From the inbox (paraphrased):
“Our portfolio is down and prices are up. This has caused some anxiety in our household, and I’ve considered going back to work (even just part time.) I think more income will help with cash flow and reduce worry… but I’m concerned that I will feel like I failed at early retirement. What do you think about this?”
I don’t know the best way to work through this decision and associated emotions, but a technique that I have used successfully in the past is to find others who have been through something similar and see if I can learn from their decisions and example.
Let me be that example. I recently got a job.
Failing at Early Retirement
The idea that earning some income is equivalent to failure for an early retiree is common, but I think it is misplaced.
One of the items in my Foundation for Long Term Success is “Be OK with going back to work for awhile.” Only death and taxes are guaranteed (although I beg to differ somewhat on that point also.)
There is no right/wrong or moral weight to the decision to add or subtract dollars from a retirement portfolio, so if something doesn’t feel right and you think work would help… then work.
In my own recent experience, we moved back to the US ~1.5 years ago and our cost of living has exploded / our passive income is down (as expected.) I have a lot of time on my hands: Both kids are in school at least part-time, I don’t enjoy biking in the rain, I can’t snowboard during the week and still shuttle the kids to/from school, and after a decade of not having a job… I was a little curious.
The combination of this situation (time abundance / cash flow down / expenses up), years of hearing that I could never find a job again even if I wanted one, and the email above in the intro inspired me to look for some part-time work.
My Job
For ~6 weeks between the week before Thanksgiving and Christmas, I worked as a seasonal delivery driver for UPS using my own car… what they call a PVD (Personal Vehicle Driver.) I first learned about this position from a PVD dropping packages off on our porch last year. I understand that Amazon also has a similar position.
This job paid $28/hour ($42/hour for OT) plus $0.685/mile to compensate for wear and tear on my automobile.
The job was fairly simple.. I was paired up with one of those brown trucks and asked to deliver ~150 packages per day. I would fill my car with as many packages as possible and then meet the truck to fill again. Repeat as necessary.
At training / orientation the boss man said they required I work 8+ hours per day, 6 days per week through the holiday season. If I delivered all of the packages on my route, I was to call the UPS coordination office to get assigned to another route that was running behind.
Financials
Overall I worked 90.03 hours with gross pay of $3,151.75 (~$34.25/hour.)
My final paystub – I left all the W4 stuff as default.
I had some expenses. I charged my EV at home each night, and had maybe $30 worth of fuel costs (rough guess.)
Mostly I brought my own lunch but I ate at Taco Bell a few times (always a risk) and bought a few diet cokes and coffees at McD’s.
The sweet safety vest was provided by UPS, but I was required to have “work boots” which cost me about $60 (although this was something I wanted for yard work anyway so the job just provided some extra motivation.)
I also paid union dues and related fees of $53.65
Thoughts
The work itself was actually kind of enjoyable… I listened to music, got to explore some neighborhoods, and was paid to exercise a bit (avg 15k steps/day.) It was fairly relaxing and meditative.
That is… unless it was raining. Then it was not enjoyable at all. I only worked a few times after sunset, but that was not very enjoyable either (although some other PVDs loved it – everything takes longer at night, so the $/package goes up.)
Overall I would probably get a poor performance review… I delivered packages faster than requested, but I was unreliable time wise.
At most I worked 5-6 hours per day, only worked 2 Saturdays (so minimal OT) and then only a few hours, and missed 3.5 weeks of work overall due to other plans and life circumstances:
– Disney and LA for a week
– Tahoe for Thanksgiving (so I couldn’t help with Black Friday)
– the kids got sick for a few days (our toddler had the start of pneumonia and was put on antibiotics)
– I didn’t work Christmas week because Jr was on holiday break
I’m glad I tried it, but…
Was it worth it?
Overall I don’t think it was worth it.
I think the pay was reasonable/good for what the job entailed, but it had minimal impact to our finances. I was paid maybe 3% of our annual expenses or just enough to cover our Thanksgiving weekend in Tahoe (first snowboarding day of the season.) Certainly I could have worked more and made 6%…
The greatest financial benefit was that it reminded me of just how much time and energy is required to make $100… the coffee machine we got ourselves for Christmas required almost 20 hours of life energy (to use a concept from the classic YMOYL) but seems worth it.
But even though I contributed the bare minimum time wise, the impact to life was much larger… and a good reminder of why retirement is so great in the first place.
