The 5 year plan to £50k

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FoxEye said:
The people who hate their jobs and earn little are the worst off. They stay poor, and what money they have ends up in the hands of the better off.

The question is who is happier? The man who hates his job but earns a lot, or the man who loves his job but remains poor?

Aren't the people who hate their jobs but earn a good amount in a better place? They still hate their jobs, but they aren't exploited by everyone else.

I don't know. It's late and I'm probably starting to waffle now. Time for bed.
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I think everyone is exploited unless you're at the top even then you answer to others.

I'd prefer to enjoy my job than get paid well for it but I guess that I'm in the position that I'm both enjoying work and earning very well from it makes me a bad person to give his opinion.

To be fair the better offs gross tends to end up in the hands of the worse off.

Life is too short to be unhappy if you can't enjoy your work then you need to find enjoyment elsewhere. The amount you get paid doesn't equate to happiness. At least in my experience the more you earn the more stress comes with it.
 
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FoxEye said:
I think for a significant number of people the reality is exactly the opposite. They do work in jobs they hate, in order to be able to enjoy their off-work time. Maybe it's a class thing, but I know loads of people who hate their jobs.
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Most of the living workforce hate their job. That's a fact.

The people who find vocations they enjoy are the lucky ones.

Additionally, I imagine some of the most rewarding jobs are voluntary. But you can't support yourself with voluntary work, no matter how much you enjoy it. Conservation work falls into this category. I imagine that has a really good feel factor, but most conservation work is voluntary, as you may know.

You have to compromise, and a lot of people take work because it pays. How many bin men or miners enjoy their jobs? They need the income and society needs the work done.
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Exactly. It comes down to options. People who are stuck in vocations they hate it is because they have little or no options. No one willingly wants to do it.

The people who hate their jobs and earn little are the worst off. They stay poor, and what money they have ends up in the hands of the better off.

The question is who is happier? The man who hates his job but earns a lot, or the man who loves his job but remains poor?

Aren't the people who hate their jobs but earn a good amount in a better place? They still hate their jobs, but they aren't exploited by everyone else.
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Don't be silly. Money is an arbitrary construct. Once you take away the notion of living hand-to-mouth -- that is, enough to never go hungry and not be chasing bills -- it's pretty irrelevant unless you're chasing a status-obsessed lifestyle, in which case you're always going to be unfulfilled.

It isn't about the polar extremes of happy homeless or unhappy rich, it's the middle-ground you want to be aiming for. Your wage at the moment is sufficient, a little more would probably be better. You don't need 50k pa.

Exploitation is relative. Companies will shaft anyone in the name of profit, it doesn't matter where on the chain you sit. **** rolls down hill, true, but to assume that the 'higher ups' don't have problems is utterly naive. More pressure, more stress, less home-life and higher chances of burnout. True, if you're going to suffer the former, you'd rather get paid more for the luxury, but why suffer at all?

Work out something you want to do and make progression in that field your aim, not some arbitrary financial figure.

If you don't know what that is -- and honestly, no-one really does unless again, they're the lucky one -- then just go do anything. How do you think most people find those weird jobs they love that they didn't know existed? They fall in to it by chance. You need to create the opportunity for that chance. Go do something weird.
 
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Nix said:
Most of the living workforce hate their job. That's a fact.

The people who find vocations they enjoy are the lucky ones.



Exactly. It comes down to options. People who are stuck in vocations they hate it is because they have little or no options. No one willingly wants to do it.



Don't be silly. Money is an arbitrary construct. Once you take away the notion of living hand-to-mouth -- that is, enough to never go hungry and not be chasing bills -- it's pretty irrelevant unless you're chasing a status-obsessed lifestyle, in which case you're always going to be unfulfilled.

It isn't about the polar extremes of happy homeless or unhappy rich, it's the middle-ground you want to be aiming for. Your wage at the moment is sufficient, a little more would probably be better. You don't need 50k pa.

Exploitation is relative. Companies will shaft anyone in the name of profit, it doesn't matter where on the chain you sit. **** rolls down hill, true, but to assume that the 'higher ups' don't have problems is utterly naive. More pressure, more stress, less home-life and higher chances of burnout. True, if you're going to suffer the former, you'd rather get paid more for the luxury, but why suffer at all?

