From the moment I graduated I was always on a mission to make as much money as possible. 10 years ago I trebled my money by going to work in London. The hours were long and the week was ruled out. At the time an older friend said to me ‘you will adjust your lifestyle and spend the money’ I was having none of it and didn’t believe that possible. Well, he was right. And after 10 years of Waitrose shopping, daughter has a horse, nice meals out … we are no further forward financially and I am now thinking what’s the point, I only spend it on rubbish.

A guy I regular see at the beach windsurfing works for himself fitting kitchens and tells me he scrapes by and as long as he has money for diesel, can pay the rent then that’s all that matters to him. He reckons he works about 7 months of the year.

I am keen to hear stories from those who woke up and decided a minimal existence with less disposable income, but more control of their destiny was the answer.

we are no further forward financially

wouldn’t argue with that, same as people slaving over huge mortgage for large house. It becomes all consuming for what? Makes you happier? Doubt it. You certainly miss out on quality stuff.

Anyone packed in the big bucks rat race for a simpler existence?

Never entered the race to start with.

Perfectly happy, finish work by 5 every day, never work weekends. Love it.

(And I love my job too)

and there I was thinking about doing the opposite and going for the big bucks…to ideally save enough to be able to give the kids a house deposit, pay for uni if they want to go, etc. Happy in the house we’ve got and saving a decent amount as it is, and more than comfortable given we don’t have a big mortgage, but the increase potentially available is life changing… but it would probably mean no mid week night rides and more hectic working weeks…more stress, etc.

i have always lived a simple life..steered as far away from following the jonses as possible.
never taken a job unless i could cycle to work, never worked any form of overtime, never wanted to own a flash expensive house or car.

work to live rather than the alternative……it is a easy thing to do, just remember you dont have to own the best of everything.

I’ve moved away from London but never managed to earn big money while I was there, so not quite the same but I will say that if you move out from London the major saving has only been in housing cost, and if you bought in London 10+ years ago you might not have too big a mortgage. If you only downsize in house and not in lifestyle the drop in wadges from London to not London will not be compensated for by a cheaper house. I.e you will need to change your entire life, not just your house.

Yes.

I’m hardly on subsistence income though, and still go to London once a fortnight, and couldn’t have as cushy a life if Mrs stoner didn’t have a good career as well, but she too has downsized from a v high stress high paid London city job.

We don’t do new cars or expensive foreign holidays but we have nice bikes and a little cupboard in the alps.

But most of all I get to spend all the time my boys are not in school with them and not resenting the stolen hours lost in an office.

New a guy years ago who packed in big IT job in London. Moved to Edinburgh to do bike tours of the city with tourists for six months of the year. Minimal overheads and earned enough to **** of skiing for the winter months each year. Did it for a few years before getting married then returned to IT.

I do find it staggering that a search for part time Senior IT dev jobs reveals nothing. The ‘work to live’ mentality still seems to raise eyebrows. Shame, that more options to get the balance right in the professional sector still do not exist.

The ‘work to live’ mentality still seems to raise eyebrows

raising eyebrows is something that has never bothered me…..being happy is far more important.

I think the trouble with part time it (depending on the area of it) is that it can be hard to split some tasks to share or if the task is not shared in takes too long in the time line. This is a least try in my experience from a development POV.

I always think about downsizing, but then I think ‘whilst I’m earning a good wage, I may as well save as much as possible for a rainy day’….

When I was younger I did the usual back packer route of s/e Asia, met a guy from Manchester who had grafter for 10 years 7 days a week to buy and do up and rent cheap 2 bed houses, he ended up with 6 houses with tiny Morgages and at 35 lived 20 feet from the beach with his Thai mrs and kids and planned to never work again and could live a simple life off the rental income alone…

Sort of…..

Had a very successful 1990s in my twenties. Did well career wise, didn’t have a really extravagant lifestyle but had a good enough house down south, decent holidays, company car.

Got made redundant after a takeover in 2000. Pursuing my career would have meant a 2 hour each way commute into London, and we wanted to start a family and afford for one of us to stay at home. So we moved to the Midlands.

