Haha hell yeah. I could be the next Clarkson.

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Did some trips.
Rode some bikes.
Fix them for a living.
Can't say anymore.

Aim higher. Jeffrey Archer sold more books and more people watched Michael Fish on the telly!


This thread is like the "what bike" one. I need to change my vote. Free career advice; if you are basically lazy and uninterested in anything commercially valuable become a technical expert. Far better to be senior specialist sub-minion than minion in charge of sub-minions.


I wonder how that Hamster bloke see's his place in history? 2-i-c to Clarkson. Money must be good to stand that.


Andy

Kind of surprised to see that so many people genuinely enjoy their jobs. Good for you guys.

yes i am doing my job because of money problem and this is not my dreamed job.

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Villa Costa Brava || Villa avec piscine à Barcelone

I have been in the hotel/restaurant trade for 35 years and was unhappy, so took a new course doing similar thing in events management and despite being semi retired I enjoy an 80 to 100 hours a week very regurlaly. Different venue and people every day, best of all as I work freelance I invoice for every hour worked, every mile travelled! Great as well that I can pick and choose what I do and when I do it

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. plus I get several weeks paid vacation a year, hard to beat that.

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

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!

Were we right? Over to you guys and gals

Regs

Simon

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The Spanish Biker - the invaluable guide to motorcycling in Spain.

The Spanish Biker LLP: Events, Guide and Support Services

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

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 only down side I see is having to drink San Miguel Yuk. Btw where abouts are you in Spain??

Number or people working their dream job is higher than I thought. Just as many as those that hate their work. Interesting.

In 44 years of employment I can safely say that I enjoyed less than 10% of that. Made redundant at the end of 2012 I took a three month contract as a project manager with a large IT company, and hated it... I'm fortunate that I get a modest pension, so terminated the contract and started my own small gardening business: no ambitions to expand or even make "living wage", I take on jobs that I enjoy (and customers that I like) and earn just enough to run my bike and have a couple of weeks touring each year.

Yes I like it because it let me take some time to go biking

I guess I'm one of the lucky ones then lol, I've worked most of my life in heavy transport mostly as a SPMT operator on projects all over the world, benefits are seeing new places and playing with adult sized remote control cars, and now on a project 30 days on 30 days off, that means 30 days on the bike with the wife meeting/ flying to me on weekends

I can say that i am happy and not happy with my jop. I run my own transportation company and represent a German company, i have two partners and my working hours are very flexible. When i am bored i ride where i want to (short rides)... But i can not say this for my profit i am lucky i don't have fixed working hours, but i am not happy i can not earn enough money i am not happy cos my jop is full of stress...

Am i lucky or...?