[MrPogle]

A long time ago I read the following and have tried to bear it in mind.

When you are born the only thing you are given is time. How you use that time is everything. Almost everyone trades their time for money. This improves the quality of the time you aren't working but you need to be careful because the money you earn can't be traded back into time. Once you are out of time you are out of everything. Many people die with 10 years salary in the bank and that is 10 years they worked for nothing.

[Turks]

Originally Posted by JLR1969

Good man it takes courage but family are always the priority, I think we are programmed just to work to earn money to buy stuff that in essence you don't really need.

Trouble is you buy something and then you want to get a better version. Its a never ending spiral.

My priority was always family, even before I had my son. Working overseas was to earn the money to set the foundations of security before a family came along... we had our first boy in March 2015 and by that time i'd got used to being away and so it was just something I swallowed to earn the money for his future. I realised a while back that something wasn't right, and it was simple - i'd moved the goal posts from setting foundations (which i'd done) to working for my sons future (thinking money was what was needed).

In reality, my wife and son need me to be around, to support and share. Money is nice too, but so long as I have enough to cover the bills and a little bit more, then why would I choose to work away for money and miss out on what money cannot buy - Time.

The never ending spiral of buying something then wanting the latest version is just nature... we live in a world of comparison and ranking. We judge each other on job title, status, car, house, watch etc. and to stay up there in the status rankings, the world have us believe we need the latest and best of things and this will bring happinness... I think if you are searching for the latest or to get a better version then you are never going to be happy with what you have.


Turks.

[Turks]

Originally Posted by Sp123

Hi Turks

What you said makes perfect sense and is a good Philosophy for life

Set your own treadmill speed and no one on their deathbed wished they worked harder.

I'm going to take this on board myself personally and readjust some life objectives.

Thanks man!

I've worked with some great people who have lived and experienced a hell of a lot... this is just some of the stuff they taught me, that they learnt too late.

If i'm honest, I listened to them and it went in, but I didn't take notice until recently - luckily not too late. I've made some changes, and I plan to make more but I can already feel the improvement.

Readjust, but make sure it is reasonable... changes which are too drastic can also be negative.


Turks.

[Turks]

Originally Posted by MrPogle

A long time ago I read the following and have tried to bear it in mind.

When you are born the only thing you are given is time. How you use that time is everything. Almost everyone trades their time for money. This improves the quality of the time you aren't working but you need to be careful because the money you earn can't be traded back into time. Once you are out of time you are out of everything. Many people die with 10 years salary in the bank and that is 10 years they worked for nothing.

True.

Who wants to be the richest man in the Graveyard?


Turks.

[JLR1969]

Originally Posted by Turks

My priority was always family, even before I had my son. Working overseas was to earn the money to set the foundations of security before a family came along... we had our first boy in March 2015 and by that time i'd got used to being away and so it was just something I swallowed to earn the money for his future. I realised a while back that something wasn't right, and it was simple - i'd moved the goal posts from setting foundations (which i'd done) to working for my sons future (thinking money was what was needed).

In reality, my wife and son need me to be around, to support and share. Money is nice too, but so long as I have enough to cover the bills and a little bit more, then why would I choose to work away for money and miss out on what money cannot buy - Time.

The never ending spiral of buying something then wanting the latest version is just nature... we live in a world of comparison and ranking. We judge each other on job title, status, car, house, watch etc. and to stay up there in the status rankings, the world have us believe we need the latest and best of things and this will bring happinness... I think if you are searching for the latest or to get a better version then you are never going to be happy with what you have.


Turks.

Thanks for the response. Good luck for the future and I think we both are on the right road.

Take care

[alexank]

I am 56
I too was fed up to the back teeth working for my previous employer.
I took VR last year. It was a fair amount of cash and combined with my pension would be enough to live on if I wanted to retire early but I decided to try something new.

I went contracting, Lots more money and none of the wage slave grief.

I was watching some of my permie colleagues at ClientCo going through their annual Workday performance appraisal ritual (aka jumping through pointless HR hoops) recently and thought never again for me!

One thing I would say to you OP is that sticking a role for only 2 months will not look good on your CV nor will trying to downgrade to a shelf stacker or whatever takes your fancy, employers (or more likely agencies) bin 90% of that type of CV.

I have a strong engineering background so I wanted to get back to a bit of hands on or even retrain to do something very different but my previous years of higher positions I think worked against me.

In the end I took 6 months off (and at the time stupidly signed up for JSA) I then setup my own Ltd, I am still doing what I know but I have a greater degree of freedom and can chose where, when and who I work for now.

Plus the hourly rates I now charge are massively helping my Maserati fund as well

Re JSA
Unless you are desperate for the £70 a week my advice is avoid it like the plague! I only later found out I did not actually need to sign on. I thought I had to in order to maintain continuity of NIC contributions, but apparently not because I have over 30 years paid.

Note any payment received as JSA is taxable so bear that in mind.

But if you fancy a reality check visit your local job centre!
It is a soul destroying institution, observing the way people are perceived and treated in the Job Centres during the 5 weeks I signed on for was an awful experience to witness and not one I would recommend.

[JLR1969]

Thanks for the message

I am not going to downgrade just yet, maybe in 8 years or so. Still want to be in sales just need to find a company that has a good culture and treats its employees correctly.

Luckily the company where I am now is well know as being an awful place to work and has a high turnover of staff so the move is explainable. I thought with a new Sales Director the culture may change but in reality it will take years if at all.

Years ago I signed on for JSA and you are right it was an eye opener, the whole experience sucks the life out of you, even the staff were a joke, they would not have survived in the Private Sector!

And yes I had to declare my payments when doing self assessment so all in all an experience not to be repeated.

Good luck with the Maserati fund!