[Closed] Money or Happiness?

life's too short. Find something you enjoy, but maybe keep this job while you look, rather than walk.

diddums

To me nothings worth a job you hate. However putting up with it for a short time while you find something else might be worth it but only a short time. Are you just fed up with it or do you really hate it?

Moneys worth Jack shit if you are miserable tho

Have to sign up soon for another six months. Either walk before without a place to go or put up with another 6 months.

Didums? Up Yours, I worked fekin hard to get here. enjoy your 63.10 if that's what you think your worth and are happy with it.

Nothing particularly useful to say, apart from sometimes you just have to put up with doing a job you don't especially like. Most days I don't get much satisfaction from my job, although some days I do, but it keeps a roof over our heads, clothes and feeds the kids, and I the only way I can be made redundant is if I do something stupid. I console myself with the knowledge that I can retire at 50, when my kids will all be grown up and I can do something completely different for the next 10 years until my wife retires as well!

Just suck it up till you find something a job you like. You put on the BBB and bring a lot of joy to a lot of people, but are contemplating making things harder for your nearest and dearest as you 'hate' your job, seems a bit confused. I was always brought up to believe it's easier to get work when you are in work, so lump the current job, and focus on the good stuff (like the BBB and wife) and keep looking for something new, and good luck in finding it 🙂

money can't make you happy but lack of it can be a right pisser

if you've already spent your savings, I suppose it comes down to the state of the job market in your line of work

Get a job you enjoy doing and adapt your lifestyle accordingly. You spend a third of your day doing work, maybe another few hours thinking about and in my case, more time working than I have spare time. If you end up being good at it you should hopefully rise to the top and get paid more.

So you've been earning 100k a year and not managed to put more than 4 months overheads away in savings. Bloody hell I'd love to have lived your lifestyle. Well I went from earning half that to bugger all then had six months out of work before finding a job which meant moving my family from a part of the country they loved to one they hate so the tears are not exactly running down my cheeks for you. I don't really care what you do just get on with it and stop moaning on here.

why do you have to commit for 6 months? Seems rather odd

uponthedowns - not moaning, just bored and a little beered at gone midnight in a hotel in Switzerland, missing my wife. The numbers are really not important I assure you that you live at: Salary * X

X can be 0.85 if you save 15% or X can be 1.15 if your over spend. The only difference is that when salary is big your fixed costs tend to be larger (house, car etc) and if big salary disappers your fixed costs soon eat your savings.

I am truely sorry for you and your family having to move, we were just 30 days from the same situation. Forget the headline figures, broke is broke

Pity pre-hacked STW is no longer with us. I seem to recall exactly the same alcohol-fuelled melancholy from foreign hotel rooms in your previous job. Based on that, I'd suggest that little has actually changed and that if you could put up with it before, then you can again. No one said you had to enjoy your job, it's a question of using it as a way of earning enough money to have a satisfactory way-of-life.

WCA you might have to MTFU and bite it for a bit untill things look up, or you can get a new position- 6 months isnt that long really? If you commit surely you can get out if it if something else comes along?
Chin up fella!

No one said you had to enjoy your job, it's a question of using it as a way of earning enough money to have a satisfactory way-of-life.

Yes work is something you do in order to afford a life.

WCA sorry I had a go at you but, given my experience, I get touchy about this sort of thing. OK you've had a bad experience but you're back in work and have the option to take your time to find something you really want to do. Try planning what its going to be. Having a goal and taking control like that will release a lot of stress. Its not much comfort but there are people worse off than you, like my mate who's an experienced electronics engineer and has been out of work since January

We're working out a way of moving back up north when the kids have finished school having that light at the end of the tunnel really helps.

Stay with the job while looking for a better ones and sometimes boring or stupid job means there will be opportunity to do well.

Things can be shite at times and money can only buy happiness momentarily as you have clearly experienced. High income means high expenses simple.

Keep your life simple and you will be happy.

Work does not need to be interesting but it helps and the way to go about it is not too get too personal about your work after all it's just work.

suck it up for another 6 months, assure you ay the mortgage, and do what you need to so that in 5 months time you can give your notice and move on.

