Work

work, school, eat, and sleep for me

Simple, you do the boring routine to achieve a goal in mind, at least that's how I get by.
I worked this whole summer for 3 months straight with no days off and I got a huge pay off in the end, now I have a couple of weeks of vacation and I keep wondering if I should slit my wrists since I got used to the routine, not even video games make me feel accomplished the way routine does, its a matter of getting used to.

I only have about 6 hours a day to myself on work days. More if I decide to stay up late and be miserable the next day, but it's a matter of whether or not it's worth it to me.

What are your hobbies? Those will help you. And friends.


For instance, the software development life is quite tiring and souless. But I´d say the software part is just about 30%, the other 70% is the people. Because you will find shitty people who doesn´t work, who rants, who slows down the project, whose pay is higher than yours and will literally "tell you" what to do, and if you do stuff right, perhaps that´s not the way they want to. I have been like that for years, so if I find a workplace I dislike, I can literally save money and raise the middle finger and watch the project to burn from distance.

you can easily spot shitty people like that:

1) always rants about everything and do little to fix it
2) cause issues and don´t want problems solved
3) always hiding their true faces, and always waiting opportunities to take down those who disagree

If you enjoy your work days will be better, but also the correct people must be there as well. Sometimes the "incorrect people" is the one that affects our lifes. And if you have any option to move away from these, do it.

Having goals helps a lot. If you're just going to work every day to get bills paid with nothing to look forward to, it can become really tedious. I value my time off, so I've moved several jobs, each one closer to more pay and less work. Now I work 16 hour shifts on weekends, have the week off, and have full time benefits. I also work towards paying my house off, remodeling, and getting my credit up.

These are all part of long term goals of buying more properties, upping the value, refinancing, and eventually trying my hand renting out as a landlord.

Goals man.

Always a fun thing to ponder. Personal circumstances change things so much though.

In my case I am a healthy person in a fairly rich country with free healthcare, with no real responsibilities, that is happy to live in a fleapit (minimal outgoings, and the ability to reduce them further still), that has no aspirations towards much of the societal rubbish (the idea of a mortgage and kids is everything I don't want) and can turn up somewhere all scruffy with my tools in a bucket and nobody would care as long their problem gets fixed (and there will likely always be people with problems), and by the way there are no real restrictions on what I can do in most cases in said country (there are any number of certificates I could get but few are legal requirements, especially not for anything I care to do). Even if there were restrictions the bits of paper I have could bypass most and speed me through the others.

If you are unhealthy with a minimum wage skill set, a couple of screaming kids/ill dependents and in an area where there is serious competition in the minimum wage skill set arena whilst simultaneously also being in an expensive area (all very possible) then that changes things radically.

Those two scenarios are very different but both could easily still have someone putting in all hours and not having any time for them. That is only two as well -- you could have serious skills but also need to fund a flash office, flash motor and flash clothes for people to take you seriously and thus having to sustain that means having to do more.

The modern world seems to value work in a peculiar way as well, and in many cases competition also means your options can be surprisingly limited at various levels. In any case things can add up and you can find yourself in temporary patterns that are anything but fairly easily. To that end whilst specific advice might need more info there is often a lot to be gained by asking yourself what you want, what you need, what you are willing to do and what you can do, and once you are done with all that contemplate dropping things even lower.

Lower your standard of living, invest and live of the interest, turn your hobbies into your job. It is basically what I am doing now and it is great!

CallmeBerto said:

Lower your standard of living, invest and live of the interest, turn your hobbies into your job. It is basically what I am doing now and it is great!

Click to expand...

While I would happily suggest similar such things to anybody even vaguely in the position to do such a thing, indeed I have helped many explore and achieve such, it is not always that easy.

If you are already living hand to mouth as it were then the option to invest is minimal.

Hobbies to job wise then absolutely look into it as supplemental income. Some places also make self employment something you really have to think about -- I filed my self employment taxes for the previous financial year in the UK a little while ago, took the longest it ever had... a whole 20 minutes from searching for HMRC to pressing logout. This was unusual circumstances and variable self employment (expenses, contracts, variable fields...). Having watched various peeps in the US file basic taxes for a single bog standard job before that would be a dream for them. Said people in the US might also have to find themselves purchasing a "business license" ( https://www.startamomblog.com/business-side-mom-blogging-taxes-llc-complete-guide/ ) and any other number of permits ( https://www.avalara.com/trustfile/en/blog/when-do-california-sellers-need-a-sellers-permit.html ) at some cost to them.
Anyway it would depend upon your hobbies somewhat as well. In my case I like to build things, fabricate things, cook and do the occasional art piece and have training enough to be dangerous in all of those so that is fine -- even if I might lack the tools or the talent for some really high end stuff there are enough people in the real world which still need things done on more achievable scales. Rather harder to be a professional poet.

Thanks all for the words so far. A few more pieces of info

My job is entirely commission based and if you work it out, it is less than minimum wage and whilst my job does incorporate one of my hobbies, it is solely dependant on how many customers I get which isn't many (night shift)

If I lowered my standard of living any more I wouldn't be eating at all... I think things will be better when I move to a cheaper house in terms of luxuries

financial independence is a way out. look into mr money mustache. Just save more than you spend.

Why not try some sort of trade? If you have someone that you can rely on to help you out, you could take some rather quick courses at a local college. You would probably qualify for grants for that matter. Pick up welding or something. Starting pay for a welder around here is about ~20 bucks an hour.

There are plenty of other options of course. IT stuff, mechanic, etc. Alot of these programs even have job placement. You could be working before you even finish a certification.

Unfortunately for me, the job market here is shite and even moreso in IT which is what I've studied.

I might look at a doing a trade next year..

Update: ive been at work for 3 hours tonight so far and have only made $16.50 before tax