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Should I work less days to pursue my dream career?

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Money Talk > Personal Finance

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Mkdude
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Should I work less days to pursue my dream career?  Reply with quote  

Hello everyone!

I am currently working five days a week and am growing weary of it. I want to be an author and have projects I am trying to work on, and with work, errands, social stuff, and numerous other obligations, they're moving along at a snail's pace at best. (Some weekends I make no progress at all on any of them!) I've cut all other stuff to a minimum, but still, it's not getting done fast enough, so I was thinking of working less to reclaim some time back for creativity and, well, just living. (We only live one life, right? Don't want to just give all my life to work!)

I work a little over 37 hours a week over five days at a job that pays me $15.00. After taxes, monthly income from this job is about $1,800, which is totally reasonable for me because I live simply and predictably. Over the past year, I save on average about $300 a month (living expenses about $1,500). Last November, I was being hardcore about saving (cooking only at home, not going out, waiting to buy things until later), and saved a little over $500. (Complete monthly expenses for that month were $1,380).

Over the past couple years (when I actually started saving), I have saved up $9,000 dollars. Adding that to what was in my account already and as of today I have $13,561.91. With this cushion, I was considering going down to working four days a week instead of five, asking for additional day so I can essentially have a three-day weekend every weekend.

Going down to four days would give me much more time to work on my writing and nascent career, as well as provide for more rest, more time to do errands, more time for meal prep/planning, exercise, and more time for anything, really. I probably don't need to go too deep into my why an extra day would be beneficial. I'm sure you've all thought about it!

According to my calculations, going down to four days a week would result in me missing out on about $320 per month, bringing my income down to a little over $1,500 a month. (If I lived like I did in November, I'd still be $120 ahead). I don't mind breaking even or even losing a little bit of my saved-up cushion if it's at a slow rate and I get all this extra time to pursue my career. (Note that I'll be working on things that I am hoping to sell). If my savings dip too low, then I could probably go back to working 5 days.

I would like some second opinions. What do you think? You think I have enough cushion to take this plunge? Should I wait and save some more? Should I consider just taking every-other Tuesday off (only missing out on $160 a month)? I'm interested to see what other money-conscious folk think!

Thanks!

-Mkdude
Post Thu Apr 27, 2017 2:38 pm
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oldguy
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quote:
to reclaim some time back for creativity and, well, just living. (We only live one life, right? Don't want to just give all my life to work!)


lol, is that what millennials call First World problem? Traditionally, most people become something that they identify to - ie, a lineman, a doctor, a lawyer, a cowboy, a teacher, a fireman, policemen, truck driver, engineer. So, yes, they do give their life to work - as a PART of life (rather than instead of life).

Lots of us dream of being a movie star, a pro-golfer, a ball player, an artist, a writer. And most of us learn to calculate the odds - and then take a more realistic approach.

I'm a retired space & defense engineer. We received Request For Quotes (RFQ) from the Pentagon, if we had an idea about how to build & sell a product that met the RFQ, we drew up our designs, wrote a technical section about how it worked - it's design features, est costs, yada. We had a Tech Writing Dept that edited our drafts, rearranged, placed sketches/ drawings into text - built professional documents for submittal to customers. We did such things as 'story boarding' - went into a locked room, no phones, put the various sections on the wall. We assigned a Book Boss to each section - conceptual, electrical, mechanical, etc.

Our Tech Writer Dept consisted of maybe 50 writers - the pay would be about $80k in 2017 dollars, $120k for the Book Bosses, Team Leaders. Right now the Space & Defense Industry is expanding rapidly - Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Honeywell, JPL - they are scattered thruout the US, google Defense Contractors. Might as well make $100k/y while you are jelling your ideas for the future - meanwhile you'll see the nuts & bolts of editing and find jillions of challenging ways to translate someone's concepts into a form that others can read.
BTW, note that many books are written by retired people - those who have the experiences of life behind them and are postured to share them. The books that I am reading now are by a 73-year-old physicist.

Ironically, the $300/m that you currently save is not trivial. If invested in the SP500 Index at 11%/y (the longterm average) that will be $800,000 in 30 yrs. However, if you could bump it up to $500/m it will be $1,300,000. It is actually not that difficult to become a multimillionaire - switch to a $25 job and work 5 days a week.
Post Thu Apr 27, 2017 4:16 pm
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judee
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i've always wanted to go into a more creative career, like becoming a teacher for , a fashion designer in particular But my parents don't support me in pursuing what career i would like to do in the futur
Post Thu Jul 06, 2017 12:01 pm
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Mkdude
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Hello both of you. I decided to go down to working four days a week and pursuing a creative career. I didn't see eye to eye with oldguy's response. "Calculating the odds" and "taking a more realistic approach" has never served an artist or athlete or anyone who achieved their big dreams. As for a lot of books being written by older people, sure. However, a lot of authors have their debut books and novels around the age of thirty (which is where I am). So, yes, I decided to follow the dream instead.

Immediately, I have noticed a huge increase in the productivity of my writing and other projects. I am more rested, too. The transition wasn’t as smooth as I predicted however. Large surprise expenses have made it unable for me to break even every month. For example, in June I had a $110 plan ticket and a $239 tuxedo rental. (Yes, $239…!), but after the month, dipped down only $160 into my savings. This month had more financial complications, but I am only dropping about the same into my savings.

All the meanwhile, enjoying a third day off every weekend and working on career things, and thinking of ways to bring in some side income. Next month and the ones after that don't have much complications, and I've drilled that message into my family and friends quite well after they wanted me to take off a bunch of days of work, haha.

That's really unfortunate about your parents. Any way you can ignore your parents and do what you want?
Post Tue Jul 25, 2017 5:59 pm
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oldguy
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quote:
"Calculating the odds" and "taking a more realistic approach" has never served an artist or athlete or anyone who achieved their big dreams.


Your key phase is "who achieved their big dreams". True, the one in 1000 achieved their big dreams - but the other 999 became starving artists, wannabee actors, golf driving range workers, etc.

BTW, re the tech writer jobs that I mentioned back in April - I'm now seeing job offers on 'indeed' - the Trump agenda to build up the military has provided a major wave of new jobs in the Defense Industry. Engineers, designers, technicians, tech writers, accountants - Raytheon needs 2000 new workers at a missile factory, ATK is advertising daily for all types of workers - also Boeing, Lockheed, General Dynamics - they all have major Proposal Writing Depts. [/i]
Post Tue Jul 25, 2017 6:44 pm
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Garson
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Bro, you will not believe me, but I have exactly the same situation. And I decided that you plan that you have mentioned is one of the best in this situation. Another one variant is to find another variant of work that will be nicely paid and take less your time. You can click here and to try to find something. It is rather a good platform where it is possible to find some job offers. Good luck to you. I will be very thankful if you will tell us how you solved this problem here
Post Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:11 am
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Dankore
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I believe that if you see no reason to work in any job that you also don’t like, then you can change your job / company / find an interesting offer abroad. Now there are many cool courses that can teach you everything you need in different areas of services, manufacturing and business. I know that large companies that offer good working conditions and high salaries usually hire recruitment agencies to find new employees. So you will need to prepare for several interviews. It seems to me that at any age and at any time you can change your activity and find the job that you really like.
Post Sat Sep 12, 2020 1:41 pm
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