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As a alternative to the downsizing thread is anyone else here really crap at making money?
I seem to be dispite being told I'm skilled, good at what I do by peers working in the same sector, putting in big effort etc. Even get told I have quite a good eye for the business side. I remember even when I was 16 with my first official job everyone else seemed to be earning £3.50 p/h and I was on £3.15p/h. Now although not on a low wage, a little over national average but low in comparision to equivalent jobs e.t.c. I seem to screw up when changing jobs!
So who else is crap at making money for their skill set? Tell me the big face palms you have made.
P.S. This is not a "poor me" thread, more a laugh at the sillyness of it all!
It just can't be me.
Not me, I really got the hang of workplace nepotism quite early on 👿
putting in big effort etc
This is the problem. A very wealthy man I know always says 'work smart, not hard'. 😕
Anyway, although I would like to be doing better than I am, I have to count myself relatively lucky. But I still know what you mean...
piemonster - Member
Not me, I really got the hang of workplace nepotism quite early on
Did you sleep with the owners son / daughter / strangly attractive pet giaraffe?
There are unattractive pet giraffes?
Missed a couple of good ones...
Went travelling to oz for 7 months while half the team went from contract to staff with the gold plated pension...
Moved to oz just before the well paid consulting job my mate was recruiting for got posted which would have paid visa and full relocation...
There are unattractive pet giraffes?
You should see some of the auwful profiles on giraffefinder.com. Horrid.
@mikewsmith Missing out on the paid relocation must have hurt!
Only slightly softened by it being to Perth
Yeah I just can't get the watermark quite right
More cubish, here...
I'm just too lazy.
Got a decent job, get paid decent money. Could do sooo much more and would love to have my own business but I just never get off my arse and do it.
I think I'm scared of failing and am used to the comfort that I have now!!
A MAN has confirmed he is completely happy in his comfort zone and the chances of him leaving it are zero.Tom Logan, 35, stressed that anyone who tells him he needs to leave his comfort zone has failed to understood exactly how comfortable it is.
Early 40's and still not making enough to pay off my student loan. I'm below the threshold 20 years later 🙁
42 here, haven't got a pension or a penny in the bank and have an enormous mortgage. I am appalling with money. Any money I once may have had I blew on a masters degree which was a waste of money as I now drive a black cab two days a week. I also haven't paid anything off my student loan which was a long time ago now and tbh I don't think I ever will.
Never been happier though.
43 here, hooge mortgage, no savings, credit card debt, etc.
I was a total waster throughout my 20's before I had a bit of a mid-life crisis at 31 and went back to uni.
Got a good job now (40% tax payer) but still suffering from not buying a property until later in life, having kids a little later than some (I was 35 and 38 when my 2 were born)
It'll all straighten out over the next few years, our childcare costs are dropping and mine/my wife's wages slowly going up.
We both pay into workplace pensions, but as I didn't start until my mid-thirties whatever I pay in won't be enough.
I missed/walked away from a lot of golden opportunities when I was younger.
If id been just a little more savvy i'd probably be mortgage free by now.
I'm another who is fundamentally lazy and unmotivated - so highly unlikely i'll make it much beyond my current grade.
I'm pretty content though - family life is great and I ride my bike as much as I can.
I'm quite good at it.
Problem is I'm really really bad at looking after it. I don't mean spending it.. so much is wasted because I haven't sorted things out.
I'm fairly bad at it I guess. I probably earn about 10-15% less than market value for my skillset and significantly less than the value I bring to my company. On the flipside though, I really don't work very hard and have ended up very solidly at the life end of the work-life balance whilst everyone else I know in similar roles definitely errs more the other way so I really don't care enough to try and change it.
Yeah, me. I tried once and did start to make lots of money, but the stress and 'always at work' mindset got the better of me. I'm just not cut out to make money and I'm far happier now that I have realised this and adjusted my life accordingly. Still living in the first world, so lucky anyway.
I'm in the bike industry. I don't think I need to say any more 😀
I used to make a lot more than I do now but otoh I was also completely miserable. I'll get moving again at some point but for now quite happy ta.
I'm good at saving money just crap at getting it! Crap at investing it though. Thing is its not like I know where I go wrong. Did a good degree at a good uni. Highly autodidactique. Work in a suppsoedly well paid sector. Get told I'm quite good. Put up with traveling a lot even though I hate hate hate traveling and being away from home. Not even like I enjoy the job so no compensation there! Just seem to have a knack of ending up in the crap paying jobs for the sector. 35 too and this is the first jobs that had a work place pension. Then I meet so many stupid people earning 40, 50 60k doing god know what self justifying job.
The value placed on indviduals a mystery to me!
Never been bothered about money. Its certainly never been bothered about me. We seem to view each other with mutual distrust, so rarely stay together for long
Luckily I've never been bothered about the 'stuff' that seem to preoccupy so many people. Don't own property. Never will. Drive a 15 year old car. No savings. Worthless pension. I'm always skint yet still as happy as a pig in shit!! Because the important stuff, not money, is all pretty sweet. Life is bloody BRILLIAAAAAAAANT 😀
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Worthless pension
Who needs a pension when you've got pies 🙂
I think i'm pretty poor at selling myself within the workplace - tbh it's probably laziness, had a look a few years ago at the regrading procedure & put it off again & again telling myself i'd make an undeniable water-tight case next time round (did I bollocks), it's now got to the stage where my line manager is constantly reminding me of the application deadlines for this year and almost offering to write it for me...
