Working harder than a dunnie budgie on a swagman's arse??

I work a job offshore where I work 6 weeks on and 6 weeks off. Love it.

I hear you.....

Reaching the absolute limit on this all work lifestyle. Today is my first day off in a month (on call though), the missus is still working 7 days a week.

Seriously thinking about chucking it all in and just getting a relaxed 9 to 5 govvie job with no responsibility, holiday pay, OT, sickleave etc.

Life is far too short, need to make some big changes.

You make time.
Decide what your goals are in your short life.
Work till you drop or live day to day.
I used to work my ass off 14 - 16 hour days Flat out non stop days. All for what..money. Well those days are gone now. I feel better for it too. I withdrew from the richest man competition. Now i cheer them on as they find thier way to hospital in the back of an ambulance.... still supporting them...lol just not involved.
Too much beauty out there to die without seeing it
just my opinion though.

quite simple really.
i work for some one else i couldnt be bothered being my own boss.
i know to many people who work 24/7 have plenty of money but wouldnt know a good time if it bit them in the ass.
we try to get away most weekends if we can even if its only a sat night.
cost are kept down coz its really only fuel that we need.if we stay home we still need to have food.

Iv'e got a mate who is in the Caravan Business and he see's all of the "Grey Gypsies" every day of his life. I asked him if they all had some common complaint. He said Yes. They all complained that they should have done it earlier, as now most were to "Old" to get boats off 4wd, wind up pop-tops,set up tents and the like. In saying that, you still have to have a shilling inthe pocket for living on the road etc, but I suppose it's a case of how much do we need? If we knew the answer to that there would be a lot of empty shops around.

At the end of the day most are working for the Banks, our country's biggest employer.

Morning rush hour, all those faces, husband and wife both working paying off our 4 brm, 3 bathroom and then we don't spend anytime there.....

50 years ago - 4 kids, 2 brms, now 2 kids, 4 brms. ?! So we work harder and longer and faster to get more than we need, then you get the wake up call - heart attack/spanish dancer.

If you actually sit down and set some goals you may find you don't need quite as much as you think. 90% of us don't and won't look past this weeks TV guide.

Idea is to get enough then get out. Bugger the kids, they'll have 5 investment properties anyway.

Ok I'm out of puff now, what's on the box.....

I'd love to know the trick ... between work, the kids weekend activities and social life, stuff around the house, wife's commitments, etc, etc, etc, it's very hard.

So hard, that I have only had one day trip off road this year. Sad, eh.

Then the family didn't want to go camping this January, so we're flying to the Sunshine Coast instead and staying in a resort. It'll still be a good holiday .... but I wanted to do Straddie. Oh well, maybe next summer.

We were fortunate that I had a good well paid job, owned the house at 34 (lucky real estate boom) and when I had 10 year service up and long service leave which coincided with the arrival of first kid we started on the long trips.
For 16 years we averaged 13 weeks away 4 wheel touring then school cut in with the first at school cert level, then I got retrenched, finally found another good job after 3 years doing bits and pieces. Now work for a school so am locked into school hols, but heck there are a lot ;-))
Two kids have finished HSC and the third next year, then we can start travelling again, but now only the two of us so much more flexible (and cheaper).
We never regret all the travelling, put lots of hard k's on six 4wd's, saw a lot of this great country, some places several times but it is a great feeling when someone on the other side of the continent regards you as a friend as they see you every year!
As someone said you can't take it with you and it is no good having the latest and greatest 4wd if you can't use it except on annual hols.
Personally I think the latest models are not ideal for remote travel, too tinny, too much electronic stuff and they seem to break a lot, maybe because people travel too hard trying to cover too much in a short time.

Lucky me....born with the Golden Travel Spoon in my mouth....my Dad reckoned I was a no hoper, layabout(with long hair), unemployable, unteachable, useless fella who wouldn't amount to much.........well, he had a different perspective(and maybe he was right, lol).

I was a dreamer at school and only thought of going places and having adventures and I pretty much stuck to that for the rest of my life. Married with no kids I have had more than 100 jobs over 40 years . Travel came first and work second. I spent most of my life being self employed in a variety of jobs. Now, in forced retirement, I travel when and where I can, according to my budget. Lucky me has a partner of 35 years who is happy to see me go off as long as she can do her own thing as well. So there are no hassles with proposed trips and SWMBO comes along on the ocassional one.

For 5 years we combined work with travel and moved around this country making and flogging stuff. What an idyllic lifestyle. One tires of it though and we bought a house once again and 'settled' in to part time domesticity. Now life entails planning and budgeting for the next trip.

Never a Dull Moment!!!

I've never heard anyone say as they look back on life "I wish I'd spent more time at work."

Funny how we hear these things, we agree with them yet we keep working. Certainly easilier said than done.

Some really good perspectives here. A great thread.

Gaz

Generally speaking it seems you can take your pick of either:

a) Work your ass off most of your life, have enough money but no time to have fun, then hope your still young enough when you retire to spend some of your hard earned cash, or

b) Work as little as necessary, not have enough money to do what you want (we all know what that is) but have oodles of time to contemplate how broke you are and can't afford to retire....let alone buy a slab or go bush.

Surely there is something in the middle, a third option - c) Work hard and smarter for a few years to set up a residual income that will keep growing as your spending habits do, then retire at 35 and have all the time in the world to spend the loads of cash you have rolling in your door each month.......This is my plan, lock in C Eddie.

I have become a professional at doing it and so far everything is dead on track. If anyone wants a hint on how, drop me an email.

NissanNut
thesuzukisamuri@fastmail.fm