30m looking for advice

riverwood

New member
I’d love some advice. I’m 30 years old, married no kids. I’m currently in sales, I make over 100k a year. However it’s outside sales, it’s heavy travel in my car day to day, lots of gas. My boss currently has been a nightmare to deal with.

I’ve got a background in entrepreneurship in the construction space. I’ve ran a roofing business in my past.

My wife is a dance teacher, she doesn’t make a whole lot of money but she has enough for her day to day spending.

I switch from roofing to sales because my body was sore, and I was tired of trying of picking up my employees etc. I’ve been selling for approx 8 months and I’m worried I’ve made a mistake. This is the first time in the last few years that I am living paycheque to paycheque. I have some credit card debt, a mortgage, property taxes etc. and I’m currently making 100-140k a year (depends how the next 4 months go) and I’m struggling to save at the end of the week.

I miss cashing cheques every-other day, I miss the freedom of not having a boss. I’m getting nervous about the Economy and the reality of sales in that environment. However I don’t want to get into exterior construction again. I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions?
 
@613jono Honestly. That was my first thought but I’ve started to track every expense and I just can’t seem to save. I think the problem is it’s so feast or famine. When I went through busy season I had been slow on work for a few weeks so I took a few big pays to catch up and now That it’s slower I’m just struggling to make it happen.
 
@riverwood Run the numbers go back and account for every cent you've spent each month for the last 3 months. figure what is a need and a want. Figure out the minimum you can strictly live off of.

Have your deposit account, that one you never pay with, that is your reservoir. Have two other accounts, one for regular cost bills, and another for incidentals.

Being feast or famine, your pay is not your funds, it is a reserve to get you through the famines. With iteration, adjust and thrive. Ide guess a good portion goes to eating out, (always is).

If you lack discipline, you can make it up by removing the option to be frivolous.
 
@riverwood I'm not here to judge about your spending, but if you're making over $100,000/year and have no kids, then you can definitely save. If you can't find an area in which you could reign in your spending, then you need to give serious thought to why your minimum living expenses are so high. You should be able to live on half that income. I'm living on less than a third of that right now. You may have a "keeping up with the Joneses" issue, or would feel ashamed if you lived on less.

I'm not sure what to tell you about where to go with your occupation. Did it seem like it would have ever been possible to hire a production manager for the roofing business and shift into an office role? It can take a while to get the right help and work volume to justify a production manager, but it could be worthwhile once you get there. You could also change the trade to some inside work, like tile setting or bathroom/kitchen remodeling.

Is your biggest complaint about the sales job mostly about the money or the work? If it's the money, the decision would really depend on the ROI of a particular business plan. If it's the work, just scroll some job ads for inspiration, maybe that will inspire you to start a business or change fields in something that actually excites you. Good luck!
 
@riverwood I’d move into sales management or similar. If you’re this concerned you should be hunting a salary position, not striking out on your own - which is 10x riskier than working for an established company.
 

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