Cashing in on my career

I have been fortunate in many respects in regards to my working life, I was well paid from an early age as I possessed the right skill sets for the time. Now I worked hard, really long hours every day of the week - it wasn't a give me. An 87 hour work week was standard; yep, 12 hours a day for a 7 day work week. It wasn't unheard of to work some overtime and easily break the 100 hour work week barrier. I once had a six week run of 18 hour days, starting at 6 am and knocking off at midnight, that was really grueling even for a 22 year old. I was saving for my house and I needed the deposit, needless to say, I was a pretty good saver back then.

Fast forward to now, it is time to cash in on my hard work, I need to enjoy life. I am writing this blog post sitting on a bench seat at Boat Quay in Singapore. I am still employed but I decided a decade ago to cash in on my good fortune. This weekend is a long weekend in Perth so no work Monday, I took some extra holiday days for Friday and Tuesday and I have a weekend away in Singapore. I also added the Thursday before and the Wednesday after as we are allowed to work from home one day per week and I have a pretty decent break. Yes, I have been to Singapore many times but as I had some expiring frequent flyer points that needed to be used straight away, I knew what I needed to do.

The emergence of budget airlines will allow me to undertake more short regional travel. I want to visit Jakarta, Taipei, Seoul, Osaka, Kota Kinablu and other South-East Asian destinations utilising budget flights and a few spare days over the weekend. I'm nearly 50 and it is time to start cashing in on my career fortunes, I'm not super rich and I don't care. I am happy to spend my money and utilise my time constructively instead of sitting around at home counting down to retirement at age 67 when I will be too old to enjoy budget travel. Am I cashing in on my career or cashing out of my career?