I've walked away with nothing to go to and been in limbo for several months - no more fun than a crap job you dislike, but your not at least getting paid to be in said situation!

I've done great, fun jobs but had to live hand to mouth - after a while not being able to do squat outside of work isn't worth the fun of the the job you like.

I'm now in middle ground - earn enough, although nothing even getting close to great, but it's more or less flexi time, not too stressful for more than a short period when at our absolute busiest (15hr+ days etc)and get on with everyone I work with; I don't dread coming, but then I don't get excited about it either.

For me the balance is right - earn enough to have toys and do things in my time of and can switch off at 5pm Friday and not have to worry about things. I also have enough of my own time to enjoy it rather than just recover from work!

I thought you worked for yourself these days?

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/i-have-left-the-stw-jobless-club

Do you not like your boss?

I've walked away with nothing to go to and been in limbo for several months - no more fun than a crap job you dislike

I'd strongly disagree with that. I've done it twice. I had no fixed costs, stuff went into storage at a friends. First time I went Egypt for 5 months and lived off a couple of grand savings. Came back with nothing and rejoined the rat race. Second time more or less the same thing in South Africa (although less time). Had a great time.

I accept the op is not in that position and the economy has changed a little, now.

MTFU and do it for the money....but buy yourself an X6 to help out though pain.
🙂

Change the overheads, with agreement from your domestic management, and switch to a fun job. Work out what you need to survive at the lower overhead and try to do a job that pays that much in the minimum attendance time. (I think I have just found my one of these).

I'm stuck in a job I dont particularly like any more, surrounded by far too many inexperienced people, feeling unsafe a lot of the time, and to top it all, having to be 'managed' by a bell end with far less experience than myself. I earn around 32 grand a year (which I'd thought was a decent salary until I saw some of the figures on here). The way I get through it is by separating or compartmentalising my work / home life - as long as I am able to contribute towards the mortgage and everything else, then my job is just a job. No, its not ideal, but sadly, we dont live in a perfect world, but I'm still able to spend time with my family, and that (for me at least) is what really matters. I suppose what I'm trying to say, in a gentle way, is MTFU and try to focus on whats really important to you.

Six months isn't too bad and it sounds like your last period out of work got pretty stressful, so I'd stay in the job, save as much as possible in that time and look for something better.

Dont leave without something to go to IMO. Try going for the odd job you like the look of even if you think you don't have a hope in hell, if things click you may get it or hear of other opportunities...

Failing that:-
Try to scive as much as you can so you feel you're not losing out or being taken the Pee out of.
Take a loan out and buy a BMW X6.

Happiness is always the way to go. If you're not happy ditch it and find something else.

Long shot, you could talk to your boss tell him what's wrong (i.e. why he's a bellend and Peeing you off) and how to make thing better and put a 'the company will benefit' slant on the way say it.

[EDIT] This is not recommended except as a last ditch effort to save the job or sanity. See Below!

My thoughts FWIW:

1. Keep your job - it keeps the money coming in at least
2. Write down a list of 10 things that make you happy. Do them regularly to keep your spirits up.
3. Remember the positive points to your situation: I'm trying to change career too but I stick a job I dislike cos it means I can go riding whenever I want and when something needs replacing or a trip somewhere distant gets organised, I can do it without having to worry about the cash
4. Consider a career coach if you need help finding a job you really want to do
5. Get this from Amazon [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Get-Youll-Love-2009/dp/0077121805/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252054203&sr=8-1 ]HowToFindAJobYouLove[/url]

I am in a not dissimilar position Nick, and your post about fixed overheads rings very true. Personally, I am pretty sure that it is my responsibility [b]not[/b] to suddenly slash my earnings on a whim because it might make me "happier" to do a different job. I reckon it's fine to work towards that, but it seems to me to be asking a lot of one's wife to just announce that you're making a big change and their support for this decision is required. 🙂

Dobbo - I've already dropped a bollock by trying that one, and now have someting of a reputation for being 'aggressively assertive'. It doesnt help that he is an old friend of one of the medical directors (I didnt think that one through, obviously). For the moment, I'm putting up with things because I have financial commitments, but luckily, I have an interview for another job coming up. Sometimes, as I tried saying earlier, you just have to suck it up until something better comes along.

barnsleymitch post edited!

