Easy Mode

I’m heading out to pay taxes. It won’t be cheap but I’ve got money stashed. It’ll be enough… probably. The only uncertainty is how much of my money will remain for my use. I need home repairs. A local carpenter awaits the verdict. Will he get the money or DC?

The point is, once you get over the fiscal hump, tragedy eases into farce. It’s hard to know exactly when it happened (it varies by person and some people never get over the hump) but somewhere in the rear view mirror is the hill I crested. I like to appreciate a good thing when I see it. I’m so very grateful. Life’s endless financial setbacks are nearly background noise.

For example, my 17 year old truck is rusting. Occasionally I get walloped with mechanic’s bills. Then again I haven’t made a car payment in years. Every “unexpected” repair is as much as 2 or 3 regular auto loan payments. Every month without a repair costs $0. On average it balances out in my favor. I bought six new tires in December; OUCH. I paid nothing at all in January, February, and March. I’ll take that trade every time!

There is no guarantee in life. We have free will and must use it. I created the future in which I now rest. For example, in my early 20’s I was poleaxed by a $300 tax bill. That measly three hundred might as well have been three million. It was crushing.

However, the young man facing that $300 bill was an absolute hard ass. He somehow took on a third (!) job (full time college student) and pushed through. No debt, no whining, no kicking the can down the road.

If you start hard (and avoid traps), there will come a time when you can let off the gas. It’s nice. I wish I could gift such peace to everyone. But of course I can’t. You can’t grant a thing that can only be earned. That young man and his third job was an absolute beast. His sacrifice earned my present situation and its somewhat mellow attitude.

I never had shorthand to explain my theory of “hit it hard when you’re young and chill later on”. But Captain Capitalism has it well in hand. One of his ideas (and I’m sure it’s far more fleshed out than mine) is an inversion of the classic phrase “going through life on easy mode”.

CC was talking about a young man who’d hit the world of work hard. Said fellow was knocking out overtime, living frugally, doing all the right things. Nose to the grindstone, eyes on the prize. All the things modern society discourages.

CC went out of his way to call this fellow’s life “easy mode”. The idea being, if you knock out a bunch of life’s fiscal challenges fast and early you have a long, slow, mellow, glide path from the peak you so aggressively scaled. I agree 100% with CC’s logic.

Life is hard. For the young, it’s sometimes absurdly cruel. Don’t bitch about it; deal with it. Do it young. Do it fast. Don’t wimp out. Do it hard. Do it for real. If your early 20s have you eating shit, well that sucks but life sucks. Get it done and over with as soon as you can. Ideally you’ll level up and (in due time) chill.

Life is longer than you think (at least if you’re lucky). The life and career building shit you endured when you were in your 20’s doesn’t vanish. It pays dividends (monetary and otherwise).

Consider the opposite, “living on hard mode”. We see it all around us. Most of the masses chose to do things the hard way. They start out lazy and wind up treading water until they die.

Examples are many. Folks clinging to extended childhood far too long. College that’s not a career investment but a way of avoiding real jobs. Deliberate extended unemployment. Racking up debt beyond one’s means to pay. Living beyond one’s means, etc. They’re self- destructive acts. Piling life’s problems into a taller and taller pile just makes the eventual reckoning brutal and possibly life long.

As CC explains (and I concur) “easy mode man” gets to his 30’s with some solid accomplishments. He’s racked up a decade of experience, he’s paid his way as best he can, he’s good at whatever he does for a job, he’s out of debt or at least kept things under control. It sounds boring, and it is, but that’s the baseline of keeping your shit together.

In his 30’s, a man who ate shit in his 20’s but did so deliberately, has already knocked out  a decade. He’s already seeing the benefits of “easy mode”. He’s steadily pulling ahead of his dipshit, wastrel, over-educated/under-skilled age cohort. Fiscally (and perhaps spiritually) he’s living better; because he’s got a decade’s experience as a full grown functioning adult. He’s already established. He’s starting to shed undue drama. It gets better and better from now on.

