Help sort me out!

[NoMoMoney]

Looking for advice from some of you successful and aspiring individuals on MMM.

I'll break it down.

I'm nearly 24. Dreadful time in school(made no effort, bereavements & sickness and woeful school), I flunked, kicked out. Studied business, switched to 'numbers'; accounting. Went corporate life, hated it instantly, quit after 2 years.

Now i'm in between, working with my hands & getting a carpentry qualification. I have no money to my name and no car and i'm earning a small amount but still at home so able to save some.

My grandiose plan is to get my qual whilst knuckling down for 2 years working to save circa 20k(GBP) Then take mini-retirements 2-3 months a year then work for a year in a fixed location(NZ, Aus, Can, Edinburgh) rinse & repeat. Ideally working carpentry/landscape jobs and when in the UK running survival weekends for fathers & sons.
I've no experience to call on for a career as yet. I'm at the start line.
I'm good with my hands, spent the past 5 years learning about mental health and wellbeing, love being outdoors and I am confident in talking with anyone.

The only thing I will not do is work at an office again.

Can any of you provide me with advice to set my life in perfect order? I see the figures being earned on this forum and never see myself being near them on my current trajectory.

[NoMoMoney]

Or point me in the right direction on here. Thanks all.

[LennStar]

Most of the figures here are high-paid work and in the US. Not comparable to UK or even "socialist" continent EU.

Sorry, not my line of work, but why the mini-retirements? And why going round the world?
Maybe the answers on thsi give you a hint.

On the financial side you have not provided any info exept the big items. But the small ones add up, too.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

The numbers earned on this forum are for some very specific industries in the US. It's fantasyland for other parts of the world. The good news is that you don't need to earn anywhere near those amounts to embrace mustachianism! You too can learn to live frugally and save. You too can have a side hustle (especially if you can make things from scratch). If I were you, at your early stage in the process, I would focus on learning what you can about living cheaply, saving, and investing. I'd also be working out how you can gain a regular, sustainable income from the areas that you enjoy. Not everyone gets handed a "dream" to follow, and not every has one defined skill to sell. Some of us take a few years and a process of elimination to discover what we want to do, and it evolves over time.

Have you thought of teaching, perhaps in the technology area that used to be called woodwork and metalwork? You'd be very valuable as an english teacher who could also fix things in third world areas, and you want to travel, right? Third world experience would be super-applicable to the father/son (and mother daughter!) weekends also.

[NoMoMoney]

Hey, thanks for the replies.

The Mini-Retirements and Travelling I guess are to combine the two, both of which i've wanted to do all my life. I feel I can make progress in my career and other areas of my life whilst working abroad and taking mini-retirements annually while allowing me to make the most out of life and learning and doing the things I've always wanted to. I feel if I were to do that for 10 years I'd still only be 35 at the latest and amassed all of the experiences I would have, allowing me to set up many money making ventures when/if I settle. My father died young never having the chance to retire/travel and that has always been a motivator for me to travel at a young age and not put it off but I feel working and mini-retirements will allow me to be responsible and grow in my career whilst still travelling young.

I already live frugally and have been embracing minimalism for around 2 years, I have virtually no expenses, certainly none that tie me down.

I guess I'm looking to understand how I can make the MMM advice play out under my circumstances, no degree and no established career to date. Is carpentry/landscaping a good career choice combined with other money making endeavours on the side(products, online information products, weekend teaching courses etc), I feel it is a career that would allow me more freedom to take mini-retirements and work abroad, or am I wasting my time with my current plans and should be looking for a higher paying career or skill acquisition and devoting myself to that whilst I'm young?

I am also going to take the TEFL qualification so I can teach abroad(limited choice of countries due to no degree).

Do my plans go against the MMM advice, are they unrealistic or do you have any advice that could allow me to really thrive and make something of this as I guess it isn't conventional?

[Linea_Norway]

If you live frugally, you can indeed work only a part of the year with a reasonable salary. But it depends on what you tend to do during your sabbatical. I you like hiking with your tent in the outdoors, life can be very cheap. I am not sure what you mean by being in the outdoors. Are you a hiker who likes to live in a tent the whole summer?

Organizing survivals for father/sun (why not mother/daughter or father/daughter as well) might be a good idea.

