Do you charge your SO for services rendered ?

[Bill Douglas]

I used to do free favours for anyone and everyone, but not so much now.

I still do massive amounts of work on GF's house and belongings because she's GF. But other people maybe not. A friend wanted me to fabricate something in stainless steel for him. I wouldn't have minded and would have quite enjoyed it, but I asked him a question that he is an expert on and he could have spent a few hours looking it up and researching it for me, but he didn't. So I've decided all these "Me, me, me" people can pay someone else to do things for them.

[KFC911]

Do I need to state the obvious here?

We need to see her picture

Fred's Freebie Emporium & Garage

Methinks yer not just casual bumpin' buddies ... and you've each put up with each other this far

GFs don't pay ... except when they insist....

I'm rarely THAT good tho' ....

[LWJ]

In the topic of dudes that did it wrong:

My brother gave a 4Runner to some check to GTFO of his life.

A buddy who is a lawyer paid $20k for the same exit.

Caution is warranted!

And Fred? Sounds like you are addressing this correctly. Good for you.

[cockerpunk]

Originally Posted by speeder

This is a great question and very apropos for those of us with a reputation for working on cars, even without owning a professional repair facility.

its well known in my circle that i will fix your car for you if you are artist.

STEM careers are wildly over paid for variety of reasons, and while i can't give 1000 bucks to every artist i think deserves it every year, i can spend an afternoon with them doing breaks and control arms and save them 1500 bucks on their cars.

mostly it comes down to mutual aid kind of thinking. i have skills and tools, and its worth making friends with those assets. they are far more valuable than money sometimes.

[Bill Douglas]

In a past life I had a GF called Maria. She said she was going to buy a Hillman Hunter. I pleaded with her not to and told her it is one of the worst cars ever made but bought it because the seller was "Really nice".

Of course the car was a dud. She wanted me to fix/replace something - half a day's work. I said I would as long as she would sit around and talk with me while I did it. Her attention span was such that she couldn't manage that, so I said to get someone else to fix it.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

but I asked him a question that he is an expert on and he could have spent a few hours looking it up and researching it for me, but he didn't. So I've decided all these "Me, me, me" people can pay someone else to do things for them.

Hear Hear! Finally called in a favor (after I'd done maybe half a dozen) and was handed off to another unknown person who'd want payment. wth. Always got bad or not the best advice but I chalked that up to perhaps not knowing. My direct questions always got vague answers and changing the subject. The clincher that resurfaced was getting a phone call for a problem. I listed several possible things and circled around to the most obvious one a few times. "No it's not that. No. No." We were butting heads at that point. Okay. A few weeks later he called again and said "I figured it out. It was [my previous advice]". lol. Good job.

I usually let others take the lead when it's their idea and their gig. Good for them. I will try to learn something here. But when people, and not just women, start laying down a hard line with every good idea I might have, however small, then it's no longer a complimentary or reciprocal situation. One sided and possibly toxic. Limiting.

Life is too short for something that makes you question yourself or feel bad.

[Tobra]

I do so much free stuff it is ridiculous

[Crowbob]

I do so much ridiculous stuff it’s free.

[Crowbob]

Originally Posted by aschen

no charging, but its likely you will be quite tired after working on janky old German car and may need some relaxation therapy, she may be able to help

You may have fallen for a very old business model.

[A930Rocket]

I dated one girl in high school (smokin hot!) and I remember putting a stereo system in her VW bug. Another time, I was replacing the spark plugs, and one of them broke the threaded portion in the cylinder head. A friend and I went to a service station to ask for advice, and the guy said we shouldn’t have been fooling with the car. We went to the parts store and got an easy out to remove it. Simple.

When dating Ms Rocket, the transmission started making a noise, in her Toyota pre-runner. I pulled it, had a guy at the dealer do a rebuild on the side and I put it back in. Then, the differential went out. I pulled it and had it rebuilt by the same guy at the dealer, on the side.

Months later, Ms Rocket said everything was working great. The only thing that could go wrong, is the engine….!

Yeah, I rebuild that one in the driveway, while it was still in the truck.

The funny thing is, she’s always taken really good care of her cars.

Now that we’re married, she has all of the service done at the dealer or somewhere else.

[fanaudical]

What was it Mae West said about floors?

Fred - Maybe I missed it, but how do you handle finances with your girl in the rest of your life? Do you live together and split rent? I'd follow that same model if it's relevant.

Before I was married (and even today with my friends) - Time, advice, help, garage and tool "rental" is free - the person needing the work buys the parts.

[GH85Carrera]

Of course I do lots of work for my wife, from building flowerbeds, to oil changes on her Macan.
Projects for a spouse are way different from dating some chick.

[Gogar]

She definitely needs to buy the parts and you go ahead and fix it up gratis. Then you can just kinda sit back and be nice and wait and see.

[fintstone]

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/walmart-managers-can-earn-400000-year-no-college-stock-grant-rcna136364

Maximum starting pay for a freshly minted engineer in the Federal government is $49,960.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Hey it’s your money, waste it however you want. But go get an engineering degree before you talk about how STEM is overpaid. Also it’s easy to make well over $200k as the manager of a Walmart store.

If one opts to take a "management"/corporate ladder path ... the $$$ are different imo ... any field.

But some folks want that ... the sky is the limit.

A regular engineer/STEM geek is probably not gonna hit 200K .... but if they were after chasing $$$, they'd have picked a different path.... just my .01 worth

You'd have to pay me a LOT more than $200K to be a Walmart manager ... a LOT more

[RANDY P]

Let's start with you Punk- as usual you don't know what you're talking about. It's common.

rjp

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

bro, i am 15 years into a STEM career. i have 7 patents.

i know more than you. if you have emotions about that, deal with them yourself.

Are your patent applications also run on sentences with misspellings and first grade grammar? Lots of people are smarter than me, most of them also work for me. So go ahead and give yourself a big pat on the back for your big brain. Are the artists at least impressed?

Also, you can make over $200k managing a gas station.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Glad to see we’ve reached the name calling phase by page 3, that’s pretty quick. Guess there’s not much left for you to argue about since multiple people posted evidence showing that you’re wrong. Also in this context general manager is the manager of one Bucees store, which I would guess is somewhere in the same level of revenue as a Walmart. So the manager of a single retail location can make over $200k.

[fintstone]

Originally Posted by cockerpunk

Edited.

Whipped Pup is right. As noted earlier, Walmart Managers do pretty well.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/walmart-managers-can-earn-400000-year-no-college-stock-grant-rcna136364

Maximum starting pay for a freshly minted mechanical engineer in the Federal government is $49,960. That is Federal law. So $77K is not the low end of the range.

Lots of folks are on patents (group/team patents). Most do not make a lot of money (or any) as you can patent almost anything if you choose. If you think they give you bragging rights, you should probably provide details and let reader decide for themselves. Simply having a patent or patents really is not particularly impressive.

KC is also right. It is pretty darned hard to make over $200K in most of the country in a tech job. One usually has to move to a leadership role to even make close to that.

You do realize that you are not the only tech guy that posts here, don't you?

[Seahawk]

So, my wife goes, "the battery on the Polaris Ranger is having issues".

I go, "the Ranger too?"