If you had to start over...

I've seen quite a few people in my life sour to their chosen profession. Because of their personal finances, they trapped themselves in a debt prison. Mostly from frivolous spending and keeping up with the Joneses. So it wasn't so much what they did for work as just being dissatisfied with their lives in general.

 

I’ve always tried to live debt-free. Even when I was 19 years old. It’s always just felt right. I’ve went through many periods of my life where I’ve made more money or good money and then tried a different career or a different field and made less. But I always adjusted my lifestyle accordingly. I hate monthly bills, I hate owing anyone money, I hate that feeling that you’re not free because you’ve got a bunch of bills to pay.. and f rather live a bit poor and be free then be a slave to debt.

I also never cared about keeping Up with the Joneses. If I’m comfortable and the people I have in my life are comfortable, that’s all that matters.

right now I took out a small loan or I’m taking out a small loan to build myself a very small cottage style house on a piece of property that I own. Then I’ll be driving hard for two years to pay it off. no mortgage.

 

Passenger rail has always been a money loser, even when rail was king, the passenger side of rail lost money. Rail is best at moving freight, always has been.
Now if your talking ‘commuter rail’, in limited areas it can be profitable and a benefit to a local area.

 

Being a delivery driver in foodservice industry. I wish I never done it. It's a horrible job, unless you have a helper. And I would've been close to being a million mile driver with the company I am currently with. I kinda fuked up on that one and lost little bit of mental health and financial state

 

Yes and no. People in general, I've found, don't like change. They are uncomfortable with new things, and will stick out the old until the bitter end. They literally don't know how to change. I knew a guy at my old asphalt job, if we had to get schluck from a different plant, he would call in sick. Decisions in the past were usually voluntary, as there was so much work, changing jobs, even major career changes were no big deal. Today, you can't do that, as working today is for mere existence, pretty tough to move on to something else with a big hole to pay back and college training to collect garbage. .

 

Exactly!

 

I would've gotten away from local work and gotten out on my own long before I did.I worked locally for 11 backbreaking year's pulling a refer and dry freight.Multi stops daily only benefit is it didn't need a gym.

 

Evidently not

there are truckers that make more off of their YouTube than from the actual trucking .

 

It all Depends on too many variables to give much advice .

I was working at what most folks considered a good govt job .
Paid 50% over minimum wage with govt benefits and anytime there was an opening they had 300-500 applications . was an entry level job at a state park and I figured after a couple of years I’d get promoted to a higher job and more money.
The ranger job came with a house and utilities provided by the state and a truck to drive , so it doubled your take home pay

I didn’t mind mowing grass and picking up trash but , it turned out I could not get promoted ,
So after three years of nearly starving I had to find a better paying job.

I switched to working the night shift and I attended the CDL class at a community college 90 minutes away ,
And saw an ad in the newspaper from
Some company wanting owner operators and ordering a no money down no obligation rent to own program, with a subsidiary or Norfolk southern railroad called Triple Crown , using “road-railers”
The trailers that went directly onto the train tracks.
They had their own freight contracts and their own trailers , I think that’s called power only now ?


They wanted two years experience and apparently driving the dump truck and backhoe trailer at the state park counted.

My monthly earnings at the state park before taxes was $990
Which in 1987 in a rural area wasn’t too bad , but definitely not enough for a 21 year old with big plans and dreams.
First month with my rented slightly used international cabover , I took home $5,000 after fuel and insurance and payment .

the increase in income was , at the time , unimaginable . I now made more in a week than I used to make in a month .
I did that for almost ten years ,

if I had. It been able to increase my income like that , I would never have been able to buy a house or anything . I would have been dirt poor my entire life .

 

I love trucking. Maybe it's cuz I'm still young and have plenty of time in the future to hate it .. Would I do something else? Maybe but I think I would've ended up driving at the end of the day... everything has plenty of b.s. attached to it.. Trucking is no different... sometimes it's easy to always see how something other than what you're doing at the time will be 100 times better... but we all know it's impossible to see the full picture from the sidelines... I think life is just about finding something that you love to do and are willing to put up with the b.s. at the end of the day, to get the reward. Whatever that may be, is personal to everyone.