Part-time long term or full-time short term

Simple living, extreme early retirement, becoming and being wealthy, wisdom, praxis, personal growth,...
7Wannabe5
Posts: 9372
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

“sjt” wrote: Our home was inherited from family, and part of that deal was keeping it for the next generation
Gotcha. Well, in that case, the obvious solution, as made clear in the plot line of numerous novels of previous centuries, would be to inform the members of the next generation that they must marry for money in order to maintain the estate. ;)

Seriously, as Blackjack noted, I did argue in a post that PPP should be applied to JAFI in situations where you are just trying to stay put, as opposed to moving in order to make more money.

I’m actually sort of in the same dilemma as you. My inefficient solution thus far has been to keep on keeping too many options open. For instance, I am currently enrolled in a graduate degree program because maybe I will want to start a brand new full-time career at age 60?!

AxelHeyst
Posts: 2118
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2020 4:55 pm
Contact:

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by AxelHeyst »

sjt wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:37 am
Free time: A lot of reading, hobbies (piano, painting, music), meditation, general self-improvement. Exercise. Learning to cook. Gardening. Time with friends.
sjt wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 10:12 pm
Perhaps some feedback on resources to find "the work" may be in order. Any advice in that realm might help.
When I think of "the work", I generally think of "a reason to get out of bed in the morning that exists outside of the boundary of my own skin". The Work is something greater than myself, because most days mySelf isn't enough to get excited about much.

It sounds like you've put in the effort to put on your own oxygen mask first: you've got broad skills, a low CoL, and a stable living circumstance. (Congrats on that, by the way, and thanks for making this thread. I'd be very interested in a journal effort, if you wanted to start one.)

And you've exhausted the general list of self-focused activities that interested you.

That leaves everything outside your skin. Perhaps it's now appropriate to spend some time exploring others-focused activities. Volunteer for stuff at your church. Start showing up to habitat for humanity work days. Do trail maintenance days. Read all the books on ocean microplastic pollution and apply data-science skills to figuring out some helpful algorithm for controlling cleanup robot-swarms. Start building wooden toys for underprivileged children. Join an online community of people trying to adapt common industrial scrap into human-powered machines that people in developing countries can bootstrap as a source of livelihood and lifting themselves out of poverty. @7 suggested that community service (as creatively imagined as you want it to be) as a thing ERE-folk probably ought to get into once they've got all the other boxes sufficiently ticked.

Cal Newport talks about expanding spheres of influence, and advises that people should start at the smallest scales and work up. So, maybe don't jump from personal sphere to global impact immediately. Move to your neighborhood, then city, state, nation, etc, or some rough guideline like that. If you don't have the experience to interact well with your neighbors, it's unlikely you'll have the experience/skills necessary to interact well with people on the other side of the world.

What bugs you? What bothers you when you read about it? That might be a line to investigate. For example, ugly buildings full of toxins bug the hell out of me, so part of my Work has to do with a built environment that sucks less.

7Wannabe5
Posts: 9372
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 9:03 am

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

The “time dedicated to community service” bit was me channeling another older work-less model that I can’t recall the name of at the moment. It recommended something like 2 days paid work, 2 days creative/intellectual pursuits, 1 day community service, and 2 days screwing around each week. For instance, when I was substitute teaching in low income neighborhoods, I counted each day as half paid work/ half community service. I’m not super interested in more than about 1 day per week community service. At that level I find it fulfilling, but beyond that level I find it draining. Although, of course, it just might happen that your creative/intellectual pursuits might also serve greater purpose, but “For the benefit of humanity.” can actually be as much of a buzzkill as “for the money.”

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by Western Red Cedar »

@sjt - I see some either/or, black and white thinking in your original post. I've fallen into that trap myself, but the journals here demonstrate there are vast possibilities to solving your problem. Perhaps that includes working full time for a non-profit or in the public sector, where you'll find better work/life balance or where you feel more inspired and fulfilled through your work. Perhaps it means spending a couple years at a high-paying job, followed by a 6-12 month break to decompress and focus on other goals. Maybe you'll just find an organization that pays well and treats you well.

The labor market has changed a lot in the last couple years and workers have a lot more flexibility and autonomy in the current environment. There are a lot of case studies here who found a lot more balance and enjoyment after moving to a new employer, new team, or new manager.

WFJ
Posts: 416
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2021 11:32 am

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by WFJ »

I've done both over my working career and prefer the part time work for full time pay. I work full time when times are good and part time or not at all when times are bad. If I had a time machine, I might have stayed at a few jobs a little longer as I've always had a quick trigger as there always seemed to be something fun to do with free time. As many up-posters have mentioned, this is a YMMV type question and depends on your stash, goals, burn rate, work burn rate (sanity) among other factors.

My first post-college jobs were awful and pretty much prepared me that work is an exchange of time for money and treated it as such. Of course, if BBB passes, all economic problems will be solved ;).

George the original one
Posts: 5404
Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2010 3:28 am
Location: Wettest corner of Orygun

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by George the original one »

Some quick back-of-the-envelope suggests that $72k/yr before taxes for 5 years is what you'd need to reach a $200k bankroll to support your $8k at 4% withdrawl rate. In Portland, your property taxes are going to be half that required $8k, which suggests to me that you're not being realistic about your expenses unless someone else is paying the property taxes -or- you're already using farm deferral which is likely to become more pressured as government income needs to exceed the property tax limits.

edit: $72k/yr is only 2.6x minimum hourly wage in Portland. An experienced IT professional should be able to make substantially more.

sjt
Posts: 6
Joined: Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:16 pm

Re: Part-time long term or full-time short term

Post by sjt »

Thanks for the ideas on "the work". The "getting up in the morning" has been a question for as long as I can remember. Perhaps focusing specifically on that will provide some clues.

I also agree that one day of community service is about right.

I am considering both non-profit work and am looking into local companies that are more flexible.

My 8k number is correct and I've been living off of it for years. Our property tax is actually very low and will continue to be. It's an arcane and complicated explanation based off a very unique (and not repeatable) situation.

Anyway, all of the feedback here has been very useful, as I figured it would be. The existential dread of work...well...I think I'd do well to find the right full-time situation to see if it's feasible to even do those 5 years. Try it with a hard timeline (say 3-6 months) with a re-evaluation after that.

Additionally, looking at different perspectives/ideas to find my stoke.

Post Reply