You have a point there. But it depends on HOW MUCH beer, girls, sex, roof, bikes and girls you want.

Let's see, eliminate beer, girls and sex, and substitute tent for roof, and you've got yourself a happy touring cyclist. :D

But was it all the money that made you stress free and happy? What would have happened if the money was half or a quarter of what it was?

The real question about money vs career is this ...

Are you working for a living? Or are you dying for a living?

A couple of the higher paying jobs I had in the IT business were so stressful that had I stayed on course I would probably already have had a heart attack by now. My blood pressure was through the roof and I was definitely headed toward an early grave. I'd rather get by on less moolah and have my health.

Just my $0.02.

Edit: if I were to win a lottery tomorrow I'd never entertain the idea of working for "the man" again! No friggin' way.

I suppose I deserve the gender confusion because of my previous gaffe.

But just to make sure, Mert old boy, I'm male.

It's only because some idiot actress named her baby girl Rowan that this gender confusion has emerged. Never had it before.

By the way, boredom can kill any job, money or not. It usually results in what's called here in Australia, a "seachange". Done it myself. Have a look at all the touring cyclists who have stepped outside the restrictive walls of wealth to see the world.

BLASPHEMY!!!

And you do? Hmmmm.... entertaining thought.

Honestly, I'm surprised they paid me at all. It was one of those, "hey we have money left over on our budget and if we don't use it we lose it, let's hire someone to sit around" government deals.
I would've done it for half the price. For the amount of work involved and the level of fun, I would've done it for half the price. But since they offered me so much, I'm no idiot, I didn't turn it down.

Good lord... that's brutal...

Exactly my point. I LIKED what I did and they paid me a lot more to do nothing than they would someone to do something for 8 hours a day. Of course that's very hard for some people to understand.

Of course you could always lose your sense of balance.. that would probably suck worse.

Ach. I hate this debate because I played it out for so long. Couriered for 8 long years and loved most of it. It really does change the kind of worker you are. One of my old messenger friends gave some funny advice to a new messenger once. He said, "you better decide today whether or not you like this job. If you do, should quit immediately." Funny how many of my friends left couriering for "real" jobs, then went back to couriering. I left and don't think I'll go back because I grew to hate, I mean really really hate envelopes.

Incidentally, I made more as a courier 5 years ago than I do now as a teacher. Of course, now I get my summers off...

Fair enough <still shakes head in amazement then realises: Government money!>

[QUOTE=lauren]
Be careful, you may get what you wish for!

imho, its better to focus on efficiency and getting things done than to spend huge amounts of time on stuff. I learned that the hard way in grad school. Better to save your energy for an occasional 80 hour crunch mode and work the balance of the time at an easy sustainable rate like 40-50 hr/week.

I doubt messengers even make 35K. In fact, a job that pays 25K and provides health insurance and a 401K is better off in the end. I look at those poor messengers during this past winter when the temperatures were below zero degrees and really felt sorry for those guys.

Also keep in mind that's he's still paying for his education and throwing it out the door!

Tis true.

Money's all that matters.

I am heading that way myself. Woo hoo!