I'm really thankful I had a job as a kid. I worked for my Dad - a Carpenter/Contractor, and we were pretty poor too, my folks started with nothing. I learned valuable skills, strong work ethic, developed self reliance/confidenceand and got to spend productive time with my father, who later died at age 50. When the workday ended, home to dinner then out to tend the garden. Always something that needed to be done.
I hear you. My situation was similar. My dad died at 53 when I was 19. No education. Depression era baby, had 7/8 of his family wiped out in the course of about 3 hrs so for me it was my older brother I worked for. He has 8 yrs on me. He went into the wrench twisting business at 22 so I was cheap and easy to be had help lol. No complaints. I learned how to be a mechanic from him, Body work, weld, fabricate etc. Construction, wiring, plumbing. I've been self sufficient all my life. Had no choice. Thankfully I still have my brother in my life. He's still working at 68 but that's how we are. I joked to him that we should end up buried side by side and on his Headstone it should say "Sorry, not here, working" and on mine it should just say "Yeah , me too". Neither of us will ever likely "retire" in the sense of sitting in front of the TeeBee and doing nothing all day. Thats my Father in Law. I feel that has to be the biggest waste of "retirement" time ever. But to each his own. suppose.
I was 27 when dad died. No siblings, a homemaker mom that didn't drive, not uncommon from her era. Trying to talk her into learning was fruitless. I stayed in the area, bought a house a half of a mile away so checking in on her was easy, ran errands, fixed things, etc. Her friends and neighbors took her out often too. Other than that, busted my tail pursuing my career thinking I might die by 50 like my dad. Or 65 like his father. Eventually the demands at work became insane and the potential for the some of the operation to get transferred across country or offshore was looming over me. After many dedicated years at 45, I felt like I had zero job security. I always dreamed of someday developing a piece of land my father had leftover from his 1970s subdivision and decided to risk everything and make it happen. I helped dad build a few of the houses in that subdivision. Lucky me, the abutting piece was a landlocked woodlot and the abutting piece to that was owned by a land company. I bought dad's leftover piece from my mother, bought the woodlot cheap, bought more acreage from the land company and optioned the rest of their parcel for later. I developed the most beautiful premium elevated mountain/lake/pond/sunset view subdivision in the area. It was a huge success. I made a lot of money in that move, and put a crown on my Dad's old subdivision. For me, it was the right move at precisely the right time. My old group was disbanded about 3 years after I left, I would have been screwed If I had stayed and missed the 2002-2008 housing boom - and the job was so all consuming I couldn't do both well. I never tried to go back. Working for oneself and being successful is far more satisfying than working for the man. Developing land was perfect for me. No partners. No employees. Huge upside potential. I had the absolute time of my life managing everything while fulfilling a 16 year dream that no one else had the vision to see.
Congratulations on getting your dream. I'll bet its a nice feeling.
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