Any family members disapprove of you being a trucker? Mine does...

All of my family is drivers. Mom and Dad use to team back in the day. My brother drives. My sister drives. I drive. Its great. Only problem we have is that on holidays we argue who drives the best equipement or makes the most money etc...lol Your family will get over it

 

My mother kept tell me to marry a Jewish mulibillionare businessman, .....I kept telling her,Ma I'm not gay.

 

my fiancé said are you ####ing me what happen to the warehouse. the warehouse I was in was making me go broke my car note was 326.05 I was having to take an entire check plus an portion of next check just to pay car note. like everyone knows we make our money in overtime in a warehouse. then I was working 7 days a week I put 43,000 miles on my car first year just going to work and back. my fiancé he is also a trucker also. its a scary transition on changing jobs but you have to do what u think is best for your family. I suggest go to school at night. don't quit your day job until your ready to train. when your wife see the difference on your pay checks she will get on board. now me and my fiancé sit back and talk about our jobs he been a driver for 13 years and I been one for little over 2 and im teaching him some things about trucking. since all your kids are grown your wife will want to see you do your job. don't count it out just work on it. have a couple of months of bill money in bank to help cover bills while you train. this will make it a easier transition on your wife. I been in either a warehouse or a plant since I started working in my life. now since I been driving I cant see why it took me this long to actually change careers. the company I signed with now I will only run southeast states for me this is my dream job no east, west, north and NO MOUNTIANS!!!! I basically said all of that to say DONT GIVE UP SO QUICKLY ON TRUCK DRIVING!!

 

Are you really aware of what you are getting yourself into?

 

......better save for a divorce lawyer.....your wife will not handle the culture shock....lol

 

Nope my families good with it especially when one of them are moving and are too cheap to rent a Uhaul.

 

want to add one thing..you say you got tired of dealing with crazy people at the hospital..well sorry to say that wont change when you become drivers..plenty of crazy people out here on the roadthat said,do what you want and not what others want you to do..good luck.

 

I've been doing this for a lot of years,coming up on 34 years. My wife raised both kids by herself, because I was always on the road. I missed a lot, kids growing up, birthdays, lots of holidays, but never a Christmas, and only 1 Thanksgiving. My wife put up with a lot, but I made a fairly good living most of the time. Now I'm a owner/operator, and much more in control of things, like home time and how long I'm home. Truck drivers got a bad rep back in the 70's and early 80's, always partying, and shows on TV like B J and the Bear, where on 1 show, BJ say's" I've been up 48 hours to get your load here". Little things like that did it's damage in the public's eye. The rep has stayed with us since, and the media doesn't help either. We had an accident here a couple weeks ago, where a S U V lost control on slick roads. The passenger was killed. The media reported it as "the SUV lost control, crossed the median, and was hit by a semi". It should have said,"the SUV lost control, crossed the median, and hit a semi". Once again, another black eye for truckers. It's never been a issue, as far as relatives not wanting me to truck, it's just a job.

 

Oi ... I know this must appear weird, but this is something I've been thinking about for a good few years. Everyday I wake up and question why I even go to work, at a certain point the marginal utility of an additional dollar in the bank account, stock option or 401K just isn't worth the days I give up to furthering whatever b.s. corporate objective I'm working on or buttocks i'm kissing. Its tough to explain but working in corporate America is soul draining. I was actually planning to make the move into trucking a lot earlier, but I've decided (based on the advice received in this great forum) to delay it a few years more. But that's still where I'm going.

 

Sounds familiar. In my case we had a few years of declining income from my business, and were forced to downsize step by step. In your case I'm assuming that trucking, even if you have retirement income, won't sustain the lifestyle she's used to.

Perhaps take her shopping for a mobile home?

The most important step will be to make sure your monthly expenses are reduced as much as possible. Unless she's on board with that, then it may be quite a struggle. Don't be working for the banks, eliminate interest payments from your life.