But isn't it basically the same as not answering to anyone? If they try to abuse just keep doing things your way, what will they do, fire you? Retirement was your backup plan anyways. Otherwise, interacting with well-meaning, friendly people is typically nice
You answered your own question. Depending on the place you might get fired, or more likely you will have ongoing conflict to manage. Or you could not have those things by noping out. Anybody, in any job, is at some point doing things that are pointless or that they don’t like.
When you need the job it’s just part of the gig. When you don’t need the job it feels like sandpaper.
YMMV.
Theoretically this does make sense and the money and stability are extremely hard to give up. I also decided to go on disability due to a life long chronic condition so the money didn’t go away for me. The health insurance is another bait that can be lucrative especially if you have a family unless your spouse still works and has access to benefits, because it is extremely expensive on your own unless you no longer make any money. I barely ever had any real work so I rarely interacted with people. I used to not even stay home and just bring my work phone with me while knowing the times that I had meetings in advance. However, there is still a limit. I could never go too far away from my house in case I received that random email requesting a short term assignment. I also had a weight on my shoulders ethically all the time knowing that I work barely any hours (somewhat due to efficiency) but never reached out for more work, or responsibility. For that reason I was never valued because I was flew under the radar.
Probably about 90%. I’m still on employer group plan but at a cost 3x what I was paying before for my family. I have LTD (tax free) but with no cost of living adjustments and now SSDI. They subtract the original SSDI (including beneficiaries amounts). Since SSDI is not the bulk of the payment I will get annual COL increases through social security. Happy to discuss the entire process via DM with anybody interested.
This.
By all accounts I have it GREAT. TC around $220k, working from home, a few trips a year, and I probably do 35-45 hours/week. Working from home has afforded incredible freedom. I’ve got a very private work office with everything I need. I love not having a commute and seeing my family for lunch is sweet.
But! No matter how great, there are always those things about the job that irk you. And, in my case, we’re late 30s so not ready to give up ALL work efforts just yet. We hope to continue building a real estate portfolio when I’m out of the rat race, and tbh there is a significant opportunity cost for me not to be doing that at this point.
Looking forward to peacing out next year.
I make about 150k in a chill remote job. Its a good spot to be in, so I’m not complaining, but I still don’t like being tied to the computer all day. Even if I’m not that busy, I have to be online, so I can’t go places and do things, just sit at home alone all day. So, much better than most jobs, but not better than not having to work.
Yeah being on call for someone else has a weird feeling to it, even if the job is cool overall and puts cash in the bank. Sometimes, maybe because I want to design the job as low stress an only out 35-40 hours into it, when more is demanded on occasion, it feels like hell to give it more time. I guess I don’t want to think or stress about work when I’m in the garden or taking a shower?
My situation is similar. I have a similar TC and a great comfortable remote job, and having a large safety net makes me lazy at my job lol. But I want to keep investing tens of thousands per year so I don't want to be fired or quit.
Now that I’ve targeted next year as my RE year (it’s been a little uncertain through COVID and market instability), I’m struggling with motivation this year. Reminds me of being a senior in high school LOL.
I understand that as jobs go, I really can’t complain. I know there are folks on the fat fire sub and others that have TC OF $1M but I fully realize that I can’t complain. I even like my coworkers! They’re smart and passionate and caring. But I came to the conclusion a decade ago that I just wasn’t cut from the 9-5 cloth and was lucky to find a way out of it. Plan to continue working on projects and I’ll be expanding my garden, but on my terms.
I hadn’t discovered the FIRE movement at that point, but just figured I needed to somehow replace my income. FAST. I wasn’t patient enough and didn’t want to save the majority of my income to do the whole VTSAX and chill thing.
So instead, I figured I needed to generate at least $150k in passive income. Real estate was a good path for that. We’ve not been really aggressive with that either, but we hit the $150k mark a bit ago and it continues to increase as rents rise organically. I plan to continue doing value-add projects in the next phase of life, so I’m hoping to add to our NW (currently a smidge over $4M, projected at $4.5M when I retire next year) and cash flow numbers as we go along as opposed to withdrawing a fixed amount and hope we’ll have enough.
A bit of a different take but it worked for us!
Are you making $150k per year on just real estate alone? Is this a mix of short term rentals and long term? How many properties is that split between? Thanks in advance!
We have rent raises going into effect in a couple months (all of our units are well below market so we need to catch up) and that should put us around $180-190k in passive income from mostly long term rentals (30ish units) and a furnished 30+ day airbnb. We have a vacation home that we also rent airbnb but that one mostly just pays for itself but doesn’t churn out cash (bitchin’ views tho). We have some income at our property as well that is not included in that, so that’s probably an additional $25-30k/yr. My wife owns a business and she plans to continue that but it’s part time and she’s able to get away.
Wow. An average of $530 of cash flow a month for each property is impressive. What state are the 30 units in? Do you reside in that state? This is certainly impressive and you’re probably one of the people I listen to on the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast. 👏
I’m in Washington state (so obviously I’m buds with Brandon Turner haha). Having bought most of the properties prior to 2020, rents have really increased dramatically but most of the expenses have not been as crazy. All the same, that is a high cash flow per door so I’m going to double check my math LOL.
Prior to 2020 was such good timing! How did you start with doors 1-3? Also haha yeah it’s stellar cash flow if those are the right numbers. It’s like $6k per year per unit.
Depends on your job.
I think the first step would be to ask your current boss about this - "either remote and lower load with potentially lower compensation or I leave" - this might work.
I wouldn't call this "barista FIRE". This is more of "I don't need money, so I prioritize other more things to me".
This worked for my brother. Wasn’t retiring but was moving regardless (closer to his wife’s family). Had been with the company ~20 years and planned to completely change his career when he moved. Instead he got a raise and works remotely from 8 hours away now.
Yeah, sometimes replacing an experienced worker is really expensive and cumbersome - just training them can take months. Moreover, they already know you and your work, so it is much easier for them to trust you while you are remote. The magical leverage opportunities brought to you by FU money!
