Author Topic: Retirement, but love the work?  (Read 6137 times)

acrosstherainbow

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Retirement, but love the work?
« on: March 14, 2015, 08:55:07 PM »
I'm a relatively new reader (although I have lurked here for quite awhile). Is there anyone in the situation of liking the idea of retiring early, but love their job? When I say I love my job, I mean that I love it. I wake up wanting to get to work and I generally enjoy myself throughout the day (I'm a nurse practitioner).

For others with the same mindset- what have you decided as far as early retirement goes? I realize this sounds like an oxymoron. But have you decided to make enough for FIRE and then just work part-time so that you get some benefits of each? It sounds like that would be the obvious solution, but just wondering if anyone else had any other thoughts.

mozar

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #1 on: March 14, 2015, 09:05:48 PM »
Are you 100% sure you will love it until you are 65? Nurse practitioners usually burn out earlier than that because of long periods of standing, having to pick patients up out of bed, bureaucracy etc. When people tell me they love their jobs I just roll my eyes because they are usually in denial about the abilities of their bodies as they get older. Also you can't "just work part time." It's actually really tough to find sustainable part time jobs.
If you get to FI and decide you don't want to RE more power to you. What's most important is having the option. No one is going to force you to retire.

aschmidt2930

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #2 on: March 14, 2015, 09:09:46 PM »
Yes, I love my job, and can honestly say I'm excited and motivated 95% of days. With that said, I want to "RE" to work part time in a freelance role in a few years. I'm just one of those people that would be bored working 0 hours a week. The key is the ability to work for myself.

acrosstherainbow

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #3 on: March 14, 2015, 09:12:44 PM »
So...a nurse practitioner doesn't really deal with bedside patient care- that's a Registered Nurse. And actually, I work as a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner, so all my patients are <15 pounds anyway.

The only prolonged standing I do is during rounds :) which lasts about 2-3 hours and then I spend the rest of my day (I work three 12s a week) writing medical progress notes, talking to parents & consults, attending deliveries, and doing some invasive procedures.

Actually, it's pretty easy to work part-time in the medical field. You may not get it in the hospital you want the second you want it, but part-time for health care workers is pretty standard. It helps if you've been in the hospital for a number of years and they don't want to lose you and all of your experience in knowing how their institutions works.

I don't necessarily want to work until I'm 65, but maybe part-time for some point up until then- the point would be when. Just curious if people had similar ideas.

SpareChange

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #4 on: March 15, 2015, 01:48:08 AM »
Yes, I'm leaning toward a similar approach. I work in a hospital as an X-ray tech. I like it well enough. Probably more so if I was FIRE'd and doing it PT :). I'm thinking about pumping out around 5 years or so FT, and then switching to PT or PRN. I could do that tomorrow and my dept wouldn't bat an eye. 

gaja

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #5 on: March 15, 2015, 04:13:04 AM »
I work as an environmentalist, and love that someone will pay me for doing my hobby. Will maybe switch to a NGO when we are FI, or dabble a bit more into politics (political advisor, or something like that). I've tried being a SAHM, and was terrible at it. So I know I'll be working for many years to come, but want to be able to do what I want, and not worry about the finances.

chasesfish

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #6 on: March 15, 2015, 06:35:55 AM »
Yes,  I'm close to FI but love my job currently.  It's interesting though, there have been plenty of times I didn't love my job in the same profession.   I've decided to enjoy it while it lasts and take a few more extravagant vacations.

Gray Matter

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2015, 07:05:22 AM »
Love is probably too strong of a word, though it comes close to what I feel in my current job.  But at the very least, I like working, like it a lot, and used to think I'd work forever.  But over the past few years, I hit serious burn-out and I hated the feeling of getting up every day and trudging off to work and feeling like I had to.  I think human beings are notoriously bad at predicting what will make our future selves happy, and we also tend to project our current feelings (good and bad) into the future as if they'll stay that way forever.

