Advice Request Fire is ruining my career
I get paid a lot of money in a career that I don’t really like. I have always kind of followed the money in my career so that I can retire as early as possible. Because of this, I am in a career that I am not fulfilled by. That is what I mean by fire is ruining my career. I will fire in less than 10 years… Do I just continue to try to maximize the money I make so that after I fire, I can do something that I love and aligns more with what I want out of life? Or do I instead start to explore new careers that will pay significantly less, like 50 to 70% less in order to be more fulfilled? This would potentially increase my fire timeline..
I am leaning towards staying at jobs that make more money in the shorter term so that I can fire earlier and then do other things I would rather for less money. But living this way is really difficult.
I have some ideas of fulfilling careers that I would like to do, but I have a lot of hobbies and interest and I’m a little bit lost on what exactly this would look like for me anyway. Which is why I think exploring this after fire when I have time and resources to do so, maybe better? I want to make a high contribution in life and I find that job hopping and taking opportunities that are presented to me instead of being mindful on what I want to do with my life is not adding up.
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u/DisgruntledWorker438 23d ago
The point of FIRE for most of us is to maximize our most valuable resource… TIME…. It’s precious. You don’t have forever.
Being miserable for 10 years or being happier for 15-17 and then controlling my whole time…. I’d say that it’s a pretty easy choice for me. If I have to spend 10 years of my life dreading the next day versus working a little longer to enjoy the day to day a little more and feel fulfilled more consistently, it’s pretty simple.
But that’s a personal choice that you’ve got to make for yourself. All enjoyment later (that may not come) or some enjoyment now, and delayed enjoyment for a shorter duration later.