Ex-lawyer

Say hello!!
Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Thanks mate. Do give it a try.

Did
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Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:50 am

Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

A quick update.

Summer is almost over. I guess technically it is. The leaves are changing colour or dying. There is a crispness to the air that wasn't five weeks ago. Winter, as they say, is coming.

Nonetheless the weather remains pleasant. No complaints there. We were extremely pleased to see the last of our visitors: we entertained various guests for over 100 days over summer. It was way too much. At times I wondered how it had come to this. I guess it speaks to the lovely circumstance we find ourselves in that so many want to come so far for so long.

Next year they will not.

We celebrated our freedom with a stroll in our town: it's famous for its medieval streets. We were blissful really, until I slipped like a buffoon and broke my arm. What a bitch that was, and is. Our freedom was short lived.

Mentally I have naturally struggled with the discomfort and day to day life of being one armed. For the first couple of nights I could not sleep for the pain. A week in and things had improved until I jerked my arm when a large rat trap I was setting went off. It really is a two armed exercise. Yes, we have rats in the attic. I'm grateful they waited until we started sleeping downstairs to reveal themselves. Little fuckers.

I had a brainwave and asked my one client for unpaid work experience as a programmer. Radical change for a one time legal bigwig but I'm keen to improve my berry picking skills doing something that is transportable and useful. Anyway he has agreed and I'm quite excited about it, even though the technology isn't exactly trendy. I see it is a bridge to obtaining a skill set that facilitates vagabonding and remote working. I'm happy to take a long term approach with it.

My brewing has been on hold with the arm business. I have sixty something litres of beer and wine under my kitchen table that needs bottling.

With any luck the client will follow through with the work experience opportunity.

FBeyer
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by FBeyer »

Learning to program, any language, is a good idea. The more languages you know, the easier it becomes to learn a new language.
Of course you can develop some malpractice like, say, writing FØRTRAN programs no matter what language you are working with, but that is somewhat besides the point.

If you have the inclination to do so, learning ANY language is good, even if it's not highly marketable right now. The ABILITY to learn programming languages, however, seems to be.

Have fun. It's all just legos in a serious context.

Did
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Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:50 am

Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

@fb Thanks! Enjoyed it as a young fella and it's just going to be a bit of fun now almost twenty yeArs later. If not I'll try something else.

Cornerman
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Cornerman »

Programming is fun, and can help a lot as it is an in demand skill. Getting your feet wet again is a good start.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Thanks Cornerman. My work experience should start this week. Sleeping with a broken arm put my back in spasm, which was worse than the broken arm. I was in pretty terrible pain one way or the other for about a month. My back was so locked I couldn't move more than an inch after waking (eg to turn or try and get up). It was agony, as people with back experience can attest. Anyway thanks to drugs and time I think I'm on the mend now.

Cornerman
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Cornerman »

Broken arm is nasty while sleeping, hope you will feel better soon. How is the work experience going ?

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Thanks Cornerman. I am. Work experience was slow to start, but have had 2 sessions with main man on skype and spent Sunday doing some coding for the first time in lifetime getting used to syntax and concepts again. Implemented a beer stack to play with pointers and virtual functions.

ShriekingFeralHatred
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by ShriekingFeralHatred »

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Last edited by ShriekingFeralHatred on Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Thanks SFH. Life's too short.

Just this morning I read this post from a fellow wanderer : http://www.hecktictravels.com/behind-th ... hen-cancer.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

We decided to get back into the housesitting. People email us now, and we take our pick. We are currently in a large home in Doolin, just near the castle like building you see if you google the village. Great trad music in the pubs. Thatched cottages. Old farmers you can't understand. Walks. Proximity to the Burren. It's a wonderful spot.

Off to Dublin for a week long sit in a few weeks, then another break then off to Poland to visit a mate. He's got a flash pad in the middle of Warsaw. I've never been, so I'm really looking forward to it. We are going for 2.5 weeks (our tickets cost A$180). They say things are cheaper here so I will report back on that.

The work experience has not really progressed. The boss is on board but his main programmer is a bit of a bumbling dickhead, and, I suspect, would struggle to arrange a piss up in a brewery. I have not given up hope altogether, but things need to move soon or I will look to something else.

Not sure if I mentioned but I've started all grain brewing finally. My first batch tasted like real beer! Far, far better than the extract crap. And far more rewarding. So I'm keeping my little brewery ticking over with beer and wine.

It could well become a bit of an obsession.

We have been thinking about chickens. My concern of course is travel/being tied down, but I'm not doing a whole lot in the next year as I wait out the citizenship criteria. It might be fun for a while, as we do enjoy fresh eggs.

The young dog we fostered over XMas was in the end a bit of a nightmare. He had some sort of shitting condition and we had to take him out all day and night and he had many accidents. He was a full time obligation, and we got a little taste of the sort of sleep deprivation new parents must endure. I was pleased to see the back of him, although at his best moments he was adorable.

