of advancing age.

[methpearice]

Two points:

1. Increase your spending money over time.
Aim to save, say, 80% of your income but set a rule for yourself that over ten years this percentage transitions to 70% so that your spending money increases over time and the quality of your lifestyle increases over time. This gives you something to look forward to and gives you the sense that things are improving.

2. Attack discomfort immediately when you can no longer bear it, by spending cash if you need to.
Go along with your life saving, say, 80% of your income. As you do so, you will inevitably face stress. As stress from multiple sources start to mount, redirect your surplus cash to areas where you can most efficiently reduce that stress. For example, when I first started to save 85% of my income, I noticed that the quality of clothes I was wearing was much worse than others. Other people wore neat and modern clothes while I wore old and ratty attire. In order to reduce this stress at the lowest cost, I did two things: (1) try to distance myself from friends who wore high-quality clothing and (2) purchased cheap but neat clothing from discount retailers.

[Stahlmann]

good advice, I'm also gonna apply in my web of goals.