I’ve drifted through a variety of jobs, turned down opportunities to climb the greasy pole. MrsMC has worked part time around kids and put her career on hold. Still managed to pay off the small mortgage we had, have basic but decent cars, basic holidays, but have had a great work/life balance.

That said, I am now rather trapped in a job I hate with no real prospects of getting out and getting anything better. MrsMC has gone full time while I have gone part time, but we are still on £20k less than we were 16 years ago, with two extra mouths to feed and clothe.

Several mates have recently made good career moves and doing well for themselves, and part of me envies their ability to buy nice stuff for themselves. But they envy me our lifestyle, so it works both ways.

The trick is not to increase your expenditure if your income increases. BUT no-one does, you spend what you earn unless you’re very wealthy. You might think Ohhh I’d like a bigger house and if you can afford to you do but if you can’t you make do in the smaller one. Why would you make do in the smaller one if you can afford a bigger one??

The trick is not to increase your expenditure if your income increases. BUT no-one does, you spend what you earn unless you’re very wealthy.

So true. Since I got made redundant last May I have noticed that my spending on ‘stuff’ has dropped right off. I suspect that it’s because I am more relaxed and not trying to fill a void with materialistic rubbish. Trouble is, I need to get a job very soon and don’t want to fall back into the same routine.

I lasted 8 months in the corporate rat race, quit my career ladder graduate job because I just came to the realisation that I didn’t want to play that game.

That was about 18 years ago, and never regretted it – we don’t have much money, but we have enough.

That. I just didn’t get drawn into the bigger house thing, didn’t have expensive new cars every year and didn’t splash on big holidays. That put me in a position to retire early and just carry on working for pocket money and fun. There was a couple of times in my 30’s and 40’s that I could have taken on a different, better paid, role at work but it always meant more stress and travelling. I think there’s a point where you need to just look for a better balance.

I just change my partners depending on what sort of lifestyle i want to lead!

A guy I regular see at the beach windsurfing works for himself fitting kitchens and tells me he scrapes by and as long as he has money for diesel, can pay the rent then that’s all that matters to him. He reckons he works about 7 months of the year.

I reckon he hasn’t kids like you, different world.

Money buys you choices. I’ve had friends enviously talk about my work life balance but i have to point out to them that we didn’t have a family holiday last year because our boiler broke. Or that I don’t drive a nice car because i will never afford one. Or that my kids won’t ever learn to ski. And I’m probably not any happier than you!

But saying that, my brother chose a different career path and has a Porsche and kids in private school and I wouldn’t swap for his salary.

You’ll regret not doing something more than doing it. Good luck.

I’ve gone from working as an editor in London and constantly overtiming to earing half as much working for a local authority out in the sticks. I build and maintain trails + public rights of way and so im oitside all the time. The work is fairly grafty 70% of the time, with some office wotk thrown in. Super flexible working hours mean i get to do the good stuff ehrn i want to. I’m only 27 so I was never earning mega dollar in the city, but I’m now about a year away from buying a house, on half the wage I was on in London ad compared to… ummm… never.

Like others I spend less money on ‘stuff’ now. There’s definitely mileage in the idea of ‘have less appreciate more’

Likewise the confucian proverb ‘choose a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’

Never been happier. Quit your job, sell your kids and move to the hills.

House… sell your house.

I packed in IT to open a bike shop, big mistake, now doing IT again and loving it and still got the shop, so now got twice the stress lol

I’ve been in a really low stress job for ten years. Pay was o.k. but I finally got too bored. I’m moving into a longer hours more stress and more money role. I now have a one year old daughter, my motivation is to provide for her. I am going to try really hard not to get caught up in lifestyle inflation.

It’s all about balance as far as I am concerned . I work hard but make sure I do most of the things I want to do….but then running your own business allows you to make choices.

