BellaOnline Forums Money Frugal Living why do you live frugally?

I am always amazed, Susan, how Western Europe seems to have their priorities straight for living good lives. Happiness studies even show that your country has one of the world's highest happiness ratings, for many reasons. Among which is the inherent value perceived in a balanced life.

How did that get skewed here into the work all the time mode? The protestant work ethic?

Debbie, I was raised in an upper middle class family where work was valued and even saw as a fun activity. My parents LIKED working and making money. They were good at it, and worked hard for it. They also played hard with vacations and such, and the expectation was I would be just like them.

The trouble is that I seem to just hate work. I've tried literally hundreds of careers and jobs up and down the various ladders. I've read books on finding your dream job, taken scores of career and personality placement tests, and applied myself to everything I could think of. Nothing stuck.


I love to learn and hate to work. So my philosophy these days is to live as frugal as i can and enjoy the learning/experiments/time to myself/freedom.

Here's a difference. my mom and retired and has a full time job. because she wants to, not bc she has to.

I'd rather be fishing! And i don't even fish.