^ This. I went the university route. 3 decades of exec / office bullshit and after a lot of slog and drudgery and dealing with unfathomable nonsense, I’m settled and comfortable. Most of my contemporaries from school went the trades route and were made before 30. Now all sitting pretty paying others to do their work.
I am a father of an extremely bright kid who I am encouraging to avoid university like the plague and gravitate towards the trades and honest hard work and widely transferable real skills that solve real-world problems, not the bullshit problems of the corporate/executive clown world.
When I graduated high school, I kept switching majors in college. Ended up dropping out and working in construction. Now in my 30s, I bought land cash and build my own house for a fraction of the cost because I knew how to build houses. I'm 35 and own my land and house free and clear.
Well done, fren. I achieved the same end result eventually but my path took 20 years longer, was riddled with debt, stress, and poor health from being a desk bound drone commuter careerist, and replete with mountains of bullshit. You are the kind of positive model I will share with my kid.
I don't know if your child likes the outdoors, but I do, so I bought land out in a forested area out in the country. My house is in the middle of the woods. It's an off-grid homestead with a creek. Solar panels power my house, I raise chickens, pigs and vegetables. I also like to hunt and fish and we have deer, turkey, rabbit and dove. I plan to dig a pond somewhere in these woods near the creek and I think my parents are gonna build their retirement cottage here too. And I have built everything myself. Working in construction, I was around enough of the other trades to where I was confident enough that I could teach myself how to run the plumbing, do showers and sinks, build cabinets, etc. I share this not to brag, but to show that it is 100% possible. Also, the main ingredient, I did all of this with a whole lot of prayer, and if it were not for God, I don't think I would have been as successful in this endeavor
More power to you, fren. I want to be you when I grow up. I am (slowly) on the homesteading route now since our move to the sticks. And yes, kid loves the outdoors. It was the main reason of many for leaving the city.
^ This. I went the university route. 3 decades of exec / office bullshit and after a lot of slog and drudgery and dealing with unfathomable nonsense, I’m settled and comfortable. Most of my contemporaries from school went the trades route and were made before 30. Now all sitting pretty paying others to do their work.
I am a father of an extremely bright kid who I am encouraging to avoid university like the plague and gravitate towards the trades and honest hard work and widely transferable real skills that solve real-world problems, not the bullshit problems of the corporate/executive clown world.
When I graduated high school, I kept switching majors in college. Ended up dropping out and working in construction. Now in my 30s, I bought land cash and build my own house for a fraction of the cost because I knew how to build houses. I'm 35 and own my land and house free and clear.
Well done, fren. I achieved the same end result eventually but my path took 20 years longer, was riddled with debt, stress, and poor health from being a desk bound drone commuter careerist, and replete with mountains of bullshit. You are the kind of positive model I will share with my kid.
I don't know if your child likes the outdoors, but I do, so I bought land out in a forested area out in the country. My house is in the middle of the woods. It's an off-grid homestead with a creek. Solar panels power my house, I raise chickens, pigs and vegetables. I also like to hunt and fish and we have deer, turkey, rabbit and dove. I plan to dig a pond somewhere in these woods near the creek and I think my parents are gonna build their retirement cottage here too. And I have built everything myself. Working in construction, I was around enough of the other trades to where I was confident enough that I could teach myself how to run the plumbing, do showers and sinks, build cabinets, etc. I share this not to brag, but to show that it is 100% possible. Also, the main ingredient, I did all of this with a whole lot of prayer, and if it were not for God, I don't think I would have been as successful in this endeavor
More power to you, fren. I want to be you when I grow up. I am (slowly) on the homesteading route now since our move to the sticks. And yes, kid loves the outdoors. It was the main reason of many for leaving the city.
This is true. I thought about that as I said it.