Hi there, folks!
I am relatively new, and am seeking advice. This is roughly a case study type situation, but saving is not my issue, so I am not breaking down finances here for brevity's sake, (if that would be helpful, can easily do so). Here is my question:
How does one go about obtaining a job which has an income large enough to save for early retirement?
My current yearly spending: about $12,000/year.
My current yearly saving: about $4,000/year.
I am very frugal. I grew up sort of "land rich/money poor" and the favorite insult in my house was that someone was "one of those people who squeezes their toothpaste from the middle," as opposed to the end. I do have a bit of extra in my budget right now, and I am working on cutting that down, but I'm pretty tight.
I am 24, two years out working, moved out from a bad family situation and straight into any steady job I could find.
Assets: Have B.A. in psychology, am currently working as a support person for adults with autism in my area. I love my work, but the pay is practically nothing, (darn non-profits), and it is somewhat stressful, though is in my field. I graduated with honors from a reputable state university on full scholarship, debt-free, have work experience in several areas, and am pretty good at most skills. Have excelled working as: receptionist in tourist destination hair salon (dealing with large numbers of bride-zillas...think Las Vegas), felling trees by hand to build bridges out of them, doing historical interpretation and archival work for the National Park Service, weaving/spinning by hand and selling crafts, teaching karate classes to small children, and doing psych research studies.
Cons: While I am fairly skilled in a number of areas, I am not good with small details and hard-sciency-type-stuff. Example, in math, I am excellent at abstract calculus, but I frequently mistip servers at restaurants, and I have to tape my phone number to the back of my phone to remember it. I did data management work for a while and hated it. I also detest marketing of all sorts and capitalist scams, (yeah, I'm sure there are many die-hard capitalism supporters on this forum...and that is fine...ya'll are entitled to your opinions...and I, mine. I'm not trying to start beef here with economic system discussion). I cannot do the dress uber-professional everyday and glad-hand-my-way-to-linear-happiness thing, although I do love connecting people to community resources and do have excellent people skills. I also have ptsd and am frequently tired/stressed, so most 40hr/week jobs I can do, but some I may not.
I am having a hard time seeing myself finding a job which would give me the income to save in order to move towards early retirement. Most jobs seem to be in medicine, marketing/business, hard science, or politics. I just am not really sure what I could feasibly move towards. Some of this may just be due to mental health and social work jobs being undervalued, (from my perspective), in our society, but I really don't want to compromise my financial well-being just to pursue a job in a field in which I got a degree. I do volunteer work in the area of social work in my free time...that is something I can do alongside a job.
Okay, thanks if you've made it through my ramblings. I appreciate all constructive feedback. Please let me know if you think I'm missing something.
Best,
-possum