The terrorist’s guide to retiring young - Peter Young (Official) Criminal, entrepreneur, activist, adventurer
The terrorist’s guide to retiring young
Or, "The Militant Unemployment Experiment"
How a felon eco-terrorist hobo refused to work, evaded the FBI and adulthood, swapped six-figure felonies for seven-figure revenue, and beat the game.
I worked less than 18 months of my adult life. I spent my 20s living in abandoned houses. I was a fugitive “eco terrorist.” I went to prison. I spent my first 15 years as an adult living on less than $5,000 a year.
And I retired at a young age.
This is the story of the rise, fall, and eventual triumph of The Militant Unemployment Experiment.
Abridged story follows. Full, unabridged story in the 96-page book found here.
This had to be written (here’s why)<br>I come from a world where people don’t age well.<br>A world of punks, activists, radicals, and assorted riff raff. Where the layers of limiting belief (“only trust fund kids don’t have to work”) and politics (“you will never know freedom under capitalism”) are layered so thick, the highest aspirations are a “comfortable” non-profit job, or selling t-shirts on Etsy.<br>A world where people will run their whole life into the ground just to “keep it real,” ending up 50 and living in a shack managing the community garden.<br>A world where the opinions are big, but the thinking is small. Where the ones who “win” only maintain that illusion against a backdrop of all the people around them who have lost even worse.<br>It’s easy to feel like you’ve won when you only play small games. This is for the riff raff who have realized playing small never ends well.<br>Who am I<br>I’m a convicted “eco-terrorist.” A felon. An ex-con. On every government terrorist and watch list.<br>No college education. No skills. I’ve had a “real job” fewer than 18 months of my life.<br>I was varying degrees of “homeless” for the first half of adulthood. I subsisted on food from dumpsters. I hitchhiked the country. I shoplifted from Whole Foods. I lived on $2 a day.<br>I grew up with no models of success. No resources. No family money.<br>I absorbed decades of punk rock ethos around “eat the rich.” Over 99% of the people I’ve known have zero hope of not working until they die.<br>And I escaped it all, going from destitute to retired in six years.<br>Who this is for<br>This is for the riff raff.<br>The punks, activists, anarchists, and assorted “radicals” fed a lifetime of defeating beliefs, now finding their fashionable, subculture-approved paradigm isn’t aging well.<br>Mostly, this is for friends I see approaching (or in) middle age. All fed a script of what is and isn’t possible, trapped in an identity that once served and now constrains, plagued with an ever-loudening voice in their head that says, “it wasn’t supposed to end up like this…”<br>If that’s you, here’s what I figured out: Most of what you’ve been taught was planted in your head by miserable people who did not have your best interests in mind. And because things didn’t work out for them, they wove a tapestry of excuses disguised as “politics.” And this belief system was masterfully engineered to make them (and everyone) feel good about doing just about everything wrong.<br>Hopefully you have yet to drink that entire cup of Kool Aid. There’s still time for you to have it all, “keep it real,” and come out victorious over both the dominant culture you despise, and the counterculture you remain beholden to.<br>Your convictions don’t need eradication. Just modification. A few weeds pulled from the garden.<br>If you only want a ridiculous story with a “come from behind” arc, you’ll get that here. If you’re a Normie Civilian just looking for actionable insights on “retiring young,” you’ll get that also.<br>But that’s not who this is for. This is for the aging punk at a basement show in Olympia, looking around the room, counting six peers with “smash capitalism” patches, and wondering why life hasn’t worked out well for any of them.<br>The anarchist managing the local food co-op, so proud of “staying true,” while trying not to think what this life will look like in 10 years.<br>The “indie writer,” repackaging his tired schtick for 20 years, slipping into ever-greater obsolescence, knowing there’s no future in this, but is in so deep he can’t find his way out.<br>If this connects, keep reading, because I’m one of the few who escaped.<br>This is for anyone with a suspicion they’ve invested a lifetime into listening to, and surrounding themselves with, losers.<br>For years I listened to them. And it almost cost me my life.<br>Militant Unemployment: The Early Days<br>At 18 I committed to never work again.<br>While most optimized their life for comfort, or “the future,” I optimized for adventure. I was going to see it all, do it all, and sell my time to no one.<br>Instead of living for cheap, or finding a “hustle” to live comfortably, I chose a third option: Exiting the monetary system completely. The premise was: Whatever I needed, I was going to steal or scavenge.<br>I unpacked...