More than a decade ago, David Gross was just your typical Bay Area dude. He worked as a technical writer for a software company and made around $100,000.
Then the U.S. invaded Iraq, and Gross had what was probably a pretty typical Bay Area reaction: He didn’t agree with the war.
He went to his company's HR department and asked for a 75 percent pay cut, which would help him avoid paying federal taxes, and make sure his money wasn’t going to fund the war.
They said no.
Rather than continue working, Gross embarked on a drastic lifestyle change. He quit his job, and started working as a freelancer, earning enough to make a modest living, but little enough to avoid paying federal income taxes.
“I was cheating myself by spending all those hours at work,” he told me recently, a decade after he started this lifestyle. “Now, I’ve learned the benefits of living a simpler lifestyle, having more free time, spending less time as a nine-to-five worker.” --
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