Having To Quit The Hobby.. :(

[Fishkeeper2004]

...but I really want my own place so I'm looking at a basic wage 9 to 5 for a year or two.

Working 9 to 5 doesn't always give you enough money for a place of your own... trust me!

Yeah, but I am only a few hundred pounds short a month from what my mum earns and she supports us both at the moment. I sat down with her to work it all out, and if I want the luxaries of things such as Internet, I need either a 9 to 5, or maybe a part time job which gives 30 hours a week.

 

[madmom]

Sorry you have to give up your fish. I had the same thing years ago. When I graduated I had a job that involved a lot of driving and was away for days or weeks so had to give up my fish. Took my 30 years to start again. Maybe you could talk with your mum and stay home and split costs with her. My son who's 24 is still home; splits the bills with me. We divide each bill by the number of people in the house and thats what he pays. This way you can save money and help your mum at the same time while you get your thing going. Just starting in the work force is hard and usually doesn't pay all that much to start with and getting and keeping your own place may be difficult with the cost of everything today.

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

Sorry you have to give up your fish. I had the same thing years ago. When I graduated I had a job that involved a lot of driving and was away for days or weeks so had to give up my fish. Took my 30 years to start again. Maybe you could talk with your mum and stay home and split costs with her. My son who's 24 is still home; splits the bills with me. We divide each bill by the number of people in the house and thats what he pays. This way you can save money and help your mum at the same time while you get your thing going. Just starting in the work force is hard and usually doesn't pay all that much to start with and getting and keeping your own place may be difficult with the cost of everything today.

I understand these days living costs are high. But apparently to support yourself you need a minimum of £800 a month (is that about rght?). Well, at the moment I'm consistently earning around 600 online each month, so I think even a minimum wage job would be enough for me to live off. If anyone sees a potential problem with this or has any advice that would be great..

 

[Miss Wiggle]

I understand these days living costs are high. But apparently to support yourself you need a minimum of £800 a month (is that about rght?). Well, at the moment I'm consistently earning around 600 online each month, so I think even a minimum wage job would be enough for me to live off. If anyone sees a potential problem with this or has any advice that would be great..

sounds about right to me, working on the assumption that you're renting, nowadays £250pcm is the absolute cheapest of the cheap in a not too nice area round here, then add in the following as a rough guess for basic bills on a small property (i live in a 1 bedroom terrace so just using my bills as a guide, obviously it'll vary)
£60 - council tax
£20 - water
£20 - gas
£30 - electric
£10 - tv licence
£18 - broadband
£10 - basic BT landline
£20 - home insurance

thats the best part of £450 on bills alone, so add in food shopping, transport costs (don't know if you have a car or anything) any little luxuries like sky tv, mobile phones etc etc you're gonna be hitting £600 without even spending a penny on anything nice for yourself, pets, furniture, household goods, nights out etc

 

[Squid]

Holy crap! You graduate school at at 16? Here is the US we graduate around the age of 18 and then university/college after that. Im not leaving that house till im 22/24 depending on if I would get a bachelors/masters. 16 seems so young to be all on your own......

In England you do your first set of qualifications at 15/16 called GCSE's. In effect i could have left school at 15 as my birthday is in August and so after the school year finishes. We don't call that graduating (well i never did )

At that point you have the choice of staying on to do A'levels or other college courses. A'levels last 2 years, so then you have the option to leave education at 17/18.

Then, thats when University/degrees and other courses come into play. Usually 3-4 years degrees. Although the term graduation may be used for other things, its most commonly used to refer to the success of finishing a degree. I left education just before i became 22.

Then there are masters and then Phd's etc that people can do..

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

I understand these days living costs are high. But apparently to support yourself you need a minimum of £800 a month (is that about rght?). Well, at the moment I'm consistently earning around 600 online each month, so I think even a minimum wage job would be enough for me to live off. If anyone sees a potential problem with this or has any advice that would be great..

sounds about right to me, working on the assumption that you're renting, nowadays £250pcm is the absolute cheapest of the cheap in a not too nice area round here, then add in the following as a rough guess for basic bills on a small property (i live in a 1 bedroom terrace so just using my bills as a guide, obviously it'll vary)
£60 - council tax
£20 - water
£20 - gas
£30 - electric
£10 - tv licence
£18 - broadband
£10 - basic BT landline
£20 - home insurance

thats the best part of £450 on bills alone, so add in food shopping, transport costs (don't know if you have a car or anything) any little luxuries like sky tv, mobile phones etc etc you're gonna be hitting £600 without even spending a penny on anything nice for yourself, pets, furniture, household goods, nights out etc

Thanks for the breakdown of the costs, that gives me confidence. I have the £600 a month from online to cover what you have stated above, meaning the extra money I earn from the part/full time job I get will be enough for me to live off, fingers crossed. The beauty about the internet at this time however is that once your earning, over time your revenue increases, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get that extra few hundred quid a month within a year or two.

