Work to live or live to work?

[Pike2350]

As I age I find myself less satisfied with my career. Maybe it's the company I work for or more likely the division I work for. Lately I've found myself wondering what else I can do for a career and still make enough to not have to cut back too much.

I want to get to the Live to work attitude and not the work to live one.. but Im3 having a hard time figuring out what to do.

Background: I'm 42,married with a 2yr old and an 11 yr old part time. I'm extremely shy when I get to know people and take a while to come out of my shell. I feel I'm very competent at most everything I do...but never a master. I currently am employed as a staff accountant but tend to do more process and inventory management on a daily basis.

My past jobs evolved from delivery driver, customer service, tech support, warehouse manager, general manager of a small company. Moved from that place and was operations, inventory, warehouse manager, purchasing & accountant for Jack-It. I left there and did just Inventory accounting......recruuted away by my current company due to all those things. It generally fights my personality...but lately I feel less fullfilled.

I think a lot has to do with my co-workers. Almost everyone I deal with on a daily basis is in Southern Utah....and I tend to be the bad guy because I worry about the numbers....so there isn't much comradery. My accounting cohorts that deal with other parts of the business are nice but we have little in common.....lately with us all working from home it's been hard to socialize due to this. Lately Ive been fantasizing about finding something else....but can't bring myself to do it. I dont hate my job at all...but I feel like I'm at odds with people more often than not.

So who here has jumped ship and found something they like?s. Who is happy where they are?

 

[Cody]

I'm telling myself I'm working like nobody would ever want to so that eventually I can have the freedom to live like everyone wishes they could. In reality, I'm probably just kicking the bankruptcy ball down the road

 

[moab_cj5]

Work/Life balance can be difficult to manage. Not getting along with coworkers sucks, but it's better to get along with the boss. I generally like my job, but about a year ago I was ready to quit and find something different due to a horrible boss. My current boss is much better!

I came back to UT 9 years ago. I left a good job with a large company and defined progression path in favor of living in UT instead of Kansas. The job i left was my life, and ruled my life. The job I came here for was less responsibility and more money, both good things, and allowed me a better work life balance. I haven't always cared for my coworkers here, but I don't have to spend much time with them, so its manageable. Plus, work is not my life anymore, so I can deal with it and work to support my life rather than work consuming my life. I treat work as means to an end.

I enjoy many aspects of my job, and love that I can also be a firefighter at the refinery, but it is still work. Changing jobs can be hard, but can be worth it too since you put SO much time in working. You do have to enjoy most parts of your job though, or it just sucks the life out of you and you have nothing left for your family. Tough balance to strike, but well worth finding.

 

[Kevin B.]

I work to live.

There's really no work in the area that I know of that I'm willing/able to do that has the same pay and benefits as my current job, so I'm kinda stuck. I'm not at all invested in the particular job or this company but it pays the bills and gives me enough free time to enjoy myself, so here I am. The wife is in school for another couple years, once she's out and we're a two paycheck family I may have the freedom to jump for a lesser paying job that is a little more fulfilling? Or I may just push out a couple more years at that point and retire early. Who knows.

 

[Kiel]

Sometimes taking a step back financially is good. I took a step back in hours for less pay. Fast forward 3 years and I my make more or a lot more if I do overtime. But my company is great even in the slow times. Find your place

 

[kmboren]

I work to live. I am a nurse and like what I am doing and make more money then I ever thought I would but look forward to the time that I can cut back my hours and work less and have more time at home and maybe retire earlier than later. Trying to get myself in a great financial spot to where I can do that and feel I am well on my way with that.

 

[jeeper]

I started reading 'retire inspired' by Chris Hogan a while back. I don't remember all the stats, but very few people are happy in their career. It was pretty insightful, and would be beneficial to helping someone obtain their dream job.


I quit reading it when I realized I had no dreams.

 

[BCGPER]

I knew I always wanted to retire early, and had that goal in mind back when I was 20ish. I managed to pull it off at 57, and have no regrets. My advice to anyone considering it is QUIT BUYING HOUSES! Having no house payment is a life changer, and you just plain can’t retire and have a house payment period.

Retiring early does come with its pitfalls. I’m a long way from social security or Medicare, so it’s a lot more expensive to live right now. I’ve been living for two years on what I’ve put away.

Quit buying that new house every five years, and stash away every dollar you can. It can happen, trust me. It was always a pipe dream for me a few years ago.

 

[Gravy]

^he's right.
Live on less.
We decided we'd rather be big fish in a small pond rather than small fish in a big pond (homewise). We can be more generous with our time and money (and as a result our emotional availability) if we haven't allocated all of it before it has arrived.
Being house poor sounds like prison to me.
As the years progress my wife and I have found that we spend the same as we did years ago and just save the extra money.