(I think my post Retirement Has Completely Ruined Me has held up very well.)
I still haven’t caught up with the yard work and home projects that were put on hold during this time.
I was tired when I got home and was a less attentive father and partner. Our household became more chaotic and Winnie bore a greater burden with taking care of two kids for more hours per day.
I missed one or two days of good snowboarding, and Jr missed an after-school activity because we couldn’t fit it into the tighter schedule.
I also let the blog stagnate a little during this time and I’m sure income was lower as a result.
Overall… I don’t plan to do this again next season and I am not looking for any other income opportunities at this time. But I could.
Summary
Should you feel like you failed at early retirement if you decide to do some paid work? No.
I think my working part-time was an interesting and worthwhile exercise, because:
– I learned that getting a reasonably paying job wasn’t very difficult even after a decade of sloth
– I was reminded of the value of $100
– I got to be a bad example, once again
Try some things, no big deal. Maybe you will enjoy some work and find it brings value to your life. Maybe you will find that overall it isn’t worth it. Either way… you get some extra $ to pay for your next vacation.
How do you feel about a bit of work in retirement?
—
Something extra: Unrelated to anything other than I noticed I mentioned snowboarding a few times in this post, Jr is really starting to get it figured out. This video is from a couple of weeks ago and he has noticeably improved since then… did our first black diamond run together on Christmas Eve and we (me!) are having so much more fun together now that he has graduated beyond the greens.
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I went back to work a few times for temporary gigs in my actual field. It was enjoyable to be back in the game (digital marketing) and definitely got my competitive juices flowing, plus I got to go to a bunch of sweet parties as the work was for a sort of nightlife non-profit, but the office politics were terrible (And I was 90% remote). It just reminded me that there are a lot of crappy people in the work world and it’s hard to tolerate them when you don’t have to.
My favorite moment was when they asked me for an entire marketing plan at 6 a.m. for use in their 10 a.m. meeting (a plan I told them they would likely need days earlier and asked if I could put together for them. They said it wouldn’t be needed).
Anyway, the email woke me up and I just hit reply all and said “Y’all are effin nuts” and went back to sleep. I did use the actual curse word. It’s nice to have actual eff you money and to use it.
I am now a legend to my former coworkers there but it didn’t endear me to management. lol. Needless to say, I will not be returning to work again anytime soon.
Also, that manager got fired shortly thereafter.
I think if I do work again it’ll be something self-directed where I control most of it and really enjoy it. I ain’t going back to work for just money. After the taxes on it, it wasn’t even really worth the headache even though I was charging them about $60 / hr.
Anyway, just my two cents. If your reader can find enjoyable and flexible work, I don’t think it’s failing to tip his toe back in and see how it is..
My toe got burnt but that doesn’t mean his will. FI to me is the freedom to do what you want. If he/she wants to pad the old income, he/she shouldn’t feel bad about it.
It’s a great time to have some extra cash for the market.
Anyway, hope you’re well dude!
Happy New Year,
Dan
You are also a legend to me now. The absolute utter incompetence of management is a source wonder to me. I work for PG&E, a CA utility. The gaffs of middle and upper management are breathtaking, worthy of being immortalized in Dilbert forever, but the fact the company has a great monopoly on natural gas and electricity keeps them in business despite all of it. I can’t FI yet, so my strategy is to do my blue collar job, keep my head down, and tune them all out as best I can. But you, sir, are the wind beneath my wings. Cheers!
#respect
That is a lot of drama nobody needs to deal with.
A funny thing from this UPS gig… they held a raffle for a $200 television for anybody who worked both the Saturday and Monday before Christmas. For some reason I didn’t find it motivational and was unable to work either day.
I worked for UPS in DT Los Angeles in the summer graveyard shifts while at college. I unloaded the big tractor trailers and sweat out about 10 pounds a shift. Everybody worked hard and really humped. The pay was good. Even way back then, UPS had cameras on the sorters who were bonused on their sorting rate… they just never knew when the count was being done. One odd thing – I got the UPS employee magazine/newsletter and was struck by the relatively young ages of the obituaries. Go figure!
Good read and thanks for sharing!
I think too many people take a ridged approach to early retirement! I retired at age 32 and I’d be very surprised if something unexpected didn’t come up in the 33 years between now and the normal retirement age of 65.
Being able to take time away from 9-5 on your terms is a wonderful thing and if you periodically pick up a side gig or part time job when you feel like it to maintain that life style I see nothing wrong with that!