Just handed in my notice after teaching 15-odd years. We have always been pretty careful with money but my salary will be dropping quite a lot for the new job…

Ill keep you posted as to whether it’s a good move or not 😯

We had decent salaries but never spent much. Having no kids makes that pretty easy. Jobs were good fun, hard work at times but we enjoyed it for quite a while. Finally got sick of it, walked out. Not sure if early retirement really counts though!

I settled for being skint from the start and carrying on like that.

I reckon he hasn’t kids like you, different world.

One of my customers said that it must be great working for myself as I can choose when I work. I could only reply that yes it was, if I was happy choosing when I could afford to eat and pay the bills.

I was forced into escaping the rat race a couple of years ago due to redundancy although by the time the axe fell I was pretty sick of it all anyway. Being my own boss is satisfying and it is nice to step off the treadmill of career advancement; it allows you to focus on doing a good job and trying to get real satisfaction from your work, not just trying to hit somebody elses targets all the time.

Living a simpler life quite often means earning less money(although not always). If you are happy to do so and just get by then go for it. However,the grass is always greener and all that…

Packed in a 60 grand job working in TV to go back to college and bag myself a 22 grand a year job as a physiotherapist. I don’t think I’ve ever been at a happier place in my life

On the flipside, what do all these free living types do about pensions?

It’s easy to have a simple life until it isn’t.

It’s easy to have a simple life until it isn’t.

Live fast die young….

On really through choice but left a solid job in the UK, I’m now part time, living in a shared house and earning a lot less but in the last 12 months I’ve seen and done more than in the last 5 or 10. It’s not all awesome and after 3 quiet months the appeal of a regular pay cheque and job security is very appealing but then again busy Feb coming up, work are paying for a chunck of the travel fory next race as it lines up with a job, today I’m having a slow day so I set some stuff going and now I’m enjoying a pint by the harbour in the sun.

I do wonder if I could ever do full time again.

It can be done…but having kids makes it much more difficult.

Not sure it’s possible with a partner and kids as the saying goes “money’s not important until there is none”

Corporate and personal pension contributions during those early well-paid years gave the pension fund a kick start, starting aged 20. Too many people don’t get going on their pension till far to late.

As a self employed worker, I still take my retirement planning seriously and invest as much as I can afford of what I earn in good years, not into locked away pensions but accessible assets we can call on in times of need, lean years or during retirement.

Not that Mrs stoner and I really intend to completely stop earning income until our 70s+.

I wouldn´t say that it was big bucks I gave up but definitely a good job with my career going somewhere. Now I have a good lifestyle and am a lot happier. I have far fewer material things, (other than the toys directly connected to my job) but maybe because I´m happier I don´t feel the need for things. It´s definitely true about kids though, we have a 2 year old and I have found myself thinking more about the fact that I will never have much money to buy her things and whether it is fair to impose my “lifestyle choice” on her. On the other hand she has a father who is happy in life and can wheelie her all the way to school. She also has the best bike in the neighbourhood. If our daughter was on the scene when we made the decision to change our lives the decision would have been a lot, lot harder. It´s especially true because with the industry I worked in all my knowledge is now 8 years out of date and really there´s no going back.

Corporate and personal pension contributions during those early well-paid years gave the pension fund a kick start, starting aged 20. Too many people don’t get going on their pension till far to late.

Hmm 3 years on close to minimum wage followed by 10 years of contracting didn’t help mine, compulsory 9% employer contribution here in Oz is helping now, well would do if I was full time

The need to have an exit-route as it were has been a major reason as to why I’ve not had kids.

Starting the check-out, currently… Looking at:

The pension has me trapped in my current job, however in reality it’s not enough to stop working when I’m anything less than 70. My dream (the current one of many) is to train as a pilates instructor and run evening classes, freeing up day times to look after my daughter a few days a week, get a dog, ride / run / walk more with it and I’d happily do that into my 70’s.

My pessimistic view is that I’m saving for an increasingly short period of my life. Ill be working ’til older and if family history is anything to go by, cancer will get me before I’ve had a few years from it. Should be living for now, to turn that into a positive.

EDIT: i most envy Doug (basque mtb) here. If I was your daughter I’d think you were an awesome Dad 🙂