Almost 4 years since I have joined TMF and vowed to change my life for the better, and I’m still spinning my wheels, working a horrible job that I despise, and haven’t made any real progress on moving forward. It hurts to admit it, but as of today I realized I needed to take responsibility for my actions (or be held accountable for the lack thereof).
I’ve been fighting the battle of supporting a family of 4 (Wife- who is stay at home mom to our two kids, plus myself) on a less than $35,000 a year salary. We have managed to cut our expenses to only rent/utilities/food/gas, and live on a very tight budget. We had over $10,000 saved as of January of this year, but work has slowed down for me which in turn has forced us to dig into savings every month to cover living expenses. We are now down to $7.5k in savings.
As mentioned in another thread, my employer offers an ESOP in which right now I am 60% vested and own over $12,000 worth of stock that can be cashed out once I leave the company. If I stay until September of 2021 I will own 100% of my portfolio which would net me roughly $40-45k.
I’ve been stuck lately trying to decide if staying employed in the slow lane for this “dangling carrot” or sorts, is worth it. I really hate my job, and it’s honestly making me depressed as well as killing my inner drive/creativity. The 9-5 robot mentality has started seeping into my brain- where every day I numb myself in order to preform the same routine over and over again. My hours are not set, and I work an ‘afternoon to close’ shift which means some days I work for 7-8 hours and others we are forced to stay for 10-12 hours. I never know what time I will be home or how busy we will be for the day. We are also constantly short handed and our turnover rate has more than doubled in my department since I have started. I am looked at under a senior/leadership role and have taken it upon myself to do my supervisor/managers job for them time and time again by advising other employees, addressing any issues or questions, and taking on the heaviest work loads. For all of this I make a whopping $17/Hr, while my colleagues make anywhere from $16-$16.50.
Yesterday I was offered another job that pays $2-4 more per hour, but it’s still a warehousing job and has no ESOP. At this point I could care less about a menial pay raise, as I’m more focused on the bigger picture.
I know honestly what I should be doing is focusing on something that I can turn into a second stream of income, which will eventually outpace my current income at my job in which I would be able to leave. Honestly though, I’ve bounced back-and-forth between so many different ideas (Amazon FBA,Small start up ideas, niche local labor business ideas, etc. ) that I think I’ve really just burnt myself out and lost track of where I need to be and what I need to focus on. Day today all I can think about is making more money than I make right now since I feel extremely undervalued. My work environment is extremely toxic and political, plus everyone I work with is an ex felon or Extremely simple minded person with a hunger for overtime so they can have more money to spend on the weekends.
I really never thought it would get this far and I am ashamed. I know I am a lot better than this. I need to put a plan in place and start taking action every day, no matter how small. I also think I need to try and surround myself with more like-minded individuals. I would have liked to attend the mastermind meet up here in Scottsdale, but I saw that it was sold out, plus honestly I can’t afford the admission.
To conclude, if anyone has any constructive criticism or encouraging wisdom to help me through this it would be very much appreciated. I need a breath of fresh air and a kick in the a$$, possibly some friends to network with. I’m going to start digging through all the gold on this forum again to try and stir up some ideas while I try and turn myself around.
I’ve been fighting the battle of supporting a family of 4 (Wife- who is stay at home mom to our two kids, plus myself) on a less than $35,000 a year salary. We have managed to cut our expenses to only rent/utilities/food/gas, and live on a very tight budget. We had over $10,000 saved as of January of this year, but work has slowed down for me which in turn has forced us to dig into savings every month to cover living expenses. We are now down to $7.5k in savings.
As mentioned in another thread, my employer offers an ESOP in which right now I am 60% vested and own over $12,000 worth of stock that can be cashed out once I leave the company. If I stay until September of 2021 I will own 100% of my portfolio which would net me roughly $40-45k.
I’ve been stuck lately trying to decide if staying employed in the slow lane for this “dangling carrot” or sorts, is worth it. I really hate my job, and it’s honestly making me depressed as well as killing my inner drive/creativity. The 9-5 robot mentality has started seeping into my brain- where every day I numb myself in order to preform the same routine over and over again. My hours are not set, and I work an ‘afternoon to close’ shift which means some days I work for 7-8 hours and others we are forced to stay for 10-12 hours. I never know what time I will be home or how busy we will be for the day. We are also constantly short handed and our turnover rate has more than doubled in my department since I have started. I am looked at under a senior/leadership role and have taken it upon myself to do my supervisor/managers job for them time and time again by advising other employees, addressing any issues or questions, and taking on the heaviest work loads. For all of this I make a whopping $17/Hr, while my colleagues make anywhere from $16-$16.50.
Yesterday I was offered another job that pays $2-4 more per hour, but it’s still a warehousing job and has no ESOP. At this point I could care less about a menial pay raise, as I’m more focused on the bigger picture.
I know honestly what I should be doing is focusing on something that I can turn into a second stream of income, which will eventually outpace my current income at my job in which I would be able to leave. Honestly though, I’ve bounced back-and-forth between so many different ideas (Amazon FBA,Small start up ideas, niche local labor business ideas, etc. ) that I think I’ve really just burnt myself out and lost track of where I need to be and what I need to focus on. Day today all I can think about is making more money than I make right now since I feel extremely undervalued. My work environment is extremely toxic and political, plus everyone I work with is an ex felon or Extremely simple minded person with a hunger for overtime so they can have more money to spend on the weekends.
I really never thought it would get this far and I am ashamed. I know I am a lot better than this. I need to put a plan in place and start taking action every day, no matter how small. I also think I need to try and surround myself with more like-minded individuals. I would have liked to attend the mastermind meet up here in Scottsdale, but I saw that it was sold out, plus honestly I can’t afford the admission.
To conclude, if anyone has any constructive criticism or encouraging wisdom to help me through this it would be very much appreciated. I need a breath of fresh air and a kick in the a$$, possibly some friends to network with. I’m going to start digging through all the gold on this forum again to try and stir up some ideas while I try and turn myself around.
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