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Let your next career move come to you.

What do you make of your progress through life so far?
Sir Woke XR Re… 05 Oct 21 17:27
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Me:

Pleased with financial accumulation and security

Delighted with family life. I love my wife and children.

Disappointed not to have pursued a true vocation yet, but happy to still have options in that regard

I live abroad, which I am glad of

I've got good taste in music and know a lot about football, both of which factors please me

On the other hand, I'd like to be fitter.

U?

My list is similar. 

Wife and kid are top notch. 

Have lived abroad and would like to do so again.  Ideally, in Asia. 

Financial accumulation going pretty well and about to go a lot better when I move to this US firm.  

Would definitely like to be fitter.

Would like to develop some non-work interests such as photography. 

Less than satisfactory. Overqualified for the British jobs market generally  and getting no-where in the legal world. Hate it though and wish I could have gone into offshore companies formations.

Money? Fuggedabadit! Putting (and not telling my relatives) , on my limited budget, all my spare money into small cap companies on LSE which develop innovative tech and cannabiniod medicines.

Sorry, no tips because I pay a subscription to a research service and would insult them and  fellow investors to name the service or give share tips.

Also put small amounts each month into blockchain or tangle or IOT crypto that in ten years will mean I can heat and eat, because I don't see my career going anywhere in the conventional route. Inflation and governments throughout the world are debasing fiat money, which  means that crypto is an alternative (but risky and unregulated) way to potentially earn better rewards in the long-term. 

Fortunately single so can do the above.

At least I can speak other languages, one good enough to survive in more than a dozen countries which have it as a native or second language and as for my second foreign tongue, I'm developing it after a long gap.

So for oneself, it's about personal development and investing for the future to avoid penury when I reach official retirement age (I'm closer to that than I am to the day got my undergrad degree), because one needs to mollify the crappy career-life one has now and  look to the future and complain less.

no complaints 

still alive and more or less healthy

haven’t “achieved” much in the conventional sense but haven’t really tried to; lawcwas sn easier path when I started

unbelievably lucky to have met my mrs and persuaded her to give me a chance 

quite enjoy what I do now and don’t need much money to do it 

definitely fancy some time in another country if I can swing it but won’t lose any sleep if I just end up driving around the west and south for a while

Your wife and kids are your best and only achievement

That is it

Your career and monetary accumulation have been at best suboptimal

You should have done a better practice area

Become partner 10 years ago

Stuck it out for a bit

And you would have been a slum landlord like me in retirement now, playing table football with your willy.

And you would have been a slum landlord like me in retirement now, playing table football with your willy.

 

hmm. Interesting. Had not put that down on the "to do" career list.  

 

Good job I really enjoy with pay that means I have enough cash to do whatever I reasonably want, including helping both girls into home ownership.  Conquered previously life-long depression, happy for the last 2 years.  Two daughters that I like, no romantic relationships but I no longer get lonely and am intending to stay celibate for the rest of life.  Options to retire (or if needs be escape) to NZ which is great.  Grandchildren are a real possibility and one I am looking forward too over and above most other things.

However, at present life in the round was not worth it and would overall have been far better off suiciding as a young child when i first thought seriously of doing so.  We'll see how things go, there is hope that the balance will shift over time if things continue to work out   

Pretty fit.

Shame I didn’t get married and /have kids yet as it’s getting a bit close to the wire as I’m 35.

wish I’d made more of artistic interests like pottery or woodwork.Wish I’d kept playing a musical instrument.

glad I can speak and read two foreign languages- I may live abroad again at some point.

I have an awesome flat by the sea which I love. 

My job is pretty cool and interesting and they pay me well.

I went to the pub with some friends last night though and one of the guys I used to play rugby with in school has bought a building that he’s converting into 4 flats and a shop and sitting with him and some of the tradesmenI was thinking ‘fook me you’re doing alright’. That’s not his only property either….grass always greener maybe

I went to a funeral of someone my own age this week (mid-late 30s) brain aneurysm he’d done so much stuff in the last 10 years alone, more than most in a lifetime.
 

