Mid-life Crisis may be ?

[LondonManc]

And this is it. If you're this age and have a wife and kids, your responsibilities and liabilities will become the crushing factor to your dreams. On the bright side, they (the kids anyway) are the reason for my happiness and joy each time I come home knackered in the evenings. So it's OK.

I'm also sick of IT. I mean, I love computers etc but the game has changed too much since I started and it's all about cheap offshoring and cost cutting rather than greenfield projects and growth, and frankly I can't (don't want to) keep up with the skillset changes. I've had enough.

I've spent the past 10 years contracting and have always viewed it as a bonus in my working life. I have invested most of my earnings as far as possible, which will give me the opportunity to step back, take time out and review my life plan when my current (final) contract ends this year. My investments will pay for the family upkeep in the meantime, allowing me to focus on what I should do with the rest of my life.

A pension wouldn't have allowed that because I would have had to wait until 55 to sit back, hence I don't have a pension.

So if you're feeling like you want to 'quit', engineer a way out of the game, out of the rat race. Only you (and your wife) can do this - no one else can do it for you. It's not easy and it will take years, but the sooner you start, the better.

Good luck buddy.

Far too sensible advice for General. You make me sick.

[BlasterBates]

Day Trading

I'll let you know in 90 days whether it works.... the experiment is underway,

[WTFH]

Buy an Alfa.

[ChimpMaster]

Day Trading

I'll let you know in 90 days whether it works.... the experiment is underway,

Day trading put my investment plan back around 4 years and put me through hell. I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Your chances of success are minimal: Vegas isn't so glitzy because customers are successful - it's the same for Spreadbetting/CFD firms.

Don't do it, unless you have the capability to avoid the gambler mentality and can also stick to small (non-life-threatening) monetary value trades. Even then, just don't do it.

[DimPrawn]

Day trading put my investment plan back around 4 years and put me through hell. I lost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Your chances of success are minimal: Vegas isn't so glitzy because customers are successful - it's the same for Spreadbetting/CFD firms.

Don't do it, unless you have the capability to avoid the gambler mentality and can also stick to small (non-life-threatening) monetary value trades. Even then, just don't do it.

Where are all the customer's yachts? comes to mind.....

I don't feel so bad now, I only lost about £70K trading....compared to divorce it was pretty much a free learning exercise.

[BlasterBates]

Basically I'm trading small contract sizes, daily fluctuation around 100 quid on my portfolio.

If I make 400, I'll raise the stakes to 200 quid and so on.

If it doesn't work out I'll close some contracts or just get out completely.

I'm more interested in learning whether it's possible to make a consistent profit, rather than go for mega-bucks.

Budgeted for a few hundred loss

[CloudWalker]

Agree, take some time off, infact go to Thailand, you'll have a blast!" ....... to soon?

[ELBBUBKUNPS]

Thanks for replies, yeah think I need sometime out, I've worked flat out since graduating never had more than 2 weeks off on the trot in last 17 years, project I'm on now been dragging 11 months in should of taken 6 max the joys of all dev been offshored.

Working on the plan B but misses not to happy about escorting lol she would earn good money. As for trading seems we all had same experience I'm currently about 20k down.

[BrilloPad]

Plan B for me, or a trip to Beachy Head. Either way.

Do you want the petrol money?

[AsISeeIt]

IT Contractor since early 2000's and approaching 40 also....

I became less and less interested in IT as the contracts flew by. I had/have no interesting in learning the latest technology or becoming a pigeon-hole specialist in one aspect of tech which would only be around for 6 months before undergoing umpteen upgrades (read Citrix (in all its various unknown flavours these days) or the lastest version of vSphere vWhatever), making your existing certs and experience irrelevant. Each contract renewal felt like "the last role of the dice" but still allowed me to make hay whilst the sun shone...

I gave up IT a few months ago (the final catalyst eventually was a life altering experience in the Family Courts...) and currently in "a transitional phase" to a new "career" (that word just sounds wrong, I should say "to using my time more productively" sounds better). Apart from no longer enjoying IT I did come to some conclusions ...

1. If you have anything at all of value, someone will want it. Most likely a/an (ex-)wife, mother of your child/ren, HMRC, the government in general, or simply another form of theft (such as Capital Controls the likes of Cyprus taking everything over 100K and almost happened in Greece recently) or simply conned out of it when you get really old.

