cjsag94 said:
FlyFisher09 said:
Yes this is more or less the idea. Turning a hobby into an income generator would be awesome, but even having the freedom to pursue something I find more rewarding than my corporate path would be worthwhile I think.
So, let me ask... How much will you live on vs how much will you save during this process?
Let's say you answer you earn $150... Live on 50, save 100. Could you simply start your"hobby for a living" now and earn 50k? I know it's not exactly the same, but if your corporate path isn't rewarding, is sitting there next 15 years in that worthwhile?
I'll answer this since those numbers are close enough to my situation. Working a "more enjoyable" job just to cover my living expenses wouldn't make sense because I'd essentially be forcing myself to work to survive as long as I live and never achieve financial independence or even be able to take extended amounts of time off.
Meanwhile the high ratio of income that I'm saving is compounding over the years to an exponentially larger stash that will at some point be able to sustain however I want to live indefinitely, possibly without having to withdraw much of the principle. The amount luxury I want to live my extended retired years on will determine how long I want to keep working.
I work in med device engineering and by no means enjoy my job but can't imagine really enjoying any type of work that much. It has enough perks and conveniences to where I don't despise it and I've created a living situation where my weekends are probably more enjoyable than 90% of the single population without having to blow much money on it. I live in a beach house in Newport Beach but share it with good friend from grad school on a similar track (but a bit higher up in pharm). I'm smart with all my spending/expenses (could ref Mr. Money Mustache principles) and set up my living economically efficiently enough to not cost much more than the average person in a much lower cost of living area. Entertainment wise I've managed to game the social scene of OC enough to where I'm able to I'm able to do a crazy amount of fun things constantly for very little spend (clubs/tables/lavish mansion/penthouse parties/boats etc) so on the weekends frequently getting to live on the level of all the "FIRE'd" playboys which composed highly of trust fund kids, young company owners/sellers, dealers, etc that just burn through money on fun all the time.
mid 2018 the startup I worked for was bought out and I took a very generous severance(a portion of which was put towards maxing retirement funds) and an entire year off of work (half-assedly searching for my next job so not totally vacationing, but still living on the beach, and mainly just partying 4-5 nights a week), and when I went back to work a few months ago, with all my investments remaining in aggressive funds and with performance of the market, my net worth had actually risen ~$80K in the full year away from work, took advantage of some benifits and I had cut spending in that time but not by a lot, and since returning to work found it comfortable to not need to raise it by much yet. My older SUV also died in that time and I came out with a Jaguar(just a bit of the company stock payout)
well more detail than I planned to go into, but suppose this is just to put out another type of living situation out there, maybe to illustrate that you can live in an "expensive" area and have lots of fun while still building towards FIRE at a good rate, though the main key is staying single (both for the fun and economical aspects) but that's my heavy foreseeable preference anyways. But I managed into a situation where I'm willing to put up with work and still enjoy life they way many don't ever get to so I'm grateful for that and trying to make the most of it.
Although if it were feasible with my career track I'd be willing to take a year of reduced earnings in exchange for getting to travel and live in exotic places, can't really put a value on getting to do that while you're still young (and again, single) enough to fully enjoy it