Register for Free
Post comments, receive updates via email, gain access to exclusive content, and more.
Spam Safe!
Advice for a Career Quitter...
After three years of research on the economy and peak oil, I am certain that I will leave a perfectly fine job of 25 yrs at the end of this year. I'm in an energy related field. I enjoy the actual work but I am tired of being on the road 4 months/yr, stressed out bosses, overzealous bureuacracy and feeding the flippin' banks. The main reason for leaving is that 2/3rds my life's savings are locked up in a private stock that comes with the job. It makes excellent, steady returns. I could convert that stock into cash money within a month. But, if hyperinflation, soveriegn default or currency crisis were to occur, then it could get locked up and dwindle quickly to nothing.
I have a modest amount in gold/silver already. My wife and I both grew up with farm/ranch backgrounds and have a multitude of skills for self-reliance. We have: 1.5 acres of land in a small town; irrigation water; a shop full of tools to work steel, wood or concrete; 6 month supply of food; two vehicles and a small diesel tractor that will burn either diesel or waste veg oil; about 400 gallons of fuel for those engines; a few firearms, a 22' x 48' greenhouse, several fruit trees and a whole assortment of building materials.
My plan is to sell my shares at the end of this year, put my efforts into developing a self-reliant urban homestead, installing renewable energy equipment (which with cheap local energy prices will not pay the bills in the short term) and doing some engineering consulting on the side.
I plan to put my life savings into PM's, USO index fund and renewable energy equipment for the homestead.
My question is for the CM community who have dropped out of or downsized their careers:
What advice would you give me based on your experience? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? If you had it to do all over again, how would you do it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
- mooselick7
Print
So true. It's not just what is taught, it's the way in which the education system operates. It truly diminishes creativity and even self confidence of the students by channeling them into a preset way of life. The items that are taught are not connected to the real world in a very direct manner. And the model is totally wrong, instead of demand pull, it is supply push (I paradoxically sound academic now). We have teachers and education "standards" that force "knowledge" upon students that (often) don't want to learn it. If we inverted this and told children to pursue their interests, letting them know that education is one tool at their disposal, it might be a bit different. The greatest things I've learned have been outside of the classroom, in far less time, and for far less cost. That ought to say something.
-formerly StudentOfJefferson, reporting live from the Washington D.C. Metro Area
Mooselick,
I have a lifestyle similar to what you're setting up and the only regret I have is I didn't do it sooner!
I think you're gonna like it. As far as specific advice, it seems to me you've got all the big things covered very well and after that the little things seem to take care of themselves and are easily resolved. Sorry I couldn't be of more help but it doesn't seem to me that you need it.
Good luck and congratulations!
mooselick-
I'm actually in a similar spot as you in that I'm weighing options for dropping out of my present career (though I've only been at it less than 5 years), partially due to the weak long-term future prospects but mostly because I feel I can accomplish more for my family (and society in general) as an entrepreneur. So I'd also like to hear what others who've made the break from traditional careers have to say about how they did it and what worked best and what didn't. Like health insurance for example... have most people opted for expensive self-bought insurance plans, less expensive 'catastrophic' insurance, had a spouse who provided insurance through their job, or something else entirely?
- Nickbert
"An economist is a man who knows a hundred ways of making love but doesn’t know any women." -Art Buchwald
As to the health insurance question...we started our own business 3 years ago and my husband insisted on keeping the expensive insurance because we have three kids.
One year later my husband suffered a massive heart attack and after two surgeries our insurance company paid the $175,000. bill. Our total cost $516.
Soooo IMO always own good health insurance, no matter what else you cut out.
Now if i could only buy my husband life insurance 
- but alas that will now never be possible. So we are buying farmland to leave to our children.
