I wish I could reply to each one of you right now but my time is short (guess where I'm at WORK).

I hope me creating this thread hasn't made me come off like I'm ungrateful of the situation I'm in.
Believe me I think about it every day, I think about how there's a tremendous amount of people that are laid off in my field and add in that I live in Oregon, I'm very grateful.

I only know what I've experienced, and the times of sitting in rush hour getting pissed and then remembering "it could be worse, I could live in a third world country" are not working anymore.

Do you know how many "friends" I know that are still getting paid unemployment from the dot com blowout and 9/11?
I see so many that have taken the easy road but have lived frugal and are happy or at least 1/2 way happy.

Too long have I suppressed the ambition and have taken the conservative route to get me through ONE more day.
I feel that if I continue with that line of thinking, I'm going to burn myself out at a young age and be one of those guys who WAS someone, but opted to take the easy route later life due to the burnout.

I don't want to be in that situation. I want to provide for my family, pay off my mortgage, and put 2 kids through college all the while living the lifestyle that will make me happy.

Trust me I know others have it worse, but I no longer can I use that to convince myself.

One thing I don't see mentioned above.  After 20 years in IT, doing development, support, team lead, servers, consulting, etc etc; I realized I've only enjoyed the work when the boss/customer was results-oriented.

Even when the customers were completely happy, an a$$hat boss that's busy playing politics and/or favorites is a complete buzzkill.  Unfortunately, quality bosses (or consulting customers) are in short supply.

Networking: being in IT and being a people person do not go hand in hand.  If there's a good shop to work for in your area, networking in your industry is the only way you'll hear about it.  If you like what you do, have the work and people skills to get invited to join their club.

YMMV

p.s. and yes, I'm looking at options outside IT.  

Actually, you're right.  I hated my job, and losing it is no doubt going to benefit me in the long run.  In the short run, though ,it sucks.

Quoted: I wish I could reply to each one of you right now but my time is short (guess where I'm at WORK). I hope me creating this thread hasn't made me come off like I'm ungrateful of the situation I'm in. Believe me I think about it every day, I think about how there's a tremendous amount of people that are laid off in my field and add in that I live in Oregon, I'm very grateful. I only know what I've experienced, and the times of sitting in rush hour getting pissed and then remembering "it could be worse, I could live in a third world country" are not working anymore. Do you know how many "friends" I know that are still getting paid unemployment from the dot com blowout and 9/11? I see so many that have taken the easy road but have lived frugal and are happy or at least 1/2 way happy. Too long have I suppressed the ambition and have taken the conservative route to get me through ONE more day. I feel that if I continue with that line of thinking, I'm going to burn myself out at a young age and be one of those guys who WAS someone, but opted to take the easy route later life due to the burnout. I don't want to be in that situation. I want to provide for my family, pay off my mortgage, and put 2 kids through college all the while living the lifestyle that will make me happy. Trust me I know others have it worse, but I no longer can I use that to convince myself.

Man its about time now quit whining and get back to work

In addition your AR15.com therapy bill is going to be 1000 round .223, 500 round .40S&W, Oh and a MP5 FA, that should call it even. Now let this tread DIE

......... Nevermind

Quoted: Quoted: 7 years out of high school making 50 grand? Now I'M depressed. A degree in pharmacology will get you better than that, these days - and I think those are 4-year degrees.

It probably depends on the school but it used to be a 3 year plan but now is a 4 year plan at the school where my friend went. Keep in mind thats 4 years of Grad school so total of ~8 years. The cool part about the 4 year pharmacy program is that he is a Dr rather than just a pharmacist.

Write a novel.

Troll garage sales, make amazing finds, and sell them on Ebay for thousands.

Put the kids to work as migrant workers ASAP.


My point is, there are lots of ways to make money besides working a 9-5 job.  Give it some thought.

My IM reply to MillerSHO was too long so I'll post it here...

I had been planning on it for months but never got off my ass to do it full time, had some clients on my own but I only used it as a supplant, not a full time gig.  The company I worked for was going bankrupt, so they weren't doing much to help their clients anyway, that kind of helped me in retaining its customer base for myself.  Some of my clients had already discontinued using that company's service because they were very unhappy with it.  It was a sinking ship and everyone else jumped, I was one of the last.  One day I got pissed and told them I quit, and that's how I started lol.