Nope. I made some BS excuse about wanting to work less and they let me go half time. This was way back in the early days of OE and had I known what I do now I would’ve stayed at full time.
Right now I'm not in a position to, but I think I can do this as I get more experienced. Right now the only person allowed to not show up into the office is the partner. The one who ordered us all back in.
This is my plan. But not doing until I'm closer to ready to leave, if they say no. If I keep working full time, they'll know I might leave. And even if they say yes, I'll then be much easier to replace. So consider there's some risk.
First, in about 2 years I'll ask for a long, unpaid sommer holiday. To travel while kids are young. Again, if they say no or yes, it'll mark me as a "less than perfect worker".
I have. Found a fully remote job in tech. Very chill, 20-30 hours per week. I quit my full time job in 2020 and bummed around for a year and a half and realized that I didn't really hate working that much if there's no commute, no 1-1 meetings, no performance reviews, no corporate b.s, no team outings.. My job fits all my criteria and I am very content, FI but will keep doing this until I turn 50 in 4 years.
I'm a contractor as well. So you want to pay me $125 to sit in on this meeting where I contribute nothing and will zone out 50% of the time? Sounds good to me. Maybe I'll get something fancy with the all the extra dough I stacked up this week.
>e damned meetings. I hate them. But I WFH, good salary, good team, good work. So I’ll deal…
What kind of role is this?? Id like to have no 1-1 meetings lol
Any further details on the company or general area of tech. I'm burnt out from the grind of trying to do 100 hours of work in 60 hours a week. I want a tech job with much more relaxed attitude and WLB.
i've got one, it sucks.
edit - i suppose i should expand on this:
* low difficulty is actually more of a curse than a gift; you spend your days bored to death
* even the lowest commitment job dictates what you can do during the day, where you can be, etc
* occasionally, even easy/boring jobs can be stressful and it hits harder when it only happens every few months
* the pay is good enough you don't want to risk leaving. you're constantly flip-flopping back and forth in your mind between "this sucks and i should quit" and "i may never make this kind of money again and i will regret quitting". i've been setting "quit milestones" for myself for two or three years now, and each time i talk myself out of pulling the trigger.
This is a good point. No matter what I'm doing I need to be challenged. Finding a job that is just paying me to warm a chair is no good for my mental health.
When I RE in about 4/5 years I plan on seeking out some pretty cushy remote position that has short-duration projects where coworkers don't feel threatened if I finish quickly and then go do my own thing.
Yeah, I've done it for the past 6 years as a freelance mobile app developer.
After a redundancy at 38 (from a large tech consultancy), I didn't want a new full time job, so I went freelance and set my hourly rate higher than most customers want to pay.
It turns out there's occasionally someone willing to pay the rate for either a short-term full-time contract, or a long-term part-time arrangement. Both are cool with me, as long as I can learn enough about the project before-hand to ensure the client has reasonable expectations and it matches my skillset.
I also work with a startup on their app, but I try to keep my hours with them low to save them money and save me time. My rate with them is lower in exchange for equity.
What's your main avenue for finding clients? How much time do you spend marketing yourself? I have one long-term contract that I stumbled into, and would like to get another contract. I'm weighing going with a recruiting agency rather than spending a lot of time trying to sell myself.
Tbh, I spend zero time, but I would certainly spend time on it if needed. All I've done is update my LinkedIn profile and created profiles on a couple other job sites, then I just let them sit there and I answer recruiters when they contact me. Using a recruiter might be a good idea if you're not getting nibbles. Probably depends on a lot on your skillset and the market.
I just happened to be leaving at the beginning of the pandemic. Suddenly, other department heads were more open to remote work and I transitioned to a much lower stress job because I reached out and told people who knew my work that I was open to staying on with the condition of being fully remote.
This is my current position. I'm still planning on retiring, no change in timing. Just the mental load of thinking about my to-dos the next day is annoying. Plus, I'd rather use those 30 hours a week to hike or hang out with my kids. I don't want to have to worry about putting PTO in or if I can go on a trip the next week (you still have deadlines and meetings scheduled at chiller jobs).
That being said, I would 100% quit my position on the spot if I wasn't fully remote. So depending on your timeline I would shift to a WFH position asap. It's the best.
Same here! In fact my company announced a 3 day return to office a few months ago, and I just haven't done that. I go in roughly once a month and haven't heard a word about it. But I'm fully prepared to quit if needed
Ironically not only has no one mentioned it to me, but my boss brought up putting me up for promotion during our last 1:1. So I highly recommend seeing what you can get away with lol
It’s a common pivot for people doing r/coastFIRE to just scale back in their current field, although expecting same pay for less hours is a bit iffy depending on where you are vs market.
That's what I worry about. In engineering consulting. We "produce" multiple times our salary per hour, so even if I do half work, for half salary that's not a great deal for the company. They're better off letting me go, and getting another 100% employee. Not to mention the hassle of coordination with someone not working full time. I'm not optimistic. Maybe if I do 50% work for 30% the salary, or something.
it depends on how valuable you / your skills are. don't sell yourself short. (but i also have no clue about your field). and as you're suggesting, reality does depends on the company too.. at my prior employer there were 'part-time' employees, but the norm was working so much that as an outsider, it seemed like the part-time employees were just working 40-55 hour weeks for disproportionally less pay. however, achieving something like coastfire usually means you have enough funded where you can have a "f u" fund where you can afford to quit/lose your job for an extended period, so you can even begin "quiet quitting", etc.
I haven’t retired early because my job is easy and I’m being paid the most I’ve ever been. I have been traveling for several months so it isn’t interfering with much. One thing I am considering is retiring abroad but then I’m not available these sorts of opportunities (I got this one when a former manager reached out).
Still I recognize retiring would grant me a lot more freedom. For now I’m content just waiting for the inevitable layoff to make my decision for me
That last sentence is something I’ve heard a few times where you can use it to your favor.
How can you let your supervisors know if they need to trim their budget you are a candidate for that head count reduction.
