new direction ????

as work has been up and down ... one of the washes i contract for has gone up for sale ,,, the perspective owner want me on full time ,, (i will bail if he wants me to stay a 1099) but the money is good ... just so damn tired if the logs and paperwork...
the FT job is giving me a raise but nothing near what i want/need ..

i just need to wait for more info i guess

 

Would it be possible to give the logs and paperwork to an assistant?

 

The realities of life, the system is set up to make us all round pegs in round holes. Medical care costs, retirement, regulations, competition, laws that favor the large operations, financing, etc, all make it ever harder to be your own boss and run a small business or small farm. The costs and benefits can only be calculated by you as so many of them are not physical things, but a way of life and interacting with it. Good luck and God bless whatever you decide to do.

 

I'm searching for a new direction myself. With my body aches and pains , I'm not able to do what I used to. Nobody wants to learn this trade anymore. Only the Latinos seem to want to work anymore. The rest are lazy , won't listen , have no sense of pride in their work . It's just depressing. And the pricing has just gone thru the roof , I don't even know how to price a job anymore. I'm almost embarrassed to give these prices.
I wish you luck and hope you find what you are needing.

 

If it doesn't pay quite as well as you hoped for, perhaps you could continue with a side job or three. Hard to beat a FT job that generates a steady income. Your other jobs flake off on you and at least you still have that to fall back on.

Sure glad I retired. I worked in an engineering department and my memory just isn't what it used to be. Was dreading the day when a whoopsie on my part would cause the rest of the team extra weeks of work and maybe delay a project or shipment, placing the entire department in a bad light.

Worst that has happened after retirement was, on a trip to the BOL, I forgot half my wife's lemonade. A five or six second ass chew was the only bad result.

 

I agree with @Altoidfishfins and @ghrit ...Retire if financially possible and you can obtain some sort of medical via VA or Medicare and if not, screw'em, and apply for an Advance Payment of Premium Tax Credit (APTC) - meaning - the government will pay for the majority of your Medical Insurance depending on your income, even all of it if income is poverty line or below. I did it, not proud of it, but after they fined me $8000 for not having insurance and then taxed me to almost 6 figures - screw'em. My income stayed below $16,500 for 2 years and they paid for my wife's and mine. I figured if they were going to force me to have medical insurance but not provide anything at a fair price that I would not lose sleep over playing the system; it's their rules and their system. And, it's legal, perfectly legal as it is all based on income, not about what you got in the bank or assets or stocks/bonds or your 401K - only income.

This year, 2019, medical insurance is no longer required. I hit 65 so I must purchase Medicare but the wife will not have insurance, sad but true, since the minimum insurance policy over $5000 a year even though she's as healthy as a horse, but at least we'll be free of the gov - well - as free as possible. Anyway...retire...

@Altoidfishfins "A five or six second ass chew was the only bad result."
5 or 6 seconds?!?! What, you married an angel?! That's is no ass chewing. That's a normal conversation with an irritable spike or two which, of course, must be handled delicately to prevent escalation, usually by lowering of the eyes and repeating in a soothing tone, "Yes, dear...Of course you're right, dear...I am a complete ass that should be nailed to a cross and then flogged, dear." Should she agree with the later - well - it's probably best if you legged it...so says I, thinking I was an old silver-tongued devil and the Red-Headed Russian returned with a hammer and nails...

 

Want to trade wife's? Mine last 5-6 hours and occasionally 5-6 days!

 

@Bandit99, @Thunder5Ranch- LOL, LOL and LOL


I turn 65 in Dec so Medicare is in my very near future. Had to pay COBRA for one month for myself and my wife, cost just under a grand (could have had a pretty decent 1911 for that - but I'm going to buy myself one anyway). I still have to pay COBRA for the wife until next April when she turns 65, only because she requires some very expensive medications - $1700 a month for one and $900 a month for the other. It's cheaper to pay just under $500 a month for the COBRA.

It's all good. Got plenty left for ammo.

 

Winter is a bad time of the year to be changing jobs or at least it was in the oilfield at one time.

Do we have a thread on this Medicare and all its fine print options?

