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Thread: Semi Retirement

  1. #31
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by pippin88 View Post
    What you love doing for yourself, you may hate doing for others.
    This is wood rather than metal related but one thing I love doing is chainsaw milling timber. It must be because it brings back memories of working with my dad in the bush in the South West of WA. The serenity of the bush, the sawdust, the smell of the two stroke, the view of the cut timber etc. I milled timber at a tree loppers yard during my holidays and weekends for 6 years before I retired. I actually didn't care all that much about the timber if a fire went through my stacks I figured, "too bad", but the tree lopper that provided me with logs has them coming out of his ears so I would just cut some more - ie more fun. The tree lopper used quite a few slabs in nature playground structure, I sold some, gave lots way, and the weather and the white ants got their fair share.

    When I retired I thought I could occasionally pick up some spare cash by advertising my services to mill timber for others. I milled half a dozen logs for people and even though I was just milling the logs (ie didn't have to look after the slabs etc)- it was not the same. I just found it too stressful so I stopped advertising and only milled (sometimes for nothing) for my mens shed, relatives and friends, or if an exotic log came up . Recently the tree lopper purchased a nice new compact bandsaw mill which is real nice to drive and I have done some milling for people I don't know but I'm keeping it to a minimum by charging $65/hour - which (given how expensive timber is these days) is still dirt cheap, but is funny how many people still hink it's too much.

  2. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    This is wood rather than metal related but one thing I love doing is chainsaw milling timber. It must be because it brings back memories of working with my dad in the bush in the South West of WA. The serenity of the bush, the sawdust, the smell of the two stroke,
    Good evening Bob, I'm not sure about the "serenity of the bush" going hand in hand with the sound of a screaming smelly two stroke chainsaw, but I do understand how you enjoyed time with your dad in the bush just the same.

    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    Recently the tree lopper purchased a nice new compact bandsaw mill which is real nice to drive and I have done some milling for people I don't know but I'm keeping it to a minimum by charging $65/hour - which (given how expensive timber is these days) is still dirt cheap, but is funny how many people still hink it's too much.
    I definitely don't think that $65/hour is too much for the services of a bandsaw mill together with an operator who knows what he is doing. At our Community Shed, (a shed with both male and female members) we are currently operating several mills in order to actually fund the purchase of our shed. With timber prices and availability in the current climate being what they are, there will probably never be a better time to achieve that goal.

  3. #33
    BobL is offline Member: Blue and white apron brigade
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ropetangler View Post
    Good evening Bob, I'm not sure about the "serenity of the bush" going hand in hand with the sound of a screaming smelly two stroke chainsaw, but I do understand how you enjoyed time with your dad in the bush just the same.
    It's weird but I don't remember the chainsaw noises so much, and the noise I remember is a faint distant buzz. Although I would sometimes carry the fuel and oil for him, whenever I could I avoided dad - he didn't want me too close to falling trees anyway so I was either riding shotgun on the D9 (another OHS nightmare) that towed the logs back to the log landing, riding the log trucks back to the saw mill with the alcoholic pommie truck driver, starting a billy tea fire for smoko, wandering thru the bush looking for marron creeks etc. I don't know how I didn't get lost as some of teh bush was pretty dense. I tried to keep within ear shot of the chainsaw but the bush muffled that pretty quickly even over short distances. The air horn on the big logging truck was used once to get my attention they were leaving early.

    I never saw single live snake, although the truck driver killed a 6ft long dugite he found under pile of logs and put it on a stump for all to see. Dad also said he saw very few snakes as the word is they'd all leave the area as soon a big chainsaw started up. I once ended up inside a 1/4 acre minefield of bull ants nests and managed to get away with just a few bites. I saw snakes at home around the chook pen and it the nearby bush/swamp. Once while walking thru that bush I saw what looked like a smooth black stick and went to step on it but suddenly it moved - frightened the bejeezus out of me. Once there was a small bushfire in that bush and heaps of snakes came out of the swamp and took up residence under peoples houses and sheds etc. It took weeks before they left or we caught and unfortunately often killed.

    I definitely don't think that $65/hour is too much for the services of a bandsaw mill together with an operator who knows what he is doing. At our Community Shed, (a shed with both male and female members) we are currently operating several mills in order to actually fund the purchase of our shed. With timber prices and availability in the current climate being what they are, there will probably never be a better time to achieve that goal.
    Sounds like a worthwhile activity.

  4. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by pippin88 View Post
    What you love doing for yourself, you may hate doing for others.

    I would think hard before turning my hobbies into jobs. Might be ok to spend 2 hours of hobby time making something you could buy for very little when bought in quantity. Equation changes drastically if you are trying to make any money.

    Semi retirement funded by passive income would be great.
    That may well end up being the case. I just can't imagine id hate it more than I hate going to my current job though but I could be wrong.
    I do have the potential for other passive income in the way of airbnb'ing a property or long term rental.


    Quote Originally Posted by Reidy41 View Post
    I have a couple of tips of things you may need to look into. I don't know the answers but someone, preferably a trained professional will.

    The first is to look at indemnity insurance and apparently there are ways you can set up a hobby business, so that if someone really goes after you they only clean out the business and not touch you or your house.

    The second has been passed on to me but I don't understand all of the ins and outs. That is you can set up your business so that when it is closed say in ten years time all of the equipment and company 4WD have been depreciated. They can be sold from the business at the depreciated rate and if you happen to buy them from the business you can make a reasonable saving. I have been told by some in business that the net return not just comes from what you sell but from legitimate benefits from the business. With all the talk about reinvigorating manufacturing in Australia there may be some things on offer.

    On the other hand if the business only turns over a little bit there are apparently ways to set up a hobby business which means no tax deductions but different tax rates.

    Steve
    Thanks Steve All these things are worthy ideas worth looking into.

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