For the last three years, ever since I found out about MMM, I'd planned to keep chugging along with my current job as an office manager for the next 8 years ago, riding on reliable (if average) income, a high saving rate and low spending into easy coast!FIRE. About a month ago, I just-- snapped. I was drowning in alternating waves of stress, boredom, and frantic panic at work, dealing with poor planning and ridiculous corporate policies. And on a personal note, I was helping manage personal crisis after crisis among family members and friends, some of their own making, others out of sheer bad luck. Fuck this shit, it's too easy to never take risks. I wanted to pursue something better, and I wanted out-- out of my stagnant role that I'd already mastered, out of dealing with double-speaking management, out of this career track altogether.
My plan was to take the next six months keeping my nose to the grindstone at work, while:
- Saving every dollar I can, building up to ~10k or so (I currently have about 5k right on hand and ~1.6k going into a 401k every month, so this would be savings on top of 401k contributions)
- Bring in as much revenue for my small crafting business as I can (about 5k this year, up to 8-10k with some luck and dedication, and a LOT of time)
- Learning to code-- I'll be honest, I'm starting from scratch but I'm smart and organized and a fast learner, so I'm not too worried. Planning on starting from free online lessons, graduating to either paid lesson plans or possibly attending a bootcamp after I give notice at work
- Trying to practice better self care, both physically and mentally, to recover from the deep burnout I'm currently in. (Which yes, is at odds with everything else I'm planning on achieving above.)
After giving notice, the plan was to take some time off traveling (mostly visiting elderly grandparents, but also for personal enjoyment-- another reason to pad my savings) and detoxing from work, while really throwing myself into learning coding and building my business on the side. Maybe sign up for a coding bootcamp, get good enough to land a job etc. make money, FIRE, live happily ever after. Get some chickens.
So. Back to that burnout.
I'm exhausted, all of the time. Averaging maybe 5 hours of sleep a day, finding myself uncharacteristically irritable, starting to realize that my ~bad memory of late~ is probably stress making swiss cheese out of my brain, tension and stress headaches, heart palpitations, anxiety. Every day/week/month I tell myself: surely the next [fill in the blank] will be better. It's not. It's more of the same. My job is not that bad, really (I think? I've heard of so many people in much worse situations making much less money), but I really am that dead inside, and I don't know if I'll last another 6 months. I keep daydreaming of just handing in my notice and walking away, or just never showing up again. I would never do that.
So much for taking risks- I want the additional 10k in my 401k, I want the extra padding in my savings cushion, I want to be secure in my learning and have my business in a good place and hey, throw in a Nintendo Switch and a deep cleaning for my house while I'm at it. Something's gotta give in my neatly arranged path toward the future, but I'm too close to be able to figure out what.
[TL;DR PLEASE GIVE ME ADVICE/FACEPUNCHES/SUGGESTIONS FOR:]
- Surviving the next 6 months of teeth grinding, soul numbing work before I hand in my notice. Attitude checks or perspective changes, tools, tricks, tips, everything is welcome.
- Should I.... resign sooner? I was planning on giving them 4 weeks notice in about 5 months, but maybe I should accelerate that timeline, even if it means leaving without as much money.
- What should I make a priority? What should I drop? What gives (if not my sanity first.)
- Making a career change-- Any free or paid coding courses that people might recommend? There are a lot of resources out there, but it can be hard to tell what's reputable and worth the time/money, and what's not. Any recommendations for reputable and intensive coding bootcamps in the LA area that don't cost an entire arm and leg? Or even ones that do... I am absolutely planning on doing my own research, and I have programmer friends that I can run things by, but they're all from traditional 4 years uni --> job backgrounds, and I'd love some direction on where to start.
- Any other thoughts, insights are welcome. I really value the collective knowledge in these forums, and would love more input.
Personal Info:
Age: 28
Current Salary: 55k
Side Business: 5-10k a year? I have no real expectation of making big $$$ out of it, but it's an enjoyable side hustle
NW: 190k, about 75k in retirement accounts
Yearly Spend: ~22k, including travel. Can probably get it down to 18k once I cut out gas (commute) and expensive car insurance (commute again, damn!)
Personal: I have an SO, we currently live together (and so share housing expenses.) No children, mortgages, or joint accounts (and no plans to acquire any of these things in the future.)