Few of my mates (different industry with a much higher earning potential admittedly) are kicking around in Mercs / Audis / Range Rovers earning more than the prime minister & their biggest problem is trying to hide it from the tax man... there's a whole world of difference in the time spent in the comfort zone though - i'm pretty much that guy the Daily Mash wrote about & they'll be earning $1000 per day for 3 months then bugger all for the next 6 until the next big bucks contract on an oil field off the arse end of Russia starts.
Pretty much the same as freeagent but a bit younger, bit less mortgage and no cc debt. Not bothered about material stuff really. Let loads of opportunities go begging largely through provarication.
HATE WORK.
Got an awesome family.
Meh, could be worse.
Mostly I've done well really but deciding to move to a Surrey village from a decent part of London 9 years ago meant I missed out on some substantial property price increases.
If we're talking poor timing, then my mate at my old place handed in his resignation after 12 years working there on the Friday morning. The notice was passed to head office that afternoon.
On the Monday morning we were all called together and told the entire business was being wound up and we were all to be made redundant.
He spoke with HR, but because it had already been passed on there was nothing they could do. He would have been let go pretty much immediately as well.
If he'd waited a day he would have got 3/4 of a years salary as a lump sum, mostly tax free, to walk straight into another job...
Life is bloody BRILLIAAAAAAAANT
This, despite hora having your phone number??
many people set goals in life and achieve them. Which can mean they never set their goals high enough. To achieve the best you can, be prepared to fail. Something many aren't comfortable with.
Tom Logan, 35, stressed that anyone who tells him he needs to leave his comfort zone has failed to understood exactly how comfortable it is.
He has a good point!
I very good at failing.
*Raises hand*
I've always been shit at 'negotiating' salary. I'm probably one of the lowest paid people for my grade at my firm. Some lower grades even get paid more. I've never figured out the right way to go about demanding more money. I still earn decent money though so not complaining, but it could almost certainly be more if I kicked off about it. Or they might just tell me to leave if I don't like it?
Still have student loan from 1999, only think about it once a year if that.
To achieve the best you can, be prepared to fail. Something many aren't comfortable with.
I'm intensely comfortable with it.
Another one here in the "fairly capable, doing OK, could do a lot better but just CBA with it" camp.
I tend to settle in a job that's comfy and then stay there until I'm utterly fed up with it. I should have been more proactive but.... meh.
I've never been [i]poor[/i] but then I've never had money for all the nice shiny things other people have like new cars and new bikes. My last fully brand new bike was in 1998 ! I ride a 2009 bike whose frame was rescued from the bin, literally. I drive a 15 year old car that's just hit 167k miles.
The mortgage is manageable, I've no other debt, wife & child are both healthy. The house is dry & warm, and there's aways food on the table. Mustn't grumble really.
I'm just an idle barsteward, been part time for the past 9 years, not bothered about motors or stuff, put plenty of effort in on the bike and in the gym though, i value health much more than wealth.
I'm pretty good at earning it but I am equally good at spending it.
I think the trick is to avoid the big things, the big expenses on house things and car things... and bikes (plural) but the biggest place I am really good at is over spending on women, and I include my wife and daughters in that. I think they do cajole the money out of my pockets like some sort of black magic.
I'm finding this thread really depressing now as I started it to hear peoples funny stories but most people seem to have either knowingly passed up opertunites for personal reasons or made a decision to not persue a well paying job for personal reasons. Oh pants!
Oh here's agood un, got offered a 4 storey georgian town house and shop for £90k (Not all that long ago, prob less than half market value). Couldn't raise the deposit, current value? £500-600k. GRAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
ha ha well just to confuse the issue - i seem to be able to make a reasonable amount....but also made quite a lot of children along the way to just to balance it out. Being a single mother (who doesn't get loads of maintenance before you all roll your eyes) a lot of things depend on my income.
Two have fledged the nest so far and i sometimes let myself imaging what it will be like when the others go and i get to have all of my income to myself . . . i'm not sure i'll know what to do with it!
Well I can enjoy some schadefreuden with thestabilisers post.
Pretty useless at getting money. Early 40s and only just got past minimum wage factory work nearly two years ago. Still not paying back any student loan (art) from 2001, but so much happier not needing to constantly resist walking out. Now in a job which uses some of the skills I learnt through life long hobby with computers/code/etc.
By the average person's standards, I earn plenty.
Against my peers in the law firms I worked in, I'm now way off. But I'm not expected to work 16 hours a day in a soul crushing job.
Like others my issue is expenditure: too much of it!
I run a small LBS.
What do you think?
To achieve the best you can, be prepared to fail. Something many aren't comfortable with.
But that's the point, I, and many like me, don't want to achieve anything. I have no goals and no ambitions beyond remaining healthy and having a happy and healthy wife and kids. I'm sure my education could secure me an OK job but I have no desire to work any more than I do.
I don't want to be promoted, earn £X, drive a flash car, go on nice holidays, blah blah blah. I don't measure my success against the success of others, I couldn't give a toss how 'successful' anyone is, good for them, it's definitely not for me. I'm happy just meandering along in life with the minimal of stress, living each day at a time rather than getting through it and looking forward to the weekends or the next payday. Luckily I have an understanding wife who accepts what I'm like. Each day is great.