Too old to change career and make good money?

redundantmortgage

Looking a bit more into truck driver and looks like it doesn't pay that much. Plus I read a driver ranting about constantly taking orders from some posh kid in the office who was fast tracked into management with no idea about the real world. I've encountered plenty of those in my career and, well I don't think I need to spell out what I think of them.

If by high earner you mean a salary above the 40% tax threshold then yes I'm above that. If you mean 6 figures then no I'm not, though household income goes into 6 figures just about. I fail to see why keeping my travel costs down means I can't be a high earner, just because I can afford an expensive 1st class train ticket or a flash car doesn't mean I'm willing to pay for one.

That post you referred to came at a time we were about to pay the mortgage off. I'd previously decided I'd leave my career behind once the mortgage was paid off and that was about to become a reality. I thought I may be getting to the point where I no longer need to consider salary in a job without a mortgage, hence the minimal effort comment.

Since then other bills such as council tax, electricity etc. have gone through the roof and what my mortgage free life has taught me is that you still need a certain level of income to pay for other expenses. My wife still makes a pittance and still relies on my salary to pay for things even without a mortgage. Hence looking at a different approach to my career.

I take your point about being stuck in a cab. What makes me think it will be better is the train moving and going to different places. When I think of things I've actually enjoyed about my career the one that sticks out the most is travelling to external meetings etc. so I thought why not make that travel element my job. Last year I sat on a bus for 12 hours. I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable experience and was glad when the journey was over, but it was much more enjoyable than my job and the time went much quicker.

Johnmcl7

redundantmortgage said:

I take your point about being stuck in a cab. What makes me think it will be better is the train moving and going to different places. When I think of things I've actually enjoyed about my career the one that sticks out the most is travelling to external meetings etc. so I thought why not make that travel element my job. Last year I sat on a bus for 12 hours. I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable experience and was glad when the journey was over, but it was much more enjoyable than my job and the time went much quicker.

There's a big difference between travelling for work and travelling for yourself though particularly as a train driver since in most cases you're likely to be working out of one depot or even if you travel somewhere else you're going to be straight onto another train the next day.  I did some long train trips last year and of course they were more enjoyable than my job because I could just chill out and do what I wanted.  That is very different to even driving my own car for that period of time never mind the more challenging and less flexible driving a train, lorry, plane or whatever.

Bigphil1474

OP, you are unhappy doing your current job but the money is great, you want to change careers so that you will be happier doing something you enjoy but don't want to lose the money you are used to? You may well find you can't have both, unless you are really lucky or have some natural talent that's worth something.

Have you considered going part time? Work over 4 days and do something more interesting on the 5th day, that you would enjoy but maybe doesn't pay as good if at all? If money is your prime driver, then I think you'll struggle full stop, maybe change driver? My first boss always said to me that you should work to live, don't live to work. 

saajan_12

Working in travel seems to be the worst of both worlds based on the OP's comments - still stuck in a seat for hours a day, but now at a lower starting salary. The destination of the airplane / train / truck will quickly get the same handful of places and you likely won't be able to spend a ton of time there to offset the above drawbacks, given you do also value the money and how fun the daily is. 

Sounds like you need to instigate change in your life.. could you train up and try to get higher in the same industry, possibly in another company? That might increase your salary, and perhaps you can look for something with a more flexible working pattern. That could allow more time to pursue the hobbies and get the satisfaction that way, eg a 4 day week with more hours each day. 

Alternatively, can you downshift your usual expenses.. move to a cheaper area or smaller house, downshift on groceries, etc. That might give you some breathing room to either create more disposable income, allowing fun weekend breaks abroad, or allow you to get a more interesting but worse paid job.  

Flatfacedcat

redundantmortgage said:

Truck driver is another I've thought about but seen conflicting information about it.
[...]
Looking a bit more into truck driver and looks like it doesn't pay that much. Plus I read a driver ranting about constantly taking orders from some posh kid in the office who was fast tracked into management with no idea about the real world

If your continent is Europe and if you express openly your doubts, or what you found as conflicting, maybe I will be able to provide some useful insights - I don't know what trucking is like in Australia but I do have some awareness about what trucking is like in Europe (both within and outside of EU).

At a glimpse, there are two negative aspects which I don't like about trucking in Europe:
* to make good money one has to stay away from home quite long periods of time (ranging anywhere from a week or two in a row, to even a few months in a row)
* one must enjoy cooking because will be the only person cooking for itself (unless decides to do this job together with his/her life-partner) except those times when will be possible to stop in a good restaurant.
If these two negative aspects seem okay, then everything is okay.

The salary depends on the country where the truck company is registered. For example in Europe, the countries where is possible to make good money as international truck driver are Netherlands and Norway. The same driver if goes to work for a company registered in Bulgaria, Greece or Slovakia, will make a lot less money for the same distance covered and same freight type.
About taking orders from the office guy who doesn't know the real world, this case is a bit mixed - sometimes is true and sometimes is not. Such guy is called "dispatcher". There are routier logistic companies in which the driver does take orders from such unpleasant and unaware dispatcher. Usually this happens in big companies with hundreds or thousands of trucks. There are also cases when this doesn't happen - usually is in the smaller companies with less than 20 trucks. In many smaller routier logistic companies what I understood from talking with truck drivers is that usually the owners treat their drivers really nicely and it's like a small "family" where everybody knows everybody and does their best to be nice with everyone else so that everybody is happy. The thing is that to get hired in such smaller companies is necessary to have already some trucking experience. So, to reach a good point as truck driver, is almost necessary to be able to accept to work at the beginning for the first few months or a year for a bigger company where there is a dispatcher who has limited knowledge about how things are on the road in the real world and with a big ego, to make some experience and then search for a nice small trucking company.

redundantmortgage

Good point about same depot. 

I don't think part time would be any better, I'd rather do something bearable for 5 days a week than something unbearable for 4 days.

I hit the glass ceiling years ago. I don't want to reveal too much about my job because there's not many of us who do it. Think of it like someone who works in a cafe at an airport. 90% of the job would be the same as working in a cafe on the high street. You can do the job without knowing anything about planes etc. but if you want to go into airport management then you would do. I'm like a cafe worker in an airport with a fear of flying or refuses to fly on planes because their harmful to the environment.

I know almost everything will seem tedious after 40 hours a week over 20 years but I can't help but think it helps to at least have a vague interest in what you do. Thinking back to my childhood I used to enjoy the experience of going to the airport and flying on the plane almost as much as I enjoyed the holiday itself. 

The difference between me and my colleagues is that they all seem genuinely interested in what they do. Early on in my career I joined a huge company that would do a 2 week induction programme for new joiners. Each session was essentially someone talking about their area of the business with opportunities for questions. Each time I thought that's a load of nonsense and had no questions, but most other people had some nonsense question to ask.