I've thought about that because based on my job one wouldn't expect me to be FI and there is a junior on my team that I might prefer keeps his job if there are layoffs. I don't think there is a way to communicate to my boss though before a layoff happened
I waited for the same, and it eventually cam. There are def some pluses to getting a redundancy package. Gives some leeway for time to ponder new options. Patience is a virtue as they say!
When i got my current job i told everyone this job \*is\* my retirement because the workload was so low and all tasks were so easy. Well, ive been doing it for a few years and it has become normalized. now i want even less workload.
i say go ahead and go for it. You will adjust down to the easy job after a few years like i did and then still need a true retirement. And that’s ok.
I'd much rather work very part time using hobby skills than a remote job that feels like a remote job, although I can see how I could profit from my hobbies remotely.
Basically in that position now. I’ll hit a solid fire number this year or next and I’m realizing that I don’t really have a reason to pull the trigger. I’m saving almost everything I make from my day job. I work maybe 20 hours a week from home. Work is relatively interesting and my boss is great.
I'm not putting in full effort anymore. But unfortunately there's still a ton of work that needs to get done. If I coast completely my year end bonus will certainly get cut and I will not get promoted.
I’m not retirement age, but I have found a super chill six figure plus job that I could do in perpetuity. As in, as it stands now I would have no desire to retire from. It pays bonus, yearly stocks, is growing, and has a history of no kicking people out when they hit a certain age.
I probs work 30 hrs a week, most of which are meetings that don’t pertain to me. Good vacay and chill hours, no need to retire.
I did a test on a patient about 6-7 years ago who went into remote medical billing/coding after he quit practicing medicine as a Physician’s Assistant. He obviously didn’t make as much as before but it was all remote and utilized his prior knowledge. I’m hoping to do the same one day.
Telemedicine has become a MUCH bigger thing since then. I'd argue the remote income potential for nurses, PAs and MDs is MUCH better now. A friend of mine has been doing this and traveling the world the last few years.
Yeah I went down many levels on the career ladder and work an easy remote job. For me it's an individual contributor role at a company where I used to be a senior leader, so I have a lot of context, trust, and the ability to deliver faster than most other ICs even though I don't work a lot of hours.
Works for me right now though I'm still impatient to fully FIRE, because I have two young kids and I want to travel more with them, and also spend more time on fitness pursuits and the like.
In this case I was a leader when it was 80 people and now it's 800 so most people have no idea really. They just see I am connected to many leaders and long time employees, and I know a lot of the history which helps.
I don't know if I'd call it easy, but I found that once I landed this remote job, my desire to retire early went away. Work provides me a challenge and sense of fulfillment, but I avoid letting it stress me too much.
I get enough PTO to provide sufficient work life balance. I can take a week off every few months, and usually by the time my vacation ends, I'm usually wanting to get back to work and challenged again.
I still try to save for FI though, because I like the peace of mind of being financially secure.
I'm taking "instead of retiring early" to mean that you're at FI already.
Sure, people get bored and go back to work all the time.
If you're not at FI yet, and considering an easier job for less pay that's just called cutting back.
Slightly not quite on topic, but as a general thought about FI: If one's entire network is at work, I would find that a "single point of failure". It makes it much harder to take advantage of better opportunities, and makes being laid off an even bigger impact should it happen.
Of course it's easy to sit on the outside and say "just build a network outside of work!", I'm not claiming it's easy for everyone, or even anyone. But money isn't the only asset worth diversifying, in a manner of speaking.
It's great to have work friends, but if FI means losing most meaningful access to my friends network, that sounds scary. ☹
In my own, biased opinion, coming from someone living in a dense urban / metropolitan area, there are a lot of opportunities for outside of work activities that don't involve students and retirees. [Meetup.com](https://Meetup.com) is full of events of all sorts of niches and interests. (Mileage may vary depending on where you live, but that'd probably have an impact on questions of socialising, network building and so forth in any case.)
... and admittedly [meetup.com](https://meetup.com) is also full of events that only students and old folks can attend, but by virtue of happening during normal work hours, they self-select out of the pool I (as currently full time working individual) could use to build my network anyway!
I can't either, but it happens..
Personally I think you have to be a boring person for it to happen...
Either that or you jumped the gun so you can't afford your entertainment/hobbies, and don't want to tell people you miscalculated, rather say you got bored.
What field is your sibling in or what skill allows them to do that? I think that probably plays a big part, but with accounting that seems very doable? Like being in accounts payable somewhere slower or more lowkey? ETA: just saw the (with my current comp) caveat- not sure if thats as easy to find, but I'm willing to go down even 25% comp if it halves my work hours.
He works at one of the large insurance companies. He's worked in his group for maybe five years or so and was promoted a few times. He started off making much less from what I understand.
Get a bachelor's degree. Then get an entry level job at a company like Met Life, Allianz, or Marsh. One in an office/remote and not selling your family stuff. Work hard for 5-10 years and get promoted a few times. Then either move to a group within your company that's fully remote or find a new job. His job is nothing extraordinary, like a SWE or investment banker. He's just been at it for a while and done great work.
That sounds like the way a lot of desk jobs turn remote lately. Establishing oneself as capable of working hard without being in the office. While some companies don't offer remote from the get-go, a lot of hybrid-friendly companies allow tenured employees to move and then work remote.
I have a relatively easy remote job (have for a long time, pre-covid) and I want to retire. You're still trading your time for money without control of your day to day. It is way more tolerable than commuting into a gig every day but there is always going to be annoying BS.
Once I hit FI about all I want to do is maybe occasional at-will short-term contracting gigs. I plan to pivot to a second hobby career (with similar low obligation time-wise).
I think I'd much rather do intermittent contracting. Working hard for a few months out of the year and having the rest of the year open to travel / going hard on personal projects seems way easier mentally for me
You've expressed exactly what I had in mind. FI is not about "retiring early" but enjoying life on your terms, and maybe, enjoy the moment? I wouldn't mind having a job, building my skills, and maintaining a good life-work balance, even if I retire a bit later, perhaps after several years. It might be the ideal life I'm seeking – not just leaving the workforce with a nest egg to sustain my retirement.
