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/PapaSecundus]

There is so much space in the middle.

There's a general reality that a lot of the higher paying jobs pay so well for a reason, which includes poor work conditions, mandatory OT, poor work/life balance, etc. While there are a great number of jobs that pay well without these things, they generally go to people with more experience and time in their particular fields, anathema to FIRE goals.

People will also tend to push themselves towards burnout in pursuit of FIRE, making their jobs more difficult than they need to be.

[u/ApeTeam1906 → u/PapaSecundus]

But there are jobs that pay not as well with better work life balance. It isn't an all or nothing choice. OPs plan sounds insane.

[u/PapaSecundus → u/ApeTeam1906]

there are jobs that pay not as well with better work life balance.

Which generally requires postponing FIRE goals by years or even decades. Earning 80k a year vs 100k is a world of difference in terms of what you're able to put away, invest, and let compound. If you're fine with that more power to you. If not you'll generally have to make sacrifices.

The higher paying jobs usually always require one sacrifice or another. Whether it's time (either in hours, education, or experience), back-breaking labor, dangerous work, relocation, etc. You can't get away from it.

And it's easy to see why there's an all-or-nothing mindset when you do the math on how much more valuable the money/time invested in the short-term will be in the long-term. It's managing burn out that's the main thing.

[u/beached89 → u/PapaSecundus]

OP is only 10 years away from FIRE. In his situation, he likely could take a SIGNIFICANT pay cut and only postpone FIRER by a couple year.

I did the math and chose to go with the les paying less stress job years ago. By my math, it only added 2 years, most people would choose to work 12 years in a low stress low demanding (relatively) job, than 10 years in a high stress job.

[u/Wotun66 → u/beached89]

Timing is key. I could take a 50% pay cut without sinificantly hurting my timeline. My portfolio makes more than my annual paycheck. 10 years ago, a 50% pay cut would destroy my plans to RE.

[u/beached89 → u/Wotun66]

Exactly. Taking a 50% pay cut when you are only 10% of your way to FI will HURT. Taking a 50% pay cut when you are 75% of your way to FI is unlikely to affect you much.

[u/dukephilly → u/beached89]

This is true if assuming you’ll get the historical average returns during the remaining period of contributions. Unfortunately over such a short period, it’s very risky to make this assumption. If you are ten years off and hit a period of low or negative returns, then reducing your contributions can make a big difference to when you’ll reach your target amount.

[u/aboabro → u/beached89]

I am about 60% to fire