An Aspiring Bum on Temporary Retirement

It is not easy to succeed in Western or even Far Eastern countries if you are not top notch in something. Those with good grades or excellent ability succeed. Those who are good b.s artists also succeed. Those who are skilled in the art of aggressiveness and being a go-getter also succeed.

There are also people, like myself, for example, who are probably not destined to succeed in the modern industrialized society.

Why? I don’t like to struggle, I don’t like to make efforts or live in the future. I like to enjoy today and make full use of it. I don’t like to compete with other people. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I would grow up, I would say- nothing. I don’t like to be anything- I am myself already. Profession? None. I don’t need one. If you ask me what the purpose of my life is, I would just say that I am here to contemplate the beauty of it and to taste it to the fullest. Do I like to work? No. I am as lazy as one can be. A bum.

Where would I be happy? In a big city where people compete with each other for jobs, friends, mates and popularity? Only if I were rich. Otherwise, give me a languid tropical countryside any time. I will hang my hammock there and relax days on end. Without any purpose. Or give me some big 3d world city that runs on some god-forsaken and unstable currency so that I could exchange my dollars and start throwing their money around and be seen as a rich benefactor and a visiting VIP.

Otherwise, I would like to be somewhere on some tropical island with no particular goals in mind. Except to absorb life itself, minute by minute. Good food, good company. Who needs work?

Too bad it takes money to afford to be a lazy bum. So, how do you do it? You can become an English teacher abroad, which is not a difficult job. You can put up with it for while. Until you get enough money so that you could lie around for days on end.

Strangely enough, with my indolent personality I ended up becoming a workaholic, a person with great attention to detail and a good saver. I ended up always busy and always doing something productive. All for the sake of being able to afford to become a good for nothing bum when enough money makes its way into my savings account.

And you know what else I have learned? You need to retire while young, and if you cannot do it as a permanent thing, do it for just a while. Some people save for retirement and save and save. And then, guess what? They are old by the time they retire. That is why I have created the concept of TRWY ‘temporary retirement while young’.

How so? Take some money while you are still young and “retire” for a few months or even a year in some cheap country. Taste what it is like to be rich. Get some respect from the natives who will mistake you for a millionaire. Get some dates with local ladies who think you are a hot shot. Sure beats being a nobody back home. Then when you do go back home, you will have a whole new way of looking at things.

And you will also learn that many so-called developing peoples actually have the wisdom that many developed nations do not have. They know how to live their lives so that it can be enjoyed to the fullest. Why not join them for a while. While you are still young, too.

Yes, I would classify myself as a person who always wants to be a bum and who is at home among bums. Rich bums or poor bums. Sometimes, I even enjoy staying on skid rows as long as they are not too dangerous. Kings Cross in Sydney is a great place for one. Actually, my occasional fantasy is to have $100,000 in the bank at my disposal and get a small room somewhere in a poor part of town. Walk around in ugly clothes, unshaven and looking like a bum. Only that you have a platinum debit card in your pocket and can get cash at any big International ATM. I find it liberating to feel that you have no social restrictions as you look like a hobo (to the point where some taxi drivers do not want to pick you up) but you also know that you can end the “nightmare” by checking into a five start hotel at any time.

However, tropical islands where I can do nothing for days on end except eat and sleep are number one in my book. While I am still young and on temporary retirement benefits. Paid to myself by myself.