As to certs, you know as well as I do that they're for the most part just papers with stuff written on them if the certs holder don't have real world experience to back them up.  I got a bunch of them, and guess what, NONE of my referal clients ever asked me what I have, because it doesn't matter to them.  What does matter to them is that I can get it done, done right, and in less time than other people, while not costing them so much that my service becomes prohibitively expensive.  At $120 an hour I'm not cheap, but I'm not the most expensive either, with my Cisco, Apple and MS certs I can command $150/hr, but I don't.  The key is to provide more than they expected, people like surprises when they're the good kind of surprises.

As to the agreement you signed, I signed one too for not 6 months but for a few years.  Fortunately the company went out of business and as I said many of my clients stopped using them before I went on my own, so it wasn't an issue for me.  You should talk to your clients and let them know your intentions.  When 6 months (or the remainder of it) is up, quit and you have a client base that's very difficult to obtain.  It'll be a very easy decision for your clients: retain the person that's done everything here, we like him, he charges less, or stay with the company that used to employ him and have them send out someone that has to learn everything from scratch, and pay more.

The way I look at my 5 years of difficult times working for my old company is this...I got lots of invaluable experiences, tons of certs, and in the end an awsome client base when I left.  The company may have taken advantage of me, abused me and cheated me out of many things, but what I walked away with is all mine, so I don't regret having spent 5 years there.

Re: bad quarters....I would't know, I don't go by quarters except as in taxes  I evaluate my hours and productivity every week  I never rest on my laurels, if I had a good week, great, but that's last week.  This week I start from scratch, and evaluate it again on the weekend.  I've been growing at a steady 15 to 20% every year, so that's got to be a working formula, for me anyway.  For bigger companies this is a lot of evals, but I'm small and will stay small, I'll never be rich doing IT but I'll use the money I bring from IT to make real money.

I'd be happy to talk to you if I can be of help, don't hesitate to contact me :)

Jimbo, this is what I did...not secrets by any means so I don't mind sharing with a colleague and fellow gun owner.

I bought my first condo for 200K in 2001, sold it in 2002 and used the equity to buy a better and more expensive condo (300K) where I presently reside, it's now up for sale for $620K.  In 2003 I bought 2 more, one at $590K and another one at $620K, 0 down and 100% financing (my credit is good and I bring in enough dough so the lenders love me).  Because of the 0 down and 100% financing, the two I acquired in 2003 (have leased them out to tenents) introduce close to $4000 in negative cash flow for me every month, but they also helped me a great deal in tax write-offs, so I'm cash strapped for the time being, but when I sell either one when the time comes, the belt-tightening will be all worth it.  If anyone is wondering, this is the reason I haven't put together new AR projects lately

The real estate market in CA is doing very well.  All of my properties are in excellent locations with a track record of phenomenal growth.  What I do with my business everyday is but a means to an end: keep up my properties till the investments in real estate become a source of income, not just a huge chunk at a time, but a sustained annual thing.  Now I'm planning to make approx. the same amount in real estate as what  I do in IT business every year, and this is just the beginning (only been in it since 2001).  But for a 37 year old, I want to make plans for an early and comfortable retirement, I do not want to be in my 50s and still work as hard as I do.

Quoted: Jimbo, this is what I did...not secrets by any means so I don't mind sharing with a colleague and fellow gun owner. I bought my first condo for 200K in 2001, sold it in 2002 and used the equity to buy a better and more expensive condo (300K) where I presently reside, it's now up for sale for $620K.  In 2003 I bought 2 more, one at $590K and another one at $620K, 0 down and 100% financing (my credit is good and I bring in enough dough so the lenders love me).  Because of the 0 down and 100% financing, the two I acquired in 2003 (have leased them out to tenents) introduce close to $4000 in negative cash flow for me every month, but they also helped me a great deal in tax write-offs, so I'm cash strapped for the time being, but when I sell either one when the time comes, the belt-tightening will be all worth it.  If anyone is wondering, this is the reason I haven't put together new AR projects lately The real estate market in CA is doing very well.  All of my properties are in excellent locations with a track record of phenomenal growth.  What I do with my business everyday is but a means to an end: keep up my properties till the investments in real estate become a source of income, not just a huge chunk at a time, but a sustained annual thing.  Now I'm planning to make approx. the same amount in real estate as what  I do in IT business every year, and this is just the beginning (only been in it since 2001).  But for a 37 year old, I want to make plans for an early and comfortable retirement, I do not want to be in my 50s and still work as hard as I do.

