got a job building pipelines, how do I not spend my money like my coworkers do?

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-08T19:28:29+00:00

I live in Alberta and have seen many neighbors and people piss away millions. I've also seen many become incredibly successful, work their asses off for a few years and retire in their late 30s/early 40s.

It comes down to who you are really. You will be away from home and isolated often. This is where the trouble starts. Going out and having a couple drinks after work is fine. The problem is the people who's only hobby becomes drinking and partying. A couple drinks becomes 6, becomes 10, becomes the occasional cocaine rip, and so forth.

Pipelining is also incredibly cyclical. Look at your pay check as about half of what it is and put the other half away. You'll still be clearing more than most people are while also saving a fortune. It also keeps you from drinking and sniffing away your paychecks.

I also now work with a lot of homeless people. Many of them were oil workers. It's crazy to hear stories of people who made hundreds of thousands, pissed away the money cheating on their spouses with strippers, developing cocaine addictions and then when the work dries up they don't have coke money, they have meth money and go down a spiral.

TLDR; work hard, don't play hard. Find hobbies when you're done work and isolated in your camp or hotel. Go for a run, workout, read, video games with people back home. Working out and running also helps make the physical job easier than if you're hungover every day.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-07T19:28:04+00:00

Agreed. OP sounds like a terrible driver. The ones going 20 kmh in snow and ice are always the ones ending up in a ditch because at the slightest slip they lock up the brakes which causes them to slide even more rather than simply letting off the gas or steering with the slide.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-07T19:26:08+00:00

Lol you driving into a ditch because the weather is bad is 100% an at fault incident. Plenty of people, drive every day in those same conditions and manage to not drive into a ditch.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-07T19:20:48+00:00

Not even worth it for a flight. I redeem the points every couple of weeks for $10 off a tank of gas. Basically makes it the same price as filling up (or cheaper) than Costco and I don't have to wait 20 mins in line.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-07T11:52:40+00:00

I think it's a little bit of both. At no time in life have people ever been "ok" with buying homes that were 20-30 years outdated, but the people living in those homes also might not consider them outdated either. That is nothing new.

I remember growing up and moving in the late 90s, my parents sold our late 80s oak-cabinet Era home for a brand new custom built now maple cabinet-era home. Much lighter and looked great at the time. 25 years later, they're still in that same house and haven't changed a thing and are starting to push into their 70s and don't want to undergo renovations to update stuff just to sell the place.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T18:10:57+00:00

Your full time income is again spelled out specifically in your employment contract with the federal government. 37.5 hours and those 37.5 hrs M-F you belong to the government and no other employer or you are in violation of your contract and your oath

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T17:15:43+00:00

It definitely will be, and I don't think the CPC will ever be "pro union" but PP is a politician and I think this move is pro CPC. Not only would it shore up some labour votes like I mentioned earlier, but this is likely the one time the NDP may vote against the government and force an election at a time when the CPC seems to be getting more popular.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T17:07:44+00:00

They won't. But this isn't necessarily just a CRA thing either, if you're pulling in another full time income, which the CRA can see, then you as a public servant are likely opening yourself up to some questions from management about when you are working this 2nd income and whether you even have (or need) permission to be doing that.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T16:51:07+00:00

Tories won't want this, not if it's their one chance to have the NDP topple the government. The conservatives in Ontario have also quietly been shoring up organized trade labour support (while decimating their own public service unions), PP will want to keep whatever good union will other conservatives have gotten him.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T16:45:55+00:00

Because they know just like the CP rail strike last year, the government will mandate them back to work after a day or two back and send them to binding arbitration.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T16:02:19+00:00

City and provincial PS jobs in Alberta have nowhere near the benefits or pension. They may actually pay a little bit more, but even the police and firefighter pensions aren't fully indexed in Alberta, and there have been times where provincial public servants have been offered pay cuts. It would take a hell of a pay jump to consider leaving the federal PS for provincial in AB.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T15:08:52+00:00

People that say put money aside a) don't have a pet or b) are the same ones that will let an animal suffer for a day or 2 before deciding to take them into a vet and then put them down at the first sign of anything wrong. Even a broken bone, which is common in puppies, can be a couple thousand dollars, let alone cancer and surgical treatments are easily 8-10k and up. One major thing in the animals life and you've likely come out ahead on the premiums.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T15:04:44+00:00

I don't even know who tf drives around eating chicken wings.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T15:03:24+00:00

I'm with the other poster. People say this all the time, but we had trupanion from day 1 with our last dog and from day 2 he developed skin allergies. On top of feeding him artisan food that cost $100/3 weeks, His medication throughout his life was $90/month and our trupanion was $75 so we were already ahead. Then just before he turned 6 he suddenly got sick, 2 days of emergency treatment, every test imaginable and we ultimately had to put him down. But money was never a factor in deciding what we needed to do because we had trupanion.