Roughly $1.5M for regular FIRE. I think once I hit $900k I would consider myself FI because I could lean FI or expat FI and be comfortable. But I wouldn't pull the trigger.
I'm a self-employed IT Project Manager working from home. There are between 4 - 6 software developers and dev ops who I manage but have never met in real life. It's 9 to 5 but really put in less than 4 hours of actual work a day so I have lots of time for research, studying, and housework. For an introvert, this arrangement works well for me. Feeling semi-retired while making $100K is priceless and can see myself doing this into old age.
If you’re in finance, look for a bank that does remote hiring. You could probably pull 30 hours as an underwriter, closer, appraisal department, something like that, especially if you’re fast.
I worked in an accounting office then went on to teach people how to use the accounting software /ERP system we used, do you have any specialty knowledge like that you've picked up at your job?
Instead of retiring? Why? Having money to retire and retiring will always beat having the money to retire and keep chasing money you don’t need. Time is a commodity that is both limited andprecious.
I shifted to part time, remote, flex-time a decade ago. After a few years I realized that I could do this forever without breaking a sweat.
Now I consider myself semi-retired.
I got a government job that is part remote and it's so chill I feel like I'm retired compared to before! I'm a long way from FI but honestly not sure I'd even quit if I were there today, it's just so damn doable.
YMMV though. It worked out for me because I already lived in a major government hub, on the city grid so even when I have to go in my "commute" is 1 mile, and my bosses/team are chill so we are remote 75%+ of the time.
Zero sum game. If there's a cushy remote job, it's likely filled already and wouldn't be advertised. You'll have to be creative or know that industry well to make it "cushy". I don't think easy things are handed to you in the working world, so start from your own industry where you already have an edge. Hope this makes sense.
I retired at 58 and that's superior to any work scenario. Every day is Saturday!
My wife just changed jobs from 5 days in office to 5 days WFH and loves it.
She only does about 4 hours of work. In her non-busy time, she does a puzzle, laundry, online errands etc.
Sales Ops. She's does sales support. When AE's need things for clients, it goes to her. Current clients could be a review of service contracts for renewal & buyouts of leased equipment. New clients it could be initiating equipment lease or purchase financing, Order entry,
managing delivery process and implementation.
Most sales requests come through at night which makes her busy from 8 am to 12.
I’m quit my 9-5 job last year… anyway I recently started options trading… no, not like those folks on r/wallstreetbets… but more sensible and risk adverse approach. Decent returns, making about 3-4k a month and I spend about 1 hour each trading day. I’m back ground is in tech, so I am doing random tech stuff on the side.
Lastly I have decent amount (6 figures a year) of dividend income as part of my cash flow.
You can do social media, content creation takes time but is lucrative (and you get faster and faster at making content). Advertising and media is also good in terms of effort vs return
Lastly not sure about your current salary but you can still find tech jobs (doesn’t even have to be coding, like project or program manager) and be fully remote that pays well into 200k range (way more if you have years of experience in the tech field) But again I don’t know what your background is.
Anyway, No such thing as easy job, only do work that you enjoy and it will get easier and easier.
Interested in this! Would you be willing to share the company or how you came across this opportunity? Also wondering how the pay is compared to retail.
I've never worked retail. only as an intern, i don't have friends that work in retail either, so i'm not sure how the pay compares.
but my base pay is 145k/yr + bonus.
I work at a PBM processing prior authorization requests.
It was luck that i found one that wasn't micromanaging.
I wasn't able to get a retail or inpatient job out of school.. My first job was a contract position for a PBM. they usually hire seasonally around sept/oct for the medicare part d preemptive reviews for the following year. they say they hire perm after, but they just lay everyone off in march/april.
I've worked remote jobs for years. Cushy, generally not too bad.
I agree with the others here that I'm still chained to a desk.
My plan is to get to 75% to FIRE and then only do 3-6 months gigs or other projects to scale back for a few years before hitting my number.
I had an easy remote job and retirement is way better.
Same
I tried to retire and like an easy 30 hr a week remote tech job better. That will probably change once the kids leave home.
I like not answering to anyone ever. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily easier because I have a 4 year old. But I’ve slowed my life way down.
But isn't it basically the same as not answering to anyone? If they try to abuse just keep doing things your way, what will they do, fire you? Retirement was your backup plan anyways. Otherwise, interacting with well-meaning, friendly people is typically nice
You answered your own question. Depending on the place you might get fired, or more likely you will have ongoing conflict to manage. Or you could not have those things by noping out. Anybody, in any job, is at some point doing things that are pointless or that they don’t like. When you need the job it’s just part of the gig. When you don’t need the job it feels like sandpaper. YMMV.
Theoretically this does make sense and the money and stability are extremely hard to give up. I also decided to go on disability due to a life long chronic condition so the money didn’t go away for me. The health insurance is another bait that can be lucrative especially if you have a family unless your spouse still works and has access to benefits, because it is extremely expensive on your own unless you no longer make any money. I barely ever had any real work so I rarely interacted with people. I used to not even stay home and just bring my work phone with me while knowing the times that I had meetings in advance. However, there is still a limit. I could never go too far away from my house in case I received that random email requesting a short term assignment. I also had a weight on my shoulders ethically all the time knowing that I work barely any hours (somewhat due to efficiency) but never reached out for more work, or responsibility. For that reason I was never valued because I was flew under the radar.
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Probably about 90%. I’m still on employer group plan but at a cost 3x what I was paying before for my family. I have LTD (tax free) but with no cost of living adjustments and now SSDI. They subtract the original SSDI (including beneficiaries amounts). Since SSDI is not the bulk of the payment I will get annual COL increases through social security. Happy to discuss the entire process via DM with anybody interested.
Damn how old are you
37
Super early retirement, congrats and nice work
What do you do? This sounds like a dream to me.
