The Off Topic Thread.

["Captain Retard"]

Brief life story.

Left school at end of 1982 after a disastrous HSC.

Was part time at Maccas and took me 6mths to find a full time job that paid $118pw.

Unemployment rate was around 13% and interest rates were crazy hi.

Too top it off I picked Australian Manufacturing as a career path doing mind numbing dead end jobs.

I went from one place to another cause they kept closing down.

Tried pulling Beer for a few years but the pay sucked.

Got into the building game laying reo (steel fixing) and doubled my earnings , trade off was now my back is cactus.

Got married at 30 and divorced at 32 (what a disaster, no kids though)

Went back into Manufacturing and guess what, Redundancy!

Hooked up with my current wife and became a Motorcycle courier, dangerous business so went back to good Ol Aussie Manufacturing and a sh!tty job in Port Kembla Steel Works.

I said to the missus if I can get 15 years before this place closes we'll be set.

Built a house and had a 270k mortgage

Got married and first kid at 37 then second at 40

Wife worked full time and I worked my way into the highest blue collar wage bracket in the steel works

Bought an investment property at the height of the market and then GFC and market crash (cheering......NOT) but managed to hang in there and now it takes care of itself

Paid house mortgage off at 48 and wife took a redundancy and works very part time

Sitting pretty now and I've been in the Steel Works 15 years come March.

So after a disastrous start from early in my life till I was 35 we are now very comfortably off no matter what happens.

If I can do it anybody can, you just need a GOOD 10 years.

So chill out dudes there's really no rush

[barnz]

If you are good at what you do stripey and confident you will find another job easily then take the redundancy mate, have a break, and plan your next move with a clear mind.

That's what I did recently, pocketed 25k, kicked back for a bit, did some work on the hpuse and had plenty of me time to think, few weeks later applied for 2 jobs and got them both.

So got a new job with good people around me, pretty much ready to sell this place and move the on to the next one(might rent it out not sure yet) thanks to that little boost, and free time.

Putting your hand up to get laid off is weird...but go on, break the routine and shake sh*t up a bit, feels good.

Edited 08/03/15 05:55 AM by barnz

[.Stripes.]

It'd be tempting, and I'm confident in myself (and have been told I'm good at what I do) but the problem is the sheer number of geos out of work at the moment and so few jobs about also.

[barnz]

True that if redundancies are happening industry wide atm then stay put for sure, unless you fancy working at coles...

[.Stripes.]

Worked at coles for 6 years during uni...pass. Freeze will back me up on this no doubt haha.

[Corzza]

Good weekend fellas?

[k31th]

reasonably so

[.Stripes.]

I was working...so I money from the weekend, guess that's pretty good...all things considered.

A work colleague thought it'd be funny to put a hole in another's water bottle...and it was funny. He then, I think, managed to convince the other guy it was someone else, and then now I'm fairly certain he thinks it was me...anyway, I came back from washing the ute to find many hole in the top of my water bottle and them both having a good old chuckle...so I've locked them both out of their work computer accounts lol...unrucky!

[barnz]

Do government land valuations actually mean anything? Just got mine and it's gone up 40k, last time it went up about 30, so 70 in like 3 years? Obviously my rates will go up but does that actually reflect the market value of the land? Or is it just smoke and mirrors so they can put your rates up?

[Never had any say Panda]

It effects the cost if the government comes along and tries to buy your land back to build a road..

But usually it's more about the rates