Money or Happiness?
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I should also add, for those who don't know, I was ET Expert my from beginning of Feb 2013-Jun 1, 2013. On my watch, that store saw it's record-setting week and best consecutive 7+ weeks. If we do 3500 in tech and warranties in a week, it's a good week. For at least 7 weeks at the beginning of Q1 2013, I did at least 4K/week in that combo, aka "blend".
I came back into the store and have immediately doubled and tripled business. I know I can do the job. I've done it before and I can do it again.
I'm going to take the Expert job. We'll see what happens from there.
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I grew up extremely poor, and started making lots of money in my late 20s and I have to say: money is happiness. If you don't agree with that, surely you can agree that it at least prevents misery. I'll take more money to do worse work every time, because it pushes you closer to being done, if you're planning things right. I've been unofficially "retired" since 2010, and now making money and running businesses (I hesitate to use the over-used word "entrepreneur") is now both something that I enjoy and a way to get away from my wife complaining I spend too much time doing nothing.
I'd set a goal and work toward it, even if it's no fun. I don't agree with the idea of working for pennies doing what you love, because if you do what you hate well enough, for enough money, you can retire earlier and enjoy your freedom and what you love. I think a lot of time people just lie to themselves about this issue, just look at all the people on Spiceworks talking about how IT is their calling and they'd do it for free -- while it's certainly possible they would, I have a feeling they mean they'd use their free time to mess with computers, not wipe the noses of users.
My point is, do what it takes to make more money now, so you can enjoy your life later. I honestly think from time to time I wish I had worked harder much earlier so I could've gotten more of my late 20s back, but even if it meant in an alternative universe retiring at 50 instead of 70, I'd still work 30 years doing something I hate than working until I'm dead just trying to get by whilst telling myself "yeah, I sure love this". I'd rather be at home, but that's just me.
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@tonyshowoff said:
My point is, do what it takes to make more money now, so you can enjoy your life later.
I don't want to live in the future. I want to enjoy my life all the way through. I didn't pursue very good career options in my 20s but I had the time of my life and wouldn't swap it now. I have a few friends who earn a lot of money, but they have had health problems and rarely see their kids - that's not the life for me. I wouldn't want to be poor, but I've no desire to be rich either.
Having said that, I could do with some more cash at the moment.....
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I don't want to live in the future. I want to enjoy my life all the way through. I didn't pursue very good career options in my 20s but I had the time of my life and wouldn't swap it now. I have a few friends who earn a lot of money, but they have had health problems and rarely see their kids - that's not the life for me. I wouldn't want to be poor, but I've no desire to be rich either.
Not living in the future is how a lot of people get into debt. You can also maintain a healthy life style and work hard. You're sort of taking a black/white view of either not giving a damn or becoming a workaholic, at least that's what you seem to be implying, though I'm sure that probably isn't your view point. At any rate: work smart, not hard.
Having said that, I could do with some more cash at the moment.....
I think that's true for most people anyway
The very least you can do is consider the future, even if you don't take the extreme options I did of destroying myself in my 20s, you can still retire in your 50s if you play it right (I'm assuming you're in your early 30s). Living cheap helps a lot, even now with complete financial independence I am a cheap bastard, primarily because I got into that habit years ago.
It couldn't hurt to get some advice, if you think you need it or think it could be helpful, from different people who are more experienced. I'd consider, especially, talking to older people. If you want to seriously learn to live cheap, talk to someone who lived through the great depression or came from a communist shit hole country like mine, though full disclosure, people from my homeland are really bad with money because they don't have experience with it, hell, pyramid schemes are huge there like they were in the US in the 80s, but they can tell you how to not spend money or be really cheap, just ask them how they got by in the 80s and early 90s.
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@tonyshowoff said:
you can still retire in your 50s if you play it right (I'm assuming you're in your early 30s).
I wish
I'm 43 next week 
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@Carnival-Boy said:
@tonyshowoff said:
you can still retire in your 50s if you play it right (I'm assuming you're in your early 30s).
I wish
I'm 43 next week I hope you at least have some plan in mind
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Not really, no. I still haven't figured out what I really want to do with my life. But I'm really happy, so......
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Not really, no. I still haven't figured out what I really want to do with my life. But I'm really happy, so......
No shame in that
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I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
Congrats, and have fun with it.
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@coliver said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
Congrats, and have fun with it.
Thanks!!
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@thanksajdotcom said:
I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
I'm wondering, why can't there be any overlap?
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@Dashrender said:
@thanksajdotcom said:
I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
I'm wondering, why can't there be any overlap?
Scheduling mostly. Store doesn't have that many hours to give...
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Being the fastest growing anything in NYS really isn't that hard to do. There has been a great exodus of business and talent in the north east (especially NY) so growing quickly really doesn't mean that much of anything when you consider the background.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
I talked to my GM and he has told him that if he wants me as Expert, I want $12/hour, as well as he understood that in the next 1-2 years, I want to work towards sales manager. He agreed and said that'd work. The current Expert's last day is April 11. So my first day will be April 12.
Excellent. You picked a high number, but a reasonable one (a verified reasonable one which is great!) and did the right thing. That's a 9% raise over what was already offered. That's a huge score. I think that you are going to be very happy having decided on this. Congrats.
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Wise, mature decision, A.J.. Congrats, and well done.
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Sounds like you are making a sound decision. Not a fancy or flashy one, but a sound one.
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If I decide I do want to get into management, the Expert job will be a perfect segway. It's a keyholder position, leadership position, etc. I do well at this for awhile and I don't doubt the other will just happen at the right time.
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@thanksajdotcom said:
If I decide I do want to get into management, the Expert job will be a perfect segway. It's a keyholder position, leadership position, etc. I do well at this for awhile and I don't doubt the other will just happen at the right time.
a] Congrats.
b] Segue. Just sayin' Segway is a personal transport device
