Love-Hate relationship with assignment

And especially in the case of assignment. I Love the Money and Hate the Travelling and at times, the Extra Hrs and Effort put in.

I do expecially love investment cos its more fruitful. Though this year, thanks to the Nuclear issue, stocks are red, and moving around very little. Just have to wait and continue doing the Main Job. I do wish it pays more still. Who doesnt want that?

K my job is secured for the next year, at a measly increase of $100 and a change in title from ALT (assistant language teacher) to 'Teacher' which we negotiated and had to wring out from them. Otherwise it would have been still the same increased work load of a full teacher as an ALT and at $50... My pay is near to what some other collegues are getting (but that one is an untrained teacher) and another is under the IMM contract. Plus the whole Jap tsunami plus nuclear thing, their economy not gonna do well (though this whole issue of pay was way b4 the incident and then they were already projecting slow economy)

Since I've accepted, I don't intend to jump halfway during the contract. Really no promise of any pay improvement the next contract year. Can only do what I can, but not at a rate that I would burn out or stay late. For one, I am quite efficient and if the workday and even workweek can allow me to finish during work hours, I have no intention of staying extra nor bringing work home. That is a promise to myself.

There is the intention to do just enough to get by decently, not overperform. No point esp unless that can lead to a negotiation to increase pay more. There is the constant nagging on the back of my mind - that the pay-cut I took when I decided to jump out of the unbearable MOE system is something I can't make back via the Main Job. I don't like this idea.

Sure. I can always work extra, doing assignment, even invest to make back the short-fall but the real question is 'Why do I need to do that?' Why can't I make the same pay from MOE and then decide that if I want extra, then I do assignment. AND any investment is pure extra... *sigh* Guess you just cant have the cake and eat it too.

I try to remind myself of the positive of this job; I kept a list with 9 reasons on it so far. I've decided not to type in the negative aspect to compare against cos that would tilt the scales instead of help give a balanced view.

I guess its not that I need that MOE pay but the fact is I am not secured. I used it as a benchmark of sort and so far for 2 years... my Main Job will not live up to that benchmark. That is the unsettling part. Also Spore is an expensive place to live in. Even without going overboard, my unemployment days saw me spending 1k-1.5k per month despite having almost 0 income. Scary. That same amount would see me living very comfortably in Msia. Yet one cant earn that much in Msia... Retire there I guess.

When one compares, its really hard to say.
Compared to low-income, my salary is way more decent.
Compared to peers, mine is on the low side, probably lowest few.
Compared to my sisters, surprisingly based on monthly pay excluding bonus, despite the pay-cut, I am still slightly higher than both of them.
Compared to some collegues, I am quite a chunk from them (close to my pay cut figure difference)
Who am I comparing with? Who should I compare to? I think the fairest is to compare to peers and the matter of fact is that with the pay-cut and lowered bonus (1mth only) I am one of the lowest at the moment.

Excluding the extra income from extra work; assignments.