Work/life balance is like an ocean tide. Not a pie graph. Sometimes you need more work sometimes you need more play. I've never been sad if we made a little less and played a little more

If you died tomorrow, would your job will post a job opening ad before your obituary gets printed?
Work to live and be the man your dog thinks you are.

 

[zmotorsports]

I knew I always wanted to retire early, and had that goal in mind back when I was 20ish. I managed to pull it off at 57, and have no regrets. My advice to anyone considering it is QUIT BUYING HOUSES! Having no house payment is a life changer, and you just plain can’t retire and have a house payment period.

Retiring early does come with its pitfalls. I’m a long way from social security or Medicare, so it’s a lot more expensive to live right now. I’ve been living for two years on what I’ve put away.

Quit buying that new house every five years, and stash away every dollar you can. It can happen, trust me. It was always a pipe dream for me a few years ago.

Exactly. I have family members and friends that seem to move every 3-5 years and I just scratch my head. They also have a new car and truck in the garage every 2-3 years.

We lived in our first house for 26 years and figured we would die there and had no intentions of moving and just planning for early retirement but the neighborhood went down the toilet so we moved to our new place and will be our forever home. It did however push our retirement back a few years. We were on schedule to be able to retire at 55 but with the new house we are now looking like 57-59 years of age.

We drive nice vehicles but they are far from new. I keep them maintained and we would like to upgrade coaches one more time either before retirement or at retirement but will not be borrowing for one. The only debt we have right now is our mortgage and we are knocking that down with nearly double the principal each month.

The whole life/balance thing is easier said than done but it can be done. When we first married and I opened my speed shop as a side business I was working my 8-hour full-time job then going home and working on clients toys for another 6-8 hours a day and many times 14 hour days on the weekends. It was just normal for me. We were able to not only have a few toys but we were able to pay off our first 30-year mortgage in 15 years and owned our first home outright for nearly 11 years stockpiling money until we moved and bought our new home 3.5 years ago.

I don't regret the move as it was depressing watching our neighborhood go to shit and wonder what it would be like during retirement. I loved my home and had it setup like I wanted less a place to store our coach indoors, but I could feel my blood pressure rise and mood shift just driving into my old neighborhood daily. Something had to give.

I closed my business down and now just do work on the side for people when I have time and/or want to and don't feel the need to put those kind of hours in now. I would agree that everyone I know that has been able to retire early and have some wealth has had one thing in common, no mortgage (or debt of any kind for that matter). I plan on being one of those as well.

My job isn't bad but it can be mind-numbing much of the time so I get my fulfillment in my home shop doing what I love. I look forward to getting home each afternoon and being able to spend time being creative and getting my fulfillment in terms of what I do in the shop vs. my full-time job. I look forward to the days when I can spend 8-10 hours a day in the shop wrenching, building, machining, fabricating and still have time to stop and smell the roses.

Again, work/life balance is easier said than done and will look different to everyone as we all have different personalities as well as interests. Some people have to feel that value and fulfillment from their job and others use their job to just get them to that place where they feel value and fulfillment. Me, I use my job to get me home and working on things that bring me peace of mind and provide me a few opportunities to travel with my wife each year enjoying our coach with friends.

Best of luck but before making any hasty decisions I suggest you right down the pros and cons of what you have now vs. what you want. That will give you some indication on whether you want to live to work or work to live.

Mike

 

[johngottfredson]

I made the decision early on that I could not bear to work away the majority of my life just hoping for retirement, so I made the sacrifices to put myself into a career where A) I own my own time, being self employed, and B) I love what I do. It WAS hard, other guys my age were into houses and a ‘normal’ adult life while I was still in school or living in a basement apartment with three kids while I stuck to the dream. But I made it, caught up to all of them as far as that goes, and now I just laugh every day because I get paid to do fun stuff.

My retirement will be a lot like my life now, just more traveling, and more telling a-holes to shove it, I only work with cool people on cool projects.

 

[RockChucker]

Work to live here. I worked at a fun place that I thought brought me fulfillment even if the salary wasn't there. 5 years in, it wasn't cutting the bacon. Too much drama and politics. I met a guy at a buddy's wedding that had just posted an engineering position that sounded intriguing, and the pay was nearly double my old job. I've been here almost 5 years now. There are weeks I work 55-60 hours, but I get plenty of time off. In fact, we just had our first kid, and 12 weeks of paid paternity leave is no joke. It will be quite nice. Took a couple weeks off after the baby was born and from here until next June I'll only be working 4 day weeks with splashes of even shorter weeks thrown in to make sure I use all 12 weeks of time.

