I have a (younger) acquaintance who is in the will-do-anything*-for-money stage. Join this committee? Is it paid--heck yes. Work overtime? Absolutely. And so on. Thing is, it seems like it goes a little far at times--pretend I did more work than is reasonable and expect to get paid for it? Yep.
I was commenting on this to a mutual acquaintance, musing on why you would try to pull that (I don't think it's something they would get fired for, but it seems clearly dishonest. Enough so that you'd be likely to get called out for it.) She pointed out that we were all that young once. We didn't make any money before.
Which...kinda.
I mean, I make a decent wage, but you don't often hear of a teacher-millionaire. I make sure to spend my money wisely (and never more than I have) and I was lucky enough to graduate--twice--without significant loans.
I assume at least one of these things is not the truth for this acquaintance. And I'm sorry for that. Clearly the pressure he feels for income compels him to work ten hour days 2-3 days a week. It really makes me proud of my decisions that give me the freedom to turn things down. Extra money is nice, but because I don't have that pressure of need, I can consider what I really want. Time or money? It's good to be able to choose time.
And, as kind of a post-script, after two recent bills and a talk with a friend, I realize I've completely messed up my property taxes (I honestly thought I HAD a homeowners exemption. I don't.) And paying $300 extra each month? Not fun. And an extra $1,320 to make up the difference? Ugh. But I can. And I will. (And she says when I fix my mistake I get the extra money back, which makes me feel much, much better).
*Ok, not anything-anything, but anything at work.
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