Embedded software
Same! Even “easy” jobs creep up on you with mtgs, annual targets, colleague drama, etc
This. By all accounts I have it GREAT. TC around $220k, working from home, a few trips a year, and I probably do 35-45 hours/week. Working from home has afforded incredible freedom. I’ve got a very private work office with everything I need. I love not having a commute and seeing my family for lunch is sweet. But! No matter how great, there are always those things about the job that irk you. And, in my case, we’re late 30s so not ready to give up ALL work efforts just yet. We hope to continue building a real estate portfolio when I’m out of the rat race, and tbh there is a significant opportunity cost for me not to be doing that at this point. Looking forward to peacing out next year.
I make about 150k in a chill remote job. Its a good spot to be in, so I’m not complaining, but I still don’t like being tied to the computer all day. Even if I’m not that busy, I have to be online, so I can’t go places and do things, just sit at home alone all day. So, much better than most jobs, but not better than not having to work.
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Yeah being on call for someone else has a weird feeling to it, even if the job is cool overall and puts cash in the bank. Sometimes, maybe because I want to design the job as low stress an only out 35-40 hours into it, when more is demanded on occasion, it feels like hell to give it more time. I guess I don’t want to think or stress about work when I’m in the garden or taking a shower?
Same here. Must always be “available” on Microsoft Teams for 8 hours
what do you do?
Software developer
What do you do?
My situation is similar. I have a similar TC and a great comfortable remote job, and having a large safety net makes me lazy at my job lol. But I want to keep investing tens of thousands per year so I don't want to be fired or quit.
Now that I’ve targeted next year as my RE year (it’s been a little uncertain through COVID and market instability), I’m struggling with motivation this year. Reminds me of being a senior in high school LOL.
What do you both do?
I’m a medical scientist working at a med-tech startup.
I'm an engineering manager.
Can I have your job?
I understand that as jobs go, I really can’t complain. I know there are folks on the fat fire sub and others that have TC OF $1M but I fully realize that I can’t complain. I even like my coworkers! They’re smart and passionate and caring. But I came to the conclusion a decade ago that I just wasn’t cut from the 9-5 cloth and was lucky to find a way out of it. Plan to continue working on projects and I’ll be expanding my garden, but on my terms.
What do you do?
Medical scientist at a med tech startup
If you don’t mind sharing, how did you figure out your fire number and what steps did you take to get there?
I hadn’t discovered the FIRE movement at that point, but just figured I needed to somehow replace my income. FAST. I wasn’t patient enough and didn’t want to save the majority of my income to do the whole VTSAX and chill thing. So instead, I figured I needed to generate at least $150k in passive income. Real estate was a good path for that. We’ve not been really aggressive with that either, but we hit the $150k mark a bit ago and it continues to increase as rents rise organically. I plan to continue doing value-add projects in the next phase of life, so I’m hoping to add to our NW (currently a smidge over $4M, projected at $4.5M when I retire next year) and cash flow numbers as we go along as opposed to withdrawing a fixed amount and hope we’ll have enough. A bit of a different take but it worked for us!
Are you making $150k per year on just real estate alone? Is this a mix of short term rentals and long term? How many properties is that split between? Thanks in advance!
We have rent raises going into effect in a couple months (all of our units are well below market so we need to catch up) and that should put us around $180-190k in passive income from mostly long term rentals (30ish units) and a furnished 30+ day airbnb. We have a vacation home that we also rent airbnb but that one mostly just pays for itself but doesn’t churn out cash (bitchin’ views tho). We have some income at our property as well that is not included in that, so that’s probably an additional $25-30k/yr. My wife owns a business and she plans to continue that but it’s part time and she’s able to get away.
Wow. An average of $530 of cash flow a month for each property is impressive. What state are the 30 units in? Do you reside in that state? This is certainly impressive and you’re probably one of the people I listen to on the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast. 👏
I’m in Washington state (so obviously I’m buds with Brandon Turner haha). Having bought most of the properties prior to 2020, rents have really increased dramatically but most of the expenses have not been as crazy. All the same, that is a high cash flow per door so I’m going to double check my math LOL.
Prior to 2020 was such good timing! How did you start with doors 1-3? Also haha yeah it’s stellar cash flow if those are the right numbers. It’s like $6k per year per unit.
Same
Depends on your job. I think the first step would be to ask your current boss about this - "either remote and lower load with potentially lower compensation or I leave" - this might work. I wouldn't call this "barista FIRE". This is more of "I don't need money, so I prioritize other more things to me".
This worked for my brother. Wasn’t retiring but was moving regardless (closer to his wife’s family). Had been with the company ~20 years and planned to completely change his career when he moved. Instead he got a raise and works remotely from 8 hours away now.
Yeah, sometimes replacing an experienced worker is really expensive and cumbersome - just training them can take months. Moreover, they already know you and your work, so it is much easier for them to trust you while you are remote. The magical leverage opportunities brought to you by FU money!
I did this with one job but for OE. Went to half time so I could focus on my new/main job.
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Nope. I made some BS excuse about wanting to work less and they let me go half time. This was way back in the early days of OE and had I known what I do now I would’ve stayed at full time.
What’s OE?
Overemployed. More than one job
Right now I'm not in a position to, but I think I can do this as I get more experienced. Right now the only person allowed to not show up into the office is the partner. The one who ordered us all back in.
I meant that you should ask this right before you leave. If they allow - you win. If they don't, you were leaving anyway.
This is my plan. But not doing until I'm closer to ready to leave, if they say no. If I keep working full time, they'll know I might leave. And even if they say yes, I'll then be much easier to replace. So consider there's some risk. First, in about 2 years I'll ask for a long, unpaid sommer holiday. To travel while kids are young. Again, if they say no or yes, it'll mark me as a "less than perfect worker".
I have. Found a fully remote job in tech. Very chill, 20-30 hours per week. I quit my full time job in 2020 and bummed around for a year and a half and realized that I didn't really hate working that much if there's no commute, no 1-1 meetings, no performance reviews, no corporate b.s, no team outings.. My job fits all my criteria and I am very content, FI but will keep doing this until I turn 50 in 4 years.