Made me really think I need to stop thinking about the future, chasing I don’t know what,  overthinking “what ifs” and and just do things. That 3 months out here and there every 3 or 4 years to have some experiences, travel, spend time with children makes absolutely zero difference in terms of career/money (as long as the mortgage is covered!) but have a big impact on your life. That I need to take care of my friends instead of always feeling squeezed for time and  Instead of getting dragged down into the same old same old, on and on for the next 30 years which I think is what is happening. 
 

So I am happy with where I am I have a made good progress in my career, have an OH and little one but I need to make the most of it right now and stop wishing life away. 

I worry I should want children and that I will one day wake up and go "shit! you should have had children!" but I really fooking hate everything about the child-rearing lifestyle so I am pleased I haven't tainted my days with that (so far, stupid too late regret pending). It is hard to be true to yourself when yourself is different from what makes most people happy.

I like my work and my friends and my love life and I am lucky to have time and money to do things I really enjoy.

I am glad I took the career path I did because it turned out to suit me (looking back, it was a close call, I could have ended up a banking lawyer... needless to say not a good one).

i have a first btw

It honestly makes me more attractive to asian girls

sue me

I have copies of essays saved i wrote at uni which I "accidentally" crop up on my laprop after a few months with relevant girl

and i say oh sh1t, that old thing, i don't remember that. 89% from the most esteemed professor in the country in that area, oh a1ht, i didn't even remember taking that course

then i start feeling that *** up and it goes to heaven for her

There was a guy I knew who talked just like TopDawg writes.  Although he was a lot wittier tbf.  All through my 20s and early 30s.  Corporate lawyer.  One day, when we were very drunk, I said, “But you don’t mean all of this shite”, to which he said, “Of course I do.  We are masters of the universe.  Gods.  Don’t pussy out on me now.”  Anyway, he never settled down with anyone, got depressed, got into a drugs and prostitutes spiral, lost several jobs and eventually never renewed his practicing certificate, and currently shuffles around jobless in his dad’s flat, 5 stone overweight occasionally trying to kill himself.  He should’ve gone to Dubai I guess.

Family: Good to very good these days. Two kids who are growing up strong and healthy and becoming people I like very much.  A marriage that after some less than brilliant times has found an equilibrium that basically works and which is, I think, likely to endure.  No issues with my parents or siblings who are all still in good health and making a decent fist of living their own best (or at least good) lives however different to mine those lives may be. My in-laws are becoming properly elderly though and that will start to hit us soon I am sure.  

Work: Not in a bad place but not as fulfilling as I would like and sort of stalled. I know I should either shake things up, make another big push and take it to the next level or find something else to do but I am really struggling to find the energy for the first option or the courage for the second.

Money: Fine. We spend too much on lifestyle crap and save less than we should as a result but it's not disastrous or anything and progress is being made.  Part of me would like to retire in a decade's time which I am not really on track to do.  Part of me thinks that would be a disaster so its probably just as well I am not on track.  

Health and fitness: All good now.  Last year I was the fittest I have ever been as an adult and it has only slipped a bit. Working on getting back there now.

Friends/social life: Definitely needs work. It's not like I am a recluse or anything but need to find some more friends.  One of the problems with the expat lifestyle is people do leave regularly and if you are slow to make friends (which I am) the need to find new people can be challenging. 

I'm living in a house I really like and have no money worries. But my life has stalled. I have spent the last 8 years worrying about Young Gwenners and, to a lesser extent, Mr G. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Being a carer sucks even more than being a City solicitor.

(Maybe I'll run away to Dubai ...)

Nah Dave, you either get a first or a third (and a packed up liver plus an interesting range of venereal diseases). 

Anything else just shows a lack of commitment. 

it’s more about relation to expectations tbh

my idea of financial success is owning my house outright

not having a very expensive house helps

"Two kids who are growing up strong and healthy and becoming people I like very much.  A marriage that after some less than brilliant times has found an equilibrium that basically works and which is, I think, likely to endure."

are you in fact a character in an Edith Wharton novel?

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