reflective

part of me wants to keep traveling, but a bigger is ready to settle down. a little part of me will always want to be on the road.

i've already made plans to go back to the sublet i was in before i left. i like the guys, and they have my car, tv, and all of my stuff. i'm actually excited to be back in the "dungeon" as i like to call it, since it's a bedroom in the basement, and it'll be nice to sleep in the same bed for more than three nights at a time. i gotta admit that i'm probably most excited about the shower situation ie consistent access to hot water. the guys want a 6 month commitment from me, which i think won't be a problem, but we'll see.

the first thing i'll have to focus on is getting a job. i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this. after all, it’s my jobs that have made me miserable in the past, the last one catalyzing my desire to take a year off to travel. i did an analysis yesterday of my jobs since college:


so the results aren’t good. even my best job, doing venture at sterling, registered a composite of 3.3, which is barely better than “okay”. i want my next job to be at least a 4

i like organizing things into spreadsheets. i’m really good at it. after two years of banging out excel models 90 hours a week while at lehman, i should be. that said, in my next job, i do not want excel, powerpoint, word, or any other microsoft office application to constitute the majority of what i do. i want my next job to be about people, debate, negotiation, etc.

these are requirements for my next job:

no more than 50 hours a week, on average
some travel, but not a ton
something i could be interested in eg video games, not sql server
a team of people that i see and work with consistently, whom i respect and like
interesting day to day work ie not making slides or building models all day
ownership of something; tangible results (this is one of the things that drove me nuts about consulting)
director level, or equivalent
no less than $---k total comp

I hate to put that last one out there, because I’m really not about money. Jesus I don’t even spend it. By my calculations, in my seven years of full time work, I’ve saved more than 80% of my post-tax earnings. I invested all of it. Well not ALL, thank god. I used to be 30% in cash but because of the recession that’s more like 50% now. but I digress

It’s not that I don’t like spending money (well, okay, I don’t) I just don’t think that there’s much to spend it on. I don’t care about clothes or cars. I don’t care about gadgets, cell phones, or anything that most people like. I drive a Honda civic, don’t have an ipod or iphone, and wear old navy jeans until they are shredded. I waited until three years after the razr came out to get one, and this is only because it was the best phone to come with my cell phone plan. It’s still the phone I use. I will spend money on experiences eg travel, scuba diving, snowboarding, skydiving, etc. but really, that’s it. Of course, if I buy a house and motorcycle, my cash position will be much different

Money doesn’t interest me. It’s the fact that I’m good at making money that I’m interested in. money to me is a way of keeping score. By most counts, I’m winning. The more I have, the more I’m winning. But in terms of what money can do – buy stuff – well, I don’t really care much about that. of course I’ve kinda known this about myself since I started making money, but it’s only recently that I fully understood

So min $---K comp is important because it means that I’ll have to swallow a big pay cut if this is what I end up getting. I guess I’m okay with that. but really I feel like I should be compensated fairly. If someone with my background and abilities went on the market for $60K, I’d be fine with that. pay me 60. but the truth is that someone with my experiences and skills gets $---K min, so that’s what I want

If I go into the foreign service, I’ll have to take a massive pay cut because I think people start out there tops at like $70K. but they pay for your housing so most of that is disposable income. And I’d hopefully be in a cool place like berlin or Amsterdam.

I have a friend who says that she has a job for me that pays $200K for forty hours a week, and no more. More hours than this means more pay. I don’t know if this is true or not but even if it means I gotta make slides all day, I could probably do it for a while

after i secure a job, i think i’m going to get this stuff:

a house: i have no idea what i want or am willing to pay. Maybe in the $300K range? I don’t even know what that buys. just know that the housing market is close to a bottom, and according to my friend who just bought in wallingford, there are a lot of good deals around. the obama administration apparently is going to offer an even bigger tax break for first time home buyers. and the seattle market is and will continue to be one of the best markets for the foreseeable future. unless microsoft, amazon, costco, boeing, starbucks, weyerhauser, etc. decide to pick up and leave. so i have to at least think about it. but it’s a big investment. i’ll probably just start with a small 2 bedroom. who knows

a dog: i’ve been thinking a lot about this actually. while i am a big dog guy, i’ve actually warmed to the idea of getting a small dog. like a poodle mix. i just don’t think it would be fair to have a big dog cooped up in an apartment or small house all day. big dogs belong in big yards, i think. i’ll end up just getting whatever’s at the shelter that day anyways. Someday I want a big ol lab

a bike: i’d love to get a ducati or triumph or something classy, but seeing as it will be my first bike, i’ll start with a used, reliable honda or something along those lines. i can’t wait to start riding again though

if i do get all three of these things, my traveling days will officially be over. i don’t mean that i’ll stop taking short trips, and by short i mean a week or less, but it does mean that taking another year off to travel around the world will be an impossibility. but i think i’ll be okay with that. we’ll see. it also means that the foreign service is out. Maybe I should wait to see where it goes before I buy a house

other stuff i’ve promised for myself, when i get back

salsa dancing twice a week
karaoke once a week
cook at least three times a week
gym at least four times a week
snowboarding at least once a week during the season
fishing at least once a month