I think reeshau hit the nail on the head. A lot of professions aren't all that useful but you have to make money somehow so you should pick something you enjoy that makes you good money if you can, that's what I did. I have been on the forum a very long time, I only became a professional gambler about 2 years ago. Most of my other options for work would be making 75k or under which isn't great for retiring and working with people I largely don't want to associate with (see my sexual harassment thread from when I was subjected to an eventually successful witch hunt). I would say that I am doing it in a reasonably eco friendly way compared to how I could be doing it. A lot of people that do what I do travel around in large trucks or campers, I'm doing it in a 55mpg vehicle and as the upgrades become available I'm upgrading it for better mpg.
I thought it was an interesting post because while having to commute long distances isn't necessarily ideal it is a requirement for a lot of jobs and I was wondering where my mileage stacked up on the extreme end of things. I can't see changing much since it would greatly reduce income and the writing is already on the wall that the time I'll be able to make decent money doing what I do is probably 5 years or less. I can't see a sane reasonable person in my position deciding to make less money so they don't put away enough before the ball drops to end up being ok and choosing to force themselves back into working for other people. I'd much rather keep my independence from other people's decisions as much as I can.
I'm surprised with all the FU money threads and everything else that people on here would legitimately be trying to convince me that I should take a greater than 100k a year paycut just to avoid driving. My driving actually doesn't increase my expenses in a meaningful way since I can write off iirc 58 cents per mile and I'm paying self employed tax rates so at 250k a year my overall car expenses are less than the reduction to my taxes.
To be fair, I don't really think anyone is telling you to drive less and make less money. What people are asking is why on earth are you posting about this HERE.
I personally find your story quite interesting and would really love to hear more about it, I wish you had a journal so that I could understand better what your unique lifestyle is like.
That said, I totally did a spit take when I read your OP and thought "why is he asking this????". You obviously aren't looking for advice on how to reduce your mileage or anything like that. So what exactly are you looking for? Are you just looking for fellow longhaulers? I really don't think you will find many here, although I have seen a few traveling salespeople around, and they got the exact same "is there a way you could drive less???" treatment as you have.
So I assure you, the responses you are getting are not because of your job, and they're not grief either. The default setting of this community is to challenge the need to drive. You simply cannot post a thread about extensive driving without being grilled about the actual necessity for it.
That's not a shitty part of the forum, it's actually a feature. No need to be defensive, just expect it to happen and answer as much as you feel like answering. But it will help you A LOT if the purpose of your thread is more clear. You will face max challenges from people when you aren't clear about what you are seeking, because that's when the default mode of this place kicks in, and that default mode is to assume that you are *looking for* constructive criticism of whatever you have written.
Again, not a flaw, that's a feature.
So perhaps you can clarify exactly what you are looking for???
From what I've seen, constant travel is fucking brutal on people. I've known a lot of longhauling musicians and salespeople and I've seen it take a hefty toll. Some people do it for a career they love, some do it for money, some for both. The thing is, all careers involve tradeoffs. Environmental concerns aside, I would personally take a longhauling career over a job where I'm tethered to a cubicle any day, other people are the opposite, we all have different priorities and values.
How do you find it? I can't even tell from your original post if this is something you dislike or don't mind, so again, I'm wondering what you were looking for when you first started the thread??
