What work do you do that you need so many tools? Ive got no problem with it bc i have done the same thing. Although i dont have 70k built up. But i have 5k that i cant get paid off bc i keep finding good stuff to buy. Just today i spent 50$ plus shipping for a facebook buy. It was a helicoil set from 2-56 to atleast 10-32 with all of the tools as far as i could see. Not 100% on the taps. I then saw some bigger inserts so i am sure there are bigger ones as well.
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I am Getting Burned Out at Work
- Thread starter erikmannie
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2016
- Messages
- 11,461
At the age of 55 I lost my job at Unilever due to a plant shut down . 15 years of 7 nights a week , 12 or 16 hrs every night . OT out the butt and they always wanted more . I enjoyed this job and made some very good money . I have not been in any kind of debt since either . Paid my 2 homes off as well as my 45 acre camp in NY . Paid for my 3 kiddies college tuitions ( all 4 years ) also . I never missed their sports tournaments either being local or half way across the country . I could not do it now I know . I have the oppurtunity , but it's just not for me at this age .
When I started at Lever my shop was put on hold . Why work at home for nothing and turn down OT and 2X on Sundays ? Made no sense to do so . I had a great machine shop at my disposal in at work , all tooling was free , no mess at home etc . I've slept on many a baseball benches , basketball bleachers and soccer fields in my lifetime as well as many other worsery places !
It was fun at the time as I always had something to look forward to when I did finally use vacation time . I guess my question would be to anyone .......................................why in the heck would anyone want to work 20-30 hrs a week just to do this hobby ? 70 G is not a hobby , at least not for me . The hours also put me in the hospital for over a week one time . Working all the hours with pnuemonia . So yeah , your body wears out without the neccesary breaks in routine . I wish you the best Erik , but balance everything out to your needs vs. wants .
When I started at Lever my shop was put on hold . Why work at home for nothing and turn down OT and 2X on Sundays ? Made no sense to do so . I had a great machine shop at my disposal in at work , all tooling was free , no mess at home etc . I've slept on many a baseball benches , basketball bleachers and soccer fields in my lifetime as well as many other worsery places !
It was fun at the time as I always had something to look forward to when I did finally use vacation time . I guess my question would be to anyone .......................................why in the heck would anyone want to work 20-30 hrs a week just to do this hobby ? 70 G is not a hobby , at least not for me . The hours also put me in the hospital for over a week one time . Working all the hours with pnuemonia . So yeah , your body wears out without the neccesary breaks in routine . I wish you the best Erik , but balance everything out to your needs vs. wants .
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2019
- Messages
- 4,392
I wouldn’t have any time to do any outside work until after I am retired. At that time, I would be interested in selling pipe welding coupons & giving one-on-one welding or machining lessons to adults.
I work for UPS, & the company is very good at sapping nearly all of their full time employee’s time & energy. The best that I would ever be able to do before I retire is work about 55 hours M-F, rest/errands/family catch up on Saturday, and finally a glorious *hobby-only* shop day on Sunday.
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2019
- Messages
- 4,392
At the age of 55 I lost my job at Unilever due to a plant shut down . 15 years of 7 nights a week , 12 or 16 hrs every night . OT out the butt and they always wanted more . I enjoyed this job and made some very good money . I have not been in any kind of debt since either . Paid my 2 homes off as well as my 45 acre camp in NY . Paid for my 3 kiddies college tuitions ( all 4 years ) also . I never missed their sports tournaments either being local or half way across the country . I could not do it now I know . I have the oppurtunity , but it's just not for me at this age .
When I started at Lever my shop was put on hold . Why work at home for nothing and turn down OT and 2X on Sundays ? Made no sense to do so . I had a great machine shop at my disposal in at work , all tooling was free , no mess at home etc . I've slept on many a baseball benches , basketball bleachers and soccer fields in my lifetime as well as many other worsery places !
Wow, it sounds like you put in an extremely large amount of hours over a long period of time! Was that a grind or what?! You sure did right by your family, especially with supporting the kids’ educations.
Reality has a way of letting you know that you are out of balance.
Effective immediately, I will be resigning from my first shift on Saturdays.
My second shift on Saturdays would have nobody to fill in, but I will initiate that conversation. My replacement would end up in the same time-crunch predicament that I am in now. I think people might need a 2-day weekend! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - Wikipedia
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2017
- Messages
- 1,911
I've spent considerably more on pretty house things than on tools. But I find that these things are worth it. My wife does not accompany me to the shop, and has zero appreciation for it. But we both get great satisfaction from sipping coffee on the patio, surrounded by beautiful flowers and landscape. We get great satisfaction from the new TV room when we have the time to watch a movie together. And I never tire of hearing her gush about what a lovely home and life we've built for ourselves. But to your point, I hate working for a living too. I'd do just about anything to retire earlier than 65, or not be mandated a 60 hour work schedule. Including selling off everything I owed money on, and starting over at zero. Best of luck on your schedule. You have many options to choose from. So there's at least that to be thankful for.
Your wife must be much more understanding than mine. If I pegged the family finances 100% to my toys and told her Nothing for you and you are gonna like it. I would be sleeping outdoors and she would be taking half of everything I have.
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2019
- Messages
- 6,541
Take care of yourself first, then family, then work. At least that's how I do it.
However, my hobbies are just that. I couldn't put them before fixing up the home or keeping my wife happy in any other way. Maybe it makes a difference that she earned most of what's in our retirement fund but I suspect it would be the same either way.
You already have some great tools, let the rest come to you in good time. Spend quality time in your shop AND with your family, I don't think you'll regret putting off buying the big mill if it means you'll be able to retire without debt. A used machine can do everything a new one can and you've already got the tools to repair just about anything.
Good luck getting your whole Saturday back, we all need breaks every day and week. I'm just a year ahead of you and I can assure you that the 30lbs I've lost in the past few years have made my life a whole lot better.
John
However, my hobbies are just that. I couldn't put them before fixing up the home or keeping my wife happy in any other way. Maybe it makes a difference that she earned most of what's in our retirement fund but I suspect it would be the same either way.
You already have some great tools, let the rest come to you in good time. Spend quality time in your shop AND with your family, I don't think you'll regret putting off buying the big mill if it means you'll be able to retire without debt. A used machine can do everything a new one can and you've already got the tools to repair just about anything.
Good luck getting your whole Saturday back, we all need breaks every day and week. I'm just a year ahead of you and I can assure you that the 30lbs I've lost in the past few years have made my life a whole lot better.
John
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2020
- Messages
- 175
Houses are a never ending money pit. Worse than tools. The ole lady will never be happy with the house if she spends her days watching HGTV. Accept that.
Health first. Lose that weight. It’s easy if you cut the carbs.
Spend just enough on the house to keep her feel like it’s improving.
55hrs a week with 2 days off a week is my cutoff. Anymore than that and life gets miserable if that’s the normal.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Health first. Lose that weight. It’s easy if you cut the carbs.
Spend just enough on the house to keep her feel like it’s improving.
55hrs a week with 2 days off a week is my cutoff. Anymore than that and life gets miserable if that’s the normal.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2014
- Messages
- 11,144
You painted yourself into a bit of a corner there. At 55 you are still young enough to get out, but it's going to take a little work. First you need to pay off that final $30K as fast as possible, and hopefully you have no other debt. Doing a physically demanding job at 55 is not good, at 55 you should be in a supervisor/manager role, or get into another line of work that is not so physically taxing. I'm 73 now and trying to retire, but by the time I was 55 my job was pretty much traveling around the world telling customers how to fix their machines, and writing industrial software. Neither of which was physically demanding, but sometimes the hours were long, although I did get my excersize walking through a lot of airports. But I left the hard physical work to the young guys.
The shop tools should be paying for themselves, mine have, many times over. I bought mine as I needed them for projects. I have a theory that every project needs a new tool, it doesn't matter if the tool has anything to do with the project. While I have either owned or had machine tools available to me for most of my adult life. I actually owned a commercial machine shop back in the 70's and sold it, but I really started again from zero about 30 years ago when I had a project to do. Everything in my equipment list was purchased in the last 30 years. I never borrowed a dime to buy any of it, if I couldn't pay cash for it, I didn't buy it. Some of the equipment was purchased just because it was too good of a deal to pass up. If I bought it, I would figure out how it was going to pay for itself.
I really hate machining, but sometimes you have to make chips to do a project, makes no difference if you are fixing your own lawnmower or doing a job for a customer. What I really do is provide solutions to problems, the machine tools are just there to further that end if I need them. The more tools you have in the tool box, the more stuff you can do. Once people know you're out there and learn what you can do then they will come to you and you can putter around in the shop and get paid for it. I mentioned above that I was trying to retire, I'm finding that a bit difficult because my pesky customers keep wanting stuff, and up side is that they are making me offers that I can't refuse. But I have cut back to about 6 hrs per day, I need to get my afternoon nap in.
So the bottom line is, get well soon, get out of debt, put some money away to grab that good deal when it comes along, and enjoy making money in your shop.
The shop tools should be paying for themselves, mine have, many times over. I bought mine as I needed them for projects. I have a theory that every project needs a new tool, it doesn't matter if the tool has anything to do with the project. While I have either owned or had machine tools available to me for most of my adult life. I actually owned a commercial machine shop back in the 70's and sold it, but I really started again from zero about 30 years ago when I had a project to do. Everything in my equipment list was purchased in the last 30 years. I never borrowed a dime to buy any of it, if I couldn't pay cash for it, I didn't buy it. Some of the equipment was purchased just because it was too good of a deal to pass up. If I bought it, I would figure out how it was going to pay for itself.
I really hate machining, but sometimes you have to make chips to do a project, makes no difference if you are fixing your own lawnmower or doing a job for a customer. What I really do is provide solutions to problems, the machine tools are just there to further that end if I need them. The more tools you have in the tool box, the more stuff you can do. Once people know you're out there and learn what you can do then they will come to you and you can putter around in the shop and get paid for it. I mentioned above that I was trying to retire, I'm finding that a bit difficult because my pesky customers keep wanting stuff, and up side is that they are making me offers that I can't refuse. But I have cut back to about 6 hrs per day, I need to get my afternoon nap in.
So the bottom line is, get well soon, get out of debt, put some money away to grab that good deal when it comes along, and enjoy making money in your shop.
- Joined
- Sep 8, 2019
- Messages
- 4,392
Thanks to everybody for the constructive comments. There is almost nothing physically demanding about my M-F work. I had to do absolutely punishing UPS routes for 26 years before I got the only good *absolutely CAKE* UPS route in our center.
The only other debt is the mortgage at 3.53% APR, the payment for which is much less than we would be paying for rent.
Now I am remembering that my other houses were an extreme money pit as well as a time suck. There is nothing I enjoy about working on a house or in a yard. I only enjoy machining & welding.
I guess I will be making my contribution to The Great Resignation by leaving my beloved Saturday crew. What a fantastic group of guys they are! The 2 supervisors must have always known that we were giving up half our weekend to go in, because the supervisors were *always* extra kind & cooperative. It is rare to hear UPS hourlies describe UPS management as such.
The only other debt is the mortgage at 3.53% APR, the payment for which is much less than we would be paying for rent.
Now I am remembering that my other houses were an extreme money pit as well as a time suck. There is nothing I enjoy about working on a house or in a yard. I only enjoy machining & welding.
I guess I will be making my contribution to The Great Resignation by leaving my beloved Saturday crew. What a fantastic group of guys they are! The 2 supervisors must have always known that we were giving up half our weekend to go in, because the supervisors were *always* extra kind & cooperative. It is rare to hear UPS hourlies describe UPS management as such.