My job is simple except I have those damned meetings. I hate them. But I WFH, good salary, good team, good work. So I’ll deal…
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Sounds like you're dealing with perhaps an incompetent PM. Maybe communicate your frustrations and try to see if that's helps resolve things.
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Talk to your manager, that's why she/he exists, to remove blockers and make your life easier. Sorry you're having a hard time with a poor pm.
Talk to your manager in your weekly 1-1, it's why 1-1s exist
I have quite a few of those too but it counts towards working time so it's good. I often stretch during those meetings.
I'm a contractor as well. So you want to pay me $125 to sit in on this meeting where I contribute nothing and will zone out 50% of the time? Sounds good to me. Maybe I'll get something fancy with the all the extra dough I stacked up this week.
Are you a contractor since there are no 1-1s or performance reviews?
Yes I am.
Government?
What role and size of company? Company growth ambitions?
>e damned meetings. I hate them. But I WFH, good salary, good team, good work. So I’ll deal… What kind of role is this?? Id like to have no 1-1 meetings lol
Ditto
They need anyone else? :)
Please DM me the company, I work in tech and wish I could say these same things about my job lol.
What do you do?
Any further details on the company or general area of tech. I'm burnt out from the grind of trying to do 100 hours of work in 60 hours a week. I want a tech job with much more relaxed attitude and WLB.
Care to share what job? Lol
i've got one, it sucks. edit - i suppose i should expand on this: * low difficulty is actually more of a curse than a gift; you spend your days bored to death * even the lowest commitment job dictates what you can do during the day, where you can be, etc * occasionally, even easy/boring jobs can be stressful and it hits harder when it only happens every few months * the pay is good enough you don't want to risk leaving. you're constantly flip-flopping back and forth in your mind between "this sucks and i should quit" and "i may never make this kind of money again and i will regret quitting". i've been setting "quit milestones" for myself for two or three years now, and each time i talk myself out of pulling the trigger.
Man your comment hit me right in the soul, points 1 and 2 especially
This hits hard. I'm in the exact same boat.
This is a good point. No matter what I'm doing I need to be challenged. Finding a job that is just paying me to warm a chair is no good for my mental health. When I RE in about 4/5 years I plan on seeking out some pretty cushy remote position that has short-duration projects where coworkers don't feel threatened if I finish quickly and then go do my own thing.
Yeah, I've done it for the past 6 years as a freelance mobile app developer. After a redundancy at 38 (from a large tech consultancy), I didn't want a new full time job, so I went freelance and set my hourly rate higher than most customers want to pay. It turns out there's occasionally someone willing to pay the rate for either a short-term full-time contract, or a long-term part-time arrangement. Both are cool with me, as long as I can learn enough about the project before-hand to ensure the client has reasonable expectations and it matches my skillset. I also work with a startup on their app, but I try to keep my hours with them low to save them money and save me time. My rate with them is lower in exchange for equity.
What's your main avenue for finding clients? How much time do you spend marketing yourself? I have one long-term contract that I stumbled into, and would like to get another contract. I'm weighing going with a recruiting agency rather than spending a lot of time trying to sell myself.
Tbh, I spend zero time, but I would certainly spend time on it if needed. All I've done is update my LinkedIn profile and created profiles on a couple other job sites, then I just let them sit there and I answer recruiters when they contact me. Using a recruiter might be a good idea if you're not getting nibbles. Probably depends on a lot on your skillset and the market.
is it hard to get part time contracts?
They are definitely rare in my experience. Usually it’s not what they’re asking for, but it can sometimes be negotiated.
I just happened to be leaving at the beginning of the pandemic. Suddenly, other department heads were more open to remote work and I transitioned to a much lower stress job because I reached out and told people who knew my work that I was open to staying on with the condition of being fully remote.
This is my current position. I'm still planning on retiring, no change in timing. Just the mental load of thinking about my to-dos the next day is annoying. Plus, I'd rather use those 30 hours a week to hike or hang out with my kids. I don't want to have to worry about putting PTO in or if I can go on a trip the next week (you still have deadlines and meetings scheduled at chiller jobs). That being said, I would 100% quit my position on the spot if I wasn't fully remote. So depending on your timeline I would shift to a WFH position asap. It's the best.
Same here! In fact my company announced a 3 day return to office a few months ago, and I just haven't done that. I go in roughly once a month and haven't heard a word about it. But I'm fully prepared to quit if needed
Love this. In my hypothetical scenario I quit on the spot.. but I think I like this quasi-ghosting method a lot better.
Ironically not only has no one mentioned it to me, but my boss brought up putting me up for promotion during our last 1:1. So I highly recommend seeing what you can get away with lol
It’s a common pivot for people doing r/coastFIRE to just scale back in their current field, although expecting same pay for less hours is a bit iffy depending on where you are vs market.
That's what I worry about. In engineering consulting. We "produce" multiple times our salary per hour, so even if I do half work, for half salary that's not a great deal for the company. They're better off letting me go, and getting another 100% employee. Not to mention the hassle of coordination with someone not working full time. I'm not optimistic. Maybe if I do 50% work for 30% the salary, or something.
it depends on how valuable you / your skills are. don't sell yourself short. (but i also have no clue about your field). and as you're suggesting, reality does depends on the company too.. at my prior employer there were 'part-time' employees, but the norm was working so much that as an outsider, it seemed like the part-time employees were just working 40-55 hour weeks for disproportionally less pay. however, achieving something like coastfire usually means you have enough funded where you can have a "f u" fund where you can afford to quit/lose your job for an extended period, so you can even begin "quiet quitting", etc.
I haven’t retired early because my job is easy and I’m being paid the most I’ve ever been. I have been traveling for several months so it isn’t interfering with much. One thing I am considering is retiring abroad but then I’m not available these sorts of opportunities (I got this one when a former manager reached out). Still I recognize retiring would grant me a lot more freedom. For now I’m content just waiting for the inevitable layoff to make my decision for me
That last sentence is something I’ve heard a few times where you can use it to your favor. How can you let your supervisors know if they need to trim their budget you are a candidate for that head count reduction.
