TL;DR at the bottom
I don't work and haven't for a few years now, which is what I always wanted, but with a cruel twist. I just got back on reddit after finding out this sub existed and thought I'd share a bit of my story since there seem to be so many like-minded people here in terms of not wanting to work their whole lives.
THE PLAN
My plan when I was younger was to do everything I could to earn and save a lot of money so I could retire no later than age 50. In fact, I actually told several people that if I had to work past 50 I didn't see the point in living and was planning to kill myself rather than go on like that. And I meant it.
So in my 20s I not only went to a university and got a degree, I went on to graduate studies and got an MBA. I worked the entire time, including managing a small business for the local owner during all of graduate school. I also worked three internships and volunteered with a non-profit. All except the last was just to make sure I could earn a lot of money at a good job, and the last actually helped me too because they served as great references.
I was all set to earn and save money for my retirement at 50 or earlier.
MULTIPLE SCREWJOBS
Fresh out of the MBA program, I got a job with a large corporation before I even graduated officially. It was drudgery middle management but supposedly with a great chance to move up. I worked my ass off, treated those I managed the way I want to be treated and was well-liked for it, and in exchange I got…to work there six months until the company started hemorrhaging money, at which time they cut their workforce in half based on seniority. Guess who was the newest management hire so the first to go? Yep.
So I said fuck it, and applied at their biggest competitor. The only job they had open was the one I used to manage, so I took it and did the same work as the people I had previously supervised. My brief experience helped. My boss told me I was on my way to making management again and going even farther, and I enjoyed the work more than I thought I would.
Then I got recruited by another company in an industry I'd never worked in, but for a sales job related to the industry I was already in. I was interviewed three times and offered more money in each, and every time I told the man interviewing me that I was not familiar with his products and would need at least 3 to 6 months to learn more before I felt I could sell successfully. He agreed, and so when he made his final offer at more than double my previous management pay, I took it.
Three weeks into the new job, he was already complaining that I'm not selling enough and began refusing me any time to learn the industry. Five weeks after that, he ended my employment and offered me three weeks of severance and told me “you're lucky to get that”. Somehow I didn't feel lucky.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT ISN'T FUN
So I moved on, got married shortly after that, started a family, and got a job I loved but that didn't pay much in another area of the country. I worked that job for nearly 4 years with no raise while being sexually harassed regularly by my boss. I'd rather not share details on that. I really liked the work – I just didn't like how I was treated.
Finally I found my ticket out with another job doing similar work and paying about twice as much. I liked everything I was told in the extensive single interview (over 4 hours long) and I was a perfect fit for the job. I accepted the position at the small company, then found out that nearly everything the young owner told me during the interview had been a lie. Other than the fact that I had the job and the pay rate, nothing was true – not even my job title, which had been downgraded because he “didn't feel like it should be on par” with his own title. The work from home was taken away as I was made the de facto secretary at the office instead, and never mind the work he'd hired me for. I was effectively an overpaid administrative assistant.
The owner was the most incompetent person I've ever met, and the business only made money because of other people. His mother handled all the sales, I did my job, and his technical person did all of the technical stuff. The only thing he did was micromanage myself and the tech person. After a few months his mother informed me that he had made a mistake in hiring me and offering me so much money because they couldn't afford me anymore. I was let go because he didn't know how to budget at all. Back to the drawing board for me.
DISCRIMINATION SUCKS TOO
I found another job earning a lower rate of pay again, with more pleasant work. This went fine until a new owner bought the company, a subtle racist who became more open in private. I documented this extensively, though he only ever said anything obvious when we were alone. He kept trying to get me to quit with little things like making sure I got the worst work. He then demoted me from full time to part time and put me on the worst schedule for no reason other than racism.
Soon afterward, the racist fired me for supposedly missing work too much (which didn't happen, but he had altered my time cards to suggest it had), and I finally sent everything I'd documented to the EEOC. The person reviewing it sided with me and wanted to know my demands. I met with an employment lawyer and figured it all out…only to be contacted by the boss of the EEOC reviewer to say they had reversed the decision and sided with my former employer. Why? My documentation didn't include enough specific details on exactly what he'd said and done each time, and they wouldn't let me add to it. He was denying everything, and I didn't have signed statements of others to corroborate it. So it was dismissed and my only recourse was to sue.
I found another attorney who would sue for me with no fees unless I got money, but I still would have had to pay all sorts of court and other fees that would total as much as I had recently made working for him in several months, and that had to be paid right out of the gate. Plus I would have had to travel several hours to the court in question unless it settled quickly. I took a pass and the jackass got away with his racist shit.
THE END OF WORK FOR ME
A few months after that, fate would intervene, giving me something of a Pyrrhic victory in my quest to retire younger than 50. While walking along a street, a vehicle driven by an old man who couldn't see properly slammed into me. Thankfully it had been going only about 25 MPH, but it was enough to launch me onto the sidewalk some distance away. The old man denied he'd hit me, either because he was senile and didn't know or to try to save himself the trouble. I don't remember anything about it, but there were cameras on businesses that showed it all, so he didn't get away with that denial. I don't want to detail my injuries, but they were rather severe.
So after some hospital time and a much longer stay at a nursing home, where I made friends with a number of people older than myself, I regained some mobility. I got a lawyer and sued the old man. During that time I also filed for and obtained disability pay. Then came the settlement from the old man's insurance company.
My spouse has a good job and we don't live an expensive lifestyle in an area where cost of living isn't too high. Given the pain I still deal with just to get through each day, the settlement money, and my disability pay, we decided together that I'm done working. I'm officially “retired” and under 50, just not in the way I'd hoped.
NOT WORKING FTW
I go through my days now trying to look for the positive, and it is there. Most of it is directly because I no longer have to work.
We save a ton of money on daycare because I'm able to watch the kids despite my limited mobility. The remainder of my student loans were forgiven due to being disabled. My commute is now zero minutes and I spend nothing on gas to get to a job I don't have or need.
And of course, I don't have to waste my time working only to put up with screwjobs, sexual harassment, discrimination, and other bullshit.
It sucks that I was injured and disabled, but when I look for the positives, many are associated with no longer working. I am glad to be free from the hell of the grind.
I wouldn't wish my circumstances on anyone, but I do hope for the best for all of you who may also want to stop working. It truly is a blessing, particularly if you can get there without going through what I have.
TL;DR – I did everything I could to set myself up to retire young. Then I dealt with a lot of shit at various jobs, suffered a horrible accident and was disabled, and no longer work as a result. I stay positive by reminding myself no matter what else sucks, I did achieve my goal of no work at a relatively young age.