I have a few thoughts on this. 5-7 years ago, the
telecommuting idea looked like a good way to realize this.
Today, I think an employer is more likely to hire cheap
overseas telecommuting labor over someone who wants to live
out his dream in a country farm house. At least here in the
U.S. That's just the economics of the thing. Of all the
telecommuters I know, only a few are left. Some kind of got
stranded by moving too far out. If the company you
telecommute for goes under or cuts your job you may be hard
pressed to find something if you've moved too far out.
A few of my relatives have kind of "dropped out" to varying
degrees. One moved to a remote area and has a farm in
addition to a regular job. Another one grows a lot of his
own food, built his own house, and doesn't have a regular
full time job. Some of them tire of this though. Getting
up at 5am to feed the chickens may seem glamourous at first, but
that glamour can wear off after a while. Or having the car
break down and having to make do and take the time to fix it
yourself when it's 10 degrees out might make a bigger
paycheck look better than it did when you traded it in for
the dream.
My first house was old and somewhat remote, and therefore
cheap. But after 10 years of commuting an hour or so each
way it got pretty old. I did manage to telecommute 2-3 days
a week part of that time. But I eventually moved closer to
things and it's been so much better. One thing you have to
consider is that if it's more time you're after, you may end
up just trading time, doing other things out of necessity
(such as commuting or growing food) that take as much or
even more time out of your day.
My new goal would be to cash in enough stock at my current
job to pay off my house and not have to worry so much about
how much I make. The writing's on the wall anyway. I'm in
my forties and it seems likely I'll be traded in for a
cheaper model, particularly since the overseas moves have
started at my current job in a small way. Being able to
move closer was actually that sort of dream realized in a
much smaller way: I was at a job a short time that paid
me both in stock and in cash as incentive for staying
through a sale. That lump sum, while relatively small,
made a huge difference in what we could shop for in terms
of a new house. So one advantage I see of having a regular
job is getting the opportunity to cash in like this, at
least in small ways. But I would say that there's always
that appeal of doing something that's all my own. I think
that would be even more appealing if it were something the
whole family could get involved in. But my caution there is
also experience. I had another relative start two
businesses and get out of each one due to all the hours and
the small amount of payback.
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