Lol 7 years for 100,000?? Did he put it all up his nose?

A buddy of mine working at apprentice pipe fitter saved up 55k over 13 months and another has about 80 working 2 years and both are terrible with their money

I do agree completely about the transferable skills though

$100k over 7 years is pretty bad for the Mac.

I'm making nowhere close to Mac money and am banking about $1000-$1500/month.

no doubt, it's terrible, though it's not all that rare for even high income earners to save very little, especially if they're young. his lack of savings really supports the point i was getting at though - he gave seven years to the idea of getting ahead but didn't achieve a whole lot because he had no long-term plan. he never gave a thought to where he'd be after 5-10-15 years. there's a valuable lesson to be learned there for any young guys reading this thread.

+1 what mindbomber said, it's not just for oil field workers I've seen even accountants go way in over their heads in finance/long term savings.

Granted however, in the oil field the temptations for instant gratification (booze,girls,F350) is much stronger.

Anyone would like to share their prediction what happens if oil prices stick at $75-$80 for a while? Would work slowdown considerably?

I would imagine there would be less hse people required to tell you that Ice is slippery and steam is hot

Hmmm... not sure I agree with you, I've never felt any sort of temptation before....



Mind you... I don't actually work in the oilsands.

Noting serious, expect some long term stability around that range. OPEC's recent move to drop the price of oil doesn't impact the oil sands as much as it impacts many of the shale oil producers in the US, this is a strong arm tactic to hurt the shale guys. Don't expect companies in Alberta to shut the taps on current major projects until we hit the high 50's IMO.

OPEC Says Shale Drillers First Affected by Oil-Price Drop - Bloomberg

Re: Mindbomber, couldn't have said it any better myself. Lots of people are lured to the oilsands for a quick buck, but the 7 years you might spend labouring come with a cost that is difficult to quantify in terms of limiting your progress/development etc. Even if you pursue a trade ticket, don't stop at one, get another ticket, go back to school eventually for a two year technical diploma, maybe later you can transfer into an actually Uni program etc.

That's why I already have my degree/trade what i'll be going back to at some point. You have to go up there with a goal and stick to that goal. Unless that is if you wanna stick it out here and make a career out of it which is very easy to do. Buddy who worked rigs for 7 years, if he busted his ass should've moved up off the rig floor or at least been a driller by the time he was done. Hell my friend is a motorman and thinking of applying to be a directional driller pretty quick ($1000+ a day). It's all about being smart and looking to the future.

Right now i'm putting away roughly 60% of my pay into the bank and I still live a pretty decent life, have more disposable income than my friends, and drive a Raptor haha.

The amount of losers up here that are stuck in a rut is very shocking. I would say 1\3 people are paying upwards of 3k a month in alimony/child support to ex spouses and the rest of they money goes up their nose, into the truck, the strippers, etc. It's half the reason I still live in Van and fly in and out, I don't wanna be around that shit. Not because I can't control myself but because I couldn't give a fuck for it haha.

7:50 for Canada, but the whole video is informative on the economics and politics of oil.

So what would be the course of advice for someone who has 0 experience and knowledge.

i dont have trouble staying home all week being entertained by the internet.

Is 5 years, 500k saved up an unrealistic goal?

5 years being amazingly stingy and saving every penmy I'd say 300,000 would be a tough goal but possible depending on situation from what i know of the circumstances

All this oil sands talk makes me wish I went to Fort Mac or somewhere else when I was younger.

My friend worked for Schlumerberger and he said the oil rig engineers made about $250K/year. He worked in some compound that was north of Fort Mac and he eventually got sick of it after 2 years. Similar to what has been stated, he didn't gain any transferable skills (even as an engineer), so he had to start all over when he start working in the lower mainland. I think he saved up some good money though.

...to be young again.

Hmmm not sure that was very informative regarding Canada... the simple version is this, so long as we are only really exporting to the USA we are tied to WTI prices, once we open up a means of exporting to other countries we are tied to the Brent standard. (Brent pricing accounts for roughly 2/3 of all transactions, WTI is maybe 10%.) Effectively increasing the value of our resource overnight.. though it won't do much to increase what our counterparts to the south are willing to pay.

