When you look back on your life, you don’t want to regret living a mundane lifestyle that lacked purpose and meaning. Unfortunately, I’m observing just that with one couple.
I have a rental property that I visit once or twice a week to write and relax. It’s a house where I rent out the upstairs and keep the downstairs empty as my sanctuary.
About 90% of the time I visit, they are home. Otherwise, I bump into them coming back from a walk or going out for a walk. It’s strange how I always see them, even though I only go at most a couple of times a week.
The tenants started renting the place at the end of 2019 when they were 33 and 34 years old. They are a couple working in healthcare making six figures.
In 2024, they are 38 and 39 years old, and nothing much has changed.
A Mundane Life Is What They Live
As a landlord, you get to understand your tenants’ financials because they have to submit paystubs, credit scores, and balance sheets as part of the application. My tenants earn a combined multiple six-figures a year, but they don’t seem to be fully enjoying their wealth.
First of all, they are always home. Instead of flying or driving somewhere for the weekend, I frequently see one of the tenants playing video games on his computer when I stop over. Even on long weekends, they are often home, despite having all the freedom in the world.
At 38 and 39 years old, they also still don’t have children. They’ve hinted that they’ve tried, but so far no luck. Having children can be hard, and I empathize. However, if you don’t have children, all the more reason to get out of the house.
Finally, they are still renting from me five years later. Instead of buying a place as mid-career professionals, they choose to rent. That’s fine with me as I need good tenants, which they are. But real estate prices have risen by over 20% since 2019 in San Francisco.
Are they investing most of their disposable income in the stock market or in a venture capital fund, given they live in San Francisco? I’m not sure, but I doubt it. San Francisco is the startup capital of the world, and if you’re not invested in real estate, they you should invest in some private growth companies. Artificial intelligence is booming.
There’s a reason why the average net worth of a homeowner is 40X that of a renter’s. To build wealth, it’s important to at least own your primary residence and get neutral inflation.
Time To Get On With Life And Stop Watching So Much TV
Over Memorial Day Weekend, I decided to stay in my downstairs sanctuary because I caught a nasty cold and didn’t want to spread it to my family. I arrived at 6:30 pm on Sunday, May 26. When I arrived, I heard the TV blaring upstairs. That’s fine, although somewhat annoying.
I decided to go down to the hot tub and relax for 1.5 hours. My hot tub, situated in the back yard, is a great way to sit in peace and think of writing topics for my next post.
When I got back, the TV was still on. There was nothing I could do, so I ate some dinner and worked on a post. At 11 pm, the TV was still on! WTF. Who watches TV for at least 4.5 hours straight? Apparently, a lot of people in America!
I was annoyed because I was thinking to myself, if I were young, healthy, and childless, I’d be going out for dinner, watching a show, or traveling somewhere on Memorial Day weekend. What the heck were they doing at home watching TV for so long?
I was more agitated than normal because I was sick.
More Disturbance The Next Day
I got up around 6 am the next morning to peace and quiet. I didn’t hear anything upstairs until about 9:30 am. By then, I had already written a post and got my workout in.
I met my wife and kids at a park to go for a nature walk for an hour. Then I dropped them off and went back to my sanctuary at 12:30 pm. Ah, peace and quiet at last!
Then, just as I was about to take my nap at 1:50 pm, I hear my tenants come back. It sounded like they were having a party with a scurrying dog and their footsteps everywhere. Ugh, why couldn’t they just go out and enjoy life and let me be at peace as I tried to recuperate from my cold!
That’s when I got to thinking. Are some people destined to lead mundane lives without much purpose? Instead of going on adventures, writing the next great novel, or inventing something amazing, are people just going to stay at home and watch TV and play video games all weekend long?
It seems like it. And that’s really sad.
Live The Untemplate Lifestyle Instead
You’ve got one life to live. Do you really want to spend the majority of it watching TV and playing video games? I sure don’t.
Instead of being a mindless consumer, why not be a creator instead? This way, you can exercise your creative muscle and potentially profit from your creativity as well! Say no to the mundane.
Spend some time seeing the world to gain more perspective. I grew up in six countries and worked in international equities for 13 years. The world is amazing! Go live that excitement and experience different cultures.
Do something uncomfortable and new! The more uncomfortable something is, the more you know you should do it.
Don’t Look Back On Your Life With Regret
In five years, I suspect my tenants, who will be 43 and 44, will still be doing the same thing—working Monday through Friday so they can stay in on the weekends to watch TV and play video games.
It would be one thing if they were trying to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), but they are not with their two cars, an expensive $3,500 bicycle, and lack of homeownership.
I wish I could tell them that, according to Socrates, “An unexamined life isn’t worth living.” Instead, I can only observe how monotonous and meaningless life can be and warn you not to fall into the same trap.
Go and live the untemplate lifestyle. If you don’t, you will regret it.
A Mundane Lifestyle is an Untemplater original post.
Single people and couples without kids really can’t fully grasp how much free time they truly have until later on in life if they end up having kids. I understand how time at home and unwinding with TV is enjoyable. But not all the time, especially on a holiday weekend. It’s SO easy to get out and see friends, go on dates, party, travel, and go on adventures without the responsibilities of parenting. I didn’t have a huge social life before kids, but I traveled a heck of a lot. I was never really into video games except when I was a kid. And even then, I could only play for an hour max or I felt like my brain was getting sucked into a vacuum.