 

[timmystood]

But why would you want to move out so quickly? Get a job, match that with what you earn online and you'll be rolling in it... not having to worry about bills etc. Also, from my experice. Very few places rent to under 18's. Be worth doin some research though.

 

[Maximus]

Hey dude, sad to hear

I'm currently doin my A-levels at Sixth-form.
And I'm the same age as you (and my bday is in August lol)

Not pickin but I'm guessing your doin you online-work
during the day, as you search for a job.

But when you'll be workin 9-5ish you wont wanna
come home and start another job, meaning you'll
have 2 full time jobs!

I dont think that will work out
And if it does you'll be dead before your 17th bday!

Sorry if I'm bein a bit of a twat, but plz prove me wrong dude!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm i didn't properly get into fishkeeping until i was 16, but that was after i had moved out of home, got a job and settled in with my fiance as we rented a place together. I had a 10gal tank for a quite a while back then, but it was pretty easy to look after- i worked 8 hrs a day at a factory every day (weekends off though), just fed the fish during the week days and then did a 40% water change at the weekend which took around 15mins.
Just because you move out of home and get a job, doesn't mean you have to give up fishkeeping, you just got to be organised with your life and manage your money correctly and not waste it on luxuary goods or going out too much spending loads on drinks etc .

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

Hey dude, sad to hear

I'm currently doin my A-levels at Sixth-form.
And I'm the same age as you (and my bday is in August lol)

Not pickin but I'm guessing your doin you online-work
during the day, as you search for a job.

But when you'll be workin 9-5ish you wont wanna
come home and start another job, meaning you'll
have 2 full time jobs!

I dont think that will work out
And if it does you'll be dead before your 17th bday!

Sorry if I'm bein a bit of a twat, but plz prove me wrong dude!

To be honest, after working it all out, I dont need a full time job. I need maybe an extra £200 a month. Furthermore, my online work takes maybe 3 hours a day max, and even when I'm not physically sat at my computer I'm still earning money.

T-P, after thinking, your right. I now think I'll keep two of my tanks, one for my Moscows and then maybe a large community tank. From what I have worked out, if I get a part time job and tie that in with my online work, I'll probably only be working 25 hours a week or so.

 

[mlawson]

Hey dude, sad to hear

I'm currently doin my A-levels at Sixth-form.
And I'm the same age as you (and my bday is in August lol)

Not pickin but I'm guessing your doin you online-work
during the day, as you search for a job.

But when you'll be workin 9-5ish you wont wanna
come home and start another job, meaning you'll
have 2 full time jobs!

I dont think that will work out
And if it does you'll be dead before your 17th bday!

Sorry if I'm bein a bit of a twat, but plz prove me wrong dude!

It might be like that for him anyway, school for me takes up 7-5 (working 9-3.45, and if he works in the evening now, then it might be much the same.

Good luck with your job and everything, hopefully all will go well, I guess sometimes it's hard to keep fish at points in your life, make sure you get back into the hobby after though. Are you sure you can't fit one fish tank in?

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

To be honest, after working it all out, I dont need a full time job. I need maybe an extra £200 a month. Furthermore, my online work takes maybe 3 hours a day max, and even when I'm not physically sat at my computer I'm still earning money.

T-P, after thinking, your right. I now think I'll keep two of my tanks, one for my Moscows and then maybe a large community tank. From what I have worked out, if I get a part time job and tie that in with my online work, I'll probably only be working 25 hours a week or so.

Cool. Well, either way, good luck with whatever you decide to do .
In my opinion one tank is easier and more efficient to look after than two or more, so you may want to have just one large community tank instead of lots of small or medium sized ones in the future as time goes by .

 

[rdd1952]

Ahh, to be 16 again. Actually I'm going on 16 for the 4th time. Glad to see that you're not getting out. My 3 tanks only take a couple hours a week for water changes. They've been running so long, I never do water tests on them any more unless something starts to look weird.

 

[DanS]

I'm new to fishkeeping, but after the initial expense (which is a lot), i don't think regular maintenance will cost much at all - food, dechlorinator, occasional equipment and livestock costs of course but just giving up a few nights out should cover that!!

I'm from the UK too, aged 28 and am working through a part time degree (5th year out of 6). I have to admit this is the LAST thing i want to be doing at 28 and if I could ever have my time again I would do college followed by a degree. I don't really regret what i've done, but what i didn't do then is causing me a lot of work now when i have other responsibilities. I'm not telling ya to do a degree, but I would say carry on with education as long as you can.

All the best!

 

[Fishkeeper2004]

DanS, it's not the price of the hobby which is bothering me. It's just right now I have to accept for a year or so I won't be able to live off my online earnings. After that year, as long as nothing goes wrong, I should be able to quit my part time 'real life' job, and turn my online projects into my career so to speak. Of course, once this is achieved I will be able to get back into the hobby.

Also about the education, I really, really, do not need it. There is no way on earth that eventually my job won't be online. For other people, A levels and degrees are necassary, but for me I am now 99% sure that nothing can go wrong. Further education has never appealed to me, and now I have the oppurtunity to miss this step out, and go self employed.