Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
 

What a great thread and some really interesting replies.


If you had of asked me maybe 18months ago I would have said yes but it’s all gone a bit wrong lately.


But as they say every cloud has a silver lining, it’s all made us re-evaluate our lives and I’ve come with a phrase that sums it all up “the more sh*t you have, the more sh*t you have” so I’m busy de sh*tting my life!

I’ve never had any great career plan and have worked in the same industry since leaving school and have basically risen through the ranks to a senior position. The motivation for this has actually been boredom, I’d do a job for maybe 3 to 4 years max. and then move on. To achieve this you always tend to move on up the food chain as sideways moves are frowned on in my organisation.


I’ve an odd job, my day job is talking and dealing with all the corporate cr*p and huge budgets, this is mixed in with onsite stuff, literally paddling around in the mud and at times in challenging conditions. On the face of it great, varied and challenging. The reality is that I’ve come to detest the individuals I have to deal with in my “day job”. Their sharp suits, pathetic corporate speak, leased merc’s and BMW’s is as far as their imagination and characters stretch. Unlike the guys on site who are real people. This being my roots, climbing poles, building stuff. When I did this we worked hard but we laughed hard too, I’d literally go home with aching stomach muscles from laughing all day. Of course your memory plays tricks on you, you forget the hyperthermia, hands sticking to steel work because it’s so cold, being soaked completely through, 18hr days at times 30hrs non stop.


So I’m now 54 and in a bit of a mess, it’s tough to admit that I’ve been bullied at work (I never thought I was “soft”) I’m on medication that turns you into a monochrome character (or a reality version of the Body Snatchers film) my councillor thinks I’ve got a version of PTSD.
But I’m coming through it, I’m keeping busy (I seem to have found my niche in digging) and sorting our house out ready to sell in the new year. My wife has been so supportive (more than I could have been I’m ashamed to say) and we have plans:
Sell the house
Demolish a house and build a new one
Sell the G Wagen and buy a Sprinter 4x4, build an overland camper
Go travelling. Asia first and then Europe and Africa in the Sprinter


After maybe 18 to 24 months get some sort of job. I have an “as is” and a “to be” spreadsheet. Basically by the time we’ve “de sh*tted” our lives we need to earn £500 each per month to end up with the equivalent disposable income that a 6 figure salary gives now.

Bring on 2016 :-)

Well said that man. There's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about with 'bullying'. I was victimised by my ex-boss - and set up to be the scape goat when a huge It project flopped - and the stress was incredible.

I hope you are able to sue the b******ds - I wasn't - and get on with your new life having drawn a line under the old one.

We did the Big Break back in 1997, a bit more panic stricken and less clean cut than your plans, but never regret it.

Good luck - and don't forget the trip report :)

Regs

Simon

Thanks for the word's of encouragement, I never thought I'd be here but when it happens it's amazing how many other people have been through it and come out of it in a better position. I can't retire but I equally don't need all the materialistic sh*t that we accumulate.

I don't bare my sole on the internet:oops2: but it was actually quite cathartic.

Anyway if I had broken my leg (or worse) at work then yes any ambulance chasing lawyers would have sued. This I doubt it even though he's known for it.

I'm convinced this will turn out to be a positive but it's been grim.

Yes I'll make sure I report backbier

You may have grounds to sue for constructive dismissal, but only if you left under your own steam rather than accept any deal.

It's a difficult one but in UK there is - or was perhaps - unlimited liability and some people have won shedloads on money!

Worth thinking about of you're still negotiating an exit but I guess you really do need specialist advice!

Regs

Simon

Just over a year ago, I posted that I had handed in my notice. About 6 weeks later, I locked up my belongings, stored my vehicles and flew to New Zealand. I arrived on a tourist visa with the notion of finding work, then obtain a work visa.
I am now very happily employed and living in Wellington.

Get in touch if you're heading this way :)

Hi Elaine,

Thought your posts looked familiar - congratulations! :clap:

Meanwhile my 'voyage' has gone the other way in a manner of speaking: I've turned my blog and the HISS off road events from a hobby into a 'job' by registering 'The Spanish Biker' as a UK based business - we had a successful first season and next year is already looking good ...

Best wishes for your new life.

Simon

15 months
 

HI folks
I have been retired now for 15 months.
ante I had been mostly a teacher, mostly in high schools . enjoyed it , yes , mostly .
15 years I had been training noobs for the job ; nice 12 years , boring and increasing stupidity at the end . The last 4 years i work as a teach in a mental health bospital :innocent:, I met some intersting people and some nasty ones . New program also, new things to fix ! Great !
I hope i finished straight ! Not made the " combat de trop" like we said for boxers .
Now i will be back more on trails, more on big rides, and so .
BUT the last year was tough to get through
- a deer shoots me down ; a clavicula and some ribs
- my mother gets sick and passed away in may
-bla bla with some family blokes


In 81 , as we got back from the big tour in Africa, we did not dare to open a bike shop for to prepare XT's for raids ( my pal the mechanic and me)
Other life ?
keep on running all of you . :rofl:

I am self employed, that aspect I dislike, I also work three quarter time for the state gov in a kick ass job, pay sucks though. So I am at a commendrum in life, I have always believed work was just work and busted my ass, however now that I am older and as stated most of your life is spent at work, it is great to have a job I look forward to each day.

Regardless I intend to retire early and this job allows at least a meagre early retirement at 55. :thumbup1: plus I get several weeks paid vacation a year, hard to beat that.

So, Will I Do It?
 

