I'm doing a job I love, one I've always wanted to do.
HOWEVER
at the age of 30 I have reached what I perceive to be my maximum earning potential doing what I do now (self employed). I'm fed up with the unpredictability of self employment and working in an industry where merit often goes unrewarded.
I only work 180 odd days a year but don't often have the money/motivation to use those days off constructively.
I've never had a 'real' job apart from the odd temping thing at uni and really have no idea what my skills will transfer to should I wish to enter 'a career'.
My CV is [url= http://www.mrmichaelwright.co.uk/CURRICULUM%20VITA1%20web.pdf ]here[/url], it's tailored towards freelance work at the moment but outlines my core competencies and skills.
I have the opportunity to undertake courses with the Open University at a discounted rate but really have no idea what I'd enjoy or would be useful. We may be moving in 3 years to Scotland and my current form of employment would become less viable up there.
I've never really been much good at 'book smarts' but my academic failures were due to my immaturity at the time which I have now (mostly) overcome.
MrsMW earns a lot more than me but is also fed up with me struggling with cash flow and our lives being effectively put on hold twice a year when the tax man comes a calling.
I COULD stay doing what I do now, my earnings are by no means poxy (think national average plus 30%) but it would mean a few changes to my lifestyle and a lot of working on myself and discipline. I'm interested however in exploring other avenues.
any advice/p*ss taking greatly received
Mike
I'd remove your CV from public view, to be honest. Best not to share too much detail on teh interweb.
there's no contact details on there, it's been on my website for 6 years in HTML form anyway.
Hi Mike. My first thought is are you perhaps in danger of chasing money for the sake of it ? If you're doing a job you love and earning 30% more than the average wage then I think you may need to take a good look at how good things are for you. If Kirstie earns more than you (as Ali does in our household) then believe me, unless you have a burning desire to own the newest car every twelve months you have enough money, and more won't make you happier on it's own. A move to Scotland might help you to make a fresh start and decide what you want from life - it certainly worked for us when we moved to Wales. After running and then selling the B&B I've now gone back to being a buyer, which I used to do when we lived near Oxford, but I have a completely different approach to the whole work / life balance thing. We earn no more money than we did ten years ago, but it's certainly enough to do what we want to do, and we've managed to move somewhere we actually want to live. However, we have no kids and I don't know if this may feature in your future plans. I'd suggest you avoid the twice yearly "putting your life on hold" by living a little more frugally for, say, 12 months and saving yourselves a bit of a slush fund to use when tax bills are looming. Concentrate on enjoying your lives, not chasing a bigger wage. You'll only end up in ten years with a bigger mortgage, no free time to enjoy yourselves and no more disposable cash than you have now.
All the best to you both, and good luck.
thanks Pat
that's kind of my thinking too, no shiny things for a couple of years wouldn't do me any harm at all.
there's a trip your way on the cards soon as K is trying to get back into mtb a bit more.
Sell your arse on the side.
i tried that, turns out my arse isn't worth that mch
Hi Mike
You're welcome any time.
Regards
As Raindog says.
You love your job by the sounds of it, but what strikes me immediately is that you're not making full use of what it provides you with - time and money. It's quite rare to get both - I'm lucky that I've been able to get more of both thanks to a job move a few years ago.
I'd suggest doing as Raindog suggests. Live frugally for 12 months and clear any debt and build a sinking fund to even out the tax payment issues. Try to put away at least a third of what you earn for a year. Get a bit more financial discipline, and possibly consider hiring an accountant to talk you through it. One good trick is to have a business account so you don't have piles of dosh sitting around - pay yourself a monthly wage out of it and into your current account, and learn what you need to have each month to live.
Plan time off more efficiently - try building a list of things you can do for a day, week, or fortnight so you come to the end of a job and wonder what you could be doing. It could be anything - riding (v. important), sorting out stuff with the house, other projects, training, you get the idea.
I'd suggest doing all of this before thinking of retraining. You are doing something you love, have a lot of time off and a fair wodge of cash. Those three things are usually mutually exclusive, and if you retrain then you will quite likely find this out first hand. Best of luck.
OK, so you work c180 days a year. What's the average no. of working days - 250?
That leave you with 70 days to either do another job - work in your LBS, do some training, charity work, ride your bike, execute a plna for your new direction.
Have you ever thought of expanding your business to work with others? Say a partnership with someone else?
Sure, you don't earn WCA sums of cash, but look at him and other wage slaves (like me) and consider the risk vs the reward of earning what you do for a non-full time commitment.
If you're planning to move to Scotland, and you're genuinely sure that what you currently do isn't transferrable up there (in whole or in part, maybe?) then do you have a clear idea of what you would like to do as an alternative?
You have three years between now and your move. This means that tyou need to make a plan for those three years. It needs to encompass (1) sorting cashflow (though all self employed people have issues around tax payment time) (2) having an idea of why you're moving to Scotland and what you can get out of it and (3) using those 70 days effectively to achieve this.
Good luck. Sounds exciting!
😀
could you do more days/year in your current job?
if you could, but don't, what makes you think you have the discipline to do an OU degree?
sounds to me like you're just a bit bored and fancy a change. nothing wrong with that, but i think you might need to count your blessings a bit too mate. no offence.
