That is when I decided just for the hell of it to see if there was any work in Australia doing what I do. I found a little ad on the Internet and I emailed them my resume. The next day they answered. It was an Australian headhunter looking for IBM mainframe specialist to work for IBM Australia in Perth, Western Australia. Was I interested?
Is the pope Catholic? Do bears poop in the woods? Of course I am interested!
It turned out to be not a good deal financially. They paid in Aussie dollars, and they didn't pay that much compared to what I could make in the US doing the same thing. When I did the math, I would make about half what I had made in 2001. They would sponsor me for a 4 year work visa. I was guaranteed a contract through the end of 2002, and the strong possibility that it would be renewed.
I interviewed with IBM over the phone. They wanted me. I thought about it for a week, negotiated some details. In the end, I took it. It made sense.
Even though the pay sucked, it was good by Australian standards. I did some research on the web on the cost of living in Perth. It is a lot lower than Santa Barbara. After taxes, I estimated that I'd take home only about $6000 AUD a month, which was only $3000 USD a month at that time.
I thought about it. I had been working 80 a week for over 3 years. I had taken perhaps 2 days off in that time. My health was shit. I was working my ass off only see my hard earned money be given to some greedy landlord simply for the privledge of having a place to call home.
IBM Australia told me that I could not work more than 40 hours a week. Plus I had to take 4 weeks of vacation a year (unpaid). Wow. What would I do with all that free time? My mind boggled.
On top of this, I was still fighting with Claire over the terms of the divorce. She had in her head a figure of $2000 a month alimony, plus $100k lump sum settlement. It was crazy. I didn't have anywhere near that kind of money. She got this figures from her spoiled friends that had divorced wealthy doctors and lawyers. She failed to realize that (a) I'm not rich, (b) we had no children. I was tied of being separated.
So I decided to take the job.
I created a budget for me to live on there. I offered Claire $500USD a month for two years, $30k in retirement money, the Mercedes Benz, all the furniture and everything in the house.
This left me with my clothes, my laptop, my old pickup truck, most of my retirement funds, and all the debt. I told her to take it or leave it. I was moving to Australia in two months. Good luck getting money from me once I move.
Her lawyer finally talked her into reality. She accepted the terms. It helped that I documented all my income and assets to her lawyer to prove I was not stashing thousands of dollars away.
I slept good for the first time in recent memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment