I AM DEAD SERIOUS. Is this possible?

[v1k1n95]

Okay, I would like to start out by saying that I am only 18 and will be moving out of my parents house after attending college for 2-4 years. I have had two full 8 hours-a-day summers of work experience at minimum wage and guess what: I HATED IT. In fact, for the past three months I have basically put my social life on hold as I'm working on a system that I plan to use to work only part-time (20 hours at most per week) and life comfortably for my entire life.

If you just laughed at that, you're not alone. My parents did too. But if there's a will there's a way right? I cannot stand the idea of work 8 hours per day for my entire life in order to get my freedom when I'm too old to enjoy it properly. Wage-slavery is my number one fear in this world, and I will basically give up all the "good stuff" to avoid it.

In my plan I include: riding a bike to save $1577 per year on car insurance, $2100 (or more) on gas per year, and AT LEAST $1200 in car payments per year. A $100 bike will do just fine.

I cut out cable television, landline phone (TracFone for $100/year) and plan on getting my internet access at the local library. Savings: about $1800 for the bundle per year.

I have heavily budgeted and planned meals and worked out a plan that only costs $4 per day for food, buying in bulk, prepping and freezing week long servings. Saving over $3000 versus eating at a fastfood restaurant every day.

I have worked out my total expenses for the first year (which includes all of my one time purchases such as microwaves, silverware, bed, pillows, and much more.) to be at $7,733 or $148.72 per week, or even more precise, $21.19 per day.

Following the first year my expenses are sitting at: $6922, or $18.97 per day.

I have searched local listings for apartments and found one for $485 per month that includes all utilites. Since I only budgeted $250 for rent, I plan on having AT LEAST one roommate for a very long time.

What I want to know is, have you heard of anybody attempting this? Is it possible? I don't see why not but I always get the "get a good job that pays well and you'll have no problem." But that is not my problem. Even high paying jobs require 40+ hour work weeks.

Thanks if you made it all the way throught this post.

[Bvv]

Coupons!!!find as many coupons in order to save money you can find them in the Sunday paper or advertisement in the mail or simply going to the store and getting coupons from their magazines TRUST that will make good savings you can even print out coupons for any type of saving from furniture to restaurant savings.

[v1k1n95]

Coupons!!!find as many coupons in order to save money you can find them in the Sunday paper or advertisement in the mail or simply going to the store and getting coupons from their magazines TRUST that will make good savings you can even print out coupons for any type of saving from furniture to restaurant savings.

Going to be adding to the list. Coupons are something, after all the work I put into this, I have yet to consider.

[frugalgirl]

I see a few potential budget busters:
1) health insurance/medical costs. If you only work part-time, your employer will not likely offer you medical insurance. Buying it in the open market could be expensive. If you find something affordable on your own and have a big claim, they can cancel you the following year and you would have a hard time finding something else. Young people have accidents and get sick, too, so don't discount this in your budget.
2) Steady, long-term, part-time employment. Are you certain that you can count on it?
3) Finding roommates that want to live in a cheap apartment with another person. Do you have a ready pool of potential roommates?
4) This getting old once you hit 30, 35 or 40. Doing all of this when you're 18 or 20 may seem great but when you start to get older your body may not want to deal with riding a bike to work everyday. Plus, what if you want to get married and start a family? Can you support them on a part-time income? Will you have the skills, education, or experience that you would need to improve your job prospects should you need to increase your income?
5) Retirement. How will you save for retirement? How can you support yourself in retirement? Even if social security is around when you retire, you will not have paid enough in to adequately support yourself solely on that income alone.

I would hope that if you are attending college for 2 to 4 years that you would be able to obtain the skills/education necessary to get a job that is not so horrible as the minimum wage one that has put you into this state of mind. Having a job that you like and enjoy working at will make a big difference to your attitude. Perhaps you need to stay open-minded to the possibility that there are people out there who work full-time and really enjoy it. My DH is one of these people.

[MonkeyMama]

I think your effort would be better put to going to school and finding a career you enjoy.

First minimum wage jobs I had? Horrible - of course!

I actually transferred to the cash control section of the organization I worked for and though still paid pennies I really liked it. When I started thinking about banking or accounting - which I REALLY enjoy.

I personally don't identify with the average rat race/giant corporation discontent. I have had several other jobs (usually small mom and pop type jobs) where there was little in politics, good hours, much respect, good pay, and lots of flexibility.

I don't think it was 100% the type of jobs I chose, thought maybe a good chunk of it is. The flip side is I am extremely responsible and so I have found most employer will give me a ton of leeway. It reminds me one time in high school I got pulled to the principal's office for leaving campus. THey literally pulled up my records, say all the As and let me go like "Do what you want." That's kind of how I feel employment to be. If I am responsible, efficient, and get the job done, I can kind of do what I want otherwise. I make sure to choose reasonable employers who don't want to work me to death for pennies. Plenty of those employers exist but I have worked for 3 mom and pops that were like family and great experiences. I personally look forward to going to work every day and get paid well for it.

Just an older/wiser perspective.

On the flip side, have you read the 4-Hour work week? IT talks about the lifestyle you are trying to create. It will give you a lot of concrete ideas.

[momcents]

How do you plan on funding your retirement? Working until the end?

[v1k1n95]

Thanks for the replies:

I have come to a realization from reading the answers in this section and the "personal finance" section.

Note: I am a very intelligent person and could very easy pursue a high paying career. I just don't want to work full-time...or so I thought.


