Well today is the day I turn 50, I’m still not really sure how that makes me feel, in my opinion it is one of the last ‘milestone birthdays’ where you’re still working and in good health, generally in the years beyond 50 you start to show signs of slowing down, retirement is a consideration for many and trips to the Doctors become (far) more regular.
Today I’m at home, the sun is just starting to crack through the trees and the birds confused about the seasons in Melbourne are busying themselves in my yard. I have a few jobs to do today, a meeting for work (hopefully for lunch) and a website to (start and) finish but I should still have time to spend in reflecting on the significance of the day.
One of the things I have carried with me for many years was the desire to ‘Stop going to work by my 50th Birthday’ this was something that I came to while my Dad was still alive, see Dad worked from home and back in 1975 this would have been a very unusual thing to do. Dad was an Insurance Broker and I learned later in life that even that in itself was not common. Working from home gave Dad the flexibility to see us kids off to school in the mornings, and be around when we got home, he did often have appointments after tea but to a young 12 year old it seemed like an amazing way to work.
So fast forward a few years and I started looking for opportunities that could allow ME to work from home, in fifty years I’ve had a good crack at it but I’m not there yet.
After a long phone call with a good friend today I realised that although I’m not completely happy with where I am in life it’s the journey that is important and the destination will be the same for all of us.
50th Birthday Cake
Milestone Birthdays over the Years
- 02-07-1974 – Living in Melbourne with Mum & Dad, attending Montmorency Primary School. Over the first ten years I have moved from England, attended two different schools and lived in four different houses.
- 02-07-1984 – Living in Melbourne with Mum, working in my own business. Over the second ten years of my life Dad passed away (September 1977), I completed an Apprenticeship as an Auto Electrician, got my drivers license and started to travel around under my own steam, still living in the same (4th) house.
- 02-07-1994 – Living in Melbourne with Mum (again), working for a friend building up a new business that would go on to provide many new opportunities over the next ten years. Over the last ten years I got married, separated, moved to Adelaide, Roxby Downs, Brisbane, back to Melbourne, back to Adelaide and finally back to Melbourne, I have now lived in sixteen or seventeen houses, two caravan parks, a tent and a pub.
- 02-07-2004 – Living in Melbourne with a close friend, (mostly) working from home, involved in the Event Industry. Over the last ten years I have had several different jobs, travelled throughout the country, met some really great people and added another three houses to the list, I still haven’t really worked out where to put down permanent roots but this will change in the next ten years.
- 02-07-2014 – Living in Melbourne, splitting time between my own place and my Girlfriends, although I claim to be a resident of St Marys, running my own business (from home) AND working a fulltime job, learning to build my cabin. Over the last ten years Mum passed away, (May 2006), I got divorced, went back to working a ‘job’ to even out the bumps in my own business started (and dropped out) of a Diploma, learned the value of ‘volunteering’ and finally bought a bush block in Tasmania as a place to retire too. House total twenty, Car total fifteen (that I can remember), eleven company cars, fifteen jobs, eight businesses and almost eligible for (pro-rata) long service leave !