What do I want to do when I finally grow up?

This is a question I ask myself frequently these days. What do I really want to do with the rest of my life? Where do I want to go from here? What do I really enjoy doing?

I have been an engineer for over 35 years, and the profession has been good, and I have enjoyed it. It has allowed me to work all over the world and make fairly good money in the process.

I struggled for quite a few years back stateside never quite making enough to feel that I wasn’t in financial bondage. That part was a drag. My salary pretty much leveled out and stayed that way for almost twenty years. Each year was more difficult than the last to keep my head above water.

Then a friend of mine challenged me to go to work in Iraq where I started earning over four times what I was making back in California. Suddenly, the engineering world looked a whole lot different than it ever did before. I was earning more in one week than I was in a month before, and the first $90,000 or so was tax free as long as I spent the requisite amount of time overseas, something like 335 days a year. Not only that, all my living expenses were taken care of. I was in hog heaven.

Work over here in the Middle East was exciting and challenging. If people knew how lucrative it is, they would be coming over in far greater numbers. Most people are just plain scared. The news services don’t paint a very good picture of what it is like over here, but it isn’t that bad.

I suddenly had more money than I knew what to do with, and with money came options. I could travel anywhere, for I had both the time and the money. I could invest in all sorts of different things. I literally got spoiled so it is nearly impossible for me to go back to the kind of income I made before. It doesn’t make sense.

One thing I was able to do was to cover the salary of my daughter, Becky, while she studied for her Architectural License. She was at a particularly difficult time in her life, and found herself working for a company she couldn’t stand, and I was able to step in and help out in a very big way. It gave her the freedom to focus on what she needed to concentrate on. I felt really good about that.

In spite of the money, I found myself with a marriage falling apart, and a house in California that was completely upside down. My mortgage payment went from $2000 a month up to $5000 a month overnight, and it’s resale valve went from nearly $600,000 down to around $200,000. I let the bank take it back.

One thing I discovered was that many of the overseas assignments are fairly short term, so I would have money for a while, but nothing coming in when I was out of work. This made it essential that I get rid of the house. I was never much of a saver.

I began to investigate some alternative options. I became fascinated with Persian rugs there in Iraq, and ended up with a collection of over 200 of them. I even got a warehouse over in Arkansas to store them. I had a dream for a while of opening up a Persian Rug business down in Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.

Later I started to diversify, getting into shoes and clothing, etc. and tried to get an import/export business going. That never quite worked out. It seemed I couldn’t find anyone reliable and trustworthy to work with, especially in Turkey. I eventually sold off everything at huge loss.

A wholesale/retail business of some sort still interests me since the potential profits can be very large, easily surpassing my engineering income, but it is totally dependent on finding local nationals I can work with and trust. That turns out to be the difficult part.

I really am not interested in operating a store. I could own one, but somebody else would have to operate it. I like being the purchaser though. That part is fun.

One thing that working over in the Middle East has done is open my eyes. There is so much going on over here and so much money being spent, the opportunities are almost limitless.

I see so much poor quality construction going on, and I recognize that there is a strong chance of succeeding in a very big way if a company works and acts with integrity in these parts. That company would stand out head and shoulders above the competition if they just did what they said they would do when they said they were going to do it.

Another thing is that the Arabs are getting pretty sophisticated too. They are not going to put up with inferior quality when they can afford the best. I think there will always be a market for quality.

I have had my own construction company, and I don’t want to do that again. I was the worst boss I ever had. I damn near worked myself to death. It was fun and challenging, but I need more freedom than that.

One area of interest to me is in construction materials supply. One of the most difficult things about building over here is the scarcity of construction materials. It is hard to find the materials and tools you need to get the job done. Much of the materials have to be shipped over from the United States which is both slow and expensive.

There are people over here who may be interested in establishing a construction supply business. They certainly have the money, and the connections. That is definitely a possibility I am looking into, but again I don’t want to do it by myself. A group of us would have to take it on.

I could go on working over here for a few more years, and basically set myself up for life financially, and that certainly is one valid option.

The truth is that I still don’t know where I want to live. I enjoy working overseas more than I do working in the States, but I am not sure how much longer I want to continue doing construction. It would be nice to have some other options.

A part of me also wants to be a writer. It has been a fancy of mine that I have been thinking more and more about the last ten years or so. I wrote a number of books after my first wife died, but never got them published. Some of the material was good, but it needed editing, and I never finished editing them. That is something I am thinking about doing now.

I am also thinking that one of these days I am going to meet someone who will present me with a whole different set of options. The future looks wide open. I better enjoy my freedom while I have it.