not wanting to hijack the OP's thread but I wanted to share this so I started a new thread as an aside to the related topic:


I had a best friend growing up in Jr. High and High school, extremely funny and pretty talented guy. Loved to surf and the guy has the uncanny ability to find fish wherever he went, guy could catch a fish in a muddy hoofprint.

Anyway, as we grew up I moved away but we still kept in touch and saw each other regularly, but towards our senior year in high school he started getting way too far into the party scene, which carried on well into his 20's. I couldn't afford to live that lifestyle, both literally or figuratively, so while he was bumming around taking waiter jobs around town I was building a business and trying to keep my head above water. Time goes on and he is still doing the restaurant server deal, and ends up getting busted ( I never did ask for what) and he does a 6 month stint in county jail.

After he gets out, he breaks up with his GF, moves back to Houston and gets a job as a salesman at one of the big boat dealerships there. Becomes one of the top salesmen there for like 5 years in a row, meets a girl with a good job and eventually they get married.
A few years down the road, he has a house on the canal in Galveston, boat in the lift, fishes every day, good job, etc. Life is going good. Call him one day and he tells me he is moving.....to Alaska.

Guy and his wife up and sell everything they own, go to Alaska and buy a house. Told me they have been saving and decided they are both taking a break from the work force. He sent me pics and during the Summer and fall they fish every day, he traps furbearers and just lives his life not really worrying about what is going on in the world.


Granted, the winters in alaska suck and only getting 3-4 hrs of sunlight a day would drive me nuts, but to be honest I'm both proud and envious of his lifestyle change.


Big thing in his favor is he decided to never have children, but to make a big move like that to a place he'd never been to before ( he did live on kodiak island as a young kid but thats not close by ) took some guts.


The professional burnout thread got me to thinking about him....truly a guy who said "f-it" and took an opportunity to live life on his terms. Not saying that would work for everyone or that everyone would even want to, but as I get some age on me the idea is more and more appealing. He is the second person I know who has done that ( one has a trust fund so employment isn't an issue ) and they both seem to be living more fulfilling lives .

I dont know. Having children has been the single most fulfilling thing in my life. Screw all the material stuff and experiences, Im raising my boys and loving every minute of it.

I never wanted to be a father, until I became a father, now 99% of what I do involves my son and I love it.

Never be envious of others, for you don’t know the sacrifices they’ve made.

Live with no regret, you can’t change the past and you wouldn’t be where you are today without it.

100%

My wife and I did not want any kids. We just wanted to travel and do our own thing. We did that and finally decided we wanting a kid. Life was absolutely changed when he was born he is my life now.

Lol, I can verify those last two post as being 100% true.

It wasn't about not having kids....the trust fund guy has children. It just makes it easier to pull up stakes and make a drastic lifestyle change

I have friends that are professional travelers, literally 60,000+ miles a year with their kids. Just depends on how bad you want it.

A lifestyle change without chilruns has no appeal for me. I would die for them.

I apologize in advance 'cause this will offend some good people on here, but...the older you get...the more you realize that folks without children are just...different. Real different. It's been about them, and their schedule, and what they want their whole lives. And, they pretty much know better than everyone else. They're God's children and no, you don't have to have children to have a fulfilling life and fulfil God's purpose. And I say this knowing full well that one of my daughters and her husband are going to be that couple. That's their choice and I'm fine with it. But she's going to be "that" aunt that the grandkids (her sister's kids) may have to help take care of down the road. I'll be long-gone, but you still worry about your child winding up alone at the end of the road.

Alaska, from the tiny piece of it I experienced, is breath-taking. It's also brutal. Bunches and bunches of folks just wander off and disappear forever up there! This dumb Texan would do something in the first year that would get me kilt. Being waited on hand-and-foot at a beach in Fiji is more my style.

I have known guys just like the person mentioned in the OP.....99 times out of 100 they have a wealthy family backing them. I think the mind doesn't equate the full breadth of consequence when you know there is an eternal safety net regardless of the decisions made.
Now the guys that do that and are still self made.....I say congrats.

Not always true. What the OP described is very similar to my story, just replace prison with Army and Alaska with Hawaii. Landed on an island with a few K in my pocket and a credit card in case I needed to buy a ticket back. However, my son (now sons) is what brought us back to Texas. As much as I wished we couldve stayed, family over wants.

Don't knock people who don't have children, Some people are not cut out to be parents and some people shouldn't have ever had children. I know quite a few that if I could I'd send them back in time to make better choices.

My brother has done something very similar. He did well for himself, was married with 3 kids. Once Covid hit he got laid off/quit and has since never went back to work. He ended up getting divorced during Covid, but he says he is retired and he's 36. For the last year and a half he has traveled all over....at one point spent around 3 weeks in Columbia, lives in Mexico about half the time, and basically is just doing whatever he wants.

He saved a lot while he was working and has a few rental properties, and he says he's not going back to work.

Personally, my kids are my world. And I would feel like a loser not being productive so I don't think I could do it....Yet.

He may say he's retired but he's really just unemployed. He would have had to have saved alot to survive a divorce, burn through cash traveling, and live out the next 40-50yrs. 3 weeks in Columbia and lives in Mexico......you sure he didn't just change careers?

The point of this thread was not about having kids or not having kids, it was about major lifestyle changes and absconding societal norms.

I love my job...but, if I had the ability to abscond societal norms and hunt and fish all day instead of work, I'd do it...only if I could take my kids with me.

Yeah, but you mentioned that the biggest reason your friend is able to live the lifestyle is because he didn't have kids so that's what we kinda latched onto

Oh, he's definitely unemployed, Lol. But he did save a lot, and he got to keep everything in the divorce. Made a good chunk of money in the market after COVID. He's just the luckiest sucker you ever met...everything he touches turns to gold.

Living well below your means and saving the majority of your income makes things a little easier, not to mention he has significant equity in his rental properties he hasn't even tapped into. Most people retire with far less than he has. Unless he starts spending crazy money there's a good chance he will never have to work again.

I said it was a big thing in his favor, not the biggest reason he is able to do it successfully. As mentioned by others some people who did what he did have kids, either still in the home or away from the nest.

I know a guy like that….has one business his wife ran and now his son runs. Hasn’t had a job in over a decade, just made some really good investments that paid off over time.

His favorite saying is: I’m unemployed….didn’t say I wasn’t making money

That’s why I didn’t say 100% of the time.
Happy you weren’t in prison.

A friend of mine did something similar when Covid hit. She was a big wig at Bell helicopter. She had worked there since she graduated college (about 20 years) and had been traveling all over the world for years setting up contracts with different countries. One day she and her new husband decided to resign from their jobs and hit the road in a pickup truck and the fifth wheel her parents had gifted them. They had planned on working at National Parks for the summer seasons as camp hosts. Ended up in SD this summer. Sounds so freaking nice.

It’s hard for most to make big changes once patterns are established. Honestly, adventure hunts and travel with our family gave my wife and me the courage to step out and get places in remote areas (MT and FL) that we now enjoy.I did not quit my job but instead used it as a foundation to build on. Being self-employed with flexibility was a big help. If you don’t have family money, stepping outside your comfort zone is a big risk, but well worth it IMO. The world is a much bigger place than most people even begin to realize.

I’m slowing way down and plan to spend lots of time fishing and hunting all over the country in this rig in addition to our other travels. We’ll never abandon Texas but we do and will continue to push our boundaries exploring. It’s a big and amazing world.