For me, the real goal is not to stop working, but "freedom of choice."  So I can choose to work full-time until the day I die, or choose to work part-time, or choose to walk away should I ever feel as awful as I did last year.  I'm the kind of person that does best with some structure and external accountabilities, so working is good for me.  But even if I love my work, I find over time that there are all kinds of things I want to do outside of work, and I want to make room for those. 

If I were to predict my trajectory, I think I will ramp down my career at some point.  I "sort of" did this by leaving the corporate world nine months ago and going to work for a non-profit, so there was a pretty significant ramp-down of income, but I took a leadership role in the organization, so not a ramp-down of responsibilities.  Still, it's been awesome.  And starting January 1, I moved to 80% time.  And I can see myself wanting to work even more part-time for a number of years, maybe forever.

Roots&Wings

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2015, 07:48:40 AM »
There are some SWAMIs on the forum (Satisfied Working Advanced Mustachian Individual, see MMM post http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2011/04/30/weekend-edition-retire-in-your-mind-even-if-you-love-your-job/), which is why I'm aiming for financial independence.

Reaching FI sooner will allow choices in the event I no longer enjoy my work or can cut back hours.


acrosstherainbow

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #9 on: March 15, 2015, 07:08:39 PM »
Thanks for the insight everyone!

Right now it'll be awhile. We have about $50k in a 403(b) account, but we're going to stop everything and pay off our last 2 debts of student loans, about $70k. We've cut most everything out and should be able to do it within a year (I keep looking back at MMM's post on, "if you have, you are having an emergency- act like it!"). We don't own a house, but we hope to build one and save $$ for it.

For now we're going to stop retirement contributions, get the debt paid off, get the emergency fund in place, and then max out my 403(b) and roth IRAs while we save for a house too.

I've calculated what our budget might look like in retirement and based on inflation of 4%, looks like if we put in 10 years of the aforementioned budget and leave it until we're 62, then 10 years in, age 40, I could work part-time and just make enough to pay current bills, but only work 1/2-2/3 of regular time. 

Mrkineticz

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #10 on: March 16, 2015, 02:47:13 AM »
Im a registered nurse and i love my job too just like the OP. Although most RN's do alot of physical labor I did my time with that part of my career and jumped into case management where I barely life a finger.  IF you truly love your job you wont feel like its work. Keep on trucking.. I think when I am FIRE'd  I would still like to work part time as a nurse as well.

deborah

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #11 on: March 16, 2015, 02:50:39 AM »
I loved my job for many years, then the office politics got to me, and I liked my job, but hated going to work. I thought I would really miss it when I retired, but I didn't miss it at all.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #12 on: March 16, 2015, 06:42:33 AM »
FI doesn't mean you have to retire early. It means you CAN.

It will make me happy to know that I don't HAVE to go to work everyday.  If I chose to, well it's just another fulfilling hobby.

forummm

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #13 on: March 16, 2015, 08:20:44 AM »
I would still strive for FI--because you never know what life will bring. Once you're FI, you can absolutely keep working if you love your job. I would encourage you to keep doing what you love. You can just take all those nice paychecks and give them to great charitable causes as long as you keep working. And if you ever change your mind, or something happens at work, you can just walk away whenever--even if that's to go get your same job at another employer. Freedom is lovely.

FrugalZony

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Re: Retirement, but love the work?
« Reply #14 on: March 16, 2015, 01:12:52 PM »
FI is about options. Nobody says you HAVE to retire if you don't want to.
Being FI allows you to make choices about your job, that you otherwise would not have.
If you chose to continue to work all the power to you.

I used to LOVE LOVE LOVE my job. The days went over in the blink of an eye and I truly enjoyed what I was doing
I never understood the people who were obsessed with going home early, going to lunch in time etc.
I was just in the flow....

Then things changed....

I still enjoy certain aspects of my job, but the closer I get to FI, the more relaxed I can be about the things I don't enjoy about it.


 

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