90% of office workers have NO LIFE...

[HotLava]

I can completely relate to these comments and I see them ring true everyday. I work in an Engineering office in the NYC suburbs. To start off, there are basically no women in the office. The guys are basically risk averse, conservative duds.

The comment about people with long commutes is right on the money. There are several people who commute 1.5 hours (3 hr total per day) from Pennsylvania just so that they can save a little bit of money on taxes. They seem completely miserable. They are always worried about losing their jobs despite the fact that business is good and they've been working for the company for 20 years+.

In a revealing conversation one time, I asked one of these guys what he had planned for the weekend. His big plan was to mow the lawn.

The "lessons learned" here are:
1. Go out, have a good time, have an interesting lifestyle
2. Save a good amount of money so that you are never dependent on your employer

 

[TheCaptainPower]

@Hotlava My employees are either "mowing" the lawn, or "taking my kids to baseball".

I have 3-4 people in my office who commute from the Pocono's to Wall st on some insane 5am bus.

The cafeteria thing bothers the shit out of me. Everyday about 95 percent of my company eat's cheeseburgers, fries, and a diet coke from the employee cafeteria like sheep.

Then when I try to take my daily 2pm dump, they go in there and start ripping ass and you can just tell their digestive system is completely poisoned...

 

[xsplat]

I've always been overconfident that regardless of how many years of entrepreneurial struggle I had behind me, somehow the pattern was sure to change and that if I just stuck it out I could make up within a few years a lifetime of not saving any money.

More or less that's how it's working out.

So while it's a high risk strategy that probably wouldn't always work, if you don't like the corporate grind you could always relocate to a place where you spend $75/month in rent and not much more in food and plug away at making your own income, until you find your stride.

Or people have given other non-corporate options on this site.

It's easy to diss how people trade life satisfaction for security, but having spent many years on the insecure side, I can see why. Being late with rent payments or having to dig into the coin stash for the evenings pad thai leads to high cortisol levels.

But with a little bit of overconfidence to see you through, it's pretty hard not to stumble upon making more than a good hourly wage, eventually. And by eventually I mean over many years or decades.

If there wasn't a trade off, everyone would be doing it. It really does take a willingness to take risks, and to live risk. But I'd never live any other way. No fucking way would I ever be in an office - I don't care if the pay was a guaranteed three times what I now earn. With entrepreneurship your future is wide open, and it's all up to you. It's like a game. With a job it's more of a grind and a matter of slow careful investment. One is process oriented, the other is results oriented. Entrepreneurs are into their work - they enjoy it because they are deeply invested in it. They work on their own projects.

It's not all good - sometimes the stress can be too high, and it takes a while to learn to not go up and down emotionally along with your finances. Even now I can lose 50% of my income with no warning. Or have it go up 50%. But no ones going to fire me, there is no alarm clock, and at any time I can move anywhere.

I'm coming to realize that people are willing to complain about the constraints of a salaried job, but very few of those are willing to make the very large lifestyle changes that enable them to get out from under that system, and to create their own system. Maybe 5% of people? One percent? Less?

 

[theIVth]

Get a job in sales and you don't have to be in the office all day. You fly around or drive around the city to visit your accounts which gives you plenty of opportunities to meet women during the day while your suited and booted without having to look like your trying too hard by wearing a suit at night.

And fuck a bonus. Your commissions off of what you sale is your "bonus". Couple that with a base salary and it gets no better.

If your working in some ultra conservative department or for in an ultra conservative industry, then yea, I can see how some of this could be true. But trust, all office or corporate jobs are not like this.

 

[Blackmagic]

While it is true that people in sales tend to have more personality, my last corporate gig was inside sales for a big life insurance company. 80% of the people in my department were in the 23-30 age group and TheCaptainPower's 90% rule held true. A lot of the guys that weren't married had serious girlfriends or were engaged. Even though a few of them raged a bit on the weekend with their college friends, you could tell they were headed straight for that boring existence of mowing the lawn, taking care of kids, etc within a few years. 35 dudes in that department and maybe 2 of them were interesting enough to hang out with on weekends.