You are a smart man Duffy. I do the same thing (on a smaller scale for now) in Florida with my father inlaw. I plan on doing property management full time starting next year as soon as my wife and I get out of NYC
Good luck Miller

Thanks usn69  We all have to start somewhere, but the absolutely crucial thing is we have to start it.  Another thing I heard long ago that's worked for me and I modified it a little (not just by me I'm sure): have achievable goals, and set out to achieve them.  Having impossible goals just brings frustration and disappointment.  I set out increasingly more difficult ones, after the initial goal is obtained, the next gets harder (with proportional bigger incentives and rewards), and so on.
My goal last year was to have 1M in real estate, I did better and got 1.8M.  This year it'll be 2M, I'll most likely shoot past that one too

Quoted: Quoted: 7 years out of high school making 50 grand? Now I'M depressed. A degree in pharmacology will get you better than that, these days - and I think those are 4-year degrees.

Now there is one very mind-numbingly boring field. Why do you think pharmacists abuse drugs so much?

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: 7 years out of high school making 50 grand? Now I'M depressed. A degree in pharmacology will get you better than that, these days - and I think those are 4-year degrees. Now there is one very mind-numbingly boring field. Why do you think pharmacists abuse drugs so much?

Um..to numb their minds?

TJEW  you are right about real estate, I did close to the same thing only it was 69k house. I put some sweat equity into it and another 13k and sold it for 127k. Then bought a 219k house worked on it and put about 25k into ,lived there for 2 years and sold it for 360k. Now I have a 375k home and I am staying put in the country where my hermit ass belongs. The rat race sucks ass.

Quoted: Prayer and a relationship with Jesus Christ does it for me. If not I would have capped myself in the head years ago.

That about sums it up.

Quoted: Quoted: I don't hate my work, I love my work!   I just hate WORKING!  I'd much rather get up every day at noon, lounge around and watch tv, futz around in the yard, write my novel, drink beer, ride my bike, etc. My best friend in Netherlands is exactly like that too.  He probably has one of the coolest jobs in the world (I'm not kidding), and yet he HATES having to get up in the morning and go to work, just because he'd rather nor be working at all.  Every once in a while he seriously consideres buying a small house in the country (he's got a bunch of money saved up) and going on welfare.  Ungrateful bastard!

Well Im 22, Im not happy with my job and have been unhappy for years.  I used to have a decent job, that went to shit.  I really just dont care about anything anymore.

Quoted: .......snip....... Once again, how do people do it day in and day out?

You look at your wife and kid, and you look at them again for a longer time and if this doesn't give you the answer, no one can.

Quoted: Well Im 22, Im not happy with my job and have been unhappy for years.  I used to have a decent job, that went to shit.  I really just dont care about anything anymore.

You're 22 for chrissakes!!  

Quoted: Quoted: Well Im 22, Im not happy with my job and have been unhappy for years.  I used to have a decent job, that went to shit.  I really just dont care about anything anymore. You're 22 for chrissakes!!

Yea I am sitting here with no direction I havent been able to find any direction with what to do with my life.  Would post more now, but my head feels like I just beat it into my cube wall, but I didnt.

Quoted: In the future I would try to limit financial obligations as much as possible. With the mortgage, and two colleges to pay for, that won't be easy. I would suggest not getting too high into other payments...causing you to worry more and more about money. Unfortunately with your family, I think your options are limited. I choose to not have such limitations in my personal life, and it allows me to live on much, much less than the picket fence Americans. Its all about choice. Kevin

I concur