Hi folks! Long time lurker and first time poster in this sub. I'm 33, and even at a young age I noticed my attitude towards work, retirement, money, and careers were quite a bit "different" from most people.

My mother was a teacher, so as I was going through school we would both have Summers off, lengthy Christmas and Easter breaks, holidays, snow days etc. I always looked forward to those breaks during the school year. I did not that some of my friends' parents had to work year around, and I remember thinking how dreadful that was. Once I got to high-school and begin looking into various careers, there were a number of things I was interested in, but the thought of having to work 40 hours per week for up to 50 weeks per year doing it sounded horrible, no matter what it was. I figured I would just follow in my mom's footsteps and become a teacher, because at least then I would have Summer's off and other time off that practically any other job wouldn't.

Around this time I also started playing guitar and developed a passion for music. I decided to major in music, attending community college first before transferring to a University and completed my BA in guitar performance in 2014. It came time to decide what I was going to do with this degree. I couldn't teach public school because I didn't go the music ed licensure route, and I couldn't teach at the college level because I needed a Master's.

A couple months after graduating, I picked up a part time library assistant/tutoring job at the community college I went to, and began teaching guitar privately. I've effectively been doing this ever since. At first it was a temporary solution until I found a "real" job or figured out what I wanted to do for my "real" career.

But as the years went by, I learned how to manage the money I had coming in and got used to time off I had been used to my whole life - holidays, breaks, Summers off (though I do teach guitar year round). Along the way I did work a full time job - lasted about 6 months and absolutely hated it. The job was fine, but having to work 40 hours on top of commuting 45 minutes one way was hell for me, especially since I was still trying to maintain a few guitar students and pursue other music projects.

So now, I'm back working at the community college, teaching about 10-15 students per week, and gigging pretty frequently in bands and as a solo act. I work about 25 hours per week (sometimes more depending on what gigs I'm playing), and only work at the community college about 36 weeks out of the year. Mind you, I'm still figuring out my long term goals, but one thing I always knew is I never wanted to be a part of the rat race and somehow I've been making it work.