Pick up a part-time to get to FI faster or use that time to pursue my dream?

[sizzlinkola]

One of my main reasons for pursuing FI is to have the financial freedom to start a company in the medical device industry.

I’m having a dilemma whether I should have a part-time job (ex. waiter, barista, Lyft driver, etc.) to get to FI faster or start a company now while I keep my day job.

I'd want the part-time job to still leave time and energy for my other hobbies (hiking, rock climbing, lifting and other fitness pursuits). My worry is that it will give up time that I could have used to start and develop a company, unless I sacrifice some or all my hobbies. I could juggle all the above but that will be exhausting. I work to live, not live to work.

[7Wannabe5]

I have been working through a couple similar dilemmas lately and I found it helpful to use a spread-sheet to back-plan from my end Goal date. So, let's say your end goal is to have half your income coming from equity investments and half your income coming from your new company by October of 2022. What was the last step you had to achieve before you got to the final step? etc. etc. Then once you have a rough, rational grid of time and capital requirements for each likely step, you can shift gears and plan forward in alignment with your principles and complementary/consistent behaviors.

For example, one suggestion I might make would be to try to find a part-time job that would at least take you one small step in the direction of starting your company, as well as accumulating funds for equity investment. In my situation, since my goals are FI and permaculture project, working part-time at a big-box garden center might suffice. However, this might not be the best choice depending on realistic appraisal of time (extensive and intensive) necessary to reach each goal through independent steps. For instance, based on my back-analysis, I came to the realization that a short-term hit of high income earlier in the process will work best, because owner-occupied real estate is part of my plan.

[Gilberto de Piento]

One consideration might be how much and at what level do you need to hike, climb and lift. If you climb 5.xx and bench xxx and put a lot of hours into each to get there it's going to be harder than if you are happy just getting outside or getting in the gym once in a while. You can't do everything so you may need to make some cuts somewhere, at least for awhile.

The nice thing about starting a business is the flexibility to set your own hours. You can work any 80 hours a week you want.

[NPV]

On a specific level I agree with 7wb - you need to do the math. It is a very different decision if side income means you get to FI 3 times faster and your own business has a 5% chance of ever making money and will take 5+ years vs. if it side income speeds up route to FI only 10% faster while you have a solid chance of getting your side business profitable in 1-2 years.

"Generally" though in most cases working purely for the money tends to be suboptimal and there tend to be more robust web-of-goals approaches, such as the one 7wb suggested of working in the industry you target for your own business to gets skills, knowledge and connections.

[James_0011]

“When you work for someone else you work 9 to 5, when you work for yourself you work 5 to 9” - an old rich guy I know