Doing what we love

[Ottawa]

This is something I've thought about alot.  I know alot of Mustachians think about it alot as they start to approach the FIRE potential.  Quite alot of us claim to have a job we love.  I *think* that I do...but what is the alternative?  If I were in a position that I did not like...I tell myself that I wouldn't stay there.  I tell myself that the reason I'm in a job I do like is because I engineered the conditions through iterative actions... 

When I think about RE I feel a little unsure about leaving the job that I *think* I like.  If I've spent so much time moving toward a job that offers a high ratio of intellectual stimulation to BS...that I may find myself a little lost when I leave the job I (mostly) love. 

David Cain published a very interesting article today about the DWYL (do what you love) movement and also the anti-DWYL movement.  I need to read this article and the links out of it many times to absorb it properly.  For now...I leave it for you to consider too.

http://www.raptitude.com/2014/01/6-should-be-common-sense-realities-about-doing-what-you-love-for-a-living/

[aclarridge]

Also read that article today.

I feel that for me, it really makes sense to keep at the job I have, which I certainly don't love but don't hate either. The reason is money - I think I make more here than I could in most other jobs I could tolerate. So while I'm a big fan of DWYL, I want to make money first to make the DWYL part of life a bit easier financially.

[the fixer]

It sounds like you're in a very different situation from me if you've been able to engineer a job you love. I spent years trying to do that within my career and managed to find what should have been the perfect job. Every aspect was exactly what I wanted to be doing: learning a lot, working with smart and talented coworkers, having a lot of personal direction and choices about my work, able to exert a strong influence on the project I was on, having coworkers and a client that loved the results I was producing. Pay was great too. But I still didn't "love" it.

My Dad sounds similar to you... he's been in the same job for 30 years and even though there's a lot of BS he loved what he did for a long time. Now finally the BS is starting to outweigh the good parts, but he's had his job for more than TEN TIMES longer than I've ever held one. I think if you're one of these people who has been able to create this kind of career, that's great and any advice people like me have to offer is extremely limited in its usefulness. It's like a totally different level of life experience which I have only been able to achieve through stuff that doesn't pay anything (at least not yet for me).

[Ottawa]

I wouldn't go so far as to say I love my entire job.  I don't think there is any such thing as a career where you love every single aspect.  Rather, the overweight of good aspects makes the bad/boring/tedious aspects seem tolerable.  Recognizing that there is no such thing as a 100% ideal career helps a person to be content with what they do have.  If you are always reaching for that *ideal* job...I don't think you'll ever get there and will thus, remain a malcontent individual. 

It certainly helps to have had some REALLY crap jobs to put a perspective on things.  It is also important, when moving through jobs that are (hopefully) becoming more weighted towards you ideal career, to acknowledge that you learn very important things about yourself during this process.  You learn what you, as a person, like to do.  You also learn skills that build upon themselves.  It would be quite rare to jump into your first job and not ever want to change your job/career because it was so ridiculously awesome.

I have been in my current career 14 years...however, I've worked for two different employers during that time.  I've had dozens of crap jobs over the years, and a number of false career starts.  Looking back on undergraduate, I didn't even really enjoy the program I took.  There is no real application of it in my current career, other than perhaps, understanding the scientific method....and assimilating information in the most objective manner possible...

Anyway, since MMM, and the notion of FIRE, I have acquired a renewed vigor to do the best I can in my current job - the temptation to become lackadaisical in the few years left before I can FIRE is something I want to resist.  I don't want to look back and say "I was just using my career/job to get enough money to get out".  It is not the goal of FIRE that is the ultimate realization.  It is the entire journey to get there that I am starting to find exciting.  The challenge of cutting consumerism and creating little challenges every day is alot of fun.  It is a new big hobby of ours for sure!

[TheRealMFC]

I'm fortunate in that I love my job (in the way you mention Ottawa - I don't love all aspects of it, but I'm happy doing what I do).

Mustachianism for me, isn't really about quitting my job, or finding a new job that I enjoy more. It is about my realizing that as my income has risen, the lifestyle inflation (and all of the "stuff" that comes with it) hasn't increased my happiness. I've always considered myself a happy person. I look back to the days when I had just started my first job out of school. I had almost nothing to my name, but I was happy. Since then, my salary has gone up by 5x and my net worth has gone from a negative value to $600k, but my happiness has stayed the same. If anything, some of the "typical consumer" type behaviors that I've fallen prey to have sucked away some of my happiness.

Looking back on my life, the things that have made me the happiest are, without a doubt, experiences and personal relationships, not things. So that is my focus - experience more and experience it with people that I care about. I can do more of this if I am financially independent, so I am striving for FI.

That, and I also view it as a challenge :) My goal is to have more fun and more great experiences while spending far less money.

Thanks for posting the article, by the way. It lead me to a series of other great articles.
-MFC

[MooseOutFront]

I think I could have loved my job, but I didn't choose my field wisely.  Now, instead of always trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with my life, I switched over a few years ago to optimizing the path I was already on.  I still work at a bank, but at least now I'm in the part of a bank I would choose if I could choose, in a job that allows quite a bit of freedom.

There will still be time to chase my dreams once my stache grows out proper.

[nawhite]

My wife and I recently were talking about this because I don't love what I do at all. We were debating between a couple different paths for FIRE. Originally we were planning on the standard MMM path of:

Work for 10-11 more years, hit 25 times spending. FIRE and never need to work again and start traveling.

We decided that this didn't make much sense considering that I really dislike my job / all office work in general and that timing didn't fit how and when we wanted to have kids. So we changed our plan to be:

Work in current field/ job for 4 more years, pay off all student loans, have 150k in the retirement accounts and 50k in home equity. Our house would work relatively well as a hands off rental (even according to the 50% rule) but selling might be an option too. At that point, we can work whatever we want as long as it covers living expenses. We wont even need to worry about saving for retirement at that point because 150k at 30 turns into plenty of money by the time we're 60. We probably would still save some money but most importantly, we don't need to.

Being a ski bum/raft guide/kayak instructor/handyman with retirement taken care of would be a wonderful thing (which my wife is on board with, thank goodness!)

[MooseOutFront]

I think it's a great plan.  Being done having to save old person money so that you then only have to earn what you spend is a great way to go.