Education & Work How many hours a week do you "work"?

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Steven Ryan, 9th Jul, 2015.

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How many hours a week do you work on average?

Poll closed 23rd Jan, 2020.
  1. 0

    14 vote(s)
    6.0%
  2. 1-10

    9 vote(s)
    3.8%
  3. 11-20

    10 vote(s)
    4.3%
  4. 21-30

    17 vote(s)
    7.2%
  5. 31-40

    59 vote(s)
    25.1%
  6. 41-50

    70 vote(s)
    29.8%
  7. 51-60

    28 vote(s)
    11.9%
  8. 61-70

    10 vote(s)
    4.3%
  9. 71-80

    6 vote(s)
    2.6%
  10. 80+

    12 vote(s)
    5.1%
  1. Steven Ryan

    Steven Ryan Well-Known Member

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    Pretty good spread here.

    I'm currently shy of the 2 years of 80+ hours weeks I clocked after buying my first apartment, but reckon I'll be back in the vicinity later this year.
     
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  2. sanj

    sanj Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    Good thread, has made me think a bit. Very
    Hard to answer as I don't have any consistent hours, I suspect some weeks as slow as 20 and some as high as 70 or so. There have been a few past that but not regularly
     
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  3. Harro

    Harro Well-Known Member

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    NSW North Coast
    What's work? Retired now so fortunately all "Time " is my own.
    When in business though, long hours. 5.5 days a week.
    Thankfully never had to commute.
     
  4. Ace in the Hole

    Ace in the Hole Well-Known Member

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    It really depends how you define work.
    When I was building my biz and accumulating properties, I worked damn hard, physically and mentally.
    I'm much less active physically now, but always thinking and planning ahead about how to keep moving forward.
    This would probably be regarded as market research I guess, is this considered "work" ?
    If so, it's probably getting close to 80 hours of relaxed work.
     
  5. Perthguy

    Perthguy Well-Known Member

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    Perth
    :oops:
     
  6. Coota9

    Coota9 Well-Known Member

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    Melbourne
    Retail is a beast..ave over the year would be a 60 hr week
     
  7. serendip

    serendip Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Sydney
    I generally do 9-5 (40 hours) but for the last few months it's been more like 50 hours per week, fortunately it doesn't matter when those hours are so sometimes I get up at 4am, sometime's I'll work till 2am. I've also sold / bought & moved in that time. Hopefully things will settle back to 40/week soon so I get fit in being a more attentive Mum & some property investing too :)

    Craziest work time of my life was when I was working in London for a Sydney based software house. Mon - Fri looked something like this: Up at 6, grab coffee, on the phone by 6.15 to catch people before they left the office in Sydney, work for about 90 mins, get ready then into the office, work till 5 or 6, home dinner, email Sydney / prep for catch ups, back on the phone about 9 or 10 at night. I was generally working 60-70 hours a week, not too much on weekends which doubtless saved my sanity, although Sunday night phone calls to Sydney sucked big time. That lasted the best part of a year.
     
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  8. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    Nice thread.

    It really varies, I retired 9 years ago but now working again, ie investing/developing.
    If the projects are in Perth where I reside it can vary from 2 - 4 hours each day.

    If the projects are the interstate it is possibly 2 - 4 hours per week. At the moment its around 4 hours per week.

    MTR:)
     
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  9. RPI

    RPI SDA Provider, Town Planner, Former Property Lawyer

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    18th Jun, 2015
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    Location:
    Brisbane
    Over the decade plus since I stopped working for someone else i have done between not many and far too many. This year I am down to about 80 hours a week, with occaisonal blips. Eg yesterday I was in the office by 8am, stayed till 9pm, went home and then worked from 10 till 2:30, then was on a development site at 7am this morning. BUT I love what I do and it doesn't feel like work.
     
  10. Bayview

    Bayview Well-Known Member

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    22nd Jun, 2015
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    Location:
    Inside your device
    Not yet.
     
  11. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    Adelaide and Gold Coast
    That's great well done.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 28th Nov, 2015
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  12. Harro

    Harro Well-Known Member

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    22nd Jun, 2015
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    Location:
    NSW North Coast
    My wife still works (Tutoring), approx. 12-15 hrs a week. She had been a Teacher prior. Must she work....No, not at all. She simply does it as she thoroughly enjoys it.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 28th Nov, 2015
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  13. WattleIdo

    WattleIdo midas touch

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    Riverina NSW
    A little over 40hrs/week now. Very intense and concentrated work, most of the time. And varied. The best job I've had though not the best pay nor the best managers. The good part is that they leave me alone most of the time.
    A few years ago I was working about 50hrs/week but not getting paid or even acknowledged for it. Have learned a few tricks of the trade now to keep my sanity. For one thing, I use the work computer at home! (need nasty/naughty emoticon).
    Actually, I never thought I'd want to retire until now. I'm so tired.
     
