What I missed about having a Job?

 


There are 3 things that I missed about having a job. It also teaches me not to take things for granted however simple and small the item is. 

1. The first item is a very simple thing that most people including myself would have taken it for granted. Having access to a laptop with full MS office suite and professional PDF software. LOL. For the past 2 months, I find myself in situation whereby I need to sign for things but the free PDF software is unable to support digital signature. What a bummer. Luckily there's my wife. Leecher me again.  The MS office suite can be replaced by free open source alternative like libre, so that's not that bad. 

2. The Second item again is administrative related. I dont have a printer at home for the longest time. I have always used digital signatures for everything.  Am I the odd one out or is this the norm nowadays? Wife to the rescue again. 

3. Taking loan is impossible since I am unemployed. Loan amount is capped to my wife's salary. This hinders our purchase for big ticket item. Unfortunately shares cant be pledged for loans. 

No, I dont miss talking to colleagues if you are wondering. Haha. 


Comments

  1. if you use iphone, the adobe app allows e-signing of pdfs

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    1. Ok, i didnt know that. Thats for the tips. I used android, but my wife uses iphone. time to leech on her again. haha

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  2. Two more things that you should be missing. free healthcare insurance and steady income?

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    1. hey! Yeah, i did mention these 2 items in a previous post but fortunately ive moved past it which perhaps is a sign that my FIRE plan is working. Hopefully! Let's see.

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  3. I think u can pledge shares for loans...I did that for mortgage loan...using sg shares in cdp account

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    1. Oh is it! I didnt know! Never had to look at that option. Thanks man!

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  4. Thanks for sharing HappyReitInvestor!

    What you shared are the tangible things. For eg., the printer, MS Office (which some companies frowned on their staff for using company resources for personal stuff). The other tangible things you should be missing sorely will include : your salary income, medical coverage, CPF contribution (especially that from the employer), bonuses and to a lesser extent, annual leave & transport & travel claims / allowances.

    You will also miss these intangible things :
    1. Public holidays & weekends. When working, public holidays and weekends are so precious and you look forward to them. But when not employed, each day blends into the next and weekends and public holidays no longer hold special meaning, and not something to look forward to. We should have something to look forward to.

    2. The identity that a job brings. It is a fact (sad though it may be) that many people identify themselves with the jobs they do. Once unemployed, they lose that identity and sometimes they lose their self worth & esteem.

    3. A structured routine that a job accords. When unemployed, its free format (own time own target) and if not disciplined, one can become a sloth and a bum. There is less incentive & motivation to plan and do something when there is no reward.

    4. The confidence & conviction that a regular salary provides, ingredients that are so important for making investment decisions are no longer there when unemployed. Imagine pumping $100K into a depressed stock market when employed and when unemployed. Which scenario would you rather be?

    I could go on, but you get the drift.

    All the best.

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  5. Dear Anonymous I cannot agree with you.

    If you have to look forward to PH and weekends only when you are working, don’t you see that that is very sad. Whether I look forward to weekend or PH is really not that important. What is important is the really special days like anniversaries, Ching ming, birthdays all of which are definitely not PH and might not fall on weekends.

    I’m am sorry to hear that you tie your identity to a job. Jobs are dispensable while health is not. Your identity should not be tied to a meaningless job. It should tie to your beliefs which are always there whether you are employed or not.

    I really don’t think one will become a sloth when unemployed. I have working colleagues who are behaving as sloths. Not doing any work but still getting paid. Why can they do that? Because there are other people doing work for them. Whether one is disciplined or not depends on oneself not because they are employed.

    Lastly when you are drawing a salary, you don’t really save since the mentality is money comes in every month. Spending tends to be anyhow. When you are unemployed or being a free lancer, you tend to be more careful in your spending. Spending can be on food, investment, leisure. I don’t see how that is a bad thing.

    An additional point is that if you are in a toxic environment with toxic bosses, I have fail to see why I should not prioritise my mental health and self worth by quitting and by extension becoming unemployed inevitably for a brief moment in time.

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    1. Mental health and family time. These are 2 very important points that people tend to miss out but there's certainly more awareness nowadays which is a good sign going forward!

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  6. two sets of people. one retires early before the official retirement age and found themselves needing income later to survive, and the other who never learn how to retire until they almost "bye-bye". from my experience.