In my opinion it’s better than living on rice and potatoes to force it, or pretending you don’t have a shortfall and causing further damage to your future cashflow.
I like to remind myself that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”
In that spirit, I continue to bring a little side $$ from side gigs to ensure my future freedom remains secure
Cheers!
My chillrens were on year-’round skool schedule and we did Tahoe every January. We stayed at the Nugget in Sparks in the Nugget’s”Garden Rooms” (no windows and cheapest rooms available). Such good times, brings a smile to my face. One time my buddy and I took my young son up too high and he was just flying down the hill toward trees and rocks and I was frozen except to yell “Fall down, lay down.” He eventually face-planted and I was never so happy. He said to me “I tried to pizza dad, I tried.” My buddy and I still have an uncomfortable chuckle about that. I made them carry their own gear 100% and I remember my youngest daughter trudging with skis and poles in her boots and snowmobile one-piece. Those were wonderful trips. We would hit Circus Circus basement games a couple of to let them relax when we got burnt out skiing. I wouldn’t trade those days for anything. The Nugget has restaurants and a cinema across the street. Never spent a penny in the casino.
Great article and very timely!
I had originally scheduled myself for early retirement at the beginning of this year, but the recession scared me off at least another year or two. My main concern is healthcare for myself and my family of 5 (wife + 3 children), along with just the inflated prices and the realization that my children will only be eating more as they get older.
When I saw my portfolio drop below my 4% retirement goal, I got spooked a bit and decided to keep riding the employment wave a bit longer.
It seems like you made the wise choice. Our 2-year-old eats more than my wife now… crazy how much those little buggers can eat.
What are you feeding the 2-year old? Our 20 month old refuses to eat almost everything!
He eats anything and everything, but most of it is homemade good stuff.
For snacks he likes string cheese, yogurt, raspberries/grapes/blueberries, etc…
Interesting experiment. Sounds like you learned quite a bit from it. Of course it’s not a failure to go back to work… If you want to. It’s always been more about financial independence to me and not so much about the retirement part. Financial independence provides the freedom and confidence to remove yourself from any situation that you feel is not in your best interest, work related or otherwise. I suppose this is easy to say for the guy with no kids, no home, no car, no obligations and traveling around Southeast Asia. But, it’s nice to know getting a job is easy after being out of the work force for a decade. It’s great to have choices. Maybe I’ll try it some time… Probably not. 😉
I think the “if you want to” part has a lot of wiggle room…
If you are early in retirement and your portfolio has dropped 30-50%, statistics says you will probably be OK. “Probably.” But for a lot of people that will make it feel like a need vs a want.
In any case, even 10 years in finding a job was pretty easy even though I am unlikely to do it again.
Aren’t they darling? It’s wonderful you guys had kids.
I’ve recently gone done to 4 days a week, so starting down the path to early retiremtent. Financial Independence is ticking along nicely. I’m just waiting for the dust to settle with inflation before deciding upon the timing of the next steps. In the meantime I’m just riding the bus… I hope to get off at a stop of my choosing, but if they kick me off (ie. Redundancy) I won’t be bothered.
I’ve done a little gig work for friends since retiring. One friend opened a tasting room and I picked up the Sunday shift pouring beer/wine/cider. $13/hour plus tips. I averaged close to $20/hour; the bar isn’t well located and unfortunately isn’t very busy.
Another friend sold crepes at a Saturday farmer’s market and I helped out by taking orders and payments. She was very happy that I could figure out order totals pretty easily (when a family orders 4 crepes with multiple additions or substitutions, it takes some figuring). I majored in math! Some others in that role would pull out their phone calculator. That one paid $20/hour and was BUSY. Time flew and it was fun though.
I told both friends to fire me any time, but they wouldn’t because I was reliable. I never flaked, I showed up on time, I stayed sober while at work (a problem for some bartenders at the tap house), and I didn’t steal from them.
I would probably pull out the calc too
Both of those gigs sound like a good time.
That’s pretty good. 5-6 hours per day would be too much for me, though.
I did scooter charging for a couple of years. It was really flexible and I got a lot of steps in. That was a great side gig, but it’s all over now.
I’d like to find something like that again. It was perfect for me. Maybe I can try delivering food, but that sounds like a pain. I’d miss meal times at home.
food delivery would suck
agreed, 5 hours is too long
Getting your kid up to single black diamond runs is pure gold. Better and longer runs, shorter lines. Note that as your kid progresses, double diamonds and complaints about waiting for the old man follows.
