What do you earn?

[kev]

It is and always has been about the lifestyle and quality of life for me.

You, my friend are doing it right.

 

[Gwladys St. Glory]

This is how mine works too. 16 hours vacation and 8 hours sick leave every month. We can carry over 200 hours of vacation at the end of each year, excess is put into your sick leave. You never lose sick leave, but you also don't get paid for it if you leave.

I really should take more mental health days...

Our vac technically maxes at 240 but anything over that then goes in to a separate 'use or lose' pool, which has to be exhausted by July 1st. If you don't use it, you still have a window to be paid out up to 40 or put up to 90 hours (they bumped this limit up after COVID) worth into your retirement health savings acct, which is what I do since it can be used to pay for monthly premiums after you retire. I've got enough time in now that about 3 weeks of vacation comes out of my use or lose pool and not the actual vacation bucket (why we take off to Colorado every June), and then I'm still left with 240, so I immediately start building up use or lose again; rinse, repeat. A crapload of people here could retire but they stay for the health coverage savings, which is the situation I'm mainly trying to avoid as that's almost the universal reason folks don't retire here (and many other jobs). As it stands I'm basically gaming the system now to help push my retirement date forward (Oct 2030 is earliest "full retirement" date), plus I'll always have a lot of paid time off if an emergency crops up.

We (not new hires now) also get $600 for every year of service so that'll be another chunk that, I'm hoping, will tide me over 'til Medicare kicks in. Also get 50% of sick time paid out when you retire and I'm on 950 hours now. No way in hell I'm gonna' be a Wal-Mart greeter at 60, if I can help it. When I'm done, I want to be done. If I go back to work it'll hopefully be MY choice and not due to financial burden. If all else fails I can retire, find another job and my pension will still begin paying out, as long as the new employer is not under ASRS rules. That's likely what'll happen and, with the added time of me being able to self-fund health insurance for a good while, I'll have time to travel and then find a job ( age discrimination not withstanding) I love and be able to double-dip with wages from a job I enjoy and my pension. I'm already saddling up with certain folks at the Phoenix Zoo, so hopefully that'll pan out.

The closer to retirement I get the more I understand why so many retirees are on strict budgets...fail to prepare, prepare to fail.

 

[Kurt.]

An odd one this for me. I work 6 months on and 6 months off. I am in the lowest bracket in the poll. However , I never spend anything in the summer apart from 200 euro a month. So I live in the winter very well and still am able to put money away. I did not work for two years due to Covid keeping the Hotel where I work closed. So I clawed it back last year and paid off loans.This year I am doing really well. It is and always has been about the lifestyle and quality of life for me.

Marnie, gimme the low down on Rhodes pal…. I’ve visited previously but just on a day trip from turkey and really only went around the old town in the time I had. Any suggestions on places to stay, visit etc…. I’m not planning on visiting until September 24 but I always book it in January so I have something to look forward to all year

 

[Bkk Andy]

The Asian work culture is absolutely nuts.

I used to spend a lot of time with one of our offices in Singapore, you'd get emails at 11pm (that I'd read in the pub) and at 1130pm I'd get a call asking if I'd read their email.

Mind boggling. But everyone buys into it through the fear of being replaced.

I agree with this to a large extent. In my younger days I definitely feared being replaced - I saw a of people "resign". These days I wouldn't be too bothered. The payoff would see me right until I decided to work again.

 

[BNJ1878]

I agree with this to a large extent. In my younger days I definitely feared being replaced - I saw a of people "resign". These days I wouldn't be too bothered. The payoff would see me right until I decided to work again.

I don't think it affected the expats as much, they generally know a role will open up in the region if they're canned.

The guys in Singapore from Singapore (or a couple of Malay day commuters) where regularly doing 12 hrs and then a couple of hours at home or on the commute bus.

Mental.

 

[BNJ1878]

An odd one this for me. I work 6 months on and 6 months off. I am in the lowest bracket in the poll. However , I never spend anything in the summer apart from 200 euro a month. So I live in the winter very well and still am able to put money away. I did not work for two years due to Covid keeping the Hotel where I work closed. So I clawed it back last year and paid off loans.This year I am doing really well. It is and always has been about the lifestyle and quality of life for me.

Keep doing that for as long as possible.

You're genuinely not missing out on anything.

How's the island bouncing back after the fires?

 

[DualityNSNO]

He's on the rigs for crying out loud.

So the secret to making a ton of money is not to work hard nor smart, but to dodge tax on the rigs*?

Fixed mate, ta x

 

[Rita_Poon]

So the secret to making a ton of money is not to work hard nor smart, but to dodge tax on the rigs*?

Fixed mate, ta x

Working at sea is beyond the remit of taxable mainland.

 

[DualityNSNO]

Working at sea is beyond the remit of taxable mainland.

Mate I’m not gonna edit that in it’s too long,

 

[joe1878]

Any of the 81k+ - my inbox and arse cheeks are open oxo

 

[Kurt.]

Any of the 81k+ - my inbox and arse cheeks are open oxo

I earn £40 k …. Keep em closed and tight princess … I’ll take the challenge xx

 

[Groucho]

Respect and cash.

Although I find it increasingly hard to eat respect. My house doesn’t use respect as heating fuel either.