u/Repulsive-Tax-130

Firstly, this smash burger joint needs kudos for the pickles! Fucking fantastic!

Was with this woman for eight years (we broke up 10 years ago). Sold the house “we” owned etc etc.. What still bugs me to this day is that every so often I get my calculator out and check this shit.

So we bought a house in late 2014 and lived in it together for just under 12 months (we broke up and she lived there until the house was sold in early 2016). We went half-half in the deposit, and the mutual arrangement was that I pay the mortgage, internet and utilities with my income and she pays for council rates and home/contents insurance with hers, as well as groceries and all the other sort of expenses one encounters; she was also meant to supplement me for a bit of play money if you will - beers, smokes, weed (we both smoked a lot of weed), video games etc.. We were taking home roughly the same amount (I was a touch higher due to my shift work). I was paying just over twice the minimum mortgage repayments and still had maybe $500 a week left over, which I was meant to save and to pay off my car loan ($160 pw). I wanted to smash the mortgage payments early so I could have a bit of leeway when the time came for me to settle off the crap shifts and make way for starting a family. We were gonna start trying for a kid in early 2016.

She never gave me any money. I know that sounds like a whinge, and I wasn’t about to ask her for money, so I’d use my $500 leftover to do my thing. When she got angry that I had fuck all in my account, it say I spent all my money because she wasn’t giving me any of her income to get by, like we’d organised, and I wasn’t going to be a beggar.

Anyway, we broke up, sold the house for $115K over what we paid, and the talk began about splitting the profit. I said that I’d paid ALL of the mortgage payments and was happy to return her deposit contribution, insurance, rates, groceries etc etc. and we were looking at a 65-35% split. Well that’s when you see who people truly are. She threatened to go after my superannuation, threatened to get a domestic violence order on me (I NEVER hit her) and said her mother can afford a better lawyer than I could. I ended up splitting the profit 50-50 coz I was heartbroken and honestly wasn’t planning on living much longer.

It’s been ten years….and I WISH I called her bluff on getting that fkn lawyer….

After lurking in many mechanic subs, I’m genuinely curious regarding the way US mechanical careers work. I’m Australian and it seems the yanks do things differently than where I live; and I have some questions. Will also end in describing how I’ve typically worked for the past 22 years to help clarify any differences I suspect.

I’ve seen ‘flat rate’ and ‘lube tech’ enough to deduce that a mechanic in a shop sort of works their own bay for a flat rate, but only earns the real money depending on how many vehicles go on the hoist. Is there some sort of negotiable arrangement between the boss and mechs? Is any agreement bound by government regulations or standards?

Is there a formal tertiary training regiment before a mechanic can be officially recognised as such? Is there a card or certificate that is recognised as a sort of diploma?

Is a lube tech different from a mechanic? I picture a lube tech as a person informally trained to conduct basic servicing and very basic diagnoses. We call em “filter spinners” here, but one still needs to complete an apprenticeship in the mechanical trade to hold legitimate employment in automotive maintenance. Tyre fitters don’t require tertiary training, but some of those blokes have given me a run for my money in steering geometry and tyre wear.

So in Australia, I had to sit a 4 year apprenticeship with 3 years of technical college training. In my state, the college is called TAFE and is government owned. During an apprenticeship, I was prohibited from signing off on any brake test printouts (by law), and was generally considered a bit of a shit-kicker; was given menial tasks and had to keep my eyes and ears open to absorb as much knowledge as possible. TAFE was one day a week for first year apprentices and all light vehicle mechanics. Heavy vehicle and plant mechanics then took “block release” in their second and third years - going to TAFE for 5 straight days every 5 weeks. I’ve had apprentices from other states who do it differently. Early release is allowed when an apprentice his finished his/her TAFE and has been considered capable enough to for go the final year of training. That happened to me; it was a sweet pay rise but I look back at 2007 and reckon I still knew bugger all.

The photo is my trade license. It’s pretty much recognised worldwide that I have received formal, legitimate training in the mechanical trade; the buggers made it renewable in 2013 which pissed off a lot of the old school boys who got their trade in the 80’s. I did my trade in heavy vehicle, and have noticed that some employers are a bit iffy when hiring a heavy vehicle mechanic for a light vehicle job, or vice versa.

Anyway, if you made it this far in reading, cheers!