Work out something you want to do and make progression in that field your aim, not some arbitrary financial figure.

If you don't know what that is -- and honestly, no-one really does unless again, they're the lucky one -- then just go do anything. How do you think most people find those weird jobs they love that they didn't know existed? They fall in to it by chance. You need to create the opportunity for that chance. Go do something weird.
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Good post.

KaHn
 
Tower crane driver
Banksman slinger
Shuttering carpenter
Kitchen fitter
Site engineer
Concrete pump driver operator
Any intermediate supervisor manager
Intermediate QS
Intermediate design manager

All of those are 50k ish or plus and easily achievable in 5 years.
 
KaHn said:
I don't really know what help you expect from us then, maybe take on agency work doing anything and everything till you find something you like?

Having no idea for you self is quite bad.

KaHn
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Not sure about the last bit to be honest. I think a lot of people struggle with finding what it really is that they want to do, and you don't really know unless you start doing it.

I do agree you should pick an area that interests you, then pursue a career in that area cause you'll be happier, but not always easy to know what that career should be. I tend to follow what my parents once told me - do what you enjoy. If you do what you like, you'll be good at it and do better at it.

All that being said, I do think people are being a little harsh towards OP (though somewhat understandably - the OP question could've been a bit better phrased). I guess what it comes down to is that the OP wants to make a change in life - you need to have some sort of goal to work towards and he's picked a 50k p.a. job. It may not be the best goal, since from what I can tell, a better process would be to 1) find a career line that you really enjoy; and 2) figure out how to get to 50k in that career line.

1) is the difficult bit and people on here may be able to point you in the right direction if you're a bit more explicit about your interests, likes, dislikes etc.
 
FoxEye said:
@xs2man: If I said there is no job I want to do, people would mis-interpret that as not wanting to work. What I actually mean is that I don't have a pull towards any particular job.

It's for me not an easy question, sorry :(

What interests me? I guess technology in general interests me. But I'm sure there would be other things that would interest me had I been exposed to them. I haven't done that much in 34 years.

The only thing that would motivate me at the current time is money. Not a thing else. Largely because of what I said above.

Maybe you're right and I'm approaching this from the wrong angle. It's all food for thought.
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That is the main problem, people want to pay you well because of your range of specific skills. If you aren't interested in any particular field to get any specialisation within that field, then you will never attain the skills that others will pay you well for.

Personally I'm an engineer. I've always wanted to be an engineer since I was a school kid. I enjoy and get job satisfaction knowing that I have created something that people want to use or enhances their lives. I've never been career driven, I'm just happy doing what I'm doing but doing it to the best of my ability. Because of that I now have a set of skills that are in demand and luckily there is a now shortage of such skills in this country so it pays well.

Get good at something and become a contractor utilising those skills and the money will come easily, but more importantly, enjoy what ever you choose to do.
 
FoxEye said:
2. The figure of 50k I plucked out of the air as an amount which would let me buy a house, and move out. Average house price being 160k, new govt policy is to limit mortgages to 4x salary. 50k should do it.
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50k is more then you need for that mortgage. £160k minus a 20% deposit is £128k. How much have you saved up so far? You have 5 years to save the rest of the £32k. £128k/4 = £32k salary. So 5k more. Get a promotion at your current place.
 
Look at getting a job in sales in a sector which you find interesting. I know quite a few people who lacked qualifications and direction, joined sales, really grew into it and now make good money.

Personally I found the typical advice of 'do something you enjoy' to be the worst ever. I soon stopped enjoying it when I had to do it all day. As soon as I moved to do something else I found I had my enjoyable hobby back.
 
Foxeye, I'd start by not listening or dealing with the negativity on this forum. There were a thread a week or two ago on how bitchy people can get towards persons that's doing well in life. Get away from small and insignificant people and create your own future. Let me tell you what's possible.

