How many people here want to be a "bum"

[mervynyan]

Not eactly homeless, more like a freestyle loner travels, doing sh*t job to get by where you go for a year or two.

I don't know anyone personally but always like to read these kind stories. Given the global recession, my job in banking is comfortable but not secure, everyone stresses out. I was thinking with all the family and financial obligations, can I afford to take an exit, and trek alone for a year or two? And come back with few thousand pix to see if I can sell them, if not, no big deal. I can live budgetly while I am still young.

exasperbated, sorry for the rant.

 

[M. Valdemar]

What makes you think you aren't one already?

 

[steamer]

I don't think doing a shiite job to get by pays enough to actually get by these days. Selling your travel photos isn't a big possibility, but if you really want to go and travel the world and enjoy life why let anything stand in your way.

 

[OurManInTangier]

I got most of my wander lust out of my system before I hit twenty, I say most as I still drop everything for the right trip but travelling throughout the late eighties and early nineties helped open my eyes, made me realise I wanted to get paid for taking photographs and enabled me to see places as many no longer are. Maybe I made it to some places just in time, though maybe I should go back now and see if some have changed for the better?!

I don't have children so a year or two away wouldn't be the end of the world, maybe my marriage but not the world. I guess the question is a weird one, can you afford to be a bum?

 

[Ming The Merciless]

I'm so not into my city job. It pays the rent and pays for film & processing. I've got 2 years & 3 months before retirement. I'm counting the days. Then, with my pension(which is garenteed) and Social Security and my cheap coop payments, I plan to be a BUM traveling the streets and doing what I love --Photographing.

 

[yanidel]

You get it wrong, with all respect, you are currently a bum. Reading your post, you are not currently doing what you would like too but yet don't do anything to change, probably because of convenience. I have similar thoughts though ... 🙄

 

[srichmond]

I think it's something I'd seriously consider if I were sorta forced into it, i.e., redundancy with severance pay. I often worder if I'd get bored one month into it.

It was something I thought about when the company I worked for went bust in September.

 

[Rayt]

If you are not married with kids then the world is your oyster. Do what pleases you.

 

[oftheherd]

Join the Army! (or Navy, Marines, Air Force)

3 hots and a cot, paid every two weeks, travel to new places at least every two to three years. What's not to like? 😀 😀 😀

But beware, you pay in other ways, and it isn't for everyone.

 

[kshapero]

In the early 70's I hitched all over the USA. Worked on farms for food money, slept in barns, generally dropped out of sight for about 3 years. A long time ago. It was awesome.

 

[Gumby]

In the early 70's I hitched all over the USA. Worked on farms for food money, slept in barns, generally dropped out of sight for about 3 years. A long time ago. It was awesome.

That is a wonderful snapshot! Looks like the second coming of you-know-who. Did you really wear leather shoes back then? 😱

 

[kshapero]

That is a wonderful snapshot! Looks like the second coming of you-know-who. Did you really wear leather shoes back then? 😱

Hitching in sandels sucks.

 

[Roger Hicks]

A surprising number of my friends and acquaintances live like this, though most actually have an inexpensive base somewhere because you need to be able to store and organize your pictures, and to be able to sell them from a fixed address. I've not had a regular 9-to-5 job in around 30 years, and I gave away my last suits in 1987. 'Take what you want and pay for it, sayeth the Lord.'

Cheers,

Roger

 

[M. Valdemar]

It's nice to reflect on the pleasures of your future underfunded life as a SS receiving wandering pensioner, but what happens if your plans go wrong and you're dead six months from now?

You could get hit by a bus, get a heart attack, or since you're in NYC like me, what's gonna happen when that suitcase nuke stashed in a cargo container goes off in New York Harbor, hmmmmm??

Don't count your chickens.

I'm so not into my city job. It pays the rent and pays for film & processing. I've got 2 years & 3 months before retirement. I'm counting the days. Then, with my pension(which is garenteed) and Social Security and my cheap coop payments, I plan to be a BUM traveling the streets and doing what I love --Photographing.

 

[M. Valdemar]

Or the few thousand dollars you get for your pension turns out to buy a loaf of white bread or a can of tuna in 2012?

 

[M. Valdemar]

Yeah, give up living on the grid. Dump those odious computers, electronic cameras, internet forums, clean underpants, etc.

 

[blackwave]

I'm reading "On the Road" from Kerouac right now. Does that count?

 

[M. Valdemar]

What's an "IdeaDog"?

Can you feed it Alpo?

 

[kevin m]

Move to Vermont. I'm not kidding.

Now that Bush has given us another healthy recession, maybe rents will go down again, business will leave NYC, and commercial spaces will again be available for artists for a song. And hopefully all the yuppies (and oppies) will leave when their apartments are repossessed?

Too late, foreigners paying in Euros own most of Manhattan now. 😀

 

[M. Valdemar]

Don't worry, the Euro is sloshing around the bowl along with the dollar right now.

Nobody will be unscathed.