Thecoalminerswife
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Location: Newcastle, Australia

Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Thecoalminerswife »

Hi Did,
Just a quick message to let you know that my husband intends to resign from his "last" full-time job at the end of this month. Yay:)) Since that winter's day in the beautiful Central West of NSW, when I read him your blog while he was cooking lunch, we've spoken seriously about how the future might look. I did the numbers, the superannuation bloke confirmed we were "ready to go" and DH drove it from there. No sure when he will finish up but we think it will be mid-year. I'm hoping that he will have a good break - he's burned out, to say the least. But I also hope that he dips his toes in and out of work in the industry that he loves (I know, my green credentials went down the toilet when I married him). I feel like even if he still works some of the time during the next five or so years he'll be happier than he's been for a while. I've talked to him at length about some of the challenges he might face - issues of identity and what to do with his time (never having had enough time to concentrate of hobbies and interests). All he knows is that he is never going to take a permanent, full-time job ever again - and he's happy about it !!
Again, thank you for the (not insignificant) part to you played. I hope all goes well with you.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Hello CMW that's exciting and wonderful news. Congratulations to you both. Recovering from burnout can take a while. Be kind to yourselves.

I'm pleased you found something in my ramblings. Everyone's path is different but it's natural to seek some comfort from the path of others. Jacob and Tim Ferris helped me.

I'm still well. We are in Poland at the moment for a few weeks.

dropoutretire
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by dropoutretire »

Did wrote:Hey there

Long time skeptic and lurker. I found myself drawn back and back to Jacob's work here and in his book.

I am 39 and worked in the law pretty much to this point. I also have a programming degree, which could be brushed off if need be, although it was a long time ago.

Law was putrid, as many ex-lawyers will tell you. I was on a lot of money, in the end, but it was a terrible cost to my health and soul. I lost fitness and gained a lot of weight. I think I got depressed from the tedium and stress of it all, as well as the truly horrific characters I worked with.

Finally, under enormous pressure, I threw in the towel 6 months ago. It was extremely stressful. Including my investment in the business, I had 1.8 million dollars in debt. I sold everything except for my dream house, and discovered that I owned that (valued at 500k - Australia is expensive!) and had 40k or so left over.

I was pretty messed up by the last 12 months or so at work. It was truly awful. Rather than get another job, which I could do easily, I'm taking time out, and have been living off savings. Recently I've been encouraged to think of myself as retired, just so long as I live off less than I can rent my house out for (15-20k say after expenses). I am in the process now of putting my house out to rent.

I've convinced my girl to quit her job. We are going to travel around Australia in a small van living off some final savings (selling our cars), and then relocate to a low cost country (Thailand perhaps) to live off the rent. Even though I am thinking of myself as 'retired', I plan on doing more fun internet based work to build up the passive income to increase my ability to be retired in more expensive places, and indeed return to my paradise house, and even have children.

So far, no regrets chucking in my massive job. Not going to work is awesome.

Just wanted to say g'day and share my experiences.

ps - currently living in gf's dad's granny flat prior to going on my trip. many at work would have thought this impossible from a status/ego perspective, but it's not bad, and much better than working!!!
Wow great read ! I once knew an attorney and I called him and they way that he answers the phone he sounds so paranoid and I'm guessing because of the amount of people that he would piss off in his profession. I am so glad looking back that I dropped out of school when I was soooooooo young and just simply went to work at mindless jobs for a meager wage and invested in rental houses on the side and retired at 39. Looking back I had a pretty stress free life. :)

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

Sounds like a better way to do it if you can. Couldn't do that in Aus now in RE - too overvalued.

Did
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Joined: Mon Apr 01, 2013 7:50 am

Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

We spent 2.5 weeks in Poland. A couple of observations. One, even though you can double your consumption for the same cash if you like the inner city lifestyle (not a bad multiplier), I think you can live cheaper and healthier if you just cook smart at home (relative to Irish costs).

Second, a comment our guide at Auschwitz made: the social ranking of the prisoners in general terms was the opposite of that from the outside world. By this he meant the top rung of society tended to be at the bottom of the pile, and die the fastest.

His reasoning was that such people (academics, lawyers etc) tended to have had a soft life, without having to fight to survive, and also, in concentration camp terms, had no useful skills.

People who fought to survive day to day in pre-war Poland were slightly better prepared.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

My programming mentor/contact in my client's organisation turned out to be hopeless, and although he gave me about 10 1-1 sessions on how he sees the world, he never gave me any tasks and the whole thing fizzled out. Shame !!! If anyone out there is genuine and wants a free work experience guy in a relevant language let me know.

Jake9870
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Location: Under the Great White North

Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Jake9870 »

Did,

Great story, currently figuring out mine.. I love that you guys are able to travel so much without breaking the bank. That's always been my plan, but my SO was very worried about not having a place to call home. I think a home base like you all have (paid for in cash and can be rented out as an asset) would be an excellent middle ground.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

@Jake9870 Thanks! We do travel quite a bit and hope to do so more once I get my Irish passport next year (touch wood). We have just spent another week in Doolin (housesitting), and have another sit in Dublin for a few days over easter (same). We have cut down the housesitting you could seriously do loads and loads of it. Locally though we just want to pick the best as we have our cottage so there needs to be a reason.

Also going to look at houseswapping down the track.

Still would like to increase the cash. Sound like a broken record on this front. Latest plan is to try and learn Java for android apps. Want to maintain location independence with employment even though the easiest thing would be to run off and get a job somewhere in an office.

Did
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Re: Ex-lawyer

Post by Did »

I should mention in Doolin we met a French fellow who rents a home there and makes a living playing poker online ! He's in his 30s.

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