My kid could teach a masterclass on complaining… it is definitely coming.
Listening to complaints on the blacks is much better than complaints on the greens though.
The pandemic turned what I expected would be a 6–12-month self-funded sabbatical (when I voluntarily left my job at the end of 2018) into what has now grown into 4+ years of early retirement. During those 4 years I renovated our house and extensively landscaped our yard while my wife was in grad school. (I owe you some thanks, as it was your blog that set me straight on Roth IRAs and taxes in 2016, and thus helped bolster our savings before I stopped working.) My wife has since graduated and is now working, and we’re renting while we get our bearings in a new place.
That said, without the house or yard projects to lose myself in, I simply cannot come up with enough things to do to keep myself busy (n.b., we don’t have kids), nor do I have many reasons to engage with our new community, at least compared to what my past jobs used to provide. So until that perfect fixer-upper comes on the market, I too have been looking for work.
I’ve seen those same sorts of seasonal delivery jobs and the like on CL and Indeed, which I imagine in the right circumstances for the right person would be meditative and certainly might help pay some bills, but that kind of work, at least for me, wouldn’t connect me back into the world, nor would take advantage of my creative, problem-solving faculties. So for now I’ve decided to hold out for something that does. That is not to say I don’t value physical or manual work, I very much do, but I’d just prefer to exercise it with a little more autonomy. As a fun example, I’m experimenting with loaning myself out to people who need help with their DIY projects.
Seems like a good way to get out and about.
Perhaps a little outside your commute radius, but I wouldn’t mind some help in the Sacramento area building some new fence with an arbor w/ gate after a big tree fell on NYE and took out part of our garden and fence… thankfully it missed the house.
Oh man, so tempting! Honestly I would love to, but yeah, 3 hours, though not impossible, is also a bit of a haul. Hmm…
This is what we woke up to on Jan 1. At minimum I need to replace 2 fence posts – one was a 4×4, now shattered, and the other a postmaster steel post that impaled the trunk while being bent into a lightning bolt shape.
I’ll do that asap to keep the neighbors quiet but the weather forecast is 10 days of rain, so might be awhile. Then I’ll replace the whole street facing side of fence with a nice garden entrance with arbor when I get around to it. Should be fun.
HNY! That’s a cool side gig. I had no idea it existed. It also reminds me of when I gave over 500 Uber rides around the 2015.. It was pretty interesting and I got to share stories.
Do you think you could’ve had my phone and made more money if you just wrote more on the site?
I’m trying to take it down and arch and go back to easy living this year. With a declining economy, spending time working is not as worth it IMO.
Sam
My hourly rate is better with blogging for sure.
Seems like not a bad time to generate a little earned income. I’d love to be able to max out both of our Roth IRAs and use the money to buy slightly cheaper shares of VTI. Not willing, though, to give up our free health insurance through Medicaid. Earning even just a few thousands of $$ would push us over the cliff and force us to have to start dealing with the ACA to get our health insurance, and that just doesn’t seem worth it.
When I did the cost comparison of Medicaid vs ACA at the switch over threshold… cost was basically the same ($0) and ACA offered better/more choice for providers.
Deductibles, copays, and out of pocket maximum is $0 with Medicaid. It’s > $0 with ACA. What are you worst-case out-of-pocket expenses with ACA above the $0 premiums?
About $0
2 scenarios, with and without kids…
Without kids, the income threshold for Medicaid is extremely low (138% FPL.) For household size = 2 that is ~$25k in 2023. Add $1 of income to push you onto ACA and you are in a Silver94 plan where fees/copays/coinsurance/deductible is basically zero.
With kids, the threshold is much higher… kids are on Medicaid (Medi-cal in California) up to 266% FPL. For household size = 4, that is ~$74k. Add $1 and the kids are also on ACA, which is actually likely cheaper… premiums stay the same but our deductible now applies to 4 people instead of 2, so easier to hit.
Fascinating! I had no idea that the copays/coinsurance/deductible/OOP max was so low for an ACA silver plan. You’ve officially blown my mind.
Specifically silver plans with CSRs (cost sharing reduction)
Medicaid for adults is a very limited network (especially in California) unless you live near a major academic medical center that is in-network, although if you can find a caregiver Medicaid will pay, which can’t be said for many private insurances.
