May

13

thinking about liking jobs

Filed Under Uncategorized | 7 Comments 

I seem to mention a lot that I enjoy my job. And it’s true. I don’t really love it every day, but 95% of the time it’s great and the other 5% it’s still passable.

What makes me happy about my job?

I work for a good company, it’s actually won awards basically for being a nice place to work. The team that I work for is (relatively) politics free and I am happy to socialise with them on a limited scale. The location is great, it’s a 50 minute walk for me, the building was refurbished about 5 years ago, and it’s in the city centre. The close proximity to the shops isn’t great for my bank balance, but it’s good for getting errands done in my lunch hour.

All of that helps, but what’s really good about my job is that it suits me.

I work in an up and coming area of my industry, which means a lot of research projects and trials and cutting edge technology. It’s also incredibly varied, and almost everyone is a generalist. This is good for me because I get bored working on different things, and I like the excitement of the new, and unknown challenges.

I’m a sort of data specialist - I’m the spreadsheet geek, and I also do a lot of other data related things. This is good because I enjoy doing it, and almost no one else does, so I’ve always got plenty of work to do. I basically don’t compete for work with anyone else on the team. It also means that I’m seen as an expert in certain areas, very good for the ego.

Some of the stuff I do makes it into the public realm in one way or another - I can actually point to things that other people see and say "I did that". It does so in a way that supports my purpose of making a difference in the world in a good way.

I don’t expect that other people are like me. But, I do think that the key to a fulfilling work life is to have a job that matches well with your skills - it should maximise your strengths (for me, broad brush new ideas) and minimise your weakness (for me, details and implementation). It should also accord with your values, the most important feature of a happy life. Finally, you still need luck, even the best jobs can be ruined by other people.

Having a job that I enjoy (that pays well enough) means that I don’t spend a lot of money drowning my sorrows and trying to buy happiness, so it’s pretty good for my wallet.

What do you think about gaining job satisfaction? Is it mostly luck, or mostly *fit*, or mostly, something else? Let me know in the comments.

May

12

do you think about retirement?

Filed Under retirement | 21 Comments 

I’m in my late twenties, so it’s about 40 years until I hit state retirement age, and it’s more than 25 years until I reach the age at which I can withdraw any of my pensions. I don’t often think about what retirement might be like, or whether I’ll be able to afford it.

I do have a little spreadsheet, that tracks my pension contributions, and investment balances and gives me an inflation adjusted projection of my retirement income. (What can I say, I’m a spreadsheet geek.) It’s currently suggesting that I’ll be ok to retire when I’m 68. I’ll be rich enough to have an income that’s about what I have now, assuming that I’ll have paid off the mortgage by then.

I do put a reasonable amount away that’s earmarked specifically for retirement - currently around 11% of my gross salary. My combined investment amount this year is likely to be around 16%-17% of my gross income. This is marginally more than 2007, and I’m hoping to increase it more each year if I can.

The rule of thumb is to contribute 10% of your income, and although I’ve had a pension since I left Uni, I’m not sure when I started contributing more than 10%. But then, I don’t know if 10% is going to be a good rule of thumb for me. I’m pretty sure that you’re supposed to start with what you want retirement to look like, and then work from there, but I honestly can’t really imagine it.

I’m not anticipating taking early retirement. Compared to many of my m-network friends I have quite a conventional career/life thing going on. David @ my two dollars works for himself in various online ventures, Mrs. Micah has a patchwork career, being frugal and paidtwice are both pro-bloggers/SAHP/loads of other great suff, Patrick @ cash money life, pinyo @ moolanomy, gibble @ gather little by little, single guy money, and the doughroller are all heavily into alternative income (or have aspirations that way). I’m just well, me.

If things continue as they are for me, I’m likely to work (at a job I like) for a number of years, and then just retire when I can afford to. Pretty traditional and conventional. I absolutely don’t mind this at all, it’s just that without envisaging a kind of semi-retirement, it all seem such a very long way off. I am likely to be at least twice the age I am now when I retire, after all.

Because I’m sensible, and because I have no intention of being a poor old person, I’m dutifully putting away a good proportion of my money into retirement. Only enough that will do for retiring at 68 though. I just can’t get excited enough about retiring to work harder on it.

What do you think? Are you working towards early retirement or semi-retirement? Or are there other conventional people like me out there? Let me know in the comments.

Image by Tracy O

May

9

could you afford to lose your income?

Filed Under insurance | 8 Comments 

Insurance is a pretty boring topic, and insurance salesmen are the butt of many jokes. Like many boring things though, insurance is eminently sensible as long as you do it right.

I’ve been reminded lately about the importance of insurance, as I’m suffering a little with my left hand/arm/wrist (I’m a leftie). It’s making it uncomfortable to type, and of course typing is what I do practically all day both here, and in my day job.Although I know that my discomfort is caused by a specific event, a chronic condition like RSI would have a very detrimental effect on my ability to earn an income.

For most people in the pre-retirement stage of their lives, losing the ability to earn is both financially damaging and more likely than you might think. It’s not often self-insurable (if you don’t need to work for money, then you are self-insured, otherwise you are not), but you can and should consider taking out both short and long term disability insurance, also known as income protection insurance to cover you against such an unfortunate event. You might, however, not need to pay for it yourself.

My employer has just introduced a new benefit, which is Group Income Protection that pays out 50% of pay (minus any other income received) after 6 months of sick leave - during those 6 months you are still employed on full pay. I’ve already got a income protection plans in place, and now I’m not sure whether to cancel. I suspect that having two policies won’t net me any more money, but it’s possible that one could have less stringent requirements than the other.

The question is, should I cancel my own policy, and just rely on my employer’s policy? Or should I keep paying out £26 a month, for my own cover?

Image by openDemocracy

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