If you are into hiking or other outdoor activities, you might want to get in touch with travel agencies that organize outdoor trips. Maybe you could become a guide, get free travel, free gear and and paid to do it.

I do think you should think about your pension and have some plan for not having to work until you are very old. Earning a moderate salary and taking many mini-sabbaticals will not make you wealthy. You might end up living paycheck to paycheck and that makes you quite vulnerable.

It sounds like a good idea to be flexible in where you will live. Make sure you don't buy a place, but rent it. Make you can live on the premises for a low fee, if you work at a landscaping job.

[krustyburger]

Man, some tradies make serious coin down here in Sydney.
Have you thought about skilled trades like plumber or electrician? Also it seems that owning your own business brings in the profits.

wrt to your dad dying young, I'd probs use that as motivation to work until 35 and then retire and be ridiculously healthy. It doesn't have to be one thing to the exclusion of the other, you could take occasional overseas trips or do a few years in another country all the while stashing the dollars away.

[J Boogie]

I follow a couple UK carpenters on instagram.

Most notably, DMC carpentry.

I can't tell what his financials look like, but this guy has serious skills and is able to knock out custom wardrobes really quick.

The reason I suspect he does really well is because of his turnaround time - he seems to get in and out really really fast, often letting his customers paint the wardrobes themselves.

Seems like if you focus on a niche like that you could achieve success.

The festools he (and many other european, and now US carpenters) uses are no doubt expensive but they definitely allow for a get-in get-out workflow that wraps up fast.

[mustachepungoeshere]

Outdoor ed camps?

I have two family members who do this.

One did it the official way, degree in outdoor ed, job at a camp run by a private school, leading camps for students. When she got sick of living in a tent for three months of each year, she got her masters and now works in curriculum planning for outdoor ed programs across Victoria.

The other - who made me think of you - fell into it. He worked as a supervisor/dorm master at a boys school with no degree (the school only required a WWC check and first aid training). He was already into hiking, camping, abseiling, etc, so the school always assigned him to supervise camps. After a couple of years of that he was offered jobs at summer camps in the US.

This sort of role could be perfect for your interests, skills and willingness to travel.

[SunnyDays]

I hate to burst your bubble, but at least in Canada, you can't just come into the country and take a job.  You need to apply for a work visa and have a job offer.  You would likely not get an offer in either construction or landscaping, as these are not difficult jobs to fill and you cannot take a job away from a Canadian just because you want to work here.  I suspect it would be similar in other countries, so you may want to come up with an alternate plan.

[NoMoMoney]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm definitely going to look at the outdoor ed & travel agencies.

@SunnyDays would I be mistaken in thinking that a Brit can get a working holiday visa in Canada? The same with Aus & NZ as mentioned. Are there any sought after skills that I could obtain without a degree you would recommend in any case?

@J Boogie I agree that I would need to find my niche in the market.

@Linda_Norway I will definitely allocate a portion of my earnings to retirement investments. The Father/Son weekends were based entirely on my experience and being that I've spent a lot of time learning about the health and mental health of Men so feel I could provide some real value there.

You've all given me different perspectives that I can use to make this work. In particular basing my 'sabbaticals' around other interests that allow me to travel and earn further such as Tour guiding and Outdoor ed.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

I hate to burst your bubble, but at least in Canada, you can't just come into the country and take a job.  You need to apply for a work visa and have a job offer.  You would likely not get an offer in either construction or landscaping, as these are not difficult jobs to fill and you cannot take a job away from a Canadian just because you want to work here.  I suspect it would be similar in other countries, so you may want to come up with an alternate plan.

Pretty sure he'll be fine teaching English and rebuilding in Haiti, or Gambia, or any of the other third world countries crying out for skilled people to help them build better communities.

[Mrs. Rocker]

There are many young nomads in the world that work and travel. Some work remote jobs while others travel around picking up short-term jobs. As an example in the US nomads may work the sugar beet harvest which is a fall 3 week job then work at Amazon until Xmas. Then take a few months off and pick up another job in the spring.

[Leisured]

Another Australian here, and tradies (tradesmen) can do well in Australia. You would need to look at the Australian immigration website to see how much in demand carpenters are, and whether you can work for a short period in Australia. I suspect that tradies can do well in any rich country partly because schools push young people to go to university. A self employed carpenter does well in Australia, and even better if he runs a small business and organises other, younger, carpenters.