Exciting news! I Quit My Job!
Why tho?
So I can help more people through my content and personal finance coaching. While it has been good to do this part time as a side hustle I’m excited to see how much more I can do.
Not to be dramatic but…
I mentioned before my superstition about being 33 years old. I want to do the most I can to say everything I want to say in case I don’t make it the next 10 months (knock on wood).
The Plan:
*Take at least 1 year off from W-2 employment. I loved my last two employers and have nothing against being an employee. In fact, I often advocate for the 9-5. I expect that I will apply for work somewhere in a year (if I survive Corona and the rest of the year) since I value having stable, reliable income and am more productive with the external accountability of a supervisor.
*Develop a structured personal finance coaching program. I’ve been coaching for 3 years but it has been completely customized coaching for each person. I’d like to build it out better so people know what to expect and so that it is organized in a way that makes it easier to walk through.
*Create more content on the blog, YouTube and social. I have 107 ideas planned out in my bullet journal (honestly, just counted them) that are just sitting there…waiting to be written.
Main Concerns:
1. Opportunity cost. (definition: the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen.) I’ll be missing out on higher income since my side hustles aren’t even close to replacing my current income. I believe that eventually the work I am doing now will pay off but, in the meantime, I do have to recognize the opportunity cost that I’m giving up.
2. Discipline. I’m worried I lack the self-discipline required to keep myself on task. To mitigate this, I am working on creating external accountability. For example, my brother has been tracking my blog posts and if I fail to post, I have to pay him $100.
How the…?
Since we aren’t Financially Independent yet we will rely on Mr. FinanceRox’s steady income to pay current expenses. Being that we are so frugal (debt free including paid for house helps) and his income is above average, even if I make $0 we will still be able to save about 40% of his pre-tax income.
My last day was March 6th, so before all this coronavirus madness. If something were to happen to Mr. FinanceRox’s income, I would start applying for a new job. As of right now, they don’t foresee any layoffs. If he did lose his job, we have a fully stocked emergency fund which really helps us make this decision even with the uncertainty in the world right now.
Coast FI:
Definition: To have enough money invested at an early enough age that you no longer need to invest anymore to achieve financial independence by age 65 (or whatever age you define as a retirement age).
We have been “Coast FI” for a few years now so any savings we have just go to speed up our early retirement goal. Having our traditional retirement covered helped us have the peace of mind to make this decision.
Dealing with change
My job was great, I loved it and the people I worked with. So much so that I worked there for 9.5 years. This was a difficult decision to make.
“They” say we all die at the end so I want to make sure that I push myself to take on new challenges while I’m here…and this will definitely be a difficult new challenge!
For discussion:
–Do you have any advice for a new full-time entrepreneur?
-Advice for creating external accountability?
-What would you do with a year off?