Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The High Cost of Living Well
I am uniquely privileged to be one of the few people in this world who can put a finger on exactly how much their happiness (defined as "a contented existence"; some would argue true happiness requires more than this, but for me it sounds good enough) would cost to achieve. I have discovered the one thing in life which I want more than any other single thing, an experience so pleasing to me that a day when I have had it is all but guaranteed to be a good day by my definition, and have calculated how much it would cost me to do it every single day. Adding that result to a modest cost-of-living estimate, I have come up with a dollar figure about twice what I'm earning now, at the job I wish I worked half as many hours and days a week at as I actually do. Ergo, I can construe that my ideal existence will be possible as soon as I can arrange to quadruple my income; this is a more or less achievable goal over the long term, and thus I have hope that I may one day be able to fulfill my minimal requirement for peace of mind.
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Fasc...inating. You have peaked my curiosity.
ReplyDeleteBut don't you mean you'd have to octuple your income? If you're working four ten-hour days now and you'd rather be working two five-hour shifts per week, but you need twice as much money, then you'd have to octuple your hourly income.
Hm, is that what it says above? I don't need my day to go down to 5 hours; heck, it takes me most of 5 hours in a day to start feeling up to the effort of working. My ten-hour days are definitely cracking my sanity, but eight or nine isn't difficult, and I could probably even handle tens if I didn't have such an issue with transporation and if my breaks were longer and/or more frequent. Quadruple income and half as many work days would probably be sufficient.
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