Life Situation: Single, 26, Female, No dependents, USA. Graduated university and got my first career job in 2015 but have been working odd jobs while going to school since 2009. I am a traveling healthcare provider living in my RV...and I hate my career. I make excellent money but I want opinions on whether I should just grind it out, work for 8 more years and then FIRE, or pursue a different industry (maybe needing more education) and have a job that pays less, FIRE later, but have a happier 8 years. I'm leaning toward the latter. It just sucks that I've spent so much time and money getting my degree that is so specialized that I can't do anything else with it (I'm not a nurse, my career is very specialized). Good news is that I paid off my student loans in 2015, so that's not hanging over me.
Gross Salary/Wages: $38,000 in gross taxable income. However I net around $6000 per month due to travel stipends which is equal to $72,000/year net.
Deductions: 401k is 912/mo (10,944/year), IRA is maxed at $412/mo ($5,500/year). I do a mix of Roth and traditional for both accounts.
Other Ordinary Income: I have a side hustle that I can do online in my pjs that pulls a small amount ($11/hr), and I can pick up shift work whenever I want ($50/hr). This is not included in my above gross salary figure.
Qualified Dividends & Long Term Capital Gains: n/a
Rental Income: I have a rental house, owned with my mom. I am in debt to her for $118,000 at 0% interest. This house brings in a net profit of $10,000 per year but I am paying back my "loan" with my half so I currently receive nothing. If I pay extra towards my mom, hopefully in about 8-10 years I will start receiving my $5,000 per year. If I just wait for the houe to start cash flowing for me, it will be about 23 years and we might have sold it by then and I will hopefully have some profit. (or honestly I might have inherited it all although I hope not!) Weird situation.
Taxes:
Federal: 268/mo, $3,216/year
State: $92/mo, $1,104/year
SSI:$185/mo, $2,220/year
Medicare: $43/mo, $516/year
Property: $1500 per year ($125/month)
MONTHLY TAXES: $713
YEARLY TAXES: $8,556
Current expenses:
Rent: $525/mo
Food: $500/mo
Gas: $500/month (don't be too hard on me- i make about $900 in mileage reimbursement, so driving is actually $400/mo profit.)
Car loan (trust me i know this is an EMERGENCY): I am currently paying $3500 per month and this should be dust in 4 more months. The actual payment is $750/mo but I am prepaid by about 3 years at this time. It's a clown truck..needed to pull my RV. stupid purchase.
Internet, phone, cable: $70/ mo
Utilities: $300/mo
Health Insurance: $192/mo (for EXCELLENT coverage through work)
Car Insurance: $135/mo
Short term Disability Insurance: $40/mo
Dental Insurance: $16/mo
Misc: $200/mo.
Total Expenses: $5978 per month out of $6,000 net. In 4 months my expenses will drop to 2,478. If I stop my traveling job and move back home with my mom and get a permanent job in the same industry, my expenses will drop to around 1,553. However my taxable income will rise from $38,000 gross to $75,00 gross. My net paycheck would drop from $6000/mo to around $4500/mo. A net loss of around $1000 per month. And of course my food bill is high, I know I can cut that in half if needed.
Assets:
Car: $40,000 (2016 Ford F-250 diesel, with remaining loan balance of $15,000 at 1.7%)
RV: $4,000 (2006 Coachmen Chaparral fifth wheel)
Bank Account liquid savings/emergency fund: $15,716
Vanguard Roth IRA: $41,610
Vanguard Traditional IRA: $3,011
Vanguard "FIRE investments": $23,237 (my FIRE goal in this account is $600,000, contributing 3,500 per month I can hopefully make it here in 10 years)
Roth 401k (just became eligible to participate last month): $778
Traditional 401k (just became eligible to participate last month): $778
TOTAL NET WORTH: $113,414
Specific Question(s): Bottom line is I hate my job. I'm not sure if it's worth it to extend my FIRE by 5 years or more, to get a new career, if I currently only have 8-10 years to go in my current career anyway. What should I do? Things I like about my current job: It is good on paper, I get to travel and the money is great, it is flexible and I can change the city and job that I'm working at every 13 weeks when my contract runs out. And I liked being a student and learning about my industry.
Things I don't like: It is very stressful and I'm tired of being away from family and friends all the time. I feel like I'm wasting my patients time because things that I work on with them only helps about 1/10 people, and it is a giant drain on medicare as a whole. I fantasize about working at costco, or walking dogs, or being a fitness instructor. I'm actually thinking about going back to school to be an American Sign Language Interpreter. However this is a 2 year educational tract, with not much money being made until passing all certifications around year 5. Even if I had my dream, low stress, flexible job with a modest salary, I think I would be pursuing FIRE just to have the FU money to walk away when I want to have kids, or when new management takes over and inevitably makes things hell. Therefore it seems not really worth it to pursue.
If I went back to school, I could stay in my current industry part time and pick up shift work for around $50-60 an hour. I'm worried about the cost of health insurance, the opportunity cost of missing my full time paycheck, and what if I go through all of it to realize that it's not the job that I hate, it's the 40 hour 9-5 rat race that I hate, and that nothing will make me satisfied (I suspect that's it).
Advice??? Should I just buckle down on my savings? I'm trying to start some other side hustles as well that are passive income earners but I feel lost.