2. Having it also makes you loose it in failed Plan B's - day trading, property deals, startup's with other IT contractors, stock market etc etc. If by some chance these actually make you money (never enough to stop working) it does leave a pretty big paper trail meaning you will loose it when the thief (in whatever form from number 1) above inevitably comes along. If your very unlucky, anything you "made" would also be extrapolated out by a Family Court Judge in calculating your "earning potential", further reducing what you have or will earn in the future (and this can and does happen to anyone, don't think your safe!)

3. Your war chest and any property you have will also deplete quite rapidly in "professional fees" when the lawyers see what you have or you engage "professionals" to assist you in matters you feel you need professional help for... such as APN's or divorce etc or setting up your own business (see point 2 above). Fees and expenses will always rise to meet your income and assets.

I could go on (and maybe I will if anyone actually finds this interesting) but to focus on giving up IT:

I no longer had interest or the time to continually learn the latest bells and whistles of continuously upgraded products (and the subsequent ongoing migration of everything into virtual cloud infrastructure) making IT a service and effectively forcing you to use your knowledge to provide and support IT for dummies. I also found what I did know was quickly becoming useless and the time, money, years of experience gained in IT working on old tech (Windows 2003 and related products) increasingly counts for nothing. It seems all the younger (early 20's) people just seem born with the likes of powershell experience and are quite happy to live and breath the bleeding edge of (new) tech.... I would say after 30 you realise there is more to life (?) - and those with responsibilities i.e. marriage and kids have already said as much in other posts here.

I also began detesting going to work to sit in front of a computer screen all day, every day, getting fat.

If you are married with kids in school and/or need x,000 pounds a month "just to meet the necessary outgoings", I don't envy you on your post-IT journey. I don't think there is a quick get-out, everyone needs their own tailored plan.

In my particular solution/thinking - to exit IT I looked to reduce my outgoing to the bare minimum. The less monthly outgoings you have the less income you need to cover your expenses. At the same time I looked to ensure I had sufficient security (war chest) to cover these expenses for at least 2 years and I also made sure it would be neigh on impossible for this war chest to be "stolen" - see point 1 above. This is not an overnight exercise, your warchest is NOT secure if it shows up like a sore thumb from any paper trail audit (such as your last 12 months of bank statements).

I then took a permanent job - I didn't really care what it paid - as long as it was convenient and covered my expenses (without needing the war-chest).

i.e. if your divorced or otherwise have a large chunk of your income "re-purposed" against your wishes every month, changing from contracting to a perm job can save you a bucket-load backed up by a number of good reasons - outdated skills / job security / getting too old etc etc). A perm job can cover your (reduced) outgoings and you get used to living on a reduced income. If your lucky you can get some "paid for" training in an area which interests you or additional skills you may need later at someone else's expense. A perm job also keeps you in the "system" you keep having all the nice payslips, HMRC tax codes, pension payments and everything you need to get by. It also pays for unemployment when you no longer have your job just by showing your last stack of payslips (without the hassle of 2 years accounts and an undeniable paper-trail of high-worth assets).

I personally came into a bit a luck from my permie role (which never would have happened in contracting land). Due to my permie-world reduced income, I was able to move into "more affordable" housing. If you live a 6-bed cottage paying a hefty mortgage this isn't for you, but if you just look at it like needing a half-decent roof over your head, you can save a lot by relocating / downsizing to what will cover your basic requirements. Luckily I was then made redundant - with a sizeable payout, couldn't have been happier, and now I am in paid-for training which will lead to doing what I want to do.

So... I had a bit of luck in the mix and I had to have a long hard think about what I wanted to do. What I could actually do outside of IT - this was the hardest part! I decided a bit of my own business (turning an existing hobby into something that would bring in SOME income) along with a mix of a part-time job (even stacking shelves for 10 hours a week at Tesco keeps you in the system) - leaving the rest of your TIME free to do whatever you want with it (which is not working for an investment bank 60+ hours a week to pay for the the trophy wife, keep her in her lifestyle, paying for a 6 bed cottage until 70 years old to make something up as an example). Its just about covering your expenses and paying for what you decide you want out of life (i.e. holiday abroad twice a year, x meals out a week, this, that etc - simply an excel exercise to show you what you need and then a plan to get there).

I also made a realisation doing what I want to do is unlikely to bring in the amount of cash contracting does, but it will bring in enough and it lets me be free of IT doing what I want and if done correctly provides you all the security you need to cover the bills. If money is your goal in life and you just want all you can get ... keep in IT until IT (or the thief from point 1) sends you to your early grave...

Thanks for reading. Hope it was helpful.