  14. Harro

    Harro Well-Known Member

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    22nd Jun, 2015
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    121
    Location:
    NSW North Coast
    May I ask what field are you in? Funny, how the thought of retirement just seems to take centre stage at times.
     
  15. pianissimo

    pianissimo Member

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    25th Jun, 2015
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    Location:
    Australia
    20 hours maximum per week for tutoring. It's very enjoyable to spend time with the students but once it is over 20 hours, I have no time for my own kids and I feel guilty.
     
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  16. WattleIdo

    WattleIdo midas touch

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    Riverina NSW
    Teaching adults for a not for profit organisation. 4 weeks holidays, too much admin, pressure on numbers, lousy managers. Really makes me want to renovate. :):)
     
  17. MTR

    MTR Well-Known Member

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    I did not particularly want to post this on a public forum as its personal and very painful, but seeing you asked I will elaborate on my story.

    Just after GFC my husband was operating a successful manufacturing business in Perth employing 18 people, solely dependent on the mining industry. Within 2 weeks many of our major jobs were mothballed and one of our major clients went into administration and took us with them.

    We lost over $1M practically overnight and a business that provided a very nice lifestyle was gone. That's a lot of money in 2008, probably does not seem like much today.

    At this point in time I had been property investing for about 6 years, day job gone, and was purely focusing on property. I also never worked in my husband’s business, way too stressful. During this period I had 12 properties in various States around Australia. However the majority were highly negatively geared, what you call blue chip I guess for a better term. This was the only strategy I understood at this time and of course the business had the income to support these blood sucking properties. We were able to manage the debt because our company just increased our income, and the company was always making money and enough cash flow to service lifestyle and debt.

    Once the **** hit the fan and the company went into administration, we placed our dream home then worth close to $2M on the market and within 1 month I sold 6 investment properties. Five of these properties were in Melbourne. Melbourne had just had an amazing property boom and I was able to flip these very quickly. Which saved the bacon.

    We were then able to take our dream home off the market, the best day of my life when the "for sale" sign was removed from our verge. We still live here by the way.

    We picked up the pieces, and then things started to turn around, my husband’s largest client was not ready to give up on our business and decided they were going to buy into it, they were basically just buying the name and they wanted my husband to operate the business.

    Next chapter in my life, I realised I needed to do things differently with property investing and that I needed cash flow, no longer did we have the big income from our company to support continually buying negatively geared property.

    This is when I started looking at different strategies, where I could generate cash flow.
    This is when I decided to go to USA Atlanta purchase properties that would generate income/cash flow from day 1. I had $1M cash and spent $500K and purchased 8 properties in Atlanta, these properties now generate an income of $120,000 pa and have tripled in value. Problem solved, have cash flow. However, I was not ready to just stop property investing.

    At this point in time my husband was in a position to give away his day job, however I started reading Westminster's posts and realised I was doing something wrong. I told my husband I want to be a property developer, he said "but you cant, and I said, but I can".

    Moving on I have completed 2 developments in Perth which I sold and currently 2 on the go in Melbourne. As a developer we are dependent on bank finance and this financial year will be the year where I do not need my husband's income to service futures loans. Praise the Lord:).. or whoever

    I never posted the story on the forum because its been very difficult when you have gone through something like a failed business, but I now feel liberated, I have done it now.

    The moral of the story is never give up and be positive.

    MTR:)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 28th Nov, 2015
  18. rizzle

    rizzle Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Melbourne
    Took centre stage about two years out of uni for me :D
     
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  19. DaveM

    DaveM Well-Known Member

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    Adelaide & Sydney
    Great story MTR, glad you could survive the business failure and turn the experience and failed business into a positive. Many people talk about how they have "done it tough" but not many have lost it all and then recovered. I had a business fail post GFC which almost wiped me out, the difference is whether people give up and let it wipe them out, or if they fight back.
     
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  20. spludgey

    spludgey Well-Known Member

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    Location:
    Sydney
    35 hours a week for my job, 10-20 hours for real estate.
    I voted for my job only though.