South-East, Michigan
moose, glad to hear you're leaving a life of stress of "doing" to feed the capital holders so you can have bank credit. I think the key as you move on from that system is to adjust internally from the "doing" culture of empire to the "being" of relationship and local community. Carolyn Baker writes about this. she suggests it's far harder to do than those of us stuck in empire realize partially because most people around you will assume something is wrong with YOU. finding camaraderie and community to join you will be a challenge if your process is like mine. makes me want to live in a lesser-developed country where being and relating is the basis of their societies rather than "doing" and collecting bank credit.
actually this is related to something I just read in a Henri Nouwen book:
[talking about how a man with Down's Syndrome, Adam, taught him that being is more important than doing] Most of my past life has been built around the idea that my value depends on what I do. I made it through grade school, high school, and university. I earned my degrees and awards and I made my career [culminating in a professorship at Harvard]. Yes, with many others, I fought my way up to the lonely top of a little success, a little popularity, and a little power. But as I sit beside the slow and heavily breathing Adam, I start seeing how violent my journey has been. this upward passage has been so filled with desires to be better than others, so marked by rivalry and competition, so pervaded with compulsions and obsessions, and so spotted with moments of suspicion, jealousy, resentment, and revenge.......I know Adam is right because after four months of being with him I am discovering in myself the beginning of an inner at-homeness that I didn't know before. I even feel the unusual desire to do a lot less and be a lot more...
Thanks much for the wisdom! Here is a little feedback:
Davos, I did not go to MIT but went to an engineering college. The lectures dont mean a thing without maturity and practical hands-on. Youth is wasted on the young. I firmly believe learning how to learn transcends any formal education. You got that going for you.
Mike, agreed.
earth, thanks!
Nick, there must be some kind of way outta here said the joker to the thief...
Roman, Before Obama's coupe, I could not get insurance because of preexisting condition (cancer) Now if I can only afford the taxes without a job! Thanks for the reminder.
Strabes, I have been a human doing for so long that I dont know what a "human being" feels like! Maybe it is a like after a 2 week backpack trip or a weeklong drunk float trip...Im looking forward to finding out! 
Thanks for your help, Everyone!
Why not resign, cash out your stock, and then hire back on as a consultant. As the saying goes, you might not want to give up your day job. I was in a job sharing situation for a number of years where I had my summers off which was wonderful except for the fact that there wasn't much money to play with during this time off. The absence of a steady cash flow can be anxiety creating for someone who is very security conscious (like myself). Sounds like you're in a very good situation though except I would want a bit more land and I would want to be out of an urban situation (unless your small town is rural). I would stay away from USO though ... it could blow up on you.
I took a 6 month sabbatical many years ago when I fully experienced what this freedom feels like. It was the best experience of my life. I've never been more relaxed or more at peace yet still fully excited about life. In fact, I think the experience saved my life. I felt like a fully realized human being rather than the human doing I have partially reverted back to. Unfortunately, I have about 4 1/2 more years before I can throw the yoke off again and once and for all. I envy you. Good luck.
Why not resign, cash out your stock, and then hire back on as a consultant. As the saying goes, you might not want to give up your day job. I was in a job sharing situation for a number of years where I had my summers off which was wonderful except for the fact that there wasn't much money to play with during this time off. The absence of a steady cash flow can be anxiety creating for someone who is very security conscious (like myself). Sounds like you're in a very good situation though except I would want a bit more land and I would want to be out of an urban situation (unless your small town is rural). I would stay away from USO though ... it could blow up on you.
Thank for the input, AO I have considered resigning, cashing out and hiring back. Problem is that I would be right back where I started with travel and no home time. Consulting for my company on a limited, short term basis is an option as long as I leave with some grace. However, this company wants my skin in their game so to come back at my present level of responsibility without that skin is not possible.
Lack of steady cash flow is already a source of anxiety - that is what keeps the world turning; until Atlas shrugs.
I would like to hear more of your opinion on USO. After risk-mitigation analysis on two multi-billion dollar oilsands projects, I know oil prices are going to increase and oil processing infrastructure needs a major overhaul - that is about all I know. I am not savvy on finance and investing but it seems like a USO index fund would grow with escalating oil prices and more infrastructure work. Is there a better place to invest in oil?
