What are your incentives to work hard?

I've worked hard for my kids ... paying for soccer, football, music lessons, church mission trips to Haiti, college, weddings, etc. I do it all for them.

If I didn't have kids, I'd be happy to live like Jim Rockford in "The Rockford Files" ... in an old mobile home on the beach.

 

That's one of the retirement plans my wife and I have been perusing. Well, it's one she mentioned, but I'd be the one driving the damn thing, and I'm not all that keen on driving. My idea is retiring to the Philippines. Beautiful warm to hot weather all year long, cheap everything, maids are as commonplace as refrigerators, and so long as you don't kill anybody or sell drugs, it's all good.

Rockford's trailer wouldn't be bad, but is that even possible these days?

 

That is probably correct that most people don't like work and do it because they absolutely have to. For me, it would be terrible to have a job for which I would have to drag myself out of bed every morning, dreading doing it for another day. Don't get me wrong, I have days like that too, everyone does. I have also days where I would like to just throw in the towel and quit.

However, as I get less dependent on the job, those days are becoming less and less. That's the advantage of financial independence, you can tell the boss to f### off. Somehow, the boss seems to appreciate you more when they are not sure if you need them more than they need you. Plus, in my job, it is more like running a small business. Making payroll is actually the hardest part and keeps me up at night. And it is not like in actual business where you can fire someone any day. Grad students sign up for 4-5 years, so that's the financial commitment you have to make.

 

I've got tired of traveling too, as well as networking to advance career. Now, I don't do it unless I want to. I have some colleagues who became friends over time, so it is always nice to see them. The brown nosers, not so much.

 

I get money. I spend money on leaving the city.

Then I run out of money and reluctantly have to come back to the city.

 

I don't think gold digger is a good career choice. Looks fade fast with age, and the guys who are into gold diggers tend to trade up for newer models frequently. I would never want to be dependent like that.

 

I think most scientists do not get into this career with the dream to get rich. They do it to make an impact. Unfortunately, some are changed by the system to start chasing grants etc. Myself, I just needed enough to keep the small lab going with a few grad students and a postdoc. I am not interested in building an empire. I realize that some others may be more motivated to achieve fame. That's not for me.

 

ALL women cost money. You can either pay for a fat ugly one, or a slim pretty one.

 

Yes, of course the friends (more like acquaintances) you make along the way do make up for some of the problems. You're lucky because you're a hard science guy. I'm in the education field, and that's anything but hard science. I remember once asking a colleague why they used some fancy technical word instead of the colloquial word which would have served just as nicely, and was told "you want to make it sound like science".

Sadly, I had no snappy comeback. Some 30 years later, I still don't.

 

I hope you are successful in finding somebody with lots of money and too dumb to make you sign a pre-nup.

 

I already re-distribute 50% of my income to facilitate the continuing operations of my nation and its development, and have been for the past 30 years or so.

Yes I am more than prepared to pay a "commission" to the government that keeps the trains running in order for me to make my daily bread in the first place. And since education is the key to future development as well as supplying labor demands of the future, I am happy to contribute a % of my income to support increased opportunity and access to first class education.

 

How about an additional 30% on top of the 50% you already pay? Does that work for ya?

 

Wouldn't mind if it meant that to hit that additional 30% in tax I had to double my income. Wouldn't you? (btw you do know how tax brackets work, don't you?)

 

Good thread QN.

I guess for me it was genetic predisposition. The career and the work ethic. If you don’t love the work you won’t last long in my line.

Went to college/university and toyed with options from health care to forestry. Ended up where I belong with the crops and critters. Sure, some of it is “work” but it’s mostly enjoyable. Been at it a little over 20 years and age slows you down a little but experience fills in the gaps.

Around the end of the month I’ll start the annual 3-4 month stretch of 16-20 hour days 7 days a week. If a body gets a little out of shape over the holidays I can tell you by June it’s entirely rectified. Hard work can pay off. It has to be accompanied by good decisions I suppose.

Could have cashed out and retired quite comfortably at 40 but I intend to do what I do until I die. If I quit I’d miss the little things. Like today rolling out two big round bales of oat hay that smelled like an early summer evening and listening to a couple hundred cows devour it as my mind drifted off to thoughts of what changes I ought to make in seed variety and fertilizer rates to increase ton/acre yield of oat hay this coming growing season.

 

You'll need to take it up with the lefts girl AOC. If you're in the 50% bracket right now, you'll be in the 70% with no additional income if she gets her way.

 

Seems you can't keep up with all the bullshit being pumped out about AOC. It's 70% at $10 million. Luv that kind of income, but I get by fine as it is, even with paying 50% tax on a portion of that income.

 

It's not finding them it's choosing the right one.

lol

 

sure thing. know the type. good hunting.

 

tick tock tick tock tick tock

Every day you procrastinate is one more day that a younger and prettier girl pushes you to the back of the line.

 

So you're OK with 70% of your income going to taxes that are wasted? Yes or no?

 

I only "work" to sustain myself and my family Also to provide a little for the poor. Though I do wish I could do what I do without that need to work. When I'm in the middle of a project I do not continue just because I realize I'm getting a paycheck but because I actually have an outside interest in the current design I'm working on. I'm an engineer and enjoy what I do but would much rather do it for the sake of itself rather than money though in this world that's what it comes down too. I understand there needs to be an incentive but money is just one. Much better ways of incentivizing though we haven't reached that paradigm yet.

 

Yeah we are all pretty stupid in that regard. There are tons of viable bachelors just around the corner you and I just don't notice. It's really just being suicidally nit-picky is what I've realized.

 

I worked hard to prove to myself I was the smartest guy in the room.

By doing so I finally connected with a dot.com and made enough with the stock options to retire comfortably at 53. But it was stressful and not all that much fun.

Now that I've retired I hardly do any programming at all and am paying attention to the finer things in life, i.e. the humanities, attending concerts, traveling to famous museums (I just visited the Prado), reading history and trying to understand what it means to be human as discovered by Western Civilization.

It is an especially poignant mission seeing as how the barbarians are at the gates and Western Civilization will soon disappear into history with all the others.

I sometimes speculate as to what will come next if the Progressives have their way but can't decide between Lord of the Flies and 1984.

 

How about robotics and AI so we can replace that economic foundation with one that won't complain as much?

 

You forgot food. A good meal can give you a sense of sublime joy found no other way. But money can get you that, too.