[iteratethis]

Statistically, I'm thinking the group being able to have "life changing money" in their thirties or forties is quite small. Likewise, making reliable income from a passion in the area of arts, music, is only for the few.

It doesn't mean that you shouldn't try, I'm just saying we need advise for the rest of us. If you're not in that 1% group that will make it big at a young age or can retire early, I propose the pseudo-retirement.

I'm middle-aged and slowly but surely optimizing my expenses. Paying down the mortgage. Optimizing the energy use of our home. Going from 2 cars down to 1. Buying extremely durable goods. Cutting useless daily expenses.

The idea is to bring expenses down to such a manageable level so that much less income is needed to keep everything going. Somewhere in the age range of 50-60, we pseudo-retire. We switch to a simple job nearby.

We're in our forties and could already make it on 2 minimum wage jobs right now. We still have a lot of room to cost optimize and if we really stretch it, 1.5 minimum wage jobs in 5 years is on the table, as well as 1 minimum wage job in 10 years. Quite likely we'll go for 2 x 3-4 days/week jobs, but even 2 x full-time would be fine.

The main motivation for this strategy is the very high retirement age (about 70-71) by the time we get there but also to get out of our demanding, stressful jobs. They're frying our brains and sanity.