What do you want?

[Milton]

It would be nice to have enough money whereby you never had to be concerned whether it was enough (no matter what the market did).

I don't think that day will ever come for LBYMers like us. It's not in our genes.

Of course, there are plenty of [-]stupid wastrels[/-] grasshopper-types out there who go through their entire lives without any concerns about money, notwithstanding that they have zero (or negative) net worths. But I'd rather be an ant, and not be dependent upon luck or charity.

YouTube - The Grasshopper and the Ants (Disney 1934)

 

[Walt34]

I realized that I don't want most of what I'm told I should.

What have you found you don't want, that you have been told you do?​

​

I wanted a big house with a yard big enough to require a lawn tractor to mow it, then found out I really didn't like spending two hours in the hot sun mowing grass or the 40 minute commute. So after the divorce I bought a smaller house, 20 minute commute, and could mow the lawn in 45 minutes. And it was shaded with trees so it wasn't too hot.

Fortunately I never had kids. Kudos to those who do, but I don't know how you find the patience. With my luck I'd have ended up with one like me. (Why Mom never strangled me I'll never know.)

Gobs of money. I just want enough to pay the bills, go fishing once in a while, have a decent house and a reliable car or pickup truck, I don't care how old it is, take DW out to lunch/dinner once in a while. Of course if someone offered me gobs of money I wouldn't turn it down though.

 

[SecondCor521]

An Ivy League college education. Spent 2 1/2 years at an Ivy League school before I realized I didn't like it. Left there and finished the degree elsewhere.

Being married to my former wife. (I'm in a "good riddance" phase.)

2Cor521

 

[Khan]

Once I realized I was driven by genetic coding, cultural instruction, and ego-almost all the wants I did have, disappeared or were mitigated to a great degree.

Very good Grasshopper.

It is an interesting exercise to observe in the past (and in real time) how one's choices are the result of 'genetic coding, cultural instruction, and ego' and hormones.

Also to realize that one can find such influences hard to resist even while knowing they are occurring.

All encompassing excuse: "At the time, it made sense."

 

[Texarkandy]

What do I want? Why "World Peace" of course.

What else is there to want?

 

[Moemg]

I also wanted the big house on the water . Well I've been there done that and now I'm ready for the smaller house inland but with the market drop it's not a good time to sell .

 

[W2R]

What do I really want? um, erm... How about this:

I want to experience, know, and fully understand the entire and all-encompassing universe and all its nooks and crannies and unfathomable dimensions, within and without. I want the infinite time that would be required to do this, too.

It appears that I am unlikely to get the above, so a second choice would be to live a long and happy life after ER, with plenty of quiet and solitude and no money worries.

What did society tell me I wanted, that I most definitely do not want?

A McMansion, expensive dresses and jewelry, international travel, invitations to huge lavish parties, a boat (again ), a private jet, jetskis, a sports car, and to work until the day I die!

 

[Moemg]

The only thing not society but my Mother told me I needed was a nice Irish Catholic boy and two children at least ten months after the wedding which would last forever and the children would be raised Catholic and given suitable Irish names and win scholarships to Notre Dame or Boston College .The closest I got to that fanatsy was the two children and one did go to Boston U .

 

[tangomonster]

Like all of you, I was told, sometimes literally or sometimes just by more subtle peer pressure, to want:

* children
* a high salary
* prestige
* big home
*clothes/jewelry
* fancy car
* personal services, like manicures/pedicures
* expensive vacations

I never wanted any of these things---and still don't! I suspect I never will....

 

[RetiredGypsy]

The only thing that's been drilled into my head was to have children. That's not happening, but I think at some point everyone around me learned that I was ignoring them and they shut up about any other suggestions.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Don't recall being told I must want the things in the OP list but I do remember mom's mantra, "Get yourself a steady job!" I'm here to work thru the 12-step program to recover from that addiction. Where am I, No. 4, "you are getting sleepy, give notice, give notice...."

 

[Milton]

* children
* a high salary
* prestige
* big home
*clothes/jewelry
* fancy car
* personal services, like manicures/pedicures
* expensive vacations

I never wanted any of these things---and still don't! I suspect I never will....

I have never wanted children, prestige, a big house, clothing or jewelry, a car, or "personal services" (no thank you!).

I do want (and am lucky enough to enjoy) a reasonably high salary ... but only because it leads to FIRE, and because I think I'm worth it (why should I accept less?!). I don't want it badly enough to work like a slave, though.

I do think that expensive vacations can be worth the money (but not going into debt for, obviously), if they involve travel to foreign countries. Exposing oneself to different cultures, languages, climates, and environments is a tremendously enriching and broadening experience.

 

[Urchina]

I was never told I'd want one of these: a 1954 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, see below.

but I do.


I've also been told I don't want to be a farmer, but I do.

I told myself I'd be happy if I didn't have kids. I was probably right, but I have kids and I'm happy I did.

When I think about it, I'd probably be happy in a $10 million NYC penthouse or in a shotgun shack, so long as I had love, friends, and opportunity to dream and work towards that dream. Most stuff is immaterial, beyond that which brings us a basic standard of living.

And while I'm dreaming big, I think I'd like to know how the human story ends, if it does.

 

[citrine]

I would like to have a husband and a kid....but if it never happens, I would not be devastated.
I want time and the choice to do things when I feel like doing them.
I want friends and lots of laughter.
When I joined the forum, I loved diamonds.....not so much anymore.
I do enjoy massages and manicures and pedicures....but I have cut back on that too.
I am happy where I am at.....a couple more months before I go back to work (yay!)

 

[Caoineag]

What have you found you don't want, that you have been told you do?

Children, to be beautiful (i.e. wear makeup and other high maintenance chores), to be ambitious and a workaholic and having a car.

Don't have or desire any of the above items. Might someday far down the road get a car but I neither need it nor desire it at this time despite everyone being sure I couldn't live without it.

 

[haha]

The only thing not society but my Mother told me I needed was a nice Irish Catholic boy and two children at least ten months after the wedding which would last forever and the children would be raised Catholic and given suitable Irish names and win scholarships to Notre Dame or Boston College .The closest I got to that fanatsy was the two children and one did go to Boston U .

Hey, right city anyway.

ha