Ask Lemmy

As a kid, I was traumatized by the idea that I'd need to work until I'm old and then maybe spend another decade or two being too old to do the things I wanted before I eventually die. I was so distraught over "the way things are" that I constantly fantasized about running away and building my own tree house in the woods to live in, à la Swiss Family Robinson style.

And this was a time before inflation and property prices got out of hand. We were still fed the idea that getting a college education and a good paying job would help us live comfortably, while still saving up for retirement.

Then I joined the US military, thanks to the advice of my uncle who was a retired Air Force Chief Master Sergeant. 20 years later, at only 38 years old, I officially retired and earned myself a pension equal to about half my monthly pay, which I will collect automatically for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, the military did away with the pension program about 7 years ago, so any newbies will have to do their new BRS program. (Basic Retirement System; basically the federal govt's version of a 401K) I was lucky enough to be grandfathered into the old pension program when I retired 2 years ago.

On top of that, a bunch of physical and mental injuries accrued over 20 years (thanks to serving during wartime) has earned me the coveted 100% Permanent & Total disability rating with the VA, which means I get free medical and dental for life, as well as a monthly paycheck from the VA that's bigger than my pension. I'm making more money in retirement than I did while serving! So I can be fully retired now.

My wife also served in the military, but she didn't make it to retirement. She was medically discharged about 12 years into service. But fortunately, her medical issues also earned her the rare 100% Total & Permanent disability rating from the VA as well. So she enjoys all the same benefits as I do, including a sizeable VA paycheck every month for life.

While I was serving, I bought houses in 2 separate places I was stationed, and I rented them out when I left. I hired on a property manager to act as landlord in my absence (since they're in different states from where I currently live) and they take 10% of the monthly rent as their pay, which incentivizes them to keep tenants in the house, as they don't get paid if it's empty. They literally take care of everything; I only get contacted if they need to make a financial decision, i.e. hiring a plumber, replacing a washing machine, etc.

I make sure to charge afforable rates for rent, not price-gouge like a lot of landlords do nowadays. I'm not relying on income from these houses, so I don't need to squeeze every penny out of them that I can. I'm very quick to fix issues, too. These houses were in excellent condition when I lived there (one was a brand-new build when I moved in) and I want to keep them in immaculate condition, so I make sure to do quality repairs and not just cheap patch jobs. I charge just enough to cover my mortgage (which was really cheap when I bought them around a decade ago) plus the property manager's share. When both houses are paid off, that rent money (minus 10%) is just passive income to supplement my pension and disability pay.

I've also been living in my childhood home for the past couple years, which my father owned until he passed away last week, so I will be inheriting the house and all 6 acres it's on. Basically a free house. Oh, and the military paid me a separate monthly housing allowance to afford rent/mortgage payments while I was serving, so I didn't have to spend any of my own money on the 2 houses I bought. The military covered my mortgage while I lived there and tenants are paying my mortgage now. So I technically own 3 houses that I didn't need to spend any of my own money on.

Besides all this, I also have some investments going through my cousin, who works for an investment firm. I'm pretending those investments don't exist until actual retirement age, so they'll accrue in value over the next couple decades and hopefully be a sizeable retirement nest egg.

So through a lot of dumb luck (and some smart choices), I've managed to not only avoid working until I'm too old to enjoy life, but I actually have some decent income to live comfortably on. I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm living cozy enough to relax and enjoy the second half of my life at my own pace, without a job to afford my way of life.

This is what life should be like for everyone. We're not here to work for the rest of our lives, that's just capitalist propaganda, fed to us since grade school. We only get one shot at life, so it should be lived! There should be plentiful options to make passive income in the second half of your life so you can enjoy living. But the capitalist machine doesn't work if there are no workers to power it, so we're stuck in this broken worker bee system for the majority of our lives.