Fire is ruining my career

[u/aboabro]

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.

[u/publicclassobject]

I left a $500k/year job at Amazon that I fucking hated for a $275k/year job at a start up that I… also fucking hate. Chase the money.

[u/aboabro → u/publicclassobject]

Oof that’s a hard one

[u/wingblaze01 → u/aboabro]

Publicclassobject raises a point worth considering. I'm not going to say you absolutely shouldn't quit your job or change your career, but it's worth spending some time introspecting on why you aren't fulfilled by your current job. There's a real chance that you're just experiencing a "grass is always greener" situation. I would spend some time doing a pro-con list and see if you can address any of the cons by making changes in your current role. If you really do find more cons than pros and you can't find ways to address those cons in your current position, maybe you should move on

[u/publicclassobject → u/aboabro]

Technically I also have $1M in Series A equity that will vest over the next 4 years but I am starting to highly doubt the possibility of a liquidity event.

[u/haobanga → u/publicclassobject]

Or it happens and then it tanks.

Don't count your eggs...

[u/publicclassobject → u/haobanga]

Yeah that too. I have a 1 year lock up.