Like you, I'm 34. Born 11/06/1980. Summer baby. Cast your mind back to Jan/Feb of this year. What were you doing? I'll tell you what I was doing. Posting here, living in London paying through my eyeballs for a crap house in a nice area surrounded by unemployed drug dealers and benefit frauds. Working a job living on the whims of others and their idiotic ideas. Fast forward to today. With 4 days left of the month, MY company I own are just shy of 100k turnover this month. It's our 3rd month of trading. I'll speak to you in 4 days and it'll be over 100. I'll speak to you next month when all my tenders are granted stage 3 approval and we're talking serious serious money. Scary money. Money that a local s***kicker like me should never have earned. Yet, somehow I did. I don't even know how it happened. All I know is that I were hungry and desperate for a change. Anything really. I even considered opening a Fish and Chips shop to get away from working for rip off and dumbass employers. I just decided to get a crew of painters and start bidding for work. Cold calling contracting companies whoring myself and my guys out. This is back in May. Today, a mere 3 months later I've got every trade you can think off working for me. Two full time staff and a part timer. This time next year, God willing, I should have 10 people. AND I'm still working a full time job. Though this is through necessity as 90% of my contracts come through another division of the company.

I'm not bragging, I'm telling you from the honesty of my heart what's possible, though as you'll no doubt notice, small people are jumping all over my post trying to drag me back down to their level. You ignore all these people and do your own thing.

Start by writing down goals every day. I do this EVER SINGLE NIGHT. I do 5 things every day to make my life better. 99% of the time it's only small insignificant things. For example tomorrow, and I'm writing down everything that's in my diary verbatim;

- Speak to M Young about meeting up with drinks with Daniel and Alice. Set up for Wednesday/Thursday. Driveway contractor.
- Follow up on brick quotes approvals
- Speak with Tai about more paint crews

etc;

You get the idea. Start with 2 things. But make damn sure you do them. NO excuse. Not even one. The moment you start with BS excuses, is the moment you may as well quit and be just another worker-bee your whole life, thinking 'if only it could've been me'. I mean it man, NO NO NO excuses. Ok?

And in time, things will happen for you. But you need to hate your current circumstances enough to want to change. And in time, things will change. It will.

Right, I'm off to bed.
 
Earning is not the be all and end all of how to measure your life, I've realised over the last few months that happiness and your out of work life are more important.

I earned £50k for the first time last year, it was also the worst year in terms of work / life balance I've ever had in that I really didn't have a much of a life. Constant phone calls, e-mails, call outs, unscheduled meetings and very long hours all contribute. I haven't had a holiday in 2 years and when I did go on one I got 41 work related calls in 3 days which I'm expected to deal with.

Perhaps its just my job (Ops Manager for a busy warehouse) but I was personally much happier 3 years ago earning £35k and after pretty much the worst time of my working career last week my notice is written to hand in tomorrow.
 
I also have made a thread not worth a target but with a general 'more' theme

I still don't know what to do. My problem is finding something that is worth it and wanting to take luck out. If someone got where they want by luck is not worth considering

I finished my degree unfortunately it wasn't a good one in hindsight

I also find myself swamped by choice. I feel of I could do my current job better it could be a good paying career but it is so so hard mentally

If I could find a five year plan to 50k plus not hate my job id go for it

Luckily I don't live in London
I will be happy with a cheap (100k) house but I love cars


There is another instant option. Someone I knows wife sleeps with men for money. Needless to say. Huge effective wage is achieved
 
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ExRayTed said:
It's do-able with a little luck initially.

Join the railway as a train driver - that gets you around £45k a year excluding overtime. Do that for 5 years and you'll achieve your target most likely. Or drive trains for 3-5 years (depending on the company, mine is 3 years) and apply to be a driver instructor or competence / driver manager. Comp managers earn between £50k-£60k, again depending on the company you work for.

I was a driver for 5 years, an instructor for 10 years and have been a comp manager for the last 3 years.

The biggest hurdle is getting the driver's job in the first place.
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I suggested Train driver also. For what you do you get good time off, a lot of flexibility and the ability to earn lots in overtime.

Not sure how it compares to the qualified jobs most of the folks have here, they're probably a lot better with regards to flexibility and potential but theres probably more stress. I like enjoying my job and being able to turn up and just do it and then go home and forget about it.. not much stress so far.

But yeah its supposed to be one of the hardest jobs to get into.. I never thought i'd get even shortlisted, so it can happen!
 
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