I'm starting to think some of the responses I've gotten from both sections are telling me that this lifestyle I have described is more trouble than it's worth, although it didn't/doesn't seem like it to me. Maybe a high paying job and extreme saving/ budgeting/ investing would result in either retiring permanently at a younger age, or being able to take "mini-retirements" off and on. I may just scrap the plan I have laid out and start over (practice makes perfect).

[PatientSaver]

Coupons are not going to keep you going.

Look, I think we've all had some god-awful low wage jobs when we were first starting out. You didn't mention if you got your degree, but hopefully you did; i'm not saying it's easy, but it should eventually help you get more interesting jobs. I'm not going to offer suggestions on how to live as cheaply as possible becus you don't want to work. Because you will eventually get very tired of living hand to mouth and getting by without nothing.

Have you thought about some career counseling to help you identify a vocation that would appeal to you. Believe me, I have battled long and hard with the 40-hour a week mentality. It's just made me more determined to quit the rat race as soon as possible.

I also wanted to say that 1 or 2 jobs is not enough work experience to conclude that all full-time work is awful. You just haven't found the right job.

[ESPwaterproducts]

I hope you're not too disappointed by these responses. Many people are able to work full-time jobs they enjoy and still have time for a full and complete life. Don't think that a job = no life.

Some live to work, others work to live. You are just the latter. Stay positive and good luck!

[mcfroggin]

The better educated you become, the easier it is to follow your current plan. Either that or start your own business with your own hours.

I know many physicians who work part time (20-25hr/week) and pull in $90,000+. Medical school and residency were very tough, but now they love it. I also know many business minded people who worked 80+ hour weeks to get a company profitable and now work <20 hr/week benefiting from a profitable enterprise.

Put the hours in now and you may be able to significantly scale back your hours later while still providing for a family/retirement.

[SFA]

I'm starting to think some of the responses I've gotten from both sections are telling me that this lifestyle I have described is more trouble than it's worth, although it didn't/doesn't seem like it to me. Maybe a high paying job and extreme saving/ budgeting/ investing would result in either retiring permanently at a younger age, or being able to take "mini-retirements" off and on. I may just scrap the plan I have laid out and start over (practice makes perfect).

Thank you for coming to this realization. I preach against frugality. It doesn't work for the same reason diets don't work on fat people. They work for a few months and then bam... back to old habits.

Like you said in your post... a lot of people said it's more trouble than it's worth. Instead, try to get a real job. I'm only 20 and I've managed to get two promotions at my job within 1.5 yrs.. increasing my pay over 20%. I also do consulting on the side for more income and it is what I truly am passionate about.

My point it... age is literately just a number sometimes. No, you're not going to become the CFO of the next company you work for (within that 1.5yr time frame at least), but you can make a decent amount of money at your age. I am a full time college student and do the two things above while having a very elaborate social life (where I spend a lot of money... even though I have an emergency fund, roth ira, and savings).

Bottom line: frugality doesn't work (i have a huge post on my site about this if you want more info... or email me), and I'm happy you came back to reality with your reply.

[maat55]

I think your plan would give you great insight and discipline for preparing for early retirement.

I hope you do it. But I suggest you go ahead and work 40 hours in order to build a huge headstart on your early retirement wish.

Too many people think life is about having stuff. Sometimes, just riding a bike can provide huge savings, build fisical endurance and be an enjoyable past-time.

Go for it.

[lendnotborrow]

What makes you happy

I think you should focus more one finding something that makes you happy. What do you do during your spare time that you could do forever, even if there was no money involved? From there find a way to capitalize on that passion. You'll be amazed- it won't feel like a 40 hour work week then.

[KiwiJo09]

This won't work. Working part-time is not guaranteed. And $250 for rent won't get you anywhere you'd like to go. When you said comfortable life-style and then described riding a bike to work and not having a car of your own, that's not comfortable at all.


Good luck. I hope you figure out what you should do.

[jteezie]

You can do it

ABSOLUTELY Possible!..

But I also recommend school and a part-time job.

For 7 years I did something similar with a minimalist lifestyle. I spent about from $7500-$9000 a year. That included car insurance, multiple cellphone lines, and a few other small "luxuries."

-I ran to work/school so my only cost was a pair of shoes once a year.
-I drove my car about once a month (necessity) so my gas bill was extremely low.
-I found roommates who really wanted a cheap deal and shared a room with one another, leaving me with a nice big room and abnormally cheap rent.
-I lived close to home and got a weeks worth of nutritious but low cost food at a time. (<$10 a day on the high end)
-I only wore white shirts and running shorts to school because that's how I got to class, which meant I had a smaller wardrobe.
-For entertainment, I played free games.
-For vacation, I saw the world through my Military service, and was paid for it.

Despite all these cost savings, I strongly recommend going to college and finding a job you like so you can fund an early retirement account. Given your screenname, I assume you are 16 or 17 years old, a prime age to capitalize on compound growth on your investments. If you truly do not want to work much, the best thing to do is to work a lot now, save, and work significantly less later in life. You are clearly intelligent for having planned out such an elaborate scheme.

I'm 27 now and can say that I do not work for a paycheck. I work because I enjoy working and challenging myself. The financial independence allows me to do things my way and push the envelope. Much like what MonkeyMama says, if you do good work, companies will be lenient on you. I know this as a fact because I've done so many things at work that would warrant 3 people getting fired, but instead I got 2 promotions this year (no exaggeration).