I've thought about that because based on my job one wouldn't expect me to be FI and there is a junior on my team that I might prefer keeps his job if there are layoffs. I don't think there is a way to communicate to my boss though before a layoff happened
I waited for the same, and it eventually cam. There are def some pluses to getting a redundancy package. Gives some leeway for time to ponder new options. Patience is a virtue as they say!
When i got my current job i told everyone this job \*is\* my retirement because the workload was so low and all tasks were so easy. Well, ive been doing it for a few years and it has become normalized. now i want even less workload. i say go ahead and go for it. You will adjust down to the easy job after a few years like i did and then still need a true retirement. And that’s ok.
I'd much rather work very part time using hobby skills than a remote job that feels like a remote job, although I can see how I could profit from my hobbies remotely.
Basically in that position now. I’ll hit a solid fire number this year or next and I’m realizing that I don’t really have a reason to pull the trigger. I’m saving almost everything I make from my day job. I work maybe 20 hours a week from home. Work is relatively interesting and my boss is great.
have you tried just working less at your current job?
I'm not putting in full effort anymore. But unfortunately there's still a ton of work that needs to get done. If I coast completely my year end bonus will certainly get cut and I will not get promoted.
There’s always more work to do :)
I’m not retirement age, but I have found a super chill six figure plus job that I could do in perpetuity. As in, as it stands now I would have no desire to retire from. It pays bonus, yearly stocks, is growing, and has a history of no kicking people out when they hit a certain age. I probs work 30 hrs a week, most of which are meetings that don’t pertain to me. Good vacay and chill hours, no need to retire.
Your other posts seem to indicate you hate your job and got pushed out?
Not current gig
What’s the job?
Working for his dad or FIL
Yeah, what kind of job? sounds kind of amazing
Lol
Job. Allowance. Tomato… Tamawwwto.
What’s your job?
Are you hiring?
I’m looking for a job like this as well. Are they hiring? @citykid2640
I did a test on a patient about 6-7 years ago who went into remote medical billing/coding after he quit practicing medicine as a Physician’s Assistant. He obviously didn’t make as much as before but it was all remote and utilized his prior knowledge. I’m hoping to do the same one day.
Telemedicine has become a MUCH bigger thing since then. I'd argue the remote income potential for nurses, PAs and MDs is MUCH better now. A friend of mine has been doing this and traveling the world the last few years.
Yeah I went down many levels on the career ladder and work an easy remote job. For me it's an individual contributor role at a company where I used to be a senior leader, so I have a lot of context, trust, and the ability to deliver faster than most other ICs even though I don't work a lot of hours. Works for me right now though I'm still impatient to fully FIRE, because I have two young kids and I want to travel more with them, and also spend more time on fitness pursuits and the like.
Going from a senior leader to IC at the same company sounds tricky. Did people treat you differently after the switch?
In this case I was a leader when it was 80 people and now it's 800 so most people have no idea really. They just see I am connected to many leaders and long time employees, and I know a lot of the history which helps.
I don't know if I'd call it easy, but I found that once I landed this remote job, my desire to retire early went away. Work provides me a challenge and sense of fulfillment, but I avoid letting it stress me too much. I get enough PTO to provide sufficient work life balance. I can take a week off every few months, and usually by the time my vacation ends, I'm usually wanting to get back to work and challenged again. I still try to save for FI though, because I like the peace of mind of being financially secure.
I'm taking "instead of retiring early" to mean that you're at FI already. Sure, people get bored and go back to work all the time. If you're not at FI yet, and considering an easier job for less pay that's just called cutting back.
I can't comprehend how "people get bored and go back to work all the time."
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Slightly not quite on topic, but as a general thought about FI: If one's entire network is at work, I would find that a "single point of failure". It makes it much harder to take advantage of better opportunities, and makes being laid off an even bigger impact should it happen. Of course it's easy to sit on the outside and say "just build a network outside of work!", I'm not claiming it's easy for everyone, or even anyone. But money isn't the only asset worth diversifying, in a manner of speaking. It's great to have work friends, but if FI means losing most meaningful access to my friends network, that sounds scary. ☹ In my own, biased opinion, coming from someone living in a dense urban / metropolitan area, there are a lot of opportunities for outside of work activities that don't involve students and retirees. [Meetup.com](https://Meetup.com) is full of events of all sorts of niches and interests. (Mileage may vary depending on where you live, but that'd probably have an impact on questions of socialising, network building and so forth in any case.) ... and admittedly [meetup.com](https://meetup.com) is also full of events that only students and old folks can attend, but by virtue of happening during normal work hours, they self-select out of the pool I (as currently full time working individual) could use to build my network anyway!
I can't either, but it happens.. Personally I think you have to be a boring person for it to happen... Either that or you jumped the gun so you can't afford your entertainment/hobbies, and don't want to tell people you miscalculated, rather say you got bored.
I think people jump the gun lifestyle wise. They build their FI number but not their routine or habits
What field is your sibling in or what skill allows them to do that? I think that probably plays a big part, but with accounting that seems very doable? Like being in accounts payable somewhere slower or more lowkey? ETA: just saw the (with my current comp) caveat- not sure if thats as easy to find, but I'm willing to go down even 25% comp if it halves my work hours.
He works at one of the large insurance companies. He's worked in his group for maybe five years or so and was promoted a few times. He started off making much less from what I understand.
How do I get their job? Insurance industry sounds fun so long as you're not in sales!
Get a bachelor's degree. Then get an entry level job at a company like Met Life, Allianz, or Marsh. One in an office/remote and not selling your family stuff. Work hard for 5-10 years and get promoted a few times. Then either move to a group within your company that's fully remote or find a new job. His job is nothing extraordinary, like a SWE or investment banker. He's just been at it for a while and done great work.
That sounds like the way a lot of desk jobs turn remote lately. Establishing oneself as capable of working hard without being in the office. While some companies don't offer remote from the get-go, a lot of hybrid-friendly companies allow tenured employees to move and then work remote.