Medicaid is usually great for kids; the pediatricians near me don’t accept it, but that’s pretty rare.
No dental coverage either
Interesting post. thanks for sharing. I FIRE’d almost exactly 1 year ago. I’ve enjoyed the time off, and so far don’t need the extra money even with increased inflation-related costs, but I have been sort of daydreaming about what job would I want to do if money really didn’t matter. I love driving so I thought about this package delivery thing, but then when I see the drivers they all look so stressed out and practically running to and from their trucks. (they also hate my house because I live up on a hill and it’s a nightmare in winter/rain). So Im still thinking through what I might consider doing if I did want to go back. The daydreaming continues….
A full time delivery person might feel some stress… my job was a stress relief valve for them.
I felt basically zero stress, because really none of it mattered.
One of my friends got a job at the census. He managed their field office and said base rates for their employees were $30 hr. So something to keep an eye out for every 10 yrs.
Which ski pass did you get?
Got a season pass at Boreal. One kid free with each adult pass so reasonably priced.
May change to epic pass next year for better intermediate/advanced terrain but Boreal is nice because we can go door-to-door in 70 minutes
Wow, another thing that’s cheaper in CA! Ski passes! I must move!
As I understand it prices have gone up because the Vail group bought Northstar and Heavenly, but the locals pass is reasonably priced, ~$500 per person or thereabouts.
All things considered, even if we buy 4 passes ($2k/year) that is pretty cheap on a per lift ticket basis.
Wow, that’s insanely cheap, lucky for you.
I’m impressed Vail kept locals passes, usually they nix them and force everyone onto Epic.
I must relocate!
California is great – lots of sunshine, low taxes, easy access to the great outdoors…
California IS great and it has everything- mountains, ocean, great food, all kinds of people, lots of opportunities.
Property taxes seem kind of high, at least initially, but I guess they don’t really go up (we pay .23% of the actual value of our home) so maybe it evens out over time.
But yes, California is amazing.
I think it’s a bit silly to consider working for income in retirement some sort of moral failure, which seems to be one set of prevailing opinion.
I would prefer to never NEED to work for income once we retire for lots of personal reasons but I’d love to dabble in income producing projects now and again. It’d depend very much on whether it requires enough commitment to interfere substantially with the primary point of retirement: being able to focus on all things not job related. Also on how boring the job is. Sometimes boring is good, especially if the job doesn’t matter to you, and sometimes it makes the job unbearable.
Occasionally I think I’d enjoy working retail or the medical equivalent again part time for how mundane the stakes are, but that’s probably because I’ve not had to deal with the general public for 20 years.
I would probably have a few moral failures if I had to deal with the general public on a regular basis…
I do wonder if there’d be a difference between HAVING to (like when I was putting myself through college) and choosing to (in this retirement scenario) when dealing with the general public.
I might have less patience.
My current job’s responsibilities are getting worryingly pared back, my wife is making enough on her own to support the household if needed, and my pals who own a small local distillery are looking at picking up staff to expand their bar’s footprint and hours. And a beloved longtime local brewery/restaurant is building out an ice cream shop next summer.
Keep sitting behind a desk for eight hours a day doing not very much until they decide to lay me off, or jump back into the service jobs of my youth… or both — hmm…
Beer and ice cream! Mmmm
I hope all works out!
Weren’t you in software development before you retired? I would think you could farm out your expertise at $100 to $200/hr. At those rates, it might be worth working part-time at your convenience.
I’m curious about this too. I know very little about this field but I wonder if after 10 years out of the field it might not be challenging to find part time work in it given changes that have happened.
I have no clue.
I was in hardware development. I can write code but am unlikely to pass a coding interview anywhere.
I didn’t really look for any income opportunities in my area of expertise because I don’t think the position exists that fits with my schedule.
After a year of blissful early retirement in 2021, I picked up some casual teaching work in 2022, which helped pay for my trip to Antarctica.
When school goes back after the summer holidays, I’ll be working term 1 full-time as an English teacher (but to sweeten the deal, I work 10 weeks but also get two weeks holiday pay.)
This will give me around 15K net cash to pay for my overseas holiday this year. (Probably UK and Ireland… though I still have to visit North America at some stage for my 7th and last continent…)
I never thought I’d work again, but this early on in my retirement, it’s nice to use the money for my travels. I’ll probably do bits of work here and there for a few more years, then pull the pin when teenage shenanigans get too annoying.
