What are you trying to get out of web earning?
by Sapphire (May 22, 2008)
ummmmm Internet Homesteading? Looking for an identity
What Mark talks about here is exactly what I’m doing. I don’t want to be rich, I just want to be independent from the rat race, from cities where the jobs are (but the cost of living is high). I don’t want to worry about whether my day job will lay me off when I turn 50 because there’s such ridiculous ageism in this country. I don’t want to work for someone else until I’m 67 and then hope I can afford to retire. I don’t think I even want to stop working at 67, but it’s unlikely any job will want me at that age.
I want to work for myself. I want to worry about whether I am earning enough to get by, not whether the company that pays me is earning enough to keep paying me.
And yes, I think I can get to where I can earn enough online working 20-30 hours a week instead of 40, and then I’ll have some leisure time all my life for the rest of my life.
And yes, I’m willing (looking forward, in fact) to moving someplace relatively cheap and living a sustainable, frugal life. It’s really a blessing not to want tons of stuff. I do have a couple of extravagances I’d like to buy, and will someday. But I’m not one of those never-ending pits of lust that goes around looking for something new to covet. I’m perfectly content to be perfectly content, and that means I have a lot more options and much more freedom than people who are obsessed with having stuff.
Posted in Staying on Track
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May 22nd, 2008 at 8:09 am
This totally hit home. I think it’s the constant fear for me that I’m going to be laid off that kept me wanting to make a extra “on the side”… and hoping one day that I’d be making enough that if that day ever came that I was laid off I would be OK and not living in my car.
I would love to hear more about this sort of thing - like where someone starts from scratch to work their way up to being independent of the system (to a certain degree of course). What they did to get there - the pitfalls - the good times. Of course I’m that type of person who loves a good story
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 am
[...] about taking things in a different direction with his Internet Homesteading and then I was reading Blue Mushrooms - which for me TOTALLY hit home was the constant struggle to break out of the rat race. I really [...]
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
thanks for the mention.
I’ve been wondering today if I blog the process, like buying/installing solar panels, etc. if i right all those expenses off on my taxes then
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
@Empress, I totally agree about job insecurity. Even when you feel safe… you know anything can happen. I know being on your own isn’t safe either, but at least it’s up to you. When it’s up to a boss who actually sees your salary as a liability, that is even more scary (to me).
Hmm. I never thought of talking about my whole story from scratch - though actually I think it’s pretty much all in here. But maybe I should start talking a bit about my offline life, and how it ties into this whole process of gaining independence from the rat race. That’s… really something to think about.
@Mark, LOL! Hey, I’ve found ways to justify writing off a LOT of stuff on my taxes because of what I blog about. I’m not 100% sure you could write them off (but it wouldn’t surprise me), but aren’t there tax breaks for having them in the first place? There ought to be!
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:49 am
I like Mark’s idea of growing his own veg. The idea is becoming quite popular here in the UK.