What? Sorry, I'm not that familiar with forum etiquette, what does 'post edited' mean?

mehhhh...........

I out-earn my parents, and I'm only 23! Am I happy? Sometimes.

On the other hand my dad sits there watching the callender tick over hopeing they don't close his pension scheme before his retirement date, although he's in a job you'd do for the love not the money.

Finding it hard to have sympathy too, I have 2 kids and am currently in a pool at risk of redundancy, fortunatly I saved around 45% of my NET income this year with this eventuality in mind, with my savings and my redundancy we could live for a good couple of years before I needed to get another job

my philosophy is balance.

Life isnt happier with money but it is more comfortable. Life without can be pants but happy. Find the balance between the two.

What? Sorry, I'm not that familiar with forum etiquette, what does 'post edited' mean?

I changed the post you commented on, I added a get out clause!

Sounds sensible to me to keep the money rolling in and look hard for something that you would like, 6 months is not so long. I think the important thing in these sort of situations is to make sure that you are doing things on your terms, and not to feel that this is something that is being "done" to you. So if you frame it as: ok I am going to work at this dumbass job for the next 6 months, save as much money as I can during that time, work like a b@stard trying to find something better, then you have control of the situation. Put down the date you intend to leave on the calendar, count down the days, go through the day knowing that you will be leaving this at some time. Sitting about mooching is not going to make you feel better

Money or Happiness? implies that you will be happy if you left this job. However, if that means you will be sitting around at home, or online searching for jobs, I've found it can lead to a drone-like existence that is far from happy. I would take the new 6 month contract and try to look for new jobs in the meantime.
Good luck.

Have you tried talking to your wife about it?

isn't there an old Chinese proverb that says "find a job you enjoy and you never have to go to work"

i've left more jobs than i've had long term jobs. admittedly i was/am young and they weren't career jobs. but one big thing for me is that i'm able to have fun. lack of fun being the reason i left my last, relatively well paid job.

i'm now a semi self-employed English teacher and struggling now more than i was in the UK as a self-employed carpenter toward the end of 2008 with the death of the building trade. too much competition and the old adage, 'no experience', being barriers to my earning.

if i had proper responsibilities other than making sure i had fun then i'd have stuck with the carpentry here in Germany. "Zuerst kommt der Arbeit, danach die Vernugung" or "First comes work, then 'fun'". doesn't work for me.

happiness is a much more important thing for than money, but money certainly helps in the pursuit of happiness.

WCA, i don't think your position is as bad as some on here. you have a big flashy car you aquired through blackmail (as you led us to believe) as well as a little sports motor. either one of those you could sell. you live in a 'posh' part of the country where house prices are still good. sell the house, downsize or move away from the area.

you're still earning. you've still got roughly the same outgoings as one year ago. maybe find a balance somewhere there.

good luck.

Why not move to a smaller house, get an older car and try being happy from within, money does not make you happy it only keeps the wolves from the door and helps to keep you up with mr & mrs jones, If your mrs is the true angel you make out, talking to her should be easy, why would she want you to be unhappy,make changes in your life but slow it down don't just walk out, do a 5 year plan, down scale the house and save your way out,I've been there and lost everything to the now ex-wife and guess what what, it's not the Italian bespoke leather sofa that I waited 8 months to be made that I miss, it's my kids that she took away that gets to me, so don't make any moves with too much haste. GOOD LUCK

£100K / yr and no savings to speak of, wow!

Lots of parties with midgets carrying trays of cocaine ?

Are you not a contactor? You can leave at any time. If you are so insecure that you repeatedly have to post on STW veiled boasts on how much you earn, then to you money is obviously more important than happiness, so stick with your contract. I work as a contactor, and TBH, the industry is full of people like you, who constantly have to reassure themselves of their self worth by how much money they are earning. I don't have a problem with it...but it's fing boring. The statement you made about "time off cost me xxxK" is something I hear all the time...who gives a s?

