Imagine you’re 40 years old, and it’s like you’ve been living outside of civilization your whole life. One day, you suddenly “wake up” and realize you have absolutely nothing. Maybe you can read and write, maybe you finished high school—but you’ve never had a job, you didn’t go to college, you have no money, no home, no car, and no friends.
What would you do to still have a shot at the kind of life people care about—work, income, human connection? What steps would you take to find love, knowing there’s no time left to “build yourself up” first? How would you explain your situation to potential employers or partners? What would be your strategy to get the most out of life, starting from that point?
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Awful big question to answer.
Make friends
Find passion
Get work
Find love
Be kind
Work hard
Good luck
You can still join some military branches up to 42. Learn a trade, get college paid for, travel the world, and you could earn a pension for life if you stay in for 20 years. Not a bad life.
Sales. I would get a sales job. It’s the job that takes the least entry level and you can make the most.
Imagine?? LOL! This is a reality for a significant percentage of divorced men.
Become a great orator so I can use the useful idiots to get myself elected and run pump and dump schemes
I would travel the world taking whatever jobs I could. While there, immerse yourself in the culture, eat great food, make connections along the way and maybe get lucky enough to find love.
Sounds like you are referring to many homeless people.
At that point, I would claw my way until a I can get CDL. I would be willing to sleep in storage units to get the CDL. Once, I got a CDL with a job. Invest into my grooming so I can try to charm a woman into starting a family with me.
I’ve thought about this as I’ve taken some chances that could set me back. Military service, even in another country is an option. Finding work, but going back to living as a homeless person. I’m talking about eating out of dumpsters and hyper saving for a decade. Living in a van down by the river. Caretaking-type jobs where you have a free place to sleep. I’ve had one for a bit and considered taking others.
Am I still an alcoholic? If so, then I’ll check for nearest meeting and ask for help there. See where things go. Most big cities have shelters too.
Easy.
I’d find an older divorcee and rock her world using my savagery in bed. I wouldn’t have to explain anything at first because she wouldn’t start sleeping with me to hear me talk, and then once she caught feelings she wouldn’t care anyway.
Saving to retire overseas
your first paragraph is me right now
40 with no debt or attachments? I’m going walkabout working odd jobs, talking to people and growing my perspective.
Peace corps
I went into rehab at 39 for my drinking. Got out at 40 with nothing in the bank and a VW with 160k on her. Had to move in with my mom and restart my life. I grinded Door Dash and Instacart full time for 2 years to dig myself out of the financial hole I had dug. I allowed myself time to forgive and heal, I focused on work and getting in shape.
The contacts I met through DD and IC landed me a job at a country club, after about a year there, I was recruited by one of the members who watched me bust my ass everyday. I’m now a low voltage electrician, have my own place, a “newer” car, an actual savings account, and zero debt. I no longer owe back taxes to the IRS and I’m in the best shape of my life at 45.
It’s never too late to turn your life around, I was a hopeless alcoholic who drank himself blackout every night and prayed for death for almost 15 years. Believe me when I say, if I could do it YOU DEFINITELY CAN!
I BELIEVE IN YOU, START RIGHT NOW!
I’d flip my on switch to off.
In the words of The Brain from “Pinky and The Brain”
To do better at 30
I would just rope myself at that point.
Get a paid apprenticeship for a trade. Preferably one with a strong union and collective bargaining benefits.
Use that to get hired at the most entry level associate certification for a profession; let’s say as an Electrician. Since no matter how tech or architecture styles change, things are going to be powered by electricity, and people will be needed to work on building and maintaining that source of energy.
Get some work experience for at least a year, then keep advancing up the certifications for the union. Hourly pay/annual salary is already set. In a major US city like NYC or LA, the pay is low-mid six figures for the average union electrician.
It’s not as physically tough as construction, but it’s still a manual job, so use your free time to get in shape. If you are a Tarzan like caveman rejoining society, you should be a beast already and way ahead on this one. Climbing poles and ladders, swinging power lines from tall heights should be second nature to you. If your eyes are sharp and fingers dexterous enough to catch bugs and fish to eat every day, they’re good enough to loom and tie electrical wiring.
Open a high yield savings or HSA account. Many unions have their own credit union, which give better rates than mainstream banks for its members. Deposit paychecks in there. Use it to also invest in some reliable index funds. Save up for a house if you can, get rhe mortgage loan through the credit union.
Do that for 20+ years till you’re 60 – 65, then retire and collect your pension, social security, and other savings you had set up when you were 40.
Grind. I’ve always been a grinder. I never expected wealth, just a living.
Marry money. You know, some other dude’s money.
I was suddenly laid off Nov ‘23. Out of fucking nowhere in a specialized position in telecom. Landed a federal job the following Feb, but they strung along my hire date all year until they finally rescinded the offer in January. Well i saw that federal funding was shit, so i kept looking. Unemployment ran out before i could land my next job, in September. 6 month contract work… was cut 2 months in due to a shit company mismanaging the contract. Landed a job in December. Was promised a highly lucrative career, $150k in fact! So far I’ve made about $10k, and i literally have to beg for jobs to en assigned to me and beg for training. Looking for a new career, but it’s near impossible. I’m 48 with a young family, and it’s hell right now.
I’d love to start over with a new career, but god dammed I’m beat up and exhausted.
My mental health is taking an enormous hit too…
Probably find immediate employment asap. That’d probably end up being a shit job that’s hard work, think roofing or concrete. They’ll let you on a crew without experience as long as you show up and work hard. Once I found employment, I’d buy myself a mini van for transportation as well as to live in. Then I’d be looking for an apprenticeship, preferably utility work since that’s what I’m in currently and i know it pays awesome. Keep working my shit job until I land an apprenticeship. Once I have the apprenticeship, it’ll be a quick couple of years before I’m making some real money.
As far as dating and stuff. Once I found employment and a mini van to live in, then it’s pretty easy from there. Meeting women is not very difficult because so many others it seems have set the bar so low. At least that’s what my experience has been because me being a short guy who is also a minority in backwoods Wisconsin never seemed to have any issues lol.
Ha ha. I’m at 47. Ask me anything!
Don’t pursue the pragmatic, instead pursue your passion. That’s what I’ve chosen to do, i’ve started over at 40.
I’m 40, lost my long term relationship a year ago, then got laid off 4 months later. I found I had been defining myself by the fact i felt ‘normal’ with a relationship and a job in IT leadership. But having lost both in rapid succession, I found myself questioning everything i ever did to get to this point. I’m presently rebuilding who i am and living off my shrinking savings account while attending school full time to pursue the passion now, meteorology. Though the current US govt. admin is destroying that profession so… i feel extra fucked now.
Yea, I did that. 38 got out of the military after 21 years. Did not know anything about these civilian people! 😂
Move into a van
Drive to a beach
Sell pictures of my feet
So my wife and kids never existed and I’m not financially responsible for anyone but myself? I wake up and have nothing? So I’m homeless?
If I have the knowledge I have now, I would probably put a bunch of bull shit on a resume to get a job that I know I can do, work my way through the ranks, and live life.
To find love? I would just talk to women after I get my shit together.
rent a basic place with very little in it.
become a professional property manager.
go to EDM events and hang out with the 40+ crowd there
join the closest gym