117R | Creating Your Dream Job

March 8, 2019
Jonathan Mendonsa
Tag: Personal Finance

Brad and Jonathan discuss “the Kleenex” of low-cost mutual funds, Bradley’s story about choosing to move towards part-time work, and make an announcement about a new voice on the podcast.

BBC Shout Out

Brad became a BBC superstar this week with a short video that has already been viewed over 2 million times. In fact, it was the most watched video on the BBC website for three days!

The video shows the normal life of Brad and Laura and talks about the why of FI. It shows everyone the power of making slightly different life choices can build a radically different life over time. Media coverage like this is a great way to spread the FIRE.

You can see the video here. (If you want to catch a glimpse of the legendary “Golden Boy”, then definitely check it out!)

Bradley’s Story

Bradley Rice’s story about making the switch to part-time work is inspiring. He was able to create a position of power and leverage that into a job that allowed him to spend more time with his young daughter.

Bradley made this unconventional life choice after deciding that he valued the precious time he has with his daughter more than his whole paycheck. Once he decided on these values, he was able to make changes to reflect these values. However, he would not have been able to do this if he had allowed his lifestyle to inflate. At the time of this transition, Bradley was earning well over $100,000 but his family’s expenses were much less than that. He knew that he could take care of his family with a much smaller paycheck, which left him in a position of power.

With that, he was able to successfully negotiate an unconventional work arrangement. The fact that he had worked hard at his job to make him a skilled and valuable employee allowed his future employer to accept the part-time work proposition.

Although he had chosen this path this intention of taking a pay cut, he found a way to make even more as a part-time worker. In essence, Bradley created his own dream job that allows him to supercharge his path to FI while enjoying the journey.

Check out the full episode here.

Build Your Own Dream Job

Bradley had incredible success with his career path in SalesForce. According to Bradley, this career path can be replicated by anyone with motivation. You can follow Bradley’s advice from 117 to recreate this successful journey to FI but this is not your only option.

With this incredible community of like-minded people, we hear about new career paths that are allowing others to pursue FI every single day. The hope is to build a repository of FI friendly career paths that will allow others to pursue a similar path to FI.

So far we have heard several career hacks including:

Each option is different but one may appeal to you. We will continue to build our repository of dream jobs for the FI community by talking to success stories in the FI community. The hope is that you will take these lessons and apply them to your own life.

“Position yourself for information that has the ability to transform your life.”

Voicemails

Let’s dive into a few voicemails from the community this week:

Alyssa

Alyssa and her husband are a military family in pursuit of FI. They are able to save half of their $54,000 income each year and hope to reach FI by 45. She would like to know to see more people that are pursuing FI on less than six figures.

Hello Alyssa!

It is incredibly impressive that you are able to save half of your income already. Many would agree that this is the hard part. Although we have featured some guests that make less than $100,000, like Jillian Johnsrud from Episode 84, we will definitely feature guests like this again.

However, it is important to not disregard the income side of the FI equation. Consider your opportunities to build your income over time. Unsubscribe to any limiting beliefs that you cannot earn more because you can. Be open to new situations that will come your way and use any new information that resonates with you to increase your income with time.

Kenneth

Kenneth is an aerospace engineer that has struggled to find part-time work opportunities. Would like to hear more FI friendly career ideas like this.

Hello Kenneth!

Yes! We are very committed to building a portfolio of ideas based on crowd-sourced information from the community. In the next 12-36 months, we hope to explore several dozen more ideas to benefit our FI community.

Addition To The ChooseFI Team

With the growth of the podcast and the incredible Facebook community, Jonathan and Brad have decided to bring on a new team member to join them on their Friday Roundups.

Welcome Zach!

He will focus on aggregating feedback from the episodes and bringing questions from social media into the roundup. If you want your question or comment to make it on the show, then use #mailbag when making a Facebook post or Tweet.

Question from Tito:

I am going to be doing travel rewards at the end of the year. The problem is that I do not spend a lot of money each month. If I made a large purchase and return the item would that count towards the amount I need to spend? I live in an area where I cannot pay my property tax or most utilities with a credit card so I can’t use that option.

Hello Tito!

Investigate any payments you make in life that you can pay with your credit card, with or without a small fee. Consider pre-paying your bills to reach the number such as front-loading your auto insurance or purchasing gift cards to stores you know you’ll use in the future. Or consider timing your credit card sign up around a large random purchase. You cannot make an illegitimate purchase, you cannot game the system like that and we do not recommend that. The short answer is that if you’ve already investigated all of these options, then travel rewards may not work for you right now. Or consider looking for a lower entry credit card.

Question from Gage:

Curious of peoples thoughts and methods out there. I have been trying to figure out a good method of budgeting or pooling my wife and I’s income. For example, currently we have a “bill account” for our fixed expenses and we both add an amount each month that covers the costs. While the method works and is okay we have been considering changing to something different like a single joint account and a bill account. How does everyone else manage their accounts/cash with significant others?

Hello Gage!

It really boils down to what works in your life. We recommend moving towards simplicity but you will just need to find what works best for you and your significant other.

The Kleenex Of Mutual Funds

As you probably know, the FI community loves the VTSAX fund offered by Vanguard. Although this is a great low-cost mutual fund, it is not the only one out there. Other companies like Schwab and Fidelity offer similar low-cost mutual funds.

Most in the FI community refer to the VTSAX as “the Kleenex” of mutual funds. The specific mutual fund you use will just depend on your own preferences. Do a bit of research before choosing to invest in any of these low-cost mutual funds.

Wrap Up

If you are interested in building your dream job, then keep listening for more ideas from the ChooseFI community. We will continue to seek out these stories and share them with you.

If you are new to ChooseFI, the take your first steps here.

If you haven’t joined a local group, then consider connecting with like-minded individuals here. We have groups in every domestic state. The FIRE is spreading!

Related articles

New to FI? Be sure to check out Episode 100: Welcome To The FI Community!