Working to pay for vacations sounds like an ideal balance
I love that NA is your final continent
‘I was on track to being able to retire at 67 with over a million dollar nest-egg.’
‘I could retire at pension age and not need to eke out my life on the pension.’
At $A26,689 / y and $A280,000 asset test threshold for single, both indexed and government guaranteed, plus owned home, all tax free, the Age Pension is better than $Ms invested privately, especially with returns less than inflation.
Reducing assessable assets greater than the threshold, by efficiently sinking into low maintenance cost Principal Place of Residence, pays 7.8% / y government guaranteed in increased Age Pension.
Thanks a lot for sharing this! I’m 2 years and 4 months (but who’s counting?) away from “retiring”. Knowing myself and my life, I strongly suspect I will have no problem keeping myself busy. But I always have so much fun talking to rideshare drivers and I suspect I would enjoy being in the driver’s seat if it was something I did every once in awhile for fun and some extra cash.
Would love to hear more about your experiences if you ever dip your toes into any other gig work! One’s perception on work changes a lot if you’re not doing it because you have to.
I FIRE’d myself in Nov 2021. One year later, my cost of living jumped over 10% and my stocks are down 20%. So I decided to go back to work full time in my field, making about the same (adjusted for inflation).
I don’t consider it a failure. My attitude is so much better now. Before FIRE, I was always checking how close I was to my goal, trying different safe withdrawal rates, and obsessing over minute details. Now I’m back at a job with less stress and I don’t worry about my FIRE goal. I know I can survive without working or go back to work whenever I want. I hit my goal, now work is just giving me a better probability that I’ll be safe later in life. I’m no longer FIRE’d but I know I can stop working again in the future.
optional / extra employment is 100x more enjoyable
those that retired under the age of 45 or so with a family with barely $1 million odd nest egg made a big mistake IMHO.
we all have opinions
Could you elaborate on why your cost of living has exploded? Raising a family in California in the “upper middle class” lifestyle would seem to explain how the expenses exploded, but why did you all decide to return to that lifestyle? If you had to cut expenses/de-inflate your lifestyle, could you do it now?
It’s just the difference in cost between our life in Taiwan vs US.
>why did you all decide to return to that lifestyle?
Because we like it.
>If you had to cut expenses/de-inflate your lifestyle, could you do it now?
Most of our expenses are fixed so cutting expenses significantly would require a big change – selling a house and moving, for example.
But – importantly – we don’t have to make cuts. Our portfolio can sustain our lifestyle without issues. As I said in the post above, from an income standpoint this experiment was a waste of time – I earned maybe 3% of our total cost of living / it took too much time / reduced quality of life.
I think this exemplifies the beauty of FI, you can choose go back to work, you’re not forced to. Or you can find work you enjoy, for a period of time you want.
I’m looking forward to working part-time for the public library, or REI, the parks department as a volunteer, or even for the fire department.
Those are quite meaningful jobs, and while some are far from a walk in the park, it’s nice knowing you don’t need the job or the money. You start saying “I can’t because I want to go to work tomorrow”
Be glad you’re not doing UPS in this recent string of storms! But then again, you wouldn’t have to.
I did however have to work in the rain to fix our fence when a tree fell on it.
Broad market down 20% in 2002. 8-9% inflation. Have a job with good health insurance is the best. Forget about FIRE. I won’t retire at least at 55-65.
Why so soon?
Create a cash position to draw funds when markets are higher. 3 to 5 years and review yearly. Instead of liquidation during tough times.
Family is number one priority so part time is an option.
Enjoy your blog. Best of luck 8.
This is an extremely high level of cash to hold and will most likely result in lower total return even if selling equities during a recession. Current tough times are only down 20% which brings us back to 2021
I’d probably try the same thing in years the market was down big. Did they have any pushback about you working shorter hours? Do you know if they offered a similar rate in LCOL areas or was it adjusted for COL.
Have you ever thought about tutoring online? I’ve heard if you build a good reputation, you can earn $50-100/hr working pretty flexible hours at something that’s reasonably rewarding and mentally stimulating.
Once the orientation was done 100% of communication was via text. Nobody ever responded to my texts that I wouldn’t be working.
I do some “tutoring” for people pursuing FI, but the idea of general tutoring doesn’t seem very appealing.
Have you ever been able to find something that you love to do? Something that you could do for 30, 40 or more hours per week and get paid for it, and feel invigorated by it instead of tired or stressed? Something that others might consider work, but that you would never want to retire from?
