>>This may sound strange, but I am intensionally not going to earn at the same level I have been, to avoid paying taxes and therefore stop funding a hopelessly socialistic system.
I could have wrote that statement myself. Last few years I made really good money (I paid over 6 figures in income taxes those years).
And then end of 2001 I finally got sick of having the govt confiscate more than 50% of everthing I made...I was working 80 hours per week (running my own business) and 40 hours per week all I was doing was working to pay my taxes...I finally said enough.
Paid off all my debts, have a modest savings account, and I am gonna be flying under the radar for the forseeable future. I don't expect to earn more than about 20-25K per year, and besides taxes on my house, will pay NO state or federal income taxes (with a family of 6 you get a lot of exemptions). Can't tell you how good that feels.
By no means am I living a lavish lifestyle, but finally realize that I can live on a fraction of what I was living on before, work a lot less, with less stress and spend more time with my 4 kids.
On their deathbed, no one ever wishes they had spent more time at the office
"By no means am I living a lavish lifestyle, but finally realize that I can live on a fraction of what I was living on before, work a lot less, with less stress and spend more time with my 4 kids."
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On their deathbed, no one ever wishes they had spent more time at the office.
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Congratulations! You have discovered that money is NOT the source of happiness. Many, many souls have gone to their grave thinking it was.
If you can manage to NOT have either a car payment or a house payment (both is of course much better), you can increase your living standard by at least 20%.
The vast majority of Americans have both a car payment (or two) and a house payment.
So who is getting rich? (Or should I say, who WAS getting rich?)
It is (was) the bankers, developers, speculators, and big-ticket vendors (cars).
The saying on the street is that if the "bottom falls out," everyone will be on the same floor. The average American household is in debt in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Yet, the entire world still is beating down the doors, jumping fences and swimming rivers in a mad frenzy to enjoy the priveledges of living in America.