Grow up, get on with the contact you are obviously going to take and save up some money while you do it.

ouch.

It's gone very cold in here!! lodious you missed the smilie off 😆

He does have a point though! 😉

Sorry, that came out worse than it should have done;-(

Sober again and back in the office. Thanks for the advice/slagging. Both valid.

Appears to be some jealousy on here from people who don't like the fact you earned £100k.

However you need to change your habbits, or you could soon end up bankrupt, and that will sure teach you how to live off peanuts. I agree with what you say about the salary not being relevant, your right it isn't you spend what you get in regardless. However, you DO need to realise you are not earning £100k, and potentially will not do again. To do so at this stage is stupid.

IMO ditch the nice cars eat some humble pie and get a cheap car, and get out of as many regular payments as you can, but keep the one asset you have, your home. To sell now would be stupid.

As to jobs, be grateful your working, many people can not get jobs at the moment and money coming in is better than no money at all.

I currently work a 2hr drive from where I now live, I hate the travelling and I'm not too keen on the job, but to just jack it in at this stage would be stupid, its always better to be earning and looking for a job than to be sat at home doing nothing.

Oh I didn't actually answer the Q..

No money doesn't make you happy. It makes life easier, more comfortable and slightly less stressful, but overall it doesn't make you happy, your friends, family, you make you happy.

Sometimes you just have to think about the pay cheque - some people have no choice.

When my manager was changed last year I thought my job, which I liked a fair bit and was paid well, for would become a lot worse. New manager was someone I knew very well and she's difficult to work with. So I thought about leaving and things did get pretty bad for a while and I'm annoyed about that as I get on well with the other people I work with and enjoy what I do. Trouble is not quite sure where else I'd work - quite happy to take a pay cut to move from IT consultancy to an end-user company if close to home as would love more free time but hardly anyone's recruiting in what I do. Unlike BBB it seems I have always planned for a lower income future and have paid off my mortgage so shouldn't feel worried about things really but do feel stuck at the moment.

I would feel sympathy for you if you hadn’t been in the high earners club(not sure about you but I consider £100K high earnings).
I’m not doing too badly, but I’m not a massive earner, nor am I insulated from the possibility of redundancy in my current job.

So what if you had “High outgoings” and didn’t plan/save sufficiently for a rainy day, hardly at the bottom of the pile are you?

You got re-employed. You’ve basically got a reprieve, where other low earning, hard working individuals who were already dangerously close to the poverty line, have been pushed over it by the recent spate of redundancies.

I had the conversation with my Missus the other day (who is currently on Maternity leave and considering going back early just to make sure we can keep topping up the savings), what if I was made redundant (always a possibility), how long could we survive? We have our savings (intended for a deposit on a house), I reckoned 6 months absolute tops, and we’d be knackered savings wise.

So while we have saved hard and earn reasonable wages but still can’t afford to buy, I’m sure you can appreciate it grates a little when City boys who’ve fallen from one well paid cushy job into a slightly less well paid and slightly less enjoyable job start whinging about job satisfaction.

There’s always someone worse off than you, or in your particular case most of the ****ing country! 🙄

Mean UK salary is £24k, so appreciate what you've got.
Median UK salary is about £18k, so MTFU.
Above £42k, you're in the top 10% of earners.

Money can buy self respect, and toys, and comfort, but it cannot buy happiness. In your case, I'd sign for the next 6 months, but save as much as possible / pay off my mortgage completely. I've worked in crap jobs before, but needed the money to pay the mortgage & bills. It's called life.

Sorry to roast you, but I don't think you appreciate how financially lucky you've been until now.

😕

I'd stick it out. The vast majority of people would prefer to be doing something different with their time wouldn't they? Sometimes you just have to sell your soul.