Sometimes the work isn't my favorite, but other times I get to work on problems no one else in the world would even think are problems. That part is rewarding. But at the end of the day, it's nice to go home to my family, play with Jeeps, go mountain biking or spend time with fam up at my wife's family's cabin. The ultimate goal is to work for myself and get out of the "rat race" entirely. I've got a little side hustle designing parts for various people. Keep on keeping on with that.

 

[N-Smooth]

Wait, people like their jobs? I've never had one I really like and I'm fine with that. One thing I did right was marry an awesome chick that works hard and it's paying off. I tell her all the time that when our youngest is in school she can become an executive and I'll retire. 6 years to go lol

 

[DaveB]

Yes some of us do like our jobs. I've been at mine for almost 43 years without changing where I go to work. The company name has changed three times in the last 14 years through company buyouts. I work with very smart folks that I get along with very well and we design really cool stuff. I made up my mind many years ago to stay out of debt. The only debt I have ever had was a house mortgage. I decided that I would pay it off before my first kid went to college. We did it and have been very grateful we did. I did keep paying the mortgage but I pay it to myself. We've never bought a new car but have never missed the new car smell. The only issue about staying so long at one place is that you end up losing people you like. I just got back from work where I had to clean out the office of a friend I've known for almost 42 years. He had stomach pains show up at the end of April and he passed away from cancer the second week of June. He worked well into his 70's since he loved the work.

 

[Houndoc]

Have to agree with a lot of what has been said here on spending carefully.

I love where I live (moved into it about 7 years ago) but deliberately built a smaller home than what we technically could afford. Have also refinanced it down to a 15 year loan, meaning it will be paid off 8 years earlier than originally planned.

Same on cars- my wife drives the 08 Xterra, our truck in also an '08, I drive an inexpensive Mazda for my commute.

In our case, the idea is to keep more money available for travel.

I have also made the decision as a business owner to hire more staff so I can take more time off.

 

[Greg]

I hate the idea of living to work, a couple years ago I had a good work/life balance... worked 4, 10's and 3 day weekends, was making good money, home every night. That all changed overnight, thanks to the shortsighted upper management. Now I travel several hours away from home, work for 8 days/nights away just to make the same amount. I'm hoping that another possible job change will get me back home every night, making good money. It's a risky move as I'll be giving up seniority, but I think it'll pay off in the long run.

I'm not super happy with the company I work for, as they're going thru massive cuts & restructuring.... but I'm stuck due to the retirement. My outlook now a days is to invest pretty heavily and retire as soon as possible. I'm in my mid 40's, need to work to 57 to receive a full retirement, but can't draw until I'm 60.

I've been working on my side hustle, hoping that I can keep learning more and getting better at what I'm doing. I want to set myself up so that maybe one day, I can leave my current job and work from anywhere that I have an internet connection. Sitting on a beach in a foreign country, sipping on a cocktail and running my business from my phone by age 50 would be fine by me.

I honestly would encourage anyone working a job that they hate, to look into something you could grow and scale on the side. Find something that interests you and start learning.

 

[zmotorsports]

I honestly would encourage anyone working a job that they hate, to look into something you could grow and scale on the side. Find something that interests you and start learning.

I would echo that statement but not only if you're in a job that you hate. Things change. One day you could love your job and a suddenly the owner passes and it gets handed down to a second or third generation entitled brat and all of a sudden you hate going to work (yes that happened many years ago), or like Greg said management can change and things get turned on their heads.

Either way it's a good plan to have an out or at least a back-up plan.

Now that I am getting somewhat caught up on personal projects and home mods I want to start getting back to my side hustle and dumping all money I can on my mortgage and investments. I won't go back to setting my speed shop back up but I am definitely thinking about taking on side jobs again to fill in the gaps and keep learning and growing.

Mike

 

[Greg]

I would echo that statement but not only if you're in a job that you hate. Things change. One day you could love your job and a suddenly the owner passes and it gets handed down to a second or third generation entitled brat and all of a sudden you hate going to work (yes that happened many years ago), or like Greg said management can change and things get turned on their heads.

Either way it's a good plan to have an out or at least a back-up plan....
Mike

You're totally right, Mike! Constantly learning new things, growing your capabilities and making yourself more valuable should be a lifelong goal. If you can grow that into something that makes money, then why not?

 

[frieed]

I absolutely love what I do (FPGA design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array) but I'm not particularly thrilled with my current employer.

 

[nnnnnate]

I absolutely love what I do (FPGA design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field-programmable_gate_array) but I'm not particularly thrilled with my current employer.

You say fpga design. Are you designing the chips or the programming? What's the education path to do that?