Even have something happen that is usually considered a bad thing, but for you, it turned out to be a good thing?
For me, it was a year ago, when the plant I worked in closed down. I was stuck in a dead in job I hated, and the only thing that kept me there was that I’d have to take a big pay drop to get a job elsewhere. We got shut down because the work we did (we manufactured printed circuit boards) was being moved to overseas plants. That allowed us to qualify for the Unemployment Trade Act, which either helps you find a job, or, if you don’t have the skills to find a decent job :o, you can get paid for two years of training. So in my next job, I won’t be a dime-a-dozen peon.
So, what about you? Anything happen job wise, relationship wise, anything wise that is usually considered bad, but for you was great?
Oh, yeah, all the time. I’ve gotten to the point of not getting upset about job changes because they usually work out for the best. My current career incarnation started in 2003. I ended up in a crappy job in a city I didn’t really like. I stuck it out for 6 months. I had nothing lined up when that job ended. Almost immediately I started a lengthy interview process with a health care software company. Yessss! I got through a number of interviews and blew the last one. I could have kicked myself. Downhearted I scanned a website a friend got his barely-more-than-McJob job from. I was looking for something to pay the bills until I could get another career-level position. The second to the last posting was for the predecessor to the job I currently hold. Had I gotten the other job, I’d probably be out on the street again instead of steadily working, paying off all my debts and saving money. Double-yessssss! Thanks for reminding me to be grateful for what I have.
Two of the best things that ever happened to me were getting kicked out of schools. Both times, I started off at the school that I thought I really wanted to be at, and wouldn’t have chosen to leave, but which were horrible fits, and ended up at the school which was really the best possible choice.
Every job I’ve ever lost involuntarily (ie, layoffs, company going under, etc) has always resulted in me getting a job that pays significantly better. Same thing for Mr. Athena.
About 15 years ago, I left a reasonably good job for (what I thought was) a better job. About two weeks after I started, I was called in and laid off with two weeks severance and an opps-sorry-about-that lame excuse.
I spent 24 hours being pissed off, then landed the second-best job I have ever had in my life.
I was working at a company that was digitizing flood maps. I was saving for a trip to Europe and thus happy to get the overtime when the Mississippi flooded in 1993.
Me too big time or at least my family does. My great-grandfather was like Warren Buffet. He did well for himself but lived a nice but solidly middle class lifestyle. He just liked the idea of investing for the idea of taking care of the family for generations. He bought many thousands of acres of mineral rights of land in Northern Louisiana. Oil companies hit a giant strike on some of that land recently. No one in the family will tell me how much it is but they did say it is somewhere between $3 million and $60 million (I know, that is impossibly vague). My aunt has set up all of these trusts and companies based on this which are horribly complicated. All they tell me is that my two daughters college educations are now in a trust and that I can ask for money if I need it. Two weeks ago, I decided to try that experiment because they all refused to give me a solid explanation about anything. I asked for 3K for some unexpected expenses. Ta Da, I got the check yesterday with no commentary. $5 a gallon gas is looking pretty good right now. I am sad that it has dropped so much.
I was sold an interest-only ARM mortgage (10 years before the adjust) in 2005. I knew exactly what I was getting in to, I just needed to get out of my current living situation. The deal was that the ARM was going to be cheaper to start off with and basically I was “renting” my house and throwing a bit towards the principle every month. I also made sure to put money down so I had some equity.
So far it’s worked out great for me. I haven’t had any problems with payments and it’s still 7 years before the ARM will adjust. I’ve put almost as much towards the principle on my own as I would have been were it not an interest-only loan - it’s just that I get to put up money as I have it.
And, as planned, my income has gone up so I’ll be able to refinance soon. It’s all cake.
From what I’ve heard, a lot of other people who got ARMs did not have it work out so well for them.
Dropping out of high school. I always say I don’t regret it, but I don’t recommend it either. It’s been a hard slog but my past is probably what was responsible for me getting a full ride to the university of my dreams.
(I just got my diploma a few days ago. I’m still chuffed.)
Being in an abusive relationship. Before I went through all that, I was shy and very non-confrontational. Easily bullied; easily cowed; you get the picture.
When I’d finally had enough and broke away, I learned just how strong and bold I could be. In the following few years, I rebuilt my life and learned that I didn’t have to be afraid of anybody. Now I’m a successful business person and the two kids I raised through those times are vibrant, smart young adults.
I would never be who I am today without having gone through that trauma. Like Queen Bruin, I don’t recommend it but it worked a wonder on me.
Well, in my old job in a clinical molecular lab, every time someone got cancer, it was more job security for us. Yay cancer! On the down side, whenever someone died, we lost a customer, so at least we were rooting for them to go into remission so we could keep testing them every few months.
Thank you. I still remember the post you made in my non-trad student thread, and you are an inspiration to me. The slog is still ongoing, but as I tell my husband once in a while, “Holy shit, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! And it’s not a train!” :eek:
In northern LA, the big strike is almost certainly the Haynesville Shale, and it’s probably not oil, but natural gas that they are producing. If you know what parishes are involved, I can give you a better idea. Do you know if your aunt is leasing to the energy companies or selling the mineral rights outright?
The good news is that since it’s a gas reservoir, the revenue from those wells (and the value of your family’s leases) is tied to the price of natural gas, not oil, definitely not gasoline. Since natural gas generally trades for 1/10th the price of crude, it will take a big fall in commodity prices to make the energy companies not want to lease your family’s minerals.
So don’t feel too bad about the price at the pump. Most likely, you are not making any money off of it. The big offshore oil rights are all federal.
I work in a research center that studies child welfare issues/programs. If we suddenly didn’t need such programs, I guess I wouldn’t have a job right now.
Nasty motorcycle accident. Yet it brought me wife (she was with a mutual friend visiting when I was recovering). It also got me a clean discharge from the Marine Corps, just before the first Gulf War.
I was in a job I felt decidedly “meh” about. But it paid me well. I was there 13 months and was made redundant last June. I was given 4 months pay at a reduced tax rate and I had the best 3 weeks off before starting my new job.
Oh, sure. I’m such a Pollyanna Determinist that I can follow the path of almost anything “negative” to a finial positive. There’s that jerk who broke my heart in college and sent me into a 2 year depression, but without that, my friend never would have dragged me out dancing to the nightclub where I met my husband! Thanks, College Jerk Guy!
More recently was my daughter’s premature birth. Thank goodness, she’s medically fine, but her 3.5 months in the NICU showed me that what I really want to be when I grow up is a nurse, so at 33, I’m applying to Nursing School. I’ve been skirting around the edges of Western Medicine for years, but it wasn’t until I had the extended experience of working next to nurses for that period of time that I realized I wanted to do what they were doing, and that I could handle it.