 

[HotLava]

How about some of the terrible dating advice these married duds give me? "You need to buy girls drinks to get with them". The worst advice I've ever got was from a co-worker: "You should not date good looking girls. Go for average girls, because they won't cheat on you."

As for my office behavior, I use the consistency rule in my office. Basically, as long as you're consistent, you can pretty much get away with anything. I take longer lunch breaks than anyone, and go out to eat everyday. I'm consistent about it. So nobody has the guts to call me out on it. I finish all of my work and do a good job. So they can't complain during my annual review.

Remember to set the tone for your job. Take long lunch breaks, browse the internet on your phone, take lots of breaks. Just make sure you're consistent about it.

 

[Wool Suit]

How about some of the terrible dating advice these married duds give me? "You need to buy girls drinks to get with them". The worst advice I've ever got was from a co-worker: "You should not date good looking girls. Go for average girls, because they won't cheat on you."

I got "she's way out of our league" the other day when discussing an attractive, 7ish female colleague. I just stared at him and told him to never say that again. Think I'm going to slowly being him into the red pill fold starting this month.

 

[UrbanNerd]

Well...since I didn't attend and Ivy or psuedo-Ivy, I knew high-finance was pretty much out of reach for me (add on just a B- GPA), but...

I love the ease of the INTEL federal contracting world in the DC area. No it doesn't pay high-finance salary, but you can still get Top-5% income which allows you to live near the federal agency in Maryland with a 7 minute commute.

...and allows me to take several "weekend warrior" trips a year. No I cannot do the weeks/months stay like some of you...but I get to make my rounds.

 

[Captain Ahab]

Freedom.

That is what I want.

I don't care how much money you make. If you work under external command you are slave.

Corporations are private tyrannies. They control when you wake up, when you go to sleep, what you can and cannot say at work, online, and your private life.

It is funny how Americans champion freedom yet 99% of them work for someone else.

America has created the greatest form of national control known to mankind. Consumerism, not religion, is the opiate of the masses. And as long as these fuckers keep creating shit to buy, the workers will keep enslaving themselves with debt and consumption.

Fight Club was so fucking right....

 

[freshcream]

Would you guys say teachers are slaves as well?

 

[WestCoast]

FYI guys bonus number for front office Wall Street at age 30 and below should be 100% of base salary or so. This year numbers were as follows:

100-150 entry level, 150-250 next level, $250-550, $250-$1M plus.

Sounds like this was more back office commentary which would be below tier 3.

http://wallstreetplayboys.com/?p=499

Otherwise, you're at UBS.

 

[Marcellus]

I just love this topic. In Europe it's the same. Everybody sits in their office, does not go out during break and have a married life. Filling their life's with useless meetings and useless tasks. I often try to imagine those guys having sex, dominate their woman. I can not !

But I often think about it the other way: they think the same about YOU. This guy doesn't have a life. He's not married, he doesn't have kids. He lives in the city, not somewhere in a house on the countryside, etc...

I do disagree about your real estate statement. I have my own place in center of city. In suburbs the prices are just too high. When I'm old I sell the whole thing and buy a cheap house somewhere in Spain. I'm thinking about buying a 2nd property and renting it out.

I also think a lot about a way of cheating the whole system. Jobs you can do remote are not plenty-full. I know a lot of people who tried entrepreneurship and they all failed miserably and live now in poverty. The system is made so people try to be an entrepreneur and when they fail they lose all their money. It's a fucking trap.

 

[damngringo]

FYI guys bonus number for front office Wall Street at age 30 and below should be 100% of base salary or so. This year numbers were as follows:

100-150 entry level, 150-250 next level, $250-550, $250-$1M plus.

Sounds like this was more back office commentary which would be below tier 3.

http://wallstreetplayboys.com/?p=499

Otherwise, you're at UBS.

Or MS.

Also work in the office, came in today and couldn't confidently answer myself wtf I am even doing here. But the end is nigh!