 

Ha, Been there have we?

 

I go to the insurance guy who runs the group insurance for the company that I retired from. He knows more about health insurance than the insurance companies do. There are others just as knowledgeable as him I'm sure in just about every town.

 

OMG, T5R!!! YOU MARRIED MY WIFE"S SISTER?!?!?!?

 

Yep. That is the way to do it. It's confusing has hell at first until you realize the system is also rigged to never give one an even break, so if you make more, then you pay more for your medical. And, the first thing you learn is Medicare itself doesn't cover a hell'va lot, just doesn't do it, which gives opportunities to the insurance companies to also take your money. Yes sir, the land of opportunity!...as long as it's not the taxpayer. And, why is it you cannot talk about 'Health Care' in this country? You got to talk about 'Health Insurance'... Oh well, that's a rant for another day...

 

Medicare is easier to work with than the group insurance I had when I was working. It's continued thru November under COBRA. Went to the Dr to have him look at a growth on my upper right arm. He ordered an MRI for this coming Monday. The ins co. rejected the request saying they wanted an X-Ray first. X-Rays aren't worth a shit for soft tissue diagnoses, that why the Dr. ordered an MRI. But this insurance company always rejects requests for MRIs as a matter of routine.

Talked to the girl this morning who told me that the MRI was rejected by insurance. I told her I was on Medicare beginning 01 Dec. She says they're much easier to work with and will pay for the MRI if the Dr. orders it. So now I have to wait for COBRA, former employer subsidized health insurance, to expire because it isn't worth a damn compared to Medicare. Fortunately that happens on the 30th.

I've talked to a friend of mine who retired from the same company and he also says Medicare beats the company insurance hands down, with $250 yearly deductibles as compared to $3000 for the company insurance. The only difference is the company insurance covers a little more for dental, but not much more than Medicare Advantage plans which basically cover exams.

Anyway, that's about enough of the insurance subject for me. I have to meet with the insurance guy on Monday afternoon. Gonna get enough of it then.

 

Amusingly, medicare just rejected a payment for an MRI for my mom. The doctor didn't have some kind of certification needed to order one. Oi.

 

I'm ignorant of these things.

In true friend fashion, I will just hand you a beer and stare quietly into the fire.

 

Only one thing to remember, if you use anyone else to pay for your medical, Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, military care, any thing else, they decide what care you are going to get and when. You have some control over it if you pay for everything yourself until the money runs out. Wife's triple bypass heart operation under Medicare and Blue Cross-Blue Shield came to billed over $150,000. We paid nothing in theory, but our "free medical care" for the two of us with good supplemental coverage costs us $400 a month required, part B and D and $500 for the supplemental ins. Without that we would have been on the hook for well over $10,000. No real way of knowing as a bill for $5,000 MRI is paid for a few hundred by Medicaid and I doubt I would get that discount. No one , including the DR or billing people really can tell you what is going on till the bills come in. I love the "insurance" name for health care, I would love to collect on a Cad, pay for a Volks , buy the insurance after I have I have had the accident, and pay the same premium if I drive 50 miles a year in the country or 50,000 a year in Boston.
As near as I can figure out, if you aren't covered by the public teat, Medicaid, or with 100 % payment because you are poor,or on welfare, your only choice is to either pay an outrageous insurance premium each month, or roll the dice and every time you go to a medical facility take the chance of losing it all. Problem in USA in my mind is that health care is the last real interest in the present health industry and its whole goal is maximizing profits and therefore costs and not providing medical care. Spending close to 20% of our money as a nation on health care and calling it a growth segment of our economy would seem that there is no real chance of change in the near future.

 

That's true, duane. The only real solution to this is introduce competition. Right now if a Dr. says you need a medical procedure, you should be able to go on line and get the cost for that procedure from any number of facilities that can provide it, along with information on related services that they will provide for that cost.

Right now the Dr. says you need a procedure, he steers you to a facility that provides that service - no mention of cost and why would you care? The insurance company (or government) is paying for it. Pretty soon the insurance companies have to hike their rates (or government raise taxes) in order to pay for it.