For fun I made up two illustrative characters, Hank and Biff.

Hank could weld a pipe at 25. Now he’s age 35. He doesn’t lose his shit when his vehicle drops a transmission. He doesn’t have to. He’s got savings. He’ll attend to the vehicle situation like a man with life experience. The vehicle was old and cheap and well used and has served him well. As a rational man, he knew it wouldn’t last forever. Showing wisdom, he’s been preparing. Hank handles a blown transmission on easy mode.

Biff was chasing pussy at Daytona Beach at 25 and used a Visa card to pay for it. He majored in “work avoidance 101”. He’s absolutely fucked if his vehicle conks out. Biff has no way to take the hit and get back off the mat like a true competitor.

Biff also has student loan bills coming out of his ass. Biff desperately hopes Biden, or Bernie, or some other political shill will erase his student loans. Here’s the secret. When you’re on “hard mode” no one thing can save you. If the government inexplicably eliminated Biff’s college debt, it would do him no good. If the government cut him a COVID stimulation check or a windfall fell in his hands it too won’t help. Not for long.

Biff’s life will still suck because he never learned to overcome suck. Cash will flow through his hands before he can grasp it. His credit card debt will always be too much. His earnings will always be too low. He has no savings and he never will. He probably has a car payment he can’t handle. His biggest asset is an iPhone. Dude’s fucked and he’s going to stay that way.

That’s “hard mode”. Biff entered the workforce late and reluctantly. Ten years behind Hank and always falling he’s a barely paid intern at age 35. He chose a “job which makes his heart sing” and it’ll never pay well. He’s not particularly good at it, has only a few years under his belt, and it’s going to be a treadmill possibly forever. That’s hard mode.

I never thought about it until CC smacked me with the obvious. Here’s the thing I never considered: hard mode never ends. The dude who’s struggling to handle a jacked up car at 35 is less likely to be better at the same challenge 45. He struggles on, never quite handling his shit enough to graduate to easy mode. He’s locked into the cycle of Sisyphus; avoiding the path which he perceives as hard but forever struggling through the friction of his own weakness. We’ve all seen it. The guy who took a couple extra years in college is the guy who’s barely making rent at 55. He becomes the guy who’d like to retire at 65 but just never put money away. Too many problems were pushed too far down the calendar.

I know that some people hit retirement age having failed to pay off their student loans. Imagine that! A decision made at age 21 still punching you in the gut monthly four decades later. Four decades is forever! It’s enough time to raise a family and then raise a whole second family (which a shocking large number of people do). All that time student debt sat their on their shoulders. Such a long time! They bitch when their social security is garnished but they really did have 40 years to do something about it.

I don’t want to make light about the hard part of “easy mode”. It very much sucked at first. Absolute poverty leaves scars. Hard work breaks backs. But it isn’t easier when you’re older. I glad I did it and I’m super relieved the tough part is over!

Note, aging into “easy mode” doesn’t mean wealthy. It means lifestyle and capacity are well in hand. I’m not wealthy but I have absurdly low expectations. I might very well wind up living in a van down by the river! If that happens I won’t bitch. If I’m in a van by the river, I’ll own the fucking van!

It sounds silly but I want to salute the brave, hearty, stupid, hard working, absolutely mercenary, young man I was. That dude ate shit like a champ.

Were you like that as a young man? If so, take time to thank yourself. Seriously, give yourself a good pat on the back. You took the hit early and fast and shook it off. Well done.

That early version of me was always on the hunt for any chance to level up… and he did. He bought me a ticket on “easy mode”. It paid off (slowly) but comprehensively. I didn’t get wealth so much as peace. I’m never as rich as I’d like, but I can pay my taxes without freaking out. There are worse fates.

If I could go back in time, I’d buy myself a cold beer. Of course, my past self was a complete hard ass. He wouldn’t take charity from anyone, even his future self. So I’ll drink a cold beer right now… before I pay taxes.