At the same time, I can imagine that never *having* to work again would make me have much less patience with the small annoyances of work, even if the overall experience is worth it.
I know for a fact that this is something I have a problem with. Back in college, I had a part time job as a waiter and, this might sound odd, but I was actually making too much money! I didn't really spend alot, so most of the tips and wages were getting banked. So, I started cutting back my hours. But, I found that the less I worked, the less BS I was willing to put up with. And finally, one of the managers torqued me just the right way and I decided that was it, called the store the next day, and said that was it, I'm done.
It happened a few years later, too. I had gone through a bad marriage/divorce that left me in a lot of debt, and picked up a second job delivering pizzas. For the first two years, I was often working 35-40+ hours delivering pizzas, on top of my regular 40 hour per week job. And I was willing to put up with a lot, because I was making some serious progress in getting that debt paid down. Once the debt was almost paid off, I started cutting my hours back. But again, I was finding that the less I worked, the less I needed that job, the less I was willing to put up with the various annoyances. Until finally I quit.
I can see it happening with my full-time job, as well. Starting this year, they're making me take more time off, as they changed their vacation policy. Used to be, anything I had over 200 hours would be cashed out to me at the end of the year, but for 2012 they changed it. Now, I can accrue up to 300 hours of leave, but once I hit that level, it stops, unless I start taking time off.
So, little by little, it feels like this job is getting phased out as well. So far this year, I've only taken one day off, the Monday after Martin Luther King day. Didn't do a damn thing all day, other than go with a friend to drop his car off for servicing and then take him to pick it up that evening. Felt good, being lazy! But it was kinda hard coming in to work the following day!
Over the past few years, as I've been saving and investing, I've been seeing a lot of dividend growth in my online brokerage account. In 2008 for example, dividends would have only covered about 2.8% of what I figure I'd need per year to live. In 2009 that went to 3.8%, 9% for 2010, and 16.6% for 2011. For 2012, I'm calculating dividends will account for about 21-22% of what I'd need to live off of.
Of course, right now, since I'm still working, I'm just using the dividends to reinvest, rather than live off of them. But, if that keeps on growing, it's going to be harder and harder to come into w*rk!
