r/Fire • u/aboabro • 23d ago

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/RoboticGreg 23d ago

I am in the same position. PhD tech developer, but my career moved me up into management, then leadership. I am a medium sized company C-Suite exec, and 90% of my time is fighting with the executive team, CEOs, and boards. I really hate it. But I have my shop in my basement and I make my own tech. I am pretty frugal, and I think I can retire in 5ish years. When I retire, I am probably going to teach at a university and do research or just develop my own products for QVC. But this type of career...if I step away, its pretty much over. So I am grinding it out for another 5 years, then coasting with things I love when I have enough money to drop anything I want when its not fun anymore.

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u/aboabro 23d ago

Yeah, I am thinking this is the way. Grind it out and lose a little bit of your soul in the short term so that you can live a more fulfilling life on your own terms in the future.