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The problem is that the one thing I want to do that I'm not already doing is "not work"
I don't have any grand plans to take up new hobbies or anything in my retirement (though I'm sure I'll continue collecting hobbies just as I always have) I just want to be able to do them on my own schedule
That was my focus too, finding a way to have more time to myself on my own terms.
I usually suggest teaching English abroad if you're a native speaker.
You could chant primary colors at kindergarteners online line for a maximum of 20 hours per week, or in person for a maximum of 10 hours per week and clear $400 easy.
You could also teach 20 hours a week for 6 months and then live off the savings for years.
That's minimum wage 400 bucks a week, we'll say you spent $400 for monthly expenses wherever you are, tje other 3 weeks are all your necessary expenses for 3 months without working, or one month partying.
Want to boost your pay? Take an internationally accredited tefl course online for a couple days, pdf tests, that costs 40 bucks and you'll instantly be paid more than the minimum wage($20 an hour's the usual minimum) they pay teachers at any job you apply for.
If having your own time is really the most important thing to you, as it is to me, the process is very simple, especially for native English speakers.
You don't need to do it the rest of your life either.
Work part-time for a few months and then take a year off to figure out If you're doing what you want to be doing. At least you won't be wasting time and money figuring it out.
Do you want to keep vacationing? Then you have already done it and have experience with that.
The next year you vacation it'll be even cheaper and easier than it was the first time.
Do you want to pursue a hobby professionally? You have time to set that up. Or you can pursue the hobby for fun, indefinitely.
That may work for you, and if it does I'm happy for you, but for me, as much as I want more time for myself and my hobbies, one thing I want even more is to not ever spend any amount of time doing anything even remotely like that.
I also have no real interest in working abroad even if I didn't think that job sounded horrible. A week or two of vacation, sure, but by the end of week 2, I'm ready to go home, and that's really the point here, I want to be able to just stay home, and only leave when it's to do something I want to do.
So youre sure you don't like the situation you're in, but equally sure you don't want to leave that situation.
You have a lot of company.
Teaching is not the only option, and no, that's not what I do.
It doesn't sound like you're really looking for solutions yet.
He doesn't want to leave that situation for a nightmare shitshow of a downgraded situation.
He should try something easier that fixes his problems instead.
It's surprisingly pretty rare when someone wants that either.
Because your suggestions are all completely deluded.
They're not better. For pretty much anyone.
Talking to them doesn’t help. I’m a German teacher for new immigrants and I explained how poorly people adjust to a new country when all they wanted was something different, and they condescended to me about not letting my personal experience (with scores of students) color my opinion 🤦
I just hope anyone who’s interested based on what they’re saying adequately prepares themselves. I’m personally a proponent of freer global migration and language teaching, but it’s laughable to think that it’s general advice for people who don’t like their current situation.
I'm all for it if that's what you want to do.
But "you're a hypocritical idiot for not saving all the money from a minimum wage job and finding a dirt poor country to live in or going across the world for some random job most people don't want to do" is nonsense.
I've helped a lot of people stop working, so you're definitely incorrect on both counts.
Most commenters here are responding to their fears or anxieties of being a teacher specifically, which is one of the simplest and quickest solutions (among many) to their stated goals.
If your goals are to minimize work to maximize your own time, becoming an English teacher is a very simple and fast way to achieve those goals.
That is practicality; the opposite of delusion.
There are many other ways to work less and have more free time that you and the others are too afraid to investigate, let alone seriously attempt.
This is very common anxiety, and an example of your delusion you're projecting.
My suggestions, that you have not heard or considered, work when actually attempted.
Maximizing your own time and minimizing the amount of work you have to do is a very simple goal to realize by various methods.
It's just scary for you because If those are your goals and you succeed in achieving them so quickly, it means that you've been wasting your life complaining about something you could have changed at any time because you were too afraid to be sincere and ask for help.
Often, it turns out that maximizing your own time and minimizing work are not your values and goals and you don't know yourself as well as you thought you did, which also frightens people.