 

[Jalouse]

I don't think it's quite as bad as this in the UK, there is an after work drinking culture so it's fairly common for people to head to the pub after work and people don't seem to let themselves go so much (at least in London) i.e don't become fat slobs. Also it's the norm for people in the UK who are making reasonable money to have travelled a lot, it's very easy to make short trips within Europe with all the cheap flights available.

 

[Bad Hussar]

I hear you mate. I work in Barclays in London doing graphic design so I have first hand experience with the banker cunts. Their diet is horrible, their lives are shitty and they are all betas. There's literally 3 out of about 150 bankers on my floor that I can bear talking to.

These guys think they're living the life but I've seen them working anywhere between 15-20 hours a day and they still come in on weekends for something similar. Cogs in a machine with no personalities, honest to God. There is no charisma to be found in these buildings because they all adhere to the cringey propaganda and "beliefs" the bank enforces onto them.

When I was working in the City (in a non-banking job) there'd be very rare occasions I'd go into the office extremely early. And every time I'd meet the same banker types there early as well. The thing, though, is that they were rarely working. Usually hanging out in the lobby and other public parts of the building. I came to the conclusion that although the hours are long, many of them don't actually work all the hours they are at the office. A lot of their time seemed to be spent goofing off. Which raises the question: Why are you at the office goofing off instead of living your life in the broader world. Maybe the office is the only place they feel at home, who knows.

 

[Bad Hussar]

several years ago i worked in an office. one night i left work to go to my car in the parking garage. as i was walking to my car i saw one of my bosses (mid 40s, married w/ 2 kids) just sitting in his car staring ahead. i stopped walking and watched him. it felt like an hour but for the next few minutes all he did was sit and stare while sitting in his car. i don't know what was going on in his life, as far as i could tell nothing serious as i would have heard, but just watching him do that was a wake up call for what office life does to a man. i wondered what was going through his head as he sat and stared while sitting in his car? thoughts of a shitty homelife? the futility of his existence? how miserable his life had become?

the funny thing was this boss didn´t give off a depressed vibe at work, it took me seeing him in a honest moment to get a glimpse into the sadness of his existence. yea, im glad i no longer work in an office..

Of course you also have to entertain the possibility that his secretary was, at that very time, crouching on the floor on the passenger side and giving him a blowjob.

 

[Teedub]

I don't think it's quite as bad as this in the UK, there is an after work drinking culture so it's fairly common for people to head to the pub after work and people don't seem to let themselves go so much (at least in London) i.e don't become fat slobs. Also it's the norm for people in the UK who are making reasonable money to have travelled a lot, it's very easy to make short trips within Europe with all the cheap flights available.

Yeah Britain gets a bad rap but the part about easy travel to Europe is very true. I mean, I can hop on a plane tomorrow for a fairly low price and by in Milan in two hours. Completely different climate and culture. That's what I love about Europe. All the countries have very distinct identities yet are literally next to one another. A lot of American's lump all the Southern Euro, 'Latin', countries together. However, Italy and Spain for example are very different.

 

[Lothario]

All throughout NJ and PA, there properties that you can purchase for cash flow which give you a cap rate (cash on cash), of 12% or more. For example, if I pay cash for a home at $100K (no mortgage at all), with a 12% cap rate, that means the property has a NOI (Net Operating Income) of $12,000 per year, which is money in your pocket after all expenses including taxes, insurance, utilities, vacancy factors, maintenance reserves, property management fees, etc are considered. 12% is good. Now it gets even better. I'm pretty sure TheCaptainPower has great credit. If he gets a mortgage at 75% of the purchase price (borrowing $75,000) from the bank at a fixed 4% over 30 years, his monthly payment (including both interest and principal) comes out to about $450 a month. This works out to $5,400 of payments a year. This $5,400 has to be deducted from your $12,000 NOI, leaving him with $6,600 net. But, since you only have $25,000 still in the property, this results in a return on investment of 26% per year! Each month that goes by, you get rent money, and your renter pays down some of the principal. If the property goes down in value, it doesn't matter - it's a cash flow property. If it goes up, you can the benefit from the upswing when and if you decide to sell. Plus, the property is insured.