I have 2 mortgages at the moment. Trying to sell 1 property and we live in the other. Been on the market for 20 months (had a tenant in for 6 of them) and it was meant to complete last week. It's now fallen through. Completely bummed about it as it leaves me with no spare cash each month and after 20 months it's a pain in the arse, not been on holiday etc for 2 years.

I'm a Sales & Marketing Director & the moment & I'd love to do something with a little less pressure, but I can't afford the salary drop at the moment. Just got to tough it out...

Right.

I was made redundant in July. i never earned a great deal in fact i suspect one of WCA's cars cost more than i earned in a year.
My fiance buggered off 10 months ago, i'm paying a mortgage on my own and hoping desperately that my MPI will be passed before i run out of savings.
There is next-to-no work in my former line (light engineering) and i'm trying to retrain as a cycle instructor so i can work with the local authority in their cycling development office. To do this i need to get involved with volunteer work for a few months and in return they will pay for me to do an instructors course.
100K? that sort of money is fantasy island stuff to me, my bloody house was only £33'000 so forgive me if i couldn't give a flying shit about your predicament. I would LOVE to be earning 20% of that right now and i'm having sleepless nights worrying about how i'm going to keep the house.

Quit whining you pathetic little boy.

I went from a well paid job with long hours to becoming a mental case and now realised time to enjoy life was better than the pay cheque. I went for a job i always wanted that pays less and its great, just about pay the bills and keep roof over our heads and am glad i am now in a job thats never likely to be affected by economic factors.

I guess it comes down to how much you value the idea that you MUST have the trappings of someone who earns £100k when you no longer do.

Alternatively, went to funeral yesterday of a lad who were killed in Afghanistan 3 weeks ago, 21 year old and been married 6 months...then my mum called round and informed me that her next door neighbour has had an accident on his bike and is now paralysed and unable to speak. He's only 40, self employed with a wife and family. Somehow, not earning £100k any more doesnt seem that important.

i want neither money nor happiness, preferring contentment and unimaginable wealth instead

Suck it up you nancy. Hope that helps.

Try spending ££££ and 7 years for two red brick degrees in Architecture only to find that numskulls parceling bad debt have killed any hope of getting a job, a rental flat and a car that doesn't squeal when you start it. Normal jobs paying £12-20kpa aren't interested because they know you see it as a stop-gap. 'Friends' disappear. That's a Fu**ing hole, try getting out of that one!

Miserable, just miserable.

Oh and also.................... when you're actually checking down the sofa for coins - that's when you can maybe complain....

I was earning close to £100K in my early thirties. However, I would feel sick on the commute into work on a Monday morning, and really suffered due to being terrible at office politics. The job had been great in my mid to late 20s, but then the whole organisation changed and my job satisfaction went downhill.

I then changed to a smaller company was still stressed and unhappy, so decided to sell up and go travelling. (I know that isnt an option for you as you yourself say you like all the material stuff, have I got that right?)

Well I went to learn yoga for a year in India but got really badly ill in a quite painful way, and had to come back to the Uk to recover. The following year, I ended up in a job with one of the UKs biggest gambling companies, which then took me and our team of 10 people to Gibraltar 2 years later to dodge tax.

So although that was a job that superfically was totally incompatible with my personal beliefs, I stuck with it in order to save up for what I really wanted to do (met a small number of ace people over there including Roper which made it for me).

I'd say focus on what it is you really want out of life while doing the job. It wont last for ever, and someone with the skills and dedication you have to offer should be able to find something rewarding. However, when I look at all the £100k jobs around, I see very little that floats my boat, and the jobs are high stress, long hours and you are never your own boss really, not even the MDs of this world who have shareholders and analysts and bankers to keep happy).

What is it you really want to do?

I was made redundant for the first time in my life in April this year - I'm still looking - but my savings have made a difference. We had no summer holiday this year and were without a car (due to it being a company one) but my worry is really for my daughters for whom the future seems very grim at the moment re. jobs and careers. However, we have good friends and family near by and these are where your values should lie - money isn't everything but you do need enough to get by on.

I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy, to be calm when you've found something going on. But take your time, think a lot, why, think of everything you've got. For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.

