I have been procrastinating for LITERALLY 6 months about That FIFO Money. Actually, I was telling my partner the other night how I have been in a constant state of procrastination. I can't explain why but everything from leaving my holiday packing until the last minute to scrolling endlessly on my phone wasting time when I have a list of things I should be doing (probably started writing this post because I'm currently putting off working on my permanent residency application...). And with this blog and the That FIFO Money Instagram page, I started off the year with such a clear vision of where I wanted to go with it and even spent the first few days of the year while I had COVID, creating a content schedule so that I had a plan to stick to to achieve that vision.
So what happened....? No, really, can someone help me figure that out because I really don't know. In My FIFO Life, my partner and I finished working at a solar farm in South Australia that was paying us good money and was close to home so we were able to go home every other Saturday night and Sunday, which was good when my parents were here to visit from November to February.... we had a couple of weeks off at home together and then started a casual job where I was doing admin and Nick was a sparky for an Electrical company at the RAAF Base close to our house. That was our first taste of what it would be like to live at home full time and have local jobs, coming home every night and having 2 days off every weekend... it was WEIRD. And we weren't earning any money. Well, it was OK money but with the hours we are used to working, we were taking home around a quarter of what we are used to when we work away from home so it felt like a big step back.
In fact, we have been feeling like we haven't been able to get ahead financially since we bought our investment property in September last year. While that's ticking along nicely;- our tenants are great, we've only had a couple of minor repairs to roller shutters to pay for and we haven't struggled to keep on top of paying both of our mortgages, despite the interest rate hikes (we're fixed on our investment property for 2 years so we shall see what happens in the next year), our overall savings totals look almost where they were after we paid our deposit, stamp duty and other fees for the investment property purchase.
Nick only ended up working at the local job for 2 weeks before he was offered an Electrical Supervisor role back at a solar farm that we had worked on the construction phase for back in 2019-2020. It has had grass fires which has damaged a lot of the solar panels etc. so he quickly jumped at the money when he was able to negotiate a good rate for it to be worthwhile him going away and taking on more responsibility again. One thing to know about Nick is that he truly is a hard-worker and a great Supervisor but he doesn't care about status or career progression as such... he just cares about what he has to do to bring in the best money. Sometimes, that actually doesn't mean being a supervisor and working in the field as an Electrician on a higher hourly rate than what the management team might be taking home on their salary, especially given that the salary is usually worked out on a basic 40 hour week, which these jobs never are.
I worked at the RAAF base for another 4 weeks and also had an 11 day holiday to Thailand with my best friends from home in between so that was amazing and while it probably wasn't the best financial move at the time; while I was earning less than usual and complaining that our savings hadn't increased in months; it was the start of the off season so we managed to spend next to nothing on accommodation which was a money win, in my eyes (I don't think Nick agrees but he was just jealous as he was living in his grotty donga at work and I was living it up on holiday haha!). Plus, my friends and I have never planned an impromptu holiday like that before so it was fun and I loved every minute of it. I still think its important to do the things we enjoy with our money, even when we are aiming for goals as you can start to resent the process if you're too restrictive for too long and it can be easy to lose sight of what all this hard work and sacrifice is for if there's no enjoyment thrown in between those long stints working away from home and living in less than comfortable situations. I wrote a blog post explaining my complete mindset shift towards money and my money values when I started this blog, which explains a lot about my journey, if you're interested you can read it here.
Just before heading to Thailand, I got a call from the job that Nick and I had been waiting to hear about in Victoria. It is another solar farm construction project, with the company that we worked for on the last solar farm we were on in SA and there'd been whispers about how good the money was going to be due to the strong Victorian Electrical Trades Union (ETU) so of course, most of the people we worked with on the last job were all hoping to get on there next. That's why we took the temporary local job, even though it wasn't great money, as we just needed something to tide us over until we got the call to start the new solar project. Nick obviously lasted 2 weeks earning average money and jumped at the chance to double his income, which was definitely the right move, as we were told in our telephone interview that they would be taking more Electricians and TAs on in August. It was April at that point so there was no way we could sustain living on the wages we were pulling in and would've started looking for something better in the meantime (I probably would have ended up going up and joining Nick where he is) if the universe hadn't lined up exactly what we needed...
The day before my last day of work before I was going to Thailand I got a call from the company for the Victoria job asking if I would be interested in a Logistics QA role that would mean I could start ASAP. I, of course, said yes and they booked me in for my medical the next day. I then received the contract and more detailed job description the day I landed home from Thailand so I was able to finish up and handover to my replacement in the 3 days following my holiday at the RAAF base and spent the rest of the week packing and organising the house before leaving for Victoria. I stopped for a couple of days in NSW where Nick was to see him and then headed over to regional Victoria and got set up in my new accommodation which is a cabin in a caravan park. I had a bit of a drive around the area the day I arrived and a walk in the town I am staying in and let me tell you... it is by far the NICEST place I have been for work. Usually, we end up either in the middle of nowhere or somewhere where when you say the place name to people they respond with "ah that's the crack capital of <insert Australian state here>!". So I instantly had a great feeling about this job.
My instincts have proven to be right so far as I'm in week 4 and really enjoying my new role. It's a bit of a difference from what I usually do on solar farms as I am more office based but a bit of a mixture of admin and getting out with the Laydown crew and doing QA checks and signing in the materials when they are unloaded off the trucks. My Supervisor and the whole Logistics crew are really nice and I felt welcomed and comfortable really quickly and generally, there is a great vibe on site, despite it being pretty damn cold over here in Victoria! And I hear its going to get way worse in July so not looking forward to that. Usually, I'd be disappointed in getting stuck in the office but I'm definitely not complaining here! Another bonus of this role, other than getting to start a couple of months earlier than I expected, is that I discovered that I'm on a higher hourly rate than if I had come on as an Electrical TA, as I was expecting, so a money win is always welcomed!
I'm 3 paydays in and starting to get my savings back to where they were after dipping into my holiday fund and even my emergency fund a little over the last few months so I'm feeling like within the next couple of weeks, I'll be starting to see my savings grow nicely again. I'm going to lay out where I'd like to be with my savings by the end of the year in the next couple of weeks while I figure out how much I can comfortably save and get my head back in the money game! I'll of course, update the That FIFO Money blog and Instagram page as I go. Halfway through the year... let's get focussed!
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