I imagine there'd be a lot more opportunities for your sort of work in Scotland than you might imagine.
I've a mate with a sound engineering business who's in Edinburgh and nvere out of work, so there must be a fair bit of potential.
Stick at it, I say, you really do seem to have struck a magic balance!
some good advice and a few truths of which i am pretty aware.
It's tricky to do more days work than i do, although i only work 180ish days they can be anything from 4 hours to 36 and trying to do more days in 'the season' would be pretty detrimental to my health.
In fact if the average worker does 250x8 hour days and i do 180x11 hour days (about the average) then they both come out at about 2000 hours 🙂
I do about the same number of days work as most of my fellow freelancers, there is a sort of critical mass of work/number of freelancers that evens out the work. being good at it by no means guarantees you more work. The progression career wise is to go into project management but companies nowadays want you to bring clients with you, they are looking for 400k+ business to start off with and this precludes entry from my position.
I have thought of filling my spare days with working for lbs etc but my work pattern is extremely erratic so it's very difficult to commit to anything regular, even temping agencies don't really want to know as i more than often have to turn down anything they can offer in favour of a more lucrative days work.
I completely agree with the comments regarding discipline with finance and using my time, it's shall we say a work in progress, i'm a lot better than i used to be.
The Scotland thing is by no means a definite, it is what we hope for and is certainly likely. If we moved up there our mortgage would probably be lower and i would love to work in something countryside based. It would however be a lot easier to so things like mountainbiking on days off, living where i do means this is hard to do at the moment. It is feasible to do what i do now up there but i would be entering a whole new market in terms of networks and relationships with companies, an ideal time to try something else. It'd be very easy to drop back into what i do now as there are few 'youngsters' entering the industry.
Some definite food for though
I think one of the main things is, if you really want to make a big change you need two things. What is your dream? What is it you really want to do? The second thing you need is patience.
Sounds like you still need to work on what it is you really want to do. There is no point making changes unless you have that fully worked out. Once you have a dream, or burning ambition, then all the obstacles, all the delays and challenges will shrink dramatically.
I for one had my vision in 2003, and in 2004 sold my house, ended a very well well paid but v stressful job in central London, and went travelling to study. But had some very tough challenges, things "went wrong" and ended up having to get a job again.
Took me 4 years to get myself where I needed to be financially, and am now mixing both an MSc with studying what I love and am writing a book too.
So yeah, vision 2003 and only in 2009 am I now "living my dream". Don't care if people think that is cheesy, you need a huge amount of motivation to get you through what are quite likely to be low points too.
Not too sure if this helps. Only you know yourself what you really want to do with your life. You also have plenty of free time to explore options and look for new things too. You can make a lot of changes too right now and I think you will be amazed at what you do not need to purchase to save money. And if you make those purchase type changes now, it will stand you in good stead for the longer term changes in maybe a year or two once you are clear in your head exactly what it is you, and your partner, really want.
Not too sure if this helps or is a bit rambling really.
rambling is good thanks 🙂
I can draw on MrsMW's experience for being frugal, she did it through a degree, an MSc and a PhD coming out without debt (i managed a failed HND with loads of debt 🙂 )
In terms of having a dream, it's more to do with what i can make myself into as a person, not about a physical goal. I guess that's probably harder if you are a bit of a wierdo like me.
[i]guess that's probably harder if you are a bit of a wierdo like me. [/i]
You've not seen some of my more "interesting" holiday snaps have you? 🙂 Probably makes it easier for you as you are not stuck in the propaganda, hype and rat race.
i'm aware of your more 'alternative' pursuits 🙂
I'm in a very similar position to MMW (same industry), except I've been full time for a pretty long while, which is a little more civilised, but at times only a very little! It can be a very addictive work environment. It's also not one that translates geographically very well (if you want a decent wage anyway), unless you're prepared to spend time touring, which isn't my cup of tea, and I suspect isn't his. Basically you need to be within a sensible distance of London...
Myself and the missus want to move up north too, but that again, will translate into me needing a new career, and I'm buggered if I know what I want to do. I can do anything within reason, but after 12+ years in the entertainment idustry, there's not a lot I'm actually going to enjoy enough to want to make a long term career out of. I've ended up with a very low tolerance for politics, beaurocracy and bullshit (which knocks out most office jobs), but I'm really not sold on doing a purely physical job as I get older.
As to what I'd want out of a career - plenty of money, plenty of time off, and an occupation that satisfies me mentally, Oh, and the moon on a stick please...
Hi Jon
[hi-jacks own thread]
how's business in that there london? looking a bit quiet up here after a busy June/July
[hi-jack over]
wanna set up in business and conquer the North 🙂
Business in this here London has been f'kin sh!te. Good job I've been off on me hols lots as I'd be bored stiff otherwise. Picking up again now though.
Conquering the north is fine in principle and should be easy enough, but you'd spend your entire life stamping down the troublesome rabble who inhabit the region, and never actually getting anything useful/fun done. That and we'd be wasted on them... 😉