[i]I like my comfortable lifestyle[/i]

No sympathy here, suck it up and remember how lucky you are, and if/when you get back to that 'comfortable lifestyle' maybe you could spare a thought for the vast majority of people who don't have the choice about doing jobs they love; they just have to go to work to survive, not to buy fancy shit.

You earned £100K, no kids and you have nothing left after 6 months? Tough shit!!!

[i]Serious financial sacrifices in between times.[/i]
diddums

Wow just read this thread all the way through.
After a nanoseconds consideration I would suggest that you are in dire need of a corporate arse raping, redundancy, 1 year old, pregnant wife and mortgage to fund.
That, I found, realigns your perspective on life and relative values.
Until then I am finding it somewhat challenging to warm to you.

I'm not even going to dignify your thread with an answer... oh b*****S just did!

What a brilliant thread for all the wrong reasons!

I worked in a job I disliked until late 2008. I was repeatedly promised partnership and thought I was set for life. I racked up consumer debt a-go-go thinking I never had to worry.

Then I got a redundancy threat, made a decision to go into a partnership and got shafted by someone I thought was my friend. The net result is that all my savings are gone, I have a mortgage, car loan, credit card and student loan to pay. I was unemployed for 6 weeks. I broke down crying in the benefits office. Not real sobbing but enough for the woman speaking to me to stop the interview.

Luckily I got a job paying just under the top 10% figure. I hate it. I hate the people I have to pretend to be friendly with. I hate the office politics. I was strongly considering relocating to another part of the UK for work and commuting every second weekend to see my family.

How I deal with it is to look at it as a means to an end. I am going to pay off as much as possible as quickly as possible so I can consider lower paid jobs and still meet my responsibilities.

At 38 I'm having to come to terms with the fact that I'm now never going to have my own firm which is something I had aspired to for 20 years. I'm having to figure out what alternative purpose my work is now going to have and I have a rough idea forming.

I would love to walk away from it all but I have to think of my kids (4 & 8). My advice is to put work in a box at 5pm and leave it there. I used to work 60-70 hours per week but I'm now doing 45.

we seem to have lost an OP?

we seem to have lost an OP?

Haven't we just!? Behind all redundancies is a story. I was supposed to get married two weeks ago (proposed at xmas) but sh1t happens! Close shave eh?!

We all just have to get on with it...

If in hotels go to the gym for a while. Will make you feel much better.
Cut costs if you can a little without being unhappy to try and save a little. Try to get the most your out of your current work. Keep looking / networking for a better job.

WCA - I think common sense tells you to grin and bear it 🙂

I think there are some (myself included) who feel they don't really like their job but have to stay because of the way things are right now.

This in itself is actually demotivating.

The answer......just plod along, make the best of the situation. I did and have now just secured a secondment in another department within the company I work for (and no rudeboy I can't go biking behind the building in my lunch hour! 😆 )

I feel very lucky to have the chance to be happy at work again and do something I enjoy.

And to those of you that are still struggling to find work, I wish you all the very best and I hope something good comes your way very soon.

WCA- Im only young (22) and i have found that if you dont enjoy your job then you find it hard to enjoy your free time. but you still have bill etc to pay so its 6 of one and half a dozen of the other.

I'm not sure I sure the nihlism of some of the more recent posts.

Until recently I was always very stoical. I knew I wasn't getting much enjoyment out of life but I just put it down to the stage I was at with young kids, medium sized mortgage,fixed costs, working to pay the bank, wife with busy job etc.

However, a friend I was talking to recently asked me what I was actually getting out of how I was living my life. I couldn't really answer him and that started some serious soul searching.

I agree that circumstances sometimes mean you just have to get on with it. However, I think if you are in that sort of situation for too long, the soul starts to be destroyed.

Going back to the OP, I think they key is to dispossess yourself as far as possible. Keep yourself as free of financial burden as possible to free up the choices you have. Don't become a slave or trapped and keep your life as simple as possible. That's my take on the OP anyway.

Drunk in a hotel room in Switzerland it is a living nightmare 😉

Drink less think less enjoy the now.