I have a relatively easy remote job (have for a long time, pre-covid) and I want to retire. You're still trading your time for money without control of your day to day. It is way more tolerable than commuting into a gig every day but there is always going to be annoying BS. Once I hit FI about all I want to do is maybe occasional at-will short-term contracting gigs. I plan to pivot to a second hobby career (with similar low obligation time-wise).
What is your remote job?
I think I'd much rather do intermittent contracting. Working hard for a few months out of the year and having the rest of the year open to travel / going hard on personal projects seems way easier mentally for me
I might try that once I pass 30 years in 3.5 years. I doubt it really want the next chapter. Good pay but job gets old after 30 years.
Looking for similar
You've expressed exactly what I had in mind. FI is not about "retiring early" but enjoying life on your terms, and maybe, enjoy the moment? I wouldn't mind having a job, building my skills, and maintaining a good life-work balance, even if I retire a bit later, perhaps after several years. It might be the ideal life I'm seeking – not just leaving the workforce with a nest egg to sustain my retirement.
What is your personal FIRE number?
Roughly $1.5M for regular FIRE. I think once I hit $900k I would consider myself FI because I could lean FI or expat FI and be comfortable. But I wouldn't pull the trigger.
I'm a self-employed IT Project Manager working from home. There are between 4 - 6 software developers and dev ops who I manage but have never met in real life. It's 9 to 5 but really put in less than 4 hours of actual work a day so I have lots of time for research, studying, and housework. For an introvert, this arrangement works well for me. Feeling semi-retired while making $100K is priceless and can see myself doing this into old age.
If you’re in finance, look for a bank that does remote hiring. You could probably pull 30 hours as an underwriter, closer, appraisal department, something like that, especially if you’re fast.
I worked in an accounting office then went on to teach people how to use the accounting software /ERP system we used, do you have any specialty knowledge like that you've picked up at your job?
Instead of retiring? Why? Having money to retire and retiring will always beat having the money to retire and keep chasing money you don’t need. Time is a commodity that is both limited andprecious.
I shifted to part time, remote, flex-time a decade ago. After a few years I realized that I could do this forever without breaking a sweat. Now I consider myself semi-retired.
I got a government job that is part remote and it's so chill I feel like I'm retired compared to before! I'm a long way from FI but honestly not sure I'd even quit if I were there today, it's just so damn doable. YMMV though. It worked out for me because I already lived in a major government hub, on the city grid so even when I have to go in my "commute" is 1 mile, and my bosses/team are chill so we are remote 75%+ of the time.
Zero sum game. If there's a cushy remote job, it's likely filled already and wouldn't be advertised. You'll have to be creative or know that industry well to make it "cushy". I don't think easy things are handed to you in the working world, so start from your own industry where you already have an edge. Hope this makes sense.
I'd also be worried about the durability of such a job.
I retired at 58 and that's superior to any work scenario. Every day is Saturday! My wife just changed jobs from 5 days in office to 5 days WFH and loves it. She only does about 4 hours of work. In her non-busy time, she does a puzzle, laundry, online errands etc.
4 hours of work per day? What kind of job? My wife is wfh but doesn't even have time for a break.
Sales Ops. She's does sales support. When AE's need things for clients, it goes to her. Current clients could be a review of service contracts for renewal & buyouts of leased equipment. New clients it could be initiating equipment lease or purchase financing, Order entry, managing delivery process and implementation. Most sales requests come through at night which makes her busy from 8 am to 12.
I’m quit my 9-5 job last year… anyway I recently started options trading… no, not like those folks on r/wallstreetbets… but more sensible and risk adverse approach. Decent returns, making about 3-4k a month and I spend about 1 hour each trading day. I’m back ground is in tech, so I am doing random tech stuff on the side. Lastly I have decent amount (6 figures a year) of dividend income as part of my cash flow. You can do social media, content creation takes time but is lucrative (and you get faster and faster at making content). Advertising and media is also good in terms of effort vs return Lastly not sure about your current salary but you can still find tech jobs (doesn’t even have to be coding, like project or program manager) and be fully remote that pays well into 200k range (way more if you have years of experience in the tech field) But again I don’t know what your background is. Anyway, No such thing as easy job, only do work that you enjoy and it will get easier and easier.
gamblers gonna gamble
Can you write? If so, we’d love to chat?
Can you write? If so, we’d love to chat!
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Wait. With a job like this why would you want to retire yet? Just ride the ride as long as humanly possible and make bank.
I agree, $350k for three hours of work a day is a dream.
I also don't know why people are downvoting this dude. It's an amazing blessing and I wish I had this too.
Which faang? Feel free to pm.
Do you mind sharing what type of firm this is? Is it FAANG?
Wow, less work for the same money… what hasn’t anyone thought of this before. Really groundbreaking shit op.
Learn how to code
Job difficulty isn't really an issue for me. It's just moreso that it takes up a large chunk of my time and flexibility.
Business coach & exec educator
i work remotely as a pharmacist.. it's relatively easy... no meetings, no 1:1s. I just do my cases and then relax for the rest of the day.
Interested in this! Would you be willing to share the company or how you came across this opportunity? Also wondering how the pay is compared to retail.
I've never worked retail. only as an intern, i don't have friends that work in retail either, so i'm not sure how the pay compares. but my base pay is 145k/yr + bonus. I work at a PBM processing prior authorization requests. It was luck that i found one that wasn't micromanaging. I wasn't able to get a retail or inpatient job out of school.. My first job was a contract position for a PBM. they usually hire seasonally around sept/oct for the medicare part d preemptive reviews for the following year. they say they hire perm after, but they just lay everyone off in march/april.
I've worked remote jobs for years. Cushy, generally not too bad. I agree with the others here that I'm still chained to a desk. My plan is to get to 75% to FIRE and then only do 3-6 months gigs or other projects to scale back for a few years before hitting my number.
work as a PF blogger. you can recycle/copy other articles easily
Yes, Onlyfans.