From wiki;

I also have to LOL at the Trudeau comment, the libs have zero chance of beating the conservatives, the best they can hope for is a conservative minority government. The only way the conservatives will find themselves on the outside looking in is if the NDP and Libs somehow merge. All the liberal voters in Canada voting for one party might oust the conservatives, but not when they are voting for two different parties.

Anyway, I'm obviously pro pipeline, and I do believe we should open up an export route to Asia using the Northern Gateway... but... I do understand the concerns associated with the massive bump in coastal tanker traffic and I believe the concerns are valid. The stakeholders for that pipeline really need to find some way to ensure that shipping channel is safe, easily navigated, and that extensive consideration be given to a quick and effective incident response plan.

It's not the pipelines that are a problem, they are safe, and certainly much safer than shipping by train (supported by statistics)... the tankers are the concern IMO.

Everyone who wants a job in Fort Mac.

Short, multi step plan.

1. Make small sign. Reading - Hard working, drug free, looking for work. Wear around neck
2. Go to local Fort Mac bar
3. Be friendly, understand you will probably do hard bitch work. Talk to everyone

GO!







seriously though, just go. Stop in Edmonton, apply at oil rig companies.

Everyone I talk to always asks me 'man get me a job'. So many people don't understand, give yourself one week. 3 days in Edmonton and 3 in Fort Mac and apply everywhere. Go in person to apply. I bet 75% of people if they were to do this would get a job.

Giving up myself 25% leeway for the people who go with attitude and just look like useless fucks.

Lol 100k in 7 years.

Your friend is a tool. Classic case of somebody who was better off working down here for minimum wage till he learned the value of money.

I blew 2 paycheques before learning to save first and spend 2nd. Not bragging, but even a remote level of fiscal responsibility and foresight would allow someone with even a minute level of intelligence to save quadruple your buddy in 7 years.

Maybe if you start out as just a laborer at 18 then this might be true, even then if you are even slightly above average and slightly responsible saving 300k isn't a hard deal.

Think about it after 5 years up north if you aren't a foreman or certified tradesperson you should just quit, because you are wasting your time...

I know I'm splitting hairs with what you're saying but^^^^^ not all money is in being a certified tradesperson/foreman. Although, I assume with foreman you're including all supervisor/tool push positions?

Even then there's consultants, directional hands, tool hands, rig managers, etc. that will make close to 300k/year. Then there's starting your own company. My supervisors buddy put a ridiculously small sum of money down and got close to 1mil business loan to buy a couple fluid bulkers. Stupid money if you own your own trucks.

Disregard if you're talking about higher salary than that.

the main point they're trying to make is that having a trade gives you a transferable skill that you can bring back home and continue making decent money instead of having to finding some shitty warehouse job just to pay the bills.

My point was more along the lines Knight made.

I just mean that if you are willing to put the time and energy into spending 5 years in the mac, or anywhere for that matter, if you are just starting out the money comes secondary to the experience you gain.

As a younger person on sites, you can move up and gain EXTREMELY valuable experience very quickly, you just have to apply yourself, and stay motivated, and hardworking.

Sure making 300k a year is nice, what's nicer is being able to move anywhere in the world and apply your knowledge, irrelevant of whether that be engineering, design, pipe-fitting, welding, etc.

I see too many people with the mentality of "I'm gonna go to the mac for 2 years as a laborer, to get ahead on my bills, then come and settle down". If those are your plans, then you are probably better off just staying in town, and working at a job you intend to keep and move up the ranks in.

I am very pro for the oldschool idea of building a career in an industry. It just so happens the industry I chose was industrial construction. I don't see the point of people trying to switch into a new industry for a couple years just to make a few bucks. Sure it might be temporarily easy money, but after you factor the fact that you just set your own life and real career path backwards by two years, you were probably better off not bothering.

So I hear horizon drilling stopped work in december which is unusual...
Thoughts?

hoping it picks up next year for alberta. Was so slow this year in BC and id love to travel card up in alberta for half the year. Im an Boilermaker apprentice. Tough being one in BC on the apprentice (Starvation) Board lol.

LIVING THE DREAM

Not all that unusual, depending on the ground conditions of the drill site and access roads it's often a more intelligent approach to wait until the ground has frozen before starting work. As a rule of thumb, in Northern Alberta, if you can't pack frost, you are waiting until at least mid-January before the ground in most areas is pretty stable.

Obviously this depends on the soil type, in some areas the muskeg never really freezes at all.