Bored with Success

[noannualfee]

Hear me out.

Married with a wonderful wife and 2 kids. I’ve been working a very cushy work from home job, making great pay with a pension, wife works hybrid with great pay and amazing RSU’s. Amazing home, debt free, solid savings and investments, mortgage is 28% of gross.

I’m bored. I’m looking for small side hustles worth my time but I have no time because of current job and kids. I put some of my old Knick-knacks on eBay and when I get a sale I get small thrill. I’m trying to start small blog but have yet to get approved for ads to make a few bucks, but I barely have time to put quality into the posts.

Don’t have much current desires other than a Rolex I’m on the long waitlist for, and retirement is 15 years away with a Patek Philippe and Porsche 911 Turbo S waiting for me.

Not sure how to get out of this mental rut despite having a solid foundation but zero time to make money out of side hustles.

Thoughts other than sounding like a brat?

 

[User #07242024]

Are you doing side hustle for money or fun? If just for fun, how about trying exercise like walking, running etc. Health is wealth too.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Hear me out.

Married with a wonderful wife and 2 kids. I’ve been working a very cushy work from home job, making great pay with a pension, wife works hybrid with great pay and amazing RSU’s. Amazing home, debt free, solid savings and investments, mortgage is 28% of gross.

I’m bored. I’m looking for small side hustles worth my time but I have no time because of current job and kids. I put some of my old Knick-knacks on eBay and when I get a sale I get small thrill. I’m trying to start small blog but have yet to get approved for ads to make a few bucks, but I barely have time to put quality into the posts.

Don’t have much current desires other than a Rolex I’m on the long waitlist for, and retirement is 15 years away with a Patek Philippe and Porsche 911 Turbo S waiting for me.

Not sure how to get out of this mental rut despite having a solid foundation but zero time to make money out of side hustles.

Thoughts other than sounding like a brat?

I daresay that many would wish to be in a position, or a situation, where they are "bored by success", or bored with their life as it currently is, when one is finally secure and personally happy.

Anyway, my advice is to make time.

In other words, re-arrange your life, your current priorities, to give yourself more time to do whatever it is that you would like to do, to spend time on.

Then, ask yourself what - and why - making money (when, by what you have written, you already have more than enough) is something that you need, and/or whether this is something that you need, wish, want to actually spend some more time on.

Is making money the goal of the "side-hustle", (as it would be for many others), or, is it simply a visible validation of success in this particular endeavour? In other words, is it a mental challenge - a bit of fun - or money that you seek from this side-hustle?

What interests you - you need to ask yourself - about such 'side-hustles'? Is it the challenge of selling something - a specific product? Or any product? The challenge or thrill of the sale? The whole idea of some sort of entirely new, and fresh entrepreneurial activity?

 

[casperes1996]

You talk about side hustles as if the goal is to make money but it sounds like money isn’t really a concern and you don’t really want anything that requires money you don’t already have. So I would advise picking up a hobby focused on fun rather than hustle. Pick up an instrument for example. Take evening classes. Learn a new language potentially with the wife if she’s interested. Or take up pottery; something.

 

[Mousse]

Find a hobby. Woodworking, photography, painting, collecting...anything that brings joy into your life. You don't have to be good at it. To quote one of my favorite authors...

 

[frou]

It sounds like all the different facets of money completely rule your brain

 

[kagharaht]

Everybody is different and sees life and value differently. For me, love of my wife, family and kids overrules monetary gains and toys that can be had with it.

 

[Apple_Robert]

You wrote "I’m bored. I’m looking for small side hustles worth my time but I have no time because of current job and kids."

After reading your OP several times, there are a few things that stood out to me. I also want to preface what I am going to share by saying I am not judging you merely offering insights you may not have realized.

1) Success in life as a person is not measured by how much money one has in the bank, being on a Rolex waiting list, wanting a Porsche, or having a mortgage in the state you do.

You went out of your way to state such things. That tells me you have (over the years) allowed your self-worth and identity as an individual, husband, and father to become directly about money. And that is also how you judge and interact with others. And having money as the mental focal point of your identity means that no matter how much money you have in the bank, or finally get that Rolex etc. it will never be enough.

2) You aren't bored with success.

I believe what you labeled as boredom could very well be a real emptiness inside yourself due to how you currently define yourself, marriage, family, and others you know or come into contact with.

3) You said you wanted a side-hustle but really didn't have time due to your current job and kids. Conversely, you also made note to share in your OP that while you enjoy the ability to work from home, you don't find the job challenging.

A) You failed to mention what should be a very important presence and being in you life, your wife and I find that very telling.

B) Because you may have made money and material items the core of your being and viewpoint of success, it has driven you to do work that you don't find challenging or fulfilling (apart from the money). Because money is your compass, you have allowed it to dictate that you go 'through the motions' (clocking in physically but not mentally).

4) If one measures everything in life by money and status, it always leads to one feeling empty (and unfulfilled) inside and most importantly, it all but secures the impossibility of creating and experiencing deep, meaningful relationships with others.

Look back at your OP. You said you wanted a side-hustle but didn't really have the time. You stated what those reasons were. Do you realize you have labeled your kids as distractions from keeping you from getting more money?
I could very well be wrong here but, given what you said, I think you are living in a house where everyone is busy doing their own thing. And all of those things in each person's world keeps them from seeing and acknowledging the lack of interpersonal relationships in the family.

You set the tone for the family and created ( "Cats in the Cradle" song without consciously realizing it) the very things that have prevented you from being fulfilled inside. Time for you to make changes in yourself, with your wife, and with your kids. If not, you will be forever empty inside looking at your wife and kids and realizing you don't really know them and have been passing like ships in the night year after year.

Edited to add: It takes guts to make the post you did to strangers and I commend you for doing that.

 

[avz]

I would say that as far as being "on a treadmill(in the matrix)" you are doing quite well. It is up to you if you really want to be "the resistance" and resist the degradation caused by the "mice paradise".

"Every housewife must learn how to run a State." - V. I. Lenin

I am guessing that Louise Perry of Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast understands very well what this quote is all about.

 

[noannualfee]

I’d like to thank everyone for all their replies. My apologies if I lacked context, I wrote this while on my desk treadmill taking a break from work. 4:30am PST go figure.

Like what I mentioned, my wife is amazing, happy to spend time with her in the evening. My kids are twins, barely 2.5 years old, we are in the messy middle (cue The Money Guys) filling financial buckets for their future and in anticipation of the upcoming obligations.

I’ve always had a reselling side hustle in my life since I was a kid. And I guess I brought that up because I feel like it’s the only non constant in my life.

My current hobby is fitness and working out, and that I have to sprinkle throughout the day.

Looking at all the advice and replies, I feel like my current purpose is to fill financial buckets because the huge responsibilities I have, and that my paychecks are just meant to fulfill stuff in the immediate for others, and maybe later I’ll see some benefit for myself.

I have yet to get a firm grasp on this made up rut of mine, but I assure all of you my wife and kids are my world, and I apologize for lacking in that context.