Originally Posted by Cynthetiq @ 08-14-2003, 02:28 PM

demin puts it well into perspective... don't get into debt and save up money so that you can do what you want with the 2 days a week you have to yourself, and the 2 weeks a year you have for vacation. That said... sometimes you have to sacrifice a little to gain alot.

right now i commute 1 hour by train. i see the same people every morning on the train give or take 5 or 10 depending on the time of year. i don't see them on the way home, mainly because we have differing schedules in the PM. but my PM sometimes is spent going to broadway shows, movies, outings with friends, walking around the city, AND doing other work for other people. Why? because I want to get ahead even more than I am. the more $ I have at my disposal the more things that I can do when I want to do them, the more things I can buy when I want to buy them.

I recently purchased an apartment in Manhattan, my commute will be 30 minutes. I did this by making small sacrifices like working a few more here and there, AND not buying stuff that I want to buy like PS2, lunch (i brownbag it 3-4 days a week). Some people don't want to make sacrifices, so they sacrifice on the other end of the equation.

Facts of life simplified:
You have to keep a roof over your head.
You have to eat food.

Since I suck at hunting and building my own shelter I have to do something that gives me something that i can trade for housing and food, thus I work. I trade my time and knowledge for $$$. In turn, I spend some of that money on housing and food. After that everything else is a distraction...