Getting Serious about Money

Yesterday afternoon, C and I had a conversation about money, jobs and life, not unusual when we are on a long car trip. This one was different though.

This one was less "I wish" and more "we should". It was about how other people seem to be getting ahead in this crap economy and we aren't. About how different decisions made earlier in our lives could have made a big difference to our current finances. And about how big decisions now could help change things for the better.

Basically, we both decided that it's time to pull our finger out and stop settling. Stop settling for our white- and blue-collar wages. Start focusing on how we can earn more, and sow the seeds of some future passive income.

"But it all sounds so greedy!" I said at one point, stricken with conscience because striving for more money seemed a little Wall Street when people less fortunate than us are struggling to keep the power and water on.

But hubby pointed out that there is no shame in wanting something better for ourselves, and our future family. Plus we're both totally sick of being poor. Poverty being relative of course - I am not living on the breadline, or below it. But the constant worry about money is just exhausting. And I don't want to be a billionaire. I just want to be able to buy a magazine when I fancy it and not feel guilty.

So now remains to be seen whether we will actually take action, or keep talking about taking action. I'm a very hard girl to get out of my comfortable rut, so stay tuned. Will we look at the mining sector? Will we consider 2nd jobs? Will we start up a side hustle? Who knows.

Do you want more income? Have you done any of the above and how has it turned out?

Drive and ambition

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about life goals. It stemmed from a conversation I had with my dad where I joked that I should have been a dentist because they charge like a wounded bull and don’t seem to have to do too much. He expressed his wish once again that I should have been a doctor or a lawyer. I reminded him I would have been bored or miserable doing these (we’ve had this conversation before) and lamented that I never did know what I wanted to be when I grew up.

You see, I’m jealous of people with career ambitions. I never had that burning desire to be a fireman or a ballerina. I did briefly flirt with the idea of being a nurse in kindergarden before I realized you have to deal with people’s bodily fluids all day. However, even now, I don’t know what I want to do in my working life. I’ve fallen into all of the jobs I’ve had and since I’ve been pretty good at them I’ve just toddled along. I don’t want to climb the corporate ladder or give up the cubicle life to make jewelry (“She's Making Jewelry Now") My vintage homewares Etsy shop is more of a hobby than an actual way to make money.

I constantly hear and read about people who knew exactly what they wanted to do with their life when they were young. And others who discover later in life a burning passion and find joy in pursuing something they never even thought of. I want that for myself!

I’m currently reading Arnold Schwarzenegger's autobiography ("Total Recall"), and he is one of those people who knew exactly what he wanted from childhood, and had the drive to achieve it. He writes about how he consciously set himself goals and always worked very hard to achieve them – whether it was success in bodybuilding, business, movies or politics. It’s a pretty amazing read, I recommend the book.

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So now, I guess I just need to get over my jealousy of people who know what they want to do with their lives and find my passion. Meanwhile, I’m taking inspiration from Aussies I follow on social media like Jess Van Den of Epheriell Designs (silversmith extraordinaire) and Peggy Saas from cake crumbs and beach sand (amazing food photographer).

Do you have ambition? Did you always know what you wanted to be when you grew up?

Hi ho, hi ho

When you start to tally up pros and cons in your head, it’s a pretty good indicator something is rotten in the State of Denmark. I’ve been mentally making lists in my head all week, in those boring moments between calls. And there have been a lot of those lately.

I’m talking about my “new” job. I’ve been here four months now and I’m pretty much over things. I find my daily role repetitive and boring, and I know this because I spend all my spare moments when I should be processing emails, surfing.

Today I had a Eureka moment – I’m not solving problems. I’m just a processor, a gateway. I put faxes into trays, forward emails to the right people and switch calls to different departments. There’s no challenge here, now that I’ve learnt all there is to know about the role. For sure, there’s a lot more to learn about the industry, but I have no scope for it where I am now. I have been wanting to speak with my team leader about this but have had no monthly review or one-on-one for over 2 months.

So here’s my list of positives and negatives, in the interest of trying to sort out this issue in my head.

Pros

- Pays more than Telstra. A lot more.

- A lot less stress. I still get yelled at by customers occasionally, but nowhere near as much and I have better authority to deal with it (ie. Actually allowed to terminate a call if the language is abusive).

- Pleasant staff, laidback manager

- Probably going to have enough leave accumulated for what I need for my wedding next year

Cons

- 1hr commute each way to the city

- workmate in same role, who I work very closely with, is incompetent, lackadaisical, disorganized and faintly annoying. Also has a tendency to make things up when speaking with customers. Her habit of using the word “wavier” instead of “waive” is driving me up the grammatical wall.

- Completely lack of ability of middle management to find their collective bums with directions and a torch. I guess this is typical of any corporation though. But seriously couldn’t organize a chook raffle in an RSL.

- Little to no Health & Safety accountability. This seems silly, but it worries me. They do no workstation ergonomic checks (leaving them open to legal action from employees with RSI, bad backs etc. caused by excessive keying/poor ergonomic setup of their desks). I have no idea who the fire wardens are, and since we moved to our new building, no one has conducted any sort of evacuation briefing. I know where the fire exit is as I can see it from my desk, but have no idea where our assembly point is. There’s not even a HS&E board anywhere that I could find out this information.

- Aforementioned boredom. There is a reason that I am reading blogger, my personal email and news sites all day, and its because my work is not engaging me. This is a problem because a bored worker is not a productive one, and it makes me feel guilty.

- Their processes are archaic and paper-heavy. There’s a lot of talk about green incentives around here but I don’t see it. I’ve never seen an office use so much paper. I’ve asked, but they are not willing to do any revision of existing processes that would involve electronic document storage.

- I was assured that there would be plenty of scope to move roles once I was employed here, but so far nothing has been offered to me. I will be bringing this up with my manager when we have that elusive one-on-one review.

Put out on paper like this, the cons seem like small things to put up with for a better paypacket. But I also want to put my personal happiness first. I think I’m in a bind about this because we are doing things a bit tough financially lately, and don’t want to leave a good-paying job to satisfy my selfish need to feel good about helping people and be more intellectually stimulated.

So what are the alternatives?

1. Ask my manager if I can move into a more complex role – there are some in the Centre, don’t know if I’d enjoy doing them though.

2. Look for other work – same or better pay, closer to home

3. Stick it out here until the wedding, then look around for something new

I'm going to have to think on it some more. Until then, how may I direct your call?

*images mine