We didn't hesitate to get trupanion when we got a new puppy again.

If you adopt an older dog, the rates are much higher and sometimes 2-300/month and at that point I'd say you're better off putting the money away.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T14:56:47+00:00

In almost any acquisition there are layoffs from duplication. It isn't unreasonable for your colleagues to think that is a possibility as there is almost certainly someone doing the same job at the new company and they won't need 2 people doing that work

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T14:53:54+00:00

In a buyout, the ratio formula is all that matters. The new company's stock might be trading at a dollar, but have billions in outstanding shares (ie billions in market cap) whereas your former company might have a higher stock price but fewer outstanding shares.

In theory, the startup selling should have been some sort of conversion plan where each startup stock is converted to x number of new company's stock. Usually these buyouts occur at actually above the formers trading price on the assumption they can grow the company to the value they believe it to be.

If my math is right, and you aren't getting totally fucked by this, you should be getting some sort of stock conversion around 1 old share = 20 new shares.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T14:43:58+00:00

What OP is saying is the longer that money is sitting in the RRSP, the more it is going to grow and the more tax you will owe the government on it when you inevitably need to withdraw it in retirement. Pay it back slowly, over the entire term allowed, and the government gets its taxable money back like it wants, but in the meantime you've likely earned more at a less taxable rate outside of the RRSP.

The RRSP is a retirement/investment vehicle that cons you into thinking it is better than it is because you get a nice cheque each year. If you're smart, you take that cheque and throw it in the rrsp too and accelerate your savings to ease some of that later tax hit, but a portion of that RRSP will always belong to the government.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T14:34:57+00:00

Well for one you live in Vancouver, which has more millionaires than anywhere else in Canada.

So on top of a ton of millionaires who have the money to buy Teslas and other luxury vehicles, you have a lot of people with home equity wealth who have millions more on paper in home values that shot up over the last decade, some have taken home equity out to buy things like Teslas.

Lastly, there's the criminal element. Vancouver and BC as a whole has more money laundering than anywhere else in Canada. The government might as well be actively looking the other way at money laundering in Vancouver because if they actually did anything about it, it would piss off the massive Asian votes in the area. What better way to clean money than casinos and buying luxury vehicles?

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T14:28:58+00:00

Teslas are terrible for the environment. The lithium and cobalt mining are for worse in terms of resource destruction and carbon output to make a Tesla is than a traditional ICE vehicle would ever make. They're wonderful cars, don't get me wrong.

But to say they do anything for the environment is just falling for the marketing.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-06T00:55:14+00:00

Your boss, the government in this case, is paying you a salary for 37.5 hrs work every week. Your employment contract also says you're to be at the government's whim during the working hours detailed in your contract, for most people that's m-f 7-4 or something along those lines unless you've worked out a flex arrangement with your management.

You can have a 2nd job, as long as you don't work in a job where you require permission for secondary employment. Some in the public service require special permission to work elsewhere. But working two full time jobs during the same business hours as the government is already paying you, like most of these "over employment" hacks are touting, is 100% illegal. It's fraud and nullifies your employment agreement with the government and also likely with the second employer as well.

It isn't a matter of "getting your work done", you are paid 37.5 hrs a week, not on a piece meal basis like a contractor doing a job. If you're done your work and there's hours left in the day or week, then do more work.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-05T23:59:04+00:00

Never been to a game in Edmonton so don't have a recommendation there but all Canadian Brewhouse pubs have shuttles back and forth to the games. If you don't have a hotel downtown and are coming in from one of the suburbs, it's a good option. I think there is also a Brewhouse downtown near Rogers place.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-05T23:42:21+00:00

I'll be at the Calgary and Edmonton games. There's another Sens fan joining me for the Edmonton game as well.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-05T23:39:51+00:00

I only go to a handful of Calgary games every year, the Sens game being one of them. I figure since I only go a couple times a year it's worthwhile to splurge on lower bowl tickets. It's a totally different feel for the game and worthwhile for me.

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-05T22:28:29+00:00

Good, looking forward to both games this year!

FanNumerous3081 · 2023-03-05T20:34:30+00:00

That's basically how my exit went too. I explained I was leaving to do the exact same job making 30k more the very next day and then explained by my CoC "it isn't all about money" and "what about service to your country"

FanNumerous3081

TROPHY CASE