Have any of you ever felt like the fire inside died down? How did you get it back? I've been with my company for over 10 years. It's a good, privately owned family company. Instead of accepting my resignation 3 years ago when my wife and I decided to move to TX (to be near her family), they kept me on and would start training me to doing offsite stuff. Basically:
- 37 years old. Dropped out of high school, got a GED. Started this job in the mailroom, moved to warehouse, now I fly around the lower 48 putting together new retail stores (It's a franchise company). I'm on the road Mon-Fri. I'm probably not going to find another job making over 50K/yr, 5 weeks paid vacation, and a 401k with 4% match with my education level.
- My wife and I have a 1 year old boy, and we are going to have another boy, due around July 31st. Obviously this is the biggest game changer, and watching him crawl, then walk, and then say "dada" for the first time through facetime has made work hard.
- Debt: ER visit to the vet for a dog, a couple credit cards near max, and a difference in philosophy with my wife about money stresses me out when I'm working.
In essence, my work performance has suffered because I can't see past the next few years where we won't be doing much of anything but paying down debt, and I'll be gone a lot of the time while my sons grow up. I need to harness these things into an incentive to work harder instead of letting it drag me down.
Well, first of all, I'm near identical to you: I'm 39, and finished high school but nothing else. 5 weeks vacation, 401k with 4% match and 50k a year is a pretty decent job benefit for your education level and it sounds like the company is decent, and while you travel I presume all expenses (food, etc) are all paid for so your 50k is stretching further than someone just going into the office every day for 50k. However, your experience matters more than education despite what anyone else will tell you. There's a reason why some of the richest people in the world dropped out of high school and/or college.
Your kids will take a lot out of you, but they are the best part of life. Enjoy them as best you can and while working and seeing them walk and such over facetime vs. in person sucks, but they need you working and bringing in money. It sucks, but it's a fact of life.
I have a few close friends of mine and a family member who have this "difference in philosophy" about money with their wives. It causes nothing but problems, stress, fights, and aggravation and eventually divorce. I hope it wont happen to you, but you need to get on the same page about money or make separate accounts and make it crystal clear who is responsible for what. Personally, if it gets that far I think all is lost, but -some- people work okay with the split account thing.
GET OUT OF DEBT. Especially the credit card shit. Why the hell are you maxed out? Fix that shit ASAP, nothing kills someone more than CC Debt.
To survive burnout.. work to start your own business if you can get the time for it. That's what I did at 37. There are opportunities out there that are still untapped that few people know about. I posted about this in the past, but I opened a business creating things in Second Life at 37, from being a wage-slave at a fortune 500 company (Where I was paid well - over 110k a year, but still a wage slave). I now make 3-4 times that doing what I do now and love it. There are many "untapped" opportunities out there some require less time than others. I have another friend who spent money to buy outright a laser printer/engraver and makes a huge amount of money doing laser engraving and such for people. Others can finance it. There are opportunities.
But... at the end of the day if you don't want to do your own business that's cool... but I would evaluate what you can do based upon your experience. I wouldn't worry when you see shit like "Bachelors degree required" on job listings. On your resume highlight
money. What did
youdo that saved/made the last company you worked for money. What processes did you implement? How much did you make/save the company? Even indirect... eg: "Implemented X policy which made the job site safer causing X less workplace accidents in 2015, saving Y in insurance costs and Z in workers compensation costs".
