I'm a freelancer currently working two long-term contracts. Contract A is about 20-25 hours/week and Contract B is 8-10 hours/week. I've been debating whether to end Contract B.
My thought process... I'm hoping to quit all my freelance work and shift my professional life this year to working for an organization with a mission (or externalities) I'm excited about (more or less a 'coast FI' plan as I have a decent but by no means full-RE-ready stache). I've been a mercenary working for (in my mind) morally questionable or neutral companies until now in my career, and I'm excited that being part-FI gives me the freedom to pursue something different. Not sure what that means yet exactly, but I have a a few specific companies and nonprofits in mind. To put my best foot forward when talking to them, I need to spend some time preparing as I'm a bit rusty on the technical side and haven't interviewed for a job in a couple of years.
My original plan was to do this prep in parallel with my current freelance gigs as the work (30-35 hours/week) still leaves some time free for it. However I'm finding that the urgent-but-not-important (from my perspective) work for my clients keeps crowding out the important-but-not-urgent tasks I've been setting for myself to get to the next step. I'm also spending a fair bit of time (8-10 hours/week) training for a competitive sport that's really important to me, and another weekly 2-3 hours (on average) on leading a volunteer organization. Overall I would say I'm more willpower-constrained than time-constrained, i.e. if you add up the hours needed for everything I want to do it's totally feasible on the calendar, but finding the energy to stay focused on these disparate priorities has been a challenge.
If I ditch Contract B, I feel I'll have more breathing room to focus on my long term goals. Assuming that I'd be leaving the gig in a few months anyway, the loss for ending it would be a few months worth of invoices. At the same time it's throwing away fairly easy, fun work with people I enjoy, and if I don't end up finding a job I'm more aligned with in the time frame I'm predicting, the loss is potentially bigger.
The contract pays about $3,000-$4,000/month. My other gig (Contract A), which I'm confident I don't want to leave until I've lined up something else, pays about $9,000/month. My net worth is just over $300k, annual expenses are around $35k and I'm 35 years old.
What would you do? Stick it out and try to 'do it all' for a while to keep a nice high saving rate as long as possible, or bail now to focus on the important long-term stuff (and enjoy the summer!)?
