Author Topic: saw this article in outside magazine  (Read 1664 times)

Luke Warm

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bacchi

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2021, 09:13:38 AM »
Great article. It's surprisingly honest about the shortcomings of a YOLO lifestyle.

roomtempmayo

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2021, 10:10:36 AM »
Fantastic article.  I especially liked this sequence, perhaps because I can empathize:

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I did eventually learn to curtail the spending. When I was 27, I quit my job to travel and ski-bum, and by that point I had managed to save a small sum that could float me for a year. I called it my fuck-you money, because if I was ever in a situation I didn’t like—stuck in a job or with a boyfriend I wanted to leave—I could say fuck you and go. Living in ski towns is how I learned the dirtbag lifestyle, and to my surprise I took to it naturally and with enthusiasm. My savings sat untouched, and I survived off the wages I made operating chairlifts in Queenstown, New Zealand, and serving barbecue in Aspen, Colorado. I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast and free staff meals for lunch. I stopped drinking for a while, snowboarded every day, and spent almost nothing. I was happy.

When I went back to work, I chose outdoor journalism, placing myself at the intersection of two industries that would never make me rich. I lived frugally; my first job paid $42,000 a year. But as my salary grew, I ratcheted up my lifestyle to meet it. I never lived that extravagantly again, nor did I save much. My spending habits were an incongruent mishmash. I’d camp instead of pay for a hotel, and I wore the same puffy jacket forever, patching holes with duct tape. Yet I rarely thought twice about eating out or buying a new mountain bike every year.

My parents tried to talk to me about investing, but I’d roll my eyes and groan like a child. I didn’t want to be rich; I wanted to be happy. Talking about index funds felt beneath the enlightened alternative lifestyle I aspired to. I wasn’t interested in buying a house either, because a down payment would eat up all the fuck-you money, and then I wouldn’t be able to quit my job to travel or freelance or ski again. So the money sat in a savings account for years, losing roughly 3 percent of its purchasing power annually. By the time I was 34, the single most valuable asset I owned was my carbon mountain bike. Fuck me.

windytrail

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2021, 10:46:26 AM »
Kudos to the author for their honesty and openness. That took guts.

One of the contradictions made apparent here is how the supposed rejection of money (which is thought of as evil and dirty) and the corresponding embracing of "minimalism" in the outdoor lifestyle requires expenditure of hundreds or thousands of dollars: four-season tents, shelters, backpacks, shells, the latest trail-runners, prepackaged dinners, etc. I see a lot of people out backpacking who look like they've just spent their entire paycheck on gear and Patagonia apparel. Rather than being minimalistic, this type of "ultralight" hiking is just disguised consumerism.

On the other hand, the Mustachian hikers out there who have a simple awareness and respect for money are using the older, heavier backpacks and tents, burly stoves that will last years, old leather boots, etc.

scottish

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Telecaster

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2021, 04:42:21 PM »
That was a great article! 

I loved this part:

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Living in Zach’s house, enjoying his shiny appliances and eating grocery-store sushi on his million-dollar porch, I finally had my revelation: wealth was freedom.

I didn't have the same journey has the author, but for many, many years I felt that focusing and seeking out money was an unhealthy enterprise.  You're never going to have enough, right?  And it is just the Devil's lucre anyway.  I didn't have an "Aha!" moment, but I gradually came to realize that if you don't control your money, your money controls you. 


okits

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2021, 10:37:31 PM »
Great article, thanks for posting it, megaschnauzer!

There's an undercurrent of slowly realizing "maybe those things boring, old people did had a upside" (investing, saving, homeownership, sunscreen) and a lot of grace and self-awareness around her past actions, perceptions, motivations.

The discussion around shame and how to approach your financial starting point was spot-on.

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"What I think people should be saying is, Here’s the hand I’ve been dealt. I’m playing that to the max of my ability."

The ending was lovely, too. 

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In the past couple of years, I had seen enough to change my mind about getting older. I had watched loved ones experience illness, injury, loss. I was beginning to understand that getting old was not something to be so afraid of that I needed to act like it wasn’t happening. Getting old was something I might be lucky to do one day.

uniwelder

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #7 on: July 16, 2021, 06:42:24 AM »
Excellent article!  As others have already said, revealing such personal detail about the outdoorsy YOLO life and its implications takes courage.  There's a few people I want to pass this along to that need to read it.

GodlessCommie

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #8 on: July 16, 2021, 11:50:42 AM »
Fabulous writing. What really spoke to me is this: “Choose your low self-esteem, you can feel bad because you grew up having more, or you can feel bad because you grew up not having anything.”

Same with frugality vs YOLO. I've always been frugal, and now I have regrets about not living more. Chasing a life without regrets is futile. Mistakes will be made. She didn't make the worst ones.

Cool Friend

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #9 on: July 16, 2021, 01:03:34 PM »

Same with frugality vs YOLO. I've always been frugal, and now I have regrets about not living more. Chasing a life without regrets is futile. Mistakes will be made. She didn't make the worst ones.

This is what I was thinking too when reading it. And the funny thing about regrets is, you don't and never can know if you would have been better off doing it differently than you had.

Great article.

dougules

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Re: saw this article in outside magazine
« Reply #10 on: July 16, 2021, 02:47:45 PM »

Same with frugality vs YOLO. I've always been frugal, and now I have regrets about not living more. Chasing a life without regrets is futile. Mistakes will be made. She didn't make the worst ones.

This is what I was thinking too when reading it. And the funny thing about regrets is, you don't and never can know if you would have been better off doing it differently than you had.

Great article.

I don't think it's frugality vs YOLO, but career vs YOLO.  The article isn't conflating spending with living more, but about people who are living it up frugally which is relatively easy if you're outdoorsy.  You can get a career and save up for a frugal FIRE or work just enough to meet the immediate needs of your frugal YOLO life.  Obviously I lean towards getting to FIRE, but there are some things that are just way easier to do when you're 25.