Topic Title: Reader Case Study - Education & Career Change PLUS FIRE by 40?
Life Situation: Canadian, 27 F, single, no dependents (wanting a cat - ideally a dog, but FT work), desperate to get out of HR and into something that 1) pays better and 2) isn't HR.
Gross Salary/Wages: $51,418.04
($1,970.04 bi-weekly)
Deductions (bi-weekly) CIT $257.61
CPP $91.08
EI $32.70
Pension (matched by employer) $206.26
Union Dues $24.63
Benefits $57.07
Other Ordinary Income:None, but I'm looking to add a side gig walking dogs using Rover and develop a Patreon for DnD resources.
Total Monthly Income: $2,829Current expenses: **NOTE: This is an approximate. I am now in my 6th month of living on my own for the first time and my spending has kind of stabilized recently.**
Living $1,338.00Rent $750.00
Food $300.00 (working on lowering this - this also includes eye drops [recovering from eye surgery], home cleaning products and small misc items I get from convenience or grocery stores)
Insurance $75.00
Cellphone $35.00
Gas $60.00
Electricity $60.00
Laundry $20.00 (we have coin-laundry in my place. This is an approximate.)
Internet $38.00
Expenses $461.00Entertainment $75.00 (movies, board game cafes, escape rooms)
Netflix $11.00
Spotify $10.00
Other $50.00
Gym $60.00
Coffees $35.00
LTSS $60.00 (LTSS = Long Term Saving for Spending, basically a catch-all for gifts or larger purchases)
Vacation $100.00
Eating out $50.00
YNAB $10.00 (favourite budgeting app)
TOTAL SPENDING: $1,800 (-$1, but let's round up)Assets: RRSP: $6,154 (invested in Tangerine's Equity Growth portfolio)
TFSA: $4,038 (invested in WealthSimple's Aggressive Growth portfolio)
'07 Honda Fit
*Note: I’m not sure how much is actually in my Pension. I work for the public service, and would love to stay with them until I FIRE, but I’m not married to that. Since, well, I’ll be FIRE-ing and I won’t stay with them until the age I’d have to be to access it. Question: is it worth
Liabilities:None (though my Fit is kind of a liability in that it seems to be requiring more and more maintenance)
NET WORTH: $10,200~ (varies according to market - my current plan is to put all my savings into my RRSP and apply my tax return to the TFSA)
Specific Question(s): I have
several questions which I'll separate out below.
One: How can I keep my job, career change and still save some money?I am hating my job and industry. I work in Human Resources and thought all throughout high school and university that it was my jam. I like people, I enjoy motivating them, I enjoy studying them and I enjoy business.
Or at least I thought I did.
I’m in the public service and I am hating my work. I used to be on the strategies side of things working on engagement, programs and so on and, while it still sucked, it was better. Half a year ago, I took a developmental assignment into HR Operations and I freakin' hate it. The sheer amount of inane detail that I have to manage, combined with the huge volume and insane pace, are not at all my speed. I also can't go back, because since the start of the assignment, my base position has changed significantly. It's no longer the job I used to have.
I also took a look and my earning potential in HR and in the government are so dismal, it would take me 30+ years to retire if I were to spend all 30 years at the highest earning rate and with the same expenses.
My primary financial goal is the "FI" in "FIRE". By my calculations, this would come at $850,000 saved (assuming at $30,000 annual spend - a higher number than my current spend, but best to be conservative).
That said, I have been considering going back to school part-time (evenings and weekends) for a
Business Analyst Certificate.
I really enjoy needs assessment, requirement assessment and bridging communication gaps between groups. The times my job has been the most enjoyable have been when I feel like I'm the one interpreting what two groups are saying to each other and bringing them onto the same page.
I also miss learning and I feel like going back to school would be fun. Most of the base courses of the certificate really appeal to me and sound like topics I would enjoy.
Business Analysts in my area earn on average in the $65-75k a year range. The low end is about the same as what I earn now and the high end is in the low $100k/year range.
That said, the
education would cost $6,000 in tuition and likely more including books.
I am going to ask my employer if they would support paying for a few courses and possibly giving me a few days off to handle the school work. That said, I doubt they would pay for many if at all. The government I work for is operating out of a deficit and they have not been supportive of me in the past. They may in fact discourage me because I face performance issues in this job that is a horrible fit for me.
I am thinking I will split my savings 50/50 between putting some into my RRSP and some towards an education fund.
My questions are as follows:- If you’re a Business Analyst, can you tell me about your average day?
- Do you have any strategies for "bucking up and kicking ass" at work while I hate it?
- Do you think my 50/50 RRSP/education plan is sound?
Mostly, I want to do this, but I'm feeling scared that I'm just going to end up back in a job that sucks, that I hate and that I fail at. I joke that 90% of why I want to FIRE is so I can get a rescue dog (and then another one or two) and spend all day with them, but that's probably 75% of why I want to do it. 25% (and sometimes it feels like 100% of why) is so that I don't have to drag myself through a day where I feel like I'm drowning in work and sucking ass at it despite doing my best.
...think I just had a bit of a breakthrough with that...
Two: My FIRE plan - is it realistic/doable?I anticipate needing $750,000 as my FI number. I hope to retire by 40 (if not sooner) and live until I'm 100 (all my grandparents and extended family have died before 100, so I will likely follow suit). FIRECalc (using all default settings) gives this an 82% success rate. Good 'nuff for me, as I will be earning money throughout my early retirement and will also likely reduce my spending as I age. This also only takes into account my staying single, which I hope not to be the case.
With my current assets at $10k, I would need to save about $4,750 a month every month until 40 to get there. Right now, I don't even make $3k before expenses.
I plan to House Hack by age 35, which would reduce the amount of expenses (and ideally actually make money) I spend on living. I am not adverse to also leveraging that to own several rental properties.
I also plan to start a side gig walking dogs using the Rover app (anyone have experience with that?) and hope to turn a DnD DM hobby into a Patreon/blog/ebook side gig as well.
I am currently looking into small things like beer money sites and Kijiji flipping to fund a few other small purchases (coffees, eating out, etc) so I can eek out more savings.
But do you think I could FIRE by 40?
I'm honestly feeling sort of... trapped and hopeless. The job situation doesn't help, but my financial situation isn't making me any more confident either.
Three: Am I just overthinking this?Maybe it's my recent corrective eye surgery, but I have, like, 20/10 hindsight.
If only I had gone into Computing Science, I could have been making mega-bucks right now. If only I hadn't bought into my mom's crazy cult-like "find yourself" courses for $5k in my first year of University I could have done better (I feel like that's where it all started to go downhill). If only I hadn't taken my first job where it was so boring I ended up on the internet all day. If only I hadn't bought IKEA furniture new when I knew how cheap it was on Kijiji.
I know retiring at 40 is still early, and still better than 90% of the people I know. But I feel like it's so hopelessly far away and so hopelessly impossible given my current salary.
Help?