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    1. Should have a third set. One who actually manages to retire as per their plan. Of the two set of people you mentioned, i think it's quite sad to be the latter. Unless they really love their work, then that's a different thing.

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  7. Hi Happy Reit Investor,

    I am not making any judgement on your decision to quit your job as only you know your situation best. Thats why I did not say anything about you missing your colleagues nor your work environment.

    I do advocate that we should move out of toxic work environment either by asking for transfer to another deparment or changing job totally, more so when it starts to impact our health.

    In my earlier comments, I was merely highlighting what people would miss when not employed. The regular pay, medical benefits and CPF contributions are the three biggest things people will miss when they stop work.

    Again all the best!

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    1. Hi there Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2 is not me. Haha. in anycase, of all the points that you mentioned, I was missing the complimentary healthcare and fixed salary few weeks ago but I have moved on. I actually dont really miss them anymore , which could be a positive sign that my plan is actually working? haha. I dont know, since this is just my 3rd month.

      For the numbered points, I dont actually miss any of them as it's not me at all.

      1. Instead of looking forward to the weekends/PH, I have the chance to love everyday now. Isnt that great?

      2. My work doesnt define me. Haha I know I am quite old to make such a WOKE statement but my work has never defined who I am. I am a son, a husband, a father and a human being trying to enjoy his limited time on earth.

      3. I think before 1 FIRE, he/she should have a plan of what they want to do. If that's what they want to do, bum ard all day, they deserved it because that's why they worked so hard to FIRE. They want to bum around and be a sloth. They have earned the right to.

      4.This can be true if deep down inside, the FIRE person doesnt have confidence that their plan will work so they are standing on wobbly grounds. Thus they can be easily shaken.

      Frankly speaking, if 1 suffers from all these points, the person should continue to work if it makes him/her happy. Everyone has their own right to decide how they want to live their life. If a person love their job, that's a great thing to have. Unfortunately, it's not for me. haha.

      Hey, dont worry about it. No, I dont feel that I am being judged at all. What you say can absolutely happen to anyone but fortunately I dont feel any of it for now. I dont know if i will feel it in future, but so far so good.

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  8. Sorry but I have to say that ur reasons are very frivolous, it seems like u r more concerned with small amounts that u can easily afford like software license and printer that u shd b able to afford with the dividends you collect. While I agree on the loan part, I felt you cld hv easily taken one before u decide to quit if u had a longer term plan. But anyway all the best

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    1. hi there, indeed it's extremely frivolous! Haha. That's why i mentioned in the post that "It also teaches me not to take things for granted however simple and small the item is. ". However, i am glad that the things I missed are frivolous and not things like "Oh no, i actually love working, or oh no I actually cant survive without my monthly pay check..". In anycase, even though I can afford the printer and license comfortably, i will not do it because there's no point for me to spend money on them as they are good to have and I dont actually use them all the time.

      No point in having a printer at home to use it only for maybe twice a year and taking up space. Perhaps I should say the convenience of having these things made available by having an office, as and when required

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    2. Thanks for not taking my comments harshly and helping me to see your point. Actually I must admit I'm quite a cheapo too and try to snack a free perks if it's available.

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    3. Haha no worries. I mean it's indeed really frivolous, nothing to hide about it. No we are not being cheapskate, we are just pragmatic. Why waste money on something when you can use it for free somewhere else? And it's not like we use office resource to print 10000 pages of thesis of something. 😂

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  9. Agreed. All the we are family speech goes down the drain. :) Seen it a few times as well.

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  10. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I have my own personal laptop with MS Office Home & Student (less than $100) - office laptop maybe they can monitor what you are doing? As for printer, I confess that I like printing stuff, especially for stuff that needs more time to accomplish and I like printing in colour... I feel more "creative" when I do work on a hard copy rather than soft copy. Also, I have a job that allows regular WFH days, so having printers for my home office is helpful. The bad thing about WFH is that I don't see the point of doing the "RE" part of FIRE. If I can just sit at home all day and attend zoom meetings while tending to my houseplants , and then go to the gym /pool during my breaks, how exactly is FIRE going to be different? :)

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    1. Haha that is hardly a downside of wfh! Unfortunately my work requires me to travel alot.

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