Best Parts of Having a W2 Job

[yachi]

I'm looking for some motivation to enjoy the ride here.  What are the best parts of a job, and why should we treasure them?

I'll start things off:
Steady income.  My salary and benefits is the equivalent of more than $2Million in savings at a 4% withdrawal rate!  I'm not projected to need this entire firehose, so lots is going toward savings, but it's available should something change (health needs of family, surprise needs of children)

Health insurance - The ACA has been a boon to early retirees, but it's still a bit of a mystery.  Jobs still continue to offer health insurance at reasonable rates.

Social connections - I guess I could be accused of being a complainypants for saying its harder to form social connections while FIREd, and fearing I'll become a hermit, but jobs have built in social exposure to coworkers.

[shuffler]

What's your basis of comparison?  W2 vs. Retired?  vs. Self-Employed or Business Owner?  vs. Contracting/Consulting?

If you're in an in-demand position, you can periodically get head-hunted by competitors and increase your net compensation.

401k/HSA can be nice, depending on the plan.

Deferred compensation can be good.

Vacation days are good.  Getting paid for not working doesn't happen so much for Retired/Self-Employed/Contracting folks.

[dandarc]

+1 to what's the comparison? Self-Employed IT Contractor has been far, far better for me personally than same "job" but W2 arrangement. But everyone's experience obviously varies.

[dcheesi]

+1 to what's the comparison? Self-Employed IT Contractor has been far, far better for me personally than same "job" but W2 arrangement. But everyone's experience obviously varies.

YMMV, for sure. For some folks, the (perceived) stability of a W2 job outweighs the "freedom" of contract/freelance work. I haven't tried it, but I'd probably be a nervous wreck if I had to constantly be looking for my next client to keep the income flowing.

[dandarc]

+1 to what's the comparison? Self-Employed IT Contractor has been far, far better for me personally than same "job" but W2 arrangement. But everyone's experience obviously varies.

YMMV, for sure. For some folks, the (perceived) stability of a W2 job outweighs the "freedom" of contract/freelance work. I haven't tried it, but I'd probably be a nervous wreck if I had to constantly be looking for my next client to keep the income flowing.

Enter Government IT Contracting - in which if you're good at your job you have nearly all the stability of being a government employee, just with a lot more money. Legislatures are too preoccupied with stuff like vilifying socialism to update pay-scales to reflect reality. I recall a manager I used to work with trying to hire an expert DBA with 10+ years of experience and the ceiling of the pay range that could be offered was something like $38K annual salary. State benefits are good but they aren't nearly that good, even 8 years ago when I had this conversation.

In any event - the stability probably is true at some employers, but far from all.

[yachi]

What's your basis of comparison?  W2 vs. Retired?  vs. Self-Employed or Business Owner?  vs. Contracting/Consulting?

If you're in an in-demand position, you can periodically get head-hunted by competitors and increase your net compensation.

401k/HSA can be nice, depending on the plan.

Deferred compensation can be good.

Vacation days are good.  Getting paid for not working doesn't happen so much for Retired/Self-Employed/Contracting folks.

Compared to retired, or almost-retired-but-needing-a-side-gig.  I expect something like Fat FIRE would easily beat working a job since you'll have extra time to spend a fat budget without the timesuck of a job.  I'm imagining something like FIRE where you only have enough to cover basics vs working a job where you have enough left over to save and/or cover surprise expenses.

But really I'm interested in anything that you'd miss from your job.  Jacob from Early Retirement Extreme once mentioned access to market trading software, and working alongside intellectually interesting people as reasons to go back to work.