I’ve been reading your blog since 2012, when I started my own pursuit of FIRE. It didn’t seem like your old professional career, driving for UPS, or tutoring for example, had much appeal.
I have worked in biomedical science and then healthcare for 18 years and one work experience after another has been a matter of “relatively bearable,” “it could be worse,” etc. The pandemic years were a new kind of horrible and I would really like to stop doing it. Most doctors I know feel the same, but they are buried in debt and hooked to their expensive lifestyles.
Employers in vastly different fields have zero interest in me…I’m terminally educated, “overqualified,” or have no relevant experience. I may be too old (38) to do something that I have always enjoyed, such as music. Cry me a river to the investment brokerage account, but sometimes I wonder if it has all been worth it.
Have any advice?
Hi Andrew
I don’t think a thing exists where you can both earn income and love absolutely. “Thing you love” and “income generator” are 2 sides of a coin.
I have convinced myself that they coexisted for a time, at most a year or two… but ultimately what is required to make something profitable is anathema to passion except in the extremes (e.g. 0.01% of musicians are successful financially.) This is not to say that I didn’t like my job… I just would have liked it a whole lot more if it didn’t suck so much time and physical & emotional energy, and involve working with certain people.
The solution for the masses is to create time freedom so that our passions can be pursued independent of the need to earn a living. If income comes, great, but it can’t be the primary motivator.
re: employers – employers are weird. It’s ok to lie to them by omission (not including study of medicine on a resume, for example) or you may have to create the position you desire (self-employment.)
My 2c – consider the source (a guy who retired in his 30s for various reasons)
Thank you.
All those rock stars dying in their fifties and sixties- it’s a job, even for them, they get addicted to the lifestyle and then they have to deliver long after they want to.
How’s the weather?
“Free Bird!”
The weather is fantastic! So much snow… will have to get on the slopes this weekend for sure.
Excellent! I think you might need to live closer to the snow, eh? Seems like you are really enjoying snowboarding this winter!
No… I want to live where I can be on the slopes in about an hour but not so close that I might have to shovel.
I retired slightly early with way more assets than I needed to fund retirement but I still wanted to work some. I had some niche skill sets and was able to find some part time consulting that netted me a six figure income but only required about eight hours a week of work. I kept that up the first five years I was retired and when I finally didn’t feel the desire to keep working two years ago I cut back to maybe a handful of hours a month, or no work at all. I considered myself fully retired when I was consulting because I wasn’t working to earn money, I was working to stay challenged mentally and to ease into retired life. It shouldn’t be a source of shame, it should be a source of self confidence that you have value in the market place and that even if the worst happened you have yourself as a safety net.
An excellent perspective, good sir.
Hello,
When will your 2023 Federal Tax Calculator be up and running from the drop down menu.
It’s such a great feature I use it every year. Thanks
How about now?
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/federal-income-tax-calculator/
Awesome. Thanks Brother!!!!
I’ve also returned to work… a gig really. Best part is that I choose my days to work. $500/day for teaching professional development classes, air and hotel and $90/day per diem paid over and above. Typically two days at a time. Some classes via Zoom paid at the same rate, unless they are broken into half-day sessions and then I get paid $300/half day. Made $6200 on 1099-NEC last year (travel and per diem were not taxable) and am on pace to make $18-20K this year. Best part is… they send me “offers” that I can choose to accept or not. I’ll take offers that fit our travel plans, and I’ve even parlayed it into my wife traveling with me using the SW Companion Pass when possible. No homework or tests to grade, no corresponding with clients for registration and coordination, and the firm handles all of the hotel booking, class location and setup logistics and other arrangements for me. Heck, I don’t even have to create content – I just deliver theirs. It’s been a pretty sweet ride so far. And at this level I can keep my income below the thresholds to maximize PTC subsidies and have a net zero effective federal income tax rate (besides the necessary self-employment tax).
Jackpot! Getting paid to travel is a dream setup.
Yeah I’m waiting on that nice fat international assignment. Not holding my breath but maybe someday!
I retired from full time ER/Urgent Care work but I’m really enjoying part time “country doc” work during the winter while we’re in Texas. In the summer, we head up North to Canada to enjoy working on the lake house and spend time with the family. I’ve found that I can make enough money from my part time winter country doc work that we don’t have to touch savings. Which is good because the lake house is a cash eater!