I like the picture above. I have actually seen Balinese ladies carrying baskets full of rocks building the road on my surfing holiday in Bali. No men around, not sure what they have been doing. It was looking pretty unfair.

I was once thinking how many different jobs I have done to the age of 43 when I have quit my last job. There were quite a few of them as I have started young. This summary shows couple of things. How I came to value money due to first jobs in very early age. And also key for FIRE interested people is to see that most of the jobs I had were average or less than average and we still managed to become financially independent.

Fruitpicking

One of my first paid work was picking various fruits with my grandmother. Then we took it to the cooperative fruit collection place and got some cash. Incredible. I was about 11. I realised that the coop collection places pay OK so I have done some side gigs with my best mate usually  picking cherries or apples. Only tools needed was the bike trailer and ladder.

Around the age of 14 I was actually employed by large farm to collect apples and peaches in summer. I believe on the good day, 10 hour shift made about $15.

At 15 I had full time holiday job working in a factory as a helper of a local labourer 8 hours a day. Work was hard (thinking transferring manually large piles of sand from one corner to another), and dirty. Pay was about $1 per hour. I somehow survived 2 months. Then I went back to high school after holidays. I knew I better study hard as this kind of manual work was difficult and badly paid.

University

At University I had a job as a courier and office hand in the cd production company. I was working about 3 days a week plus studies. Managers were only 2 years older than me (22?) and tough. Pay was about $200 per month and I was almost expected to drop my studies for it. I quit after 3 months.

After that finally I could stop having jobs during the semester and only keep my holiday work. I have scored couple of jobs for a month each year of the University holidays. One was near Florence in Italy and one next to Dusseldorf in Germany. Both were perfect for practicing languages, bosses were small businessmen and very nice. In Italy I have been picking grapes and in Germany working on the farm fixing things. In Italy I used to go regularly to Florence, Arezzo and Sienna. So beautiful cities especially Florence. In Germany the farm was very close to Dutch border and we used to go there shopping. Both paid $10 per hour plus accommodation (sometimes even the food included).

Thanks to the exchange rate in mid 1990s, and also thanks to spending it carefully, this earnings lasted me usually until next holiday with large leftover. It was mostly as pocket money. Parents used to give me regular allowance covering basic living cost (books, dormitory and food). Nothing extravagant. I am talking about $150 per month allowance.

After Uni

After University I had to complete compulsory service for government. I have opted for an helping hand position at University library, which I thought would be better than going to the army. It was 18 months of quite boring work. We did not get any salary for our full time efforts. Only tiny government allowance which just about covered the lunches. Luckily I have stashed away some cash from my holiday work abroad. As we were free labour for the library, we usually did the worst jobs. Jobs like moving furniture and books, putting stickers on books, attaching security tags. Library had few millions volumes so you can imagine how entertaining was to tag them. Team mates were pretty awesome though and after 20 years we are still in contact.

My first job where I used my degree was in the convention center in sales. It was steep learning curve and I was grateful for the opportunity. I had to learn software, administration and sales skills. I had already itchy feet and I wanted to travel overseas like my friends did. After a year in the convention center I left for Australia.

Australia

First job Down Under was washing dishes at the fast food chain in Sydney. I have arrived just after Sydney Olympics and somehow at that time jobs were scarce and I was happy to be washing dishes though my boss in her early twenties was not nice. It took me few months to realise I should forget my Master’s Degree, be quiet and get my hands dirty. That’s if I want to be able to pay my bills. At that point I had about $50 in the bank and I was lucky to work.

Later I have “upgraded” to supermarket work on cash register and night shelf stacking. Both were hard and most of the time you did not have time to scratch yourself. First easier employment I had in Australia was a salesman in Electronics in department store. I always liked technology and you did not get chased every 5 minutes like in the other jobs so far to work harder. I have kept my department store position until I have graduated with my second Master’s Degree and I found my first professional job. Before that I have done night receptionist at the hotel. That’s where I have learnt that night shift work is not easy.

Accounting

My first professional job in accounting firm was interesting. I liked the work, I respected co-workers but working pace and stress was hard and timesheets were not acceptable for me. I still don’t believe it is human to be filling out timesheets for every 6 minutes what task you have been working on. I was permanently anxious, could not sleep, slowly getting fat and grinding my teeth at night. After a year I knew I had to quit if I want to stay healthy.

So I have found position in administration at the University which was not as busy and about 30% better paid. I have stayed at the Uni for 12 years and went through admin/finance position at school, corporate finance work, investment accountant job and treasury position. Each new job came with promotion and though I have had same employer, every position was completely different. I felt like 12 years at University was enough and I was ready to go, but I was grateful to University for the opportunity to work there.

I was mostly lucky with bosses and co-workers, I have learnt a lot, I was treated well and I have grown up. I have also set myself up financially by making sure my salary was little above average, and by living still like student. After all when I studied at the University back in my late teens, I had best time of my life living on about $200 per month. I knew money and material things are not necessary for great life. Freedom to choose is.

Value money

I have been earning some income for my efforts since about 10 years old. Important lessons from this, was that work is not easy when you get paid for it, therefore you should not be spending money easily. I knew money represented my time at work. Somehow my experience is that the worse the pay, the harder was the work. That taught me also it is needed to keep up your professional skills and to move up, if you want to progress in life.

Basically I feel I was lucky I have learnt to value money in quite an early age. This skill was very handy once I started making reasonable salary. Also I would like to point out that I am bit complaining how hard some jobs or bosses were. Except one where the boss pushed me close to limits, I was extremely grateful to be able to have that jobs at the time. I moved on from all the jobs above, but all of them were excellent life lesson, I met many great people, took me to interesting places. Without working in all that positions I would be totally different person than I am.