Pages in topic:   < [1 2]
Requesting tips on managing work/life balance
Thread poster: Robin Joensuu
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 12:16
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
A philosophical answer Dec 18, 2015

I can see where you are coming from, as I am in the same predicament.

The way out, is to get a clear picture of how much wealth would be sufficient to lead a comfortable life to the end, and then work towards building this nest-egg. Once you have done it, you can stop working altogether, and start enjoying life, or work when it pleases you.

This sounds simple in theory, but is actually very difficult to implement. The most difficult part is to figure out how much would
... See more
I can see where you are coming from, as I am in the same predicament.

The way out, is to get a clear picture of how much wealth would be sufficient to lead a comfortable life to the end, and then work towards building this nest-egg. Once you have done it, you can stop working altogether, and start enjoying life, or work when it pleases you.

This sounds simple in theory, but is actually very difficult to implement. The most difficult part is to figure out how much would be sufficient. Would it be sufficient to go by your average expenditure for the last 30 years or so? Where should I put the money? Will it be safe? What if something like what happened in the US a few years ago happens with banks collapsing all around you like nine-pins? What if an unforseen emergency crops up and eats up all your funds? etc. etc.

These nagging doubts will keep you working away to the end of your life. May be, we can become pragmatic and bold and not averse to taking a bit of risk. If we do this, we can roughly arrive at some figure that would be sufficient for the rest of our lives, and once we have made this pile, we can stop working.

There is an ancient book called Think and Get Rich, by Napolean Hill, which outlines a strategy to make this plan work. May be you should get hold of this book and read it up.
Collapse


 
Philippe Etienne
Philippe Etienne  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 07:46
Member
English to French
Rate adjustment, the trivial answer! Dec 18, 2015

Robin Joensuu wrote:
My concern is rather that I think it is hard to keep the workload at a comfortable and reasonable level, mostly because I am reluctant to turn down jobs and to be unavailable to clients.

To add to (or have another reading of) Tom's comment, rates are an adjustment variable to manage your workload, especially with agencies. Through natural selection, you will keep only the best customers and have the workload that suits you.
This way you may get down to a more translator-compatible 7-digit SEK income instead of your current 8-. Or was it 9-?
And instead of asking yourself "what if I turn down work", you let customers ask themselves "are his services worth that much", which means the ball is in their court. New balls.

I resorted to such tactics in 2006 because I used to turn down an awful lot of work from my agency customers. It worked well: I lost one major customer and more than a third of my turnover for a few months, got time for myself, then gradually recovered to a similar income within a year while working less.

Finding the right rate and the right customer base is a balancing act that needs continuous honing, and acting on both counts (rates and customer base) is a necessity not to fall from the tighrope due to lack or excess of work.

It is also reversible : you can always revert to your previous rates and get swamped in work in no time. I know a few ex-agency customers with masses of work whom I'd work with again tomorrow (well, Monday, errr no, mid-Jan) if I decreased my rates to EUR0.09 or less. No hard feelings, just business.

I don't know how it works with direct customers, but you may have rate revision arrangements in place to crank up your rates on a yearly basis.

Good luck,
Philippe


 
Robin Joensuu
Robin Joensuu  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 07:46
Member
English to Swedish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Jumping to conclusions Dec 18, 2015

rates are an adjustment variable to manage your workload, especially with agencies. Through natural selection, you will keep only the best customers and have the workload that suits you.


Oh, I see. I was a bit quick there. That's good advice. Thanks!

(For the record, I think you can count the Swedish translators with a seven digit salary on one hand.)

[Redigerad 2015-12-18 19:34 GMT]


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 06:46
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
We aren't all materialistic Dec 18, 2015

Philippe Etienne wrote:
Robin Joensuu wrote:
I make much more money than I need

Don't be silly
Nobody makes more money than they need.

On the contrary, I suspect it's quite common as you get older. You start to think that an uncomplicated life may be a better aim than one filled with all the latest mod cons and fashion items. You spend years getting a house you're happy with, a car to get you from A to B and a few other essentials, with those needs expanding with the family. Then the kids leave home so you've actually got too much of everything already. If you get an even bigger house there's more cleaning to do, more work to do in the garden, more decorating etc. You could provide work by having people traipsing in and out all the time doing all those jobs, but most of them wouldn't do it quite the way you'd like it done, and having people around is a tie, so maybe it's best to keep things small and manageable.
And if you're really loaded, you can have (more) children to make sure they spend it all for you.

Well, that becomes a physical impossibility as you get older, you know! We've given our grown-up kids four-figure sums for Christmas and birthdays in the past. Did you know you're not allowed to do that without paying vast amounts of tax? We do now. I'm happy for my kids to have the money as you can't take it with you, but I don't see why I should pay even more tax on money that was already taxed as income. It seems unfair that having (and supporting) kids actually reduces your tax bill, but helping them out later with a car, furnishing their homes etc actually increases your tax bill.


 
Pages in topic:   < [1 2]


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Requesting tips on managing work/life balance







Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »
Wordfast Pro
Translation Memory Software for Any Platform

Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users! Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value

Buy now! »