95 Days, 15 hrs and 17 minutes before I press the send button on my resignation:thumbup1:

Watch this space.

I've already put my stuff on this topic long ago but as it's new year-ish it's always a time to take stock. Plus we've had a year of sorting out our affairs for our '2nd retirement', i.e. what happens from age 66 in seven years time after having quit the rat race aged 40 back in '97.

That stage came in two parts: a) downsizing in the UK house market and paying off our mortgages and buying a house for cash aged 35, and b) using that freedom to put two fingers to the s***e that we had to put up with in our jobs and moving here to Spain into a ruined cottage that we'd picked up along the way.

Both of these weren't exactly free choices as we had each suffered a great deal of angst in the process, having been victimised at work and in my case being used as a scapegoat by the board of directors to cover their backsides after making a barking, mulkti-million ££££ mistake in choosing an IT 'solution' - no prizes for guessing that I worked in the UK National Health Service.

Moreover we never made a mortgage payment of under 10% in our entire time as house owners - the worst was 17%, think about that nowadays! We started out aged 18 and spent our 'leisure' time up to our armpits in brick rubble, etc. in between having two part time jobs each on top of our full-time careers.

OK, we're poor but happy but here's the rub: that last house would now be worth a cool £1.1 million, and if I'd just stayed put and watched my ass like all of my colleagues, who still attend lots of meetings and achieve or produce nothing, I'd have collected a very fat pension three years ago now aged 55.

But the balance: Our new business, The Spanish Biker LLP, has ended its first year in the black and we're starting 2017 as Event Partners with none other than Grant and Susan for the 2017 HUMM: Sierras de España - Aragón ... YES! :D

Were we right? Over to you guys and gals

Regs

Simon

There's a well known saying "you'll only regret the things you've not done and you should never regret the decisions you have made". I'm sure I've mangled that but you get it, another one I like is "there are no refunds in life".

So although there are some similarities we're in a slightly different situation, I'll leave more on my terms (hopefully) and I figure once we've de shi##ed our lives we'll survive on not a lot of money and improve our quality of life.

So congratulations on your business and no brainer you did the right thing:thumbup1:

Russ

OK so the old house would be worth a six figure sum, so what........ If you carried on living in it then it's value is academic, if you stayed in that pants job then you would of haved to trade up in size to keep up with the Joneses and buy a four by four too. Heart attack by fifty five etc etc........ Or have a smaller house, eat loads of tapas and enjoy life..... Difficult one that doh only down side I see is having to drink San Miguel Yuk. Btw where abouts are you in Spain??

Thanks for your kind words Chris and Russ.

In fact I wasn't moaning or feeling down in any way, just taking some time out to reflect and run out a few ideas that others in similar situations to mine back then may be pondering - correctly methinks.

You may not think so but I've never been materialistic or bothered about money in any way, just for reason that will remain in the box marked 'private stuff' both Mrs S and I had a profound need to have a secure home of our own since, well, forever really ... and an unlooked for consequence of the strange British property scene we became capital rich - but cash poor - at a very young age.

But there's no denying that money does matter, especially as you begin to stare old age in the face and realise that what seemed a long time to wait for the big pension, in my case 15 years to 55, pales into insignificance if the context of a life expectancy well into one's '80s. So that's why we spent 2015 re-planning our future, what we want out of it and how we propose to pay for it ...

Then as it happens an unexpected visit over the holiday weekend from an old friend from way back in the early 'eighties again rebooted the hindsight system. The only time I seriously doubted my decision was around my 55th birthday and then when I talked about 'regrets' with my best friend here (my Spanish and Catalan isn't good enough to filter or disguise the finer feelings and she doesn't speak any English at al so when we talk secrets we just have to belt it out as it comes - much cheaper than therapy!) she pondered for a minute and said, "But, then you wouldn't have met me!" And i think that puts it in a nutshell.

Chris, I live in two places; the cottage, which is in the Catalan Pyrenees, and inside the Roman walls in Tarragona city right on the Mediterranean coast, where we bought a tiny bolt hole near to a source of work when we realised that you can't eat a view! As I write the mortgage on the purchase amounts to the princely sum of €285.87 - but the one we took out to do it up is, er, somewhat larger ...

Meanwhile, life would indeed be not worth living if all one had to drink was the beastly San Miguel - a torture only surpassed by overhearing the occasion British tourist asking for 'San Mig-well'. Fortunately almost no-one here drink the s****, apart form tourists, so there's plenty of choice, Estrella Damm, Mahou, Cruzcampo, etc. to name but a few. But none of these hold a candle to real beer, which I really do miss - oh! - and now that we have no ties with the UK whatsoever there's a genuine possibility that I may never taste the stuff in its home context again!

The only other yearning that I can satisfy in some ethic shops in Barcelona - an hour away by train - is for Marmite - well, you can't have it all! :rofl:

Regs

Simon

Lots of people in that position me thinks.... Asset rich etc etc. It sounds so bad there we may have to organise an airlift of leffe beer, baked beans and marmite :innocent:
Anyway if you managed a few years in the NHS your new life is a piece of piddle :thumbup1:

Unbelievable, my wife read this:
The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving A F*ck: How to Stop Spending Time You Don't Have with People You Don't Like Doing Things You Don't Want to Do: Amazon.co.uk: Sarah Knight: 9780316270724: Books

And she's beaten me to it by resigning. I thought it was all about me:innocent:

Anyway 86 days 11hrs. and 10 minutes......

Excited and a little scared:clap: