Dream Job?

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Stay at home dad.

 

I'm not talkin the "sit around, drink beer, because i can be in the garage all day" type of dad...

I want the full on, "time to get up, i made ya breakfast, here are your lunches, have a good day at work sweetie,  clean the entire place, do the yard work, near daily grocery shopping, take a little me time with the project car before i walk the kids home with one on my shoulders, help with homework, dont worry sweetie, i got dinner." Type.  I would rock the hell out of that and love every second of it.

 

Otherwise, working on the jets out here in Hungary is a close enough second.

My favorite answer to this question. You'd be the happiest of all of us. 

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I've always joked if I could be Mr. Dolly Parton.  Hang at home and run the household as she tours the country.  Put me on an allowance.

In reality her husband owned a successful asphalt company.

I have been thinking about this more and more lately. I think I'd like to do some form of consulting type work. I liked the UOA world and I think theres a lot of potential there but I don't know how I'd crack into an already full field.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Stay at home dad.

 

I'm not talkin the "sit around, drink beer, because i can be in the garage all day" type of dad...

I want the full on, "time to get up, i made ya breakfast, here are your lunches, have a good day at work sweetie,  clean the entire place, do the yard work, near daily grocery shopping, take a little me time with the project car before i walk the kids home with one on my shoulders, help with homework, dont worry sweetie, i got dinner." Type.  I would rock the hell out of that and love every second of it.

 

Otherwise, working on the jets out here in Hungary is a close enough second.

Good answer.  I would kill myself within the week!

Mr_Asa said:

Once a week I drive half an hour to a building.  In that building is a button.  The button needs to be pressed at 10AM and 6PM every day, my day is moved once every two months.

Button pushing gives 2.5 days off per month which can be saved up until you have 90 days, then you have 30 days of use-lose, and pays $80,000 per year after taxes.  Health care is included.

There's another thread about "can a monkey do your job". Would a monkey be over qualified for this?

I think my dad has my dream job. He is retired but has a 40 acre farm. It's big enough to keep him busy but not so big that it makes him too busy. He doesn't have to answer anyone, and it makes some money, not a ton of money, but it turns a profit. Not a bad way to live.

Dream Job Requirements:

1. I can set my own hours.
2. It pays enough to comfortably cover my desires.
3. I don't actually have to do it at all if I don't want to and #2 is still covered.
4. Low stress because of #3.

Everything else is just details.

Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) said:

Stay at home dad.

 

I'm not talkin the "sit around, drink beer, because i can be in the garage all day" type of dad...

I want the full on, "time to get up, i made ya breakfast, here are your lunches, have a good day at work sweetie,  clean the entire place, do the yard work, near daily grocery shopping, take a little me time with the project car before i walk the kids home with one on my shoulders, help with homework, dont worry sweetie, i got dinner." Type.  I would rock the hell out of that and love every second of it.

 

Otherwise, working on the jets out here in Hungary is a close enough second.

I'm doing that right now and it's not particularly easy going from full time 50 hour a week self employed carpenter to stay at home dad in the blink of an eye. My body appreciates it, my mind is not dealing all that well some days.  There's never a "when i win the lottery" moment because that's unrealistic, but we're working hard to pay off our house so we need way less FU money to just retire early and play.  My ideal life involves neither of us working for someone else and lots of sex.  Only one of those is currently happening since Carli is in her 9-5 role 5 days a week and i'm waiting for my elderly customers to get vaccinated so i can go into their homes without fear of killing them and while i'm waiting i am trying to build a new business.  

I'd like to be a drafter for a model kit manufacturer. Not sure how well that pays but it's like drawing all the real cars and airplanes yet they don't have to actually work.

There's a story about the CEO of Tamiya, back in the 70s he wanted to make a racing 911 model but Porsche wouldn't loan him a car so he bought one and took it apart in his garage to measure everything. Then he called the dealer and asked for a mechanic to come by and put it back together.

Even making Gundam models would be cool, although I'd probably hate doing it in a cubicle.

Datsun310Guy said:

In reply to Hungary Bill (Forum Supporter) :

I've always joked if I could be Mr. Dolly Parton.  Hang at home and run the household as she tours the country.  Put me on an allowance.

In reality her husband owned a successful asphalt company.

I've (semi-jokingly) had this conversation with Mrs. Hungary.  If we swapped salaries tomorrow, it's on.

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

 if i had a million dollars i would do nothing.  

The thing is as my retirement funds grow I may have a bug chunk of money but health insurance is one of the challenges.

Saying I'll bank the million and live off the interest is another challenge as I'm still in the early withdrawal penalty stage and it will cost too much to take it out.   So I need to get older than I am to make it happen.  

First world problems?

Professional travel writer/photographer.  Get paid to go all the most interesting places in the world, take photos, talk to people, get to know the culture for a month or six, write an article, sell it to National Geographic, move on to the next spot.   No schedule, because each spot would be inherently easier or harder to document and learn, but at least a year on each continent, maybe two.

I wouldn't stop until I have learned to feel like a local in every country on the planet... which means saving North Korea for last.

Having a shop where a customer would come in with a crazy idea and a stack of cash and I make it happen.  Either that or being able to sell my own crazy ideas.

Datsun310Guy said:

Saying I'll bank the million and live off the interest is another challenge as I'm still in the early withdrawal penalty stage and it will cost too much to take it out.   So I need to get older than I am to make it happen.  

 

There are ways of dealing with that.

I have a few dream jobs, depending on my mood.

bicycle reviewer

woodworking

custom car interior trimmer

musician

...but in reality, my current situation is hard to complain about.  I crawl out of bed around 7am, walk 20 steps to my computer, turn it on, do a combination of work and internet surfing, depending on my work load, log off at 4pm or so, every 2 weeks a decent amount of money gets deposited in my bank account.  Is it annoying at times? Yup.  But I'm listening to a space podcast from my living room of launch replays while waiting for my Revit model to open.

Life really isn't that bad.

Ian F (Forum Supporter) said:

...but in reality, my current situation is hard to complain about. 

Life really isn't that bad.

I really can't complain about my job either.  I wake up, go to a huge shop full of all the tools I really need, and turn someone's 2 dimensional vision into a living, breathing 3D sculpture on which actors make art.  Then I got furloughed, and there for a while with the additional $600 in unemployment from the fed, I pretty much doubled my income for staying at home.  Not ashamed about it considering that for the last 6 years I have given my job 60-80 hours a week for minimal pay.

Now I'm back at work kinda part time getting the place ready for when we're able to do shows again.  Feels good.  Gotta love a job that you've been prevented from doing for a year, and all you can think about is getting back to the job.

My dream job at 20 was different than my dream job at 50ish. 

When you hate getting up in the morning it's a looong life; choose now.

BTW, there's no money in drinking beer and having sex .......

For me, i wanted to work in the automotive sector forever because i loved cars and racing.

Working in racing is extremely difficult and it owns you from everything i could see.

I went off to college in 2009.. and was looking in 2008... it was not a rosy time to  look at anything automotive..

So I went into professional life pointed towards working in the maritime industry.

been through some different experiences and ended up where I am now.

Dream jobs can also be jobs that you never leave.. which are their own burden on the rest of your life.

I've ended up in a place where I have work life balance, a solid wage, healthcare premiums paid by my employer and genuinely nice people to work with everyday and a company that cares about employees. They sent everyone 2 bottles of wine for thirsty thursday/valentines day next week. We got 2 bottles of wine and a Charcuterie board at Christmas and each group did virtual Christmas parties. 

I used to work 55-70 hours a week at a car dealership, sometimes with people who were unpleasant to be around everyday. I'd call where I am my dream job.. but yeah a little bit of a raise wouldn't hurt either.

My old boss and my current boss are both track rats, my current boss even did GRM UTCC once.



 

914Driver said:

My dream job at 20 was different than my dream job at 50ish. 

When you hate getting up in the morning it's a looong life; choose now.

BTW, there's no money in drinking beer and having sex .......

There's plenty of money in having sex, just not now that i'm married and have to give it away for free

also when you quit looking at work-life balance and strive for life-work balance, it's easier to put the importance of the life part into perspective.  I was owned by my job - by my own doing - until march.  I told myself at 20 that I didn't want to do what I was doing after 30, and then 40 came and guess what?  Still doing it.   I'm wrapping up the last few jobs as clients get vaccinated and then i'm going to be a retired carpenter that does only grab bars and railings and get my cnc machine up and see if i can make money with it

gearheadmb said:

I think my dad has my dream job. He is retired but has a 40 acre farm. It's big enough to keep him busy but not so big that it makes him too busy. He doesn't have to answer anyone, and it makes some money, not a ton of money, but it turns a profit. Not a bad way to live.

That is part of my retirement plan. Much smaller scale of farm though, just for me and mrs. preach. With leftovers to a honor system stand. 2 person garden with canning.

Additionally I will have a decent sized shop for my projects and "finish" them all.

I'll be 51 this year and really trying to be done at 60. I really cannot wait.

Currently at my dream job: https://vintagerodshop.com/

Project rescue, after  retirement.

No end of people who either don't know where to start or how to execute or complete the mechanical mess they get into. This can be cars, bikes or boats.

This allows me to project manage, fabricate and innovate to my hearts content while spending other people's $$$. 

From a fiduciary standpoint, my first task would always be to talk you out of doing something stupid. 

I retired on Monday...let ya know how it all works out.

In reply to preach (fs) :

High end engines?  Sort like being an expert on steam engines. The future is very limited in that field I'm afraid. A reciprocating engine with pistons and connecting rods just can't beat the coming crop of electric motors. 
    I love  Pistons and camshafts.  The more the merrier.  But I'm 72  it's OK for me. My future is over. But at 50 you've got a couple more decades to earn a living.   Tying yourself to obsolete technology may be fun but it won't be profitable. 

In reply to frenchyd :

I'm sticking to submarines frenchy. When I was 20 building engines in a clean room would have been an awesome career.

I like my current day job, but having my side gig as a freelance writer blossom into something bigger would be super cool. I've been working on trying to get that going more regularly lately, but the pandemic makes it tough to get original content with my colleagues. Doing photo shoots and all of that has been put on hold until this blows over. My day gig has kept me plenty busy, but it would be nice to expand that side gig into something like a new website or YouTube channel, because I love doing it.