So if he fully deploys his $200,000 cash (into $800K worth of properties) in the manner above getting 26% ROI, that's $52,000 a year. In this situation, I would book a one way ticket to my beloved Cali, Colombia where the weather and women are better, and cost of living is far lower. With the excess cash, I would start building up another pool of rainy day savings, and would plow the rest back into paying down the principal. So, let's say the properties are fully paid off in 25 years. TheCaptainPower is now 58 years old. Now, he has $800,000 worth of paid off properties (assuming 0 appreciation and 0 rent increase) with no more mortgage payments, which suddenly result in his yearly income leaping to $96,000 a year (12% of $800,000) since he no longer has mortgage payments.

So, above scenario, TheCaptainPower invested $200,000 of his own money. It earned him $52,000 a year for 25 years, and then he decides to sell all of it for $800K after that time. That's $2.1 million total (assuming 0 appreciation).

If you purchased $200K worth of stocks, it would need to go up approximately 10% per year every year for 25 years straight without you touching any of it before it reaches $2.1 million in value. I bet stocks suddenly don't look as attractive anymore.

Welcome to the fast lane.

GLHF everyone (Good Luck, Have Fun in Starcraft speak)

Great Post Starcraft GG. I think we have started off in another tangent, Do help me understand what you mean by Cap rate (Cash on Cash) of 12 %. From what I can understand is if a House is bought by casj of $ 100,000. and it brings in rent of $1,000/month that is 12,000/yr or 12 % per year.

On another Note all the sentiments mentioned for Fianancial Sector do apply for Healthcare Industry as well and I have found Physicians to have very Unhealthy Lifestyles, working their assess off to pay off loans and possessions.

 

[lush1]

several years ago i worked in an office. one night i left work to go to my car in the parking garage. as i was walking to my car i saw one of my bosses (mid 40s, married w/ 2 kids) just sitting in his car staring ahead. i stopped walking and watched him. it felt like an hour but for the next few minutes all he did was sit and stare while sitting in his car. i don't know what was going on in his life, as far as i could tell nothing serious as i would have heard, but just watching him do that was a wake up call for what office life does to a man. i wondered what was going through his head as he sat and stared while sitting in his car? thoughts of a shitty homelife? the futility of his existence? how miserable his life had become?

the funny thing was this boss didn´t give off a depressed vibe at work, it took me seeing him in a honest moment to get a glimpse into the sadness of his existence. yea, im glad i no longer work in an office..

Similar thing happened to me the other day at work. Very early before anyone else was in a director bigwig pulled up outside my window in a brand new aston martin. He then spent the next half an hour sat in his motor sobbing uncontrollably, part of it whilst on the phone. I saw the same bloke an hour later in a breakfast meeting holding court with some other corporate schlongs like he didn't have a care in the world.

 

[kenny_powers]

several years ago i worked in an office. one night i left work to go to my car in the parking garage. as i was walking to my car i saw one of my bosses (mid 40s, married w/ 2 kids) just sitting in his car staring ahead. i stopped walking and watched him. it felt like an hour but for the next few minutes all he did was sit and stare while sitting in his car. i don't know what was going on in his life, as far as i could tell nothing serious as i would have heard, but just watching him do that was a wake up call for what office life does to a man. i wondered what was going through his head as he sat and stared while sitting in his car? thoughts of a shitty homelife? the futility of his existence? how miserable his life had become?

the funny thing was this boss didn´t give off a depressed vibe at work, it took me seeing him in a honest moment to get a glimpse into the sadness of his existence. yea, im glad i no longer work in an office..

Similar thing happened to me the other day at work. Very early before anyone else was in a director bigwig pulled up outside my window in a brand new aston martin. He then spent the next half an hour sat in his motor sobbing uncontrollably, part of it whilst on the phone. I saw the same bloke an hour later in a breakfast meeting holding court with some other corporate schlongs like he didn't have a care in the world.

In his defense, we all have our moments when we are down. You have no idea what is going on in his world. Mom died, kid has cancer, all kinds of shit. At least he left his shit in the car and did not bring it to work with him like a lot of women do.