Thanks, again.
After three years of research on the economy and peak oil, I am certain that I will leave a perfectly fine job of 25 yrs at the end of this year. I'm in an energy related field. I enjoy the actual work but I am tired of being on the road 4 months/yr, stressed out bosses, overzealous bureuacracy and feeding the flippin' banks. The main reason for leaving is that 2/3rds my life's savings are locked up in a private stock that comes with the job. It makes excellent, steady returns. I could convert that stock into cash money within a month. But, if hyperinflation, soveriegn default or currency crisis were to occur, then it could get locked up and dwindle quickly to nothing.
I have a modest amount in gold/silver already. My wife and I both grew up with farm/ranch backgrounds and have a multitude of skills for self-reliance. We have: 1.5 acres of land in a small town; irrigation water; a shop full of tools to work steel, wood or concrete; 6 month supply of food; two vehicles and a small diesel tractor that will burn either diesel or waste veg oil; about 400 gallons of fuel for those engines; a few firearms, a 22' x 48' greenhouse, several fruit trees and a whole assortment of building materials.
My plan is to sell my shares at the end of this year, put my efforts into developing a self-reliant urban homestead, installing renewable energy equipment (which with cheap local energy prices will not pay the bills in the short term) and doing some engineering consulting on the side.
I plan to put my life savings into PM's, USO index fund and renewable energy equipment for the homestead.
My question is for the CM community who have dropped out of or downsized their careers:
What advice would you give me based on your experience? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? If you had it to do all over again, how would you do it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
- mooselick7
The reason to stay away from USO is that it's TRYING to track the price of WTI but having to roll the contracts forward. Below is an article that discusses it, but I also had seen another chart somewhere else that showed OSU losing out to WTI at some 68% ratio.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/123577-i...
If I had money to invest, I'd do it in a variety of commodity/hard asset producers, and maybe even a Texas pipeline MLP.
That said, I'm jealous. I'm trying to save money to invest in one day but I think maybe I was born too late and the crash will happen well before I've had a chance to really prepare.
Poet
After three years of research on the economy and peak oil, I am certain that I will leave a perfectly fine job of 25 yrs at the end of this year. I'm in an energy related field. I enjoy the actual work but I am tired of being on the road 4 months/yr, stressed out bosses, overzealous bureuacracy and feeding the flippin' banks. The main reason for leaving is that 2/3rds my life's savings are locked up in a private stock that comes with the job. It makes excellent, steady returns. I could convert that stock into cash money within a month. But, if hyperinflation, soveriegn default or currency crisis were to occur, then it could get locked up and dwindle quickly to nothing.
I have a modest amount in gold/silver already. My wife and I both grew up with farm/ranch backgrounds and have a multitude of skills for self-reliance. We have: 1.5 acres of land in a small town; irrigation water; a shop full of tools to work steel, wood or concrete; 6 month supply of food; two vehicles and a small diesel tractor that will burn either diesel or waste veg oil; about 400 gallons of fuel for those engines; a few firearms, a 22' x 48' greenhouse, several fruit trees and a whole assortment of building materials.
My plan is to sell my shares at the end of this year, put my efforts into developing a self-reliant urban homestead, installing renewable energy equipment (which with cheap local energy prices will not pay the bills in the short term) and doing some engineering consulting on the side.
I plan to put my life savings into PM's, USO index fund and renewable energy equipment for the homestead.
My question is for the CM community who have dropped out of or downsized their careers:
What advice would you give me based on your experience? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? If you had it to do all over again, how would you do it?
Any help would be much appreciated!
- mooselick7
What I learned:
What I'd have done differently - Gone to MIT and audited any and every course that is of interest. I would have like to have learned more how things work earlier in life (things like the economy etc.). I wish I would have realized that most of what I was taught is utter and absolute BS, from what makes a plane fly to what inflation is - this world is replete with jacked up teachings.