Food service mustachians?

[Gone Fishing]

Anyone out there making a go at FIRE in the food service industry?  Generally regarded as a lower skill industry, I have met several people working in food service with what would certainly be FIRE worthy incomes.  Seems one of the biggest problems is that they get paid nightly in cash, turn around and spend it, and have no clue where all their money goes.   

[LLCoolDave]

Huh, surprised there weren't any responses. Maybe I'm the only one. lol I spent a year of my education as a culinary major, cooked for a couple years then switched to being a waiter ie where the money is. I moved to Las Vegas a year out of college trying to make a career out of it. I'm 10 years in to my career and pretty much done with it on a full time basis. Made some good money, usually saved 60-75% of my earnings. 

Most waiters live hand to mouth, very little savings and no 401k. I knew a couple servers who made $100k for a decade and they didn't have any money. They think the money spigot will be on forever. I always thought that waiters were like strippers, if you are doing it when you are 40yo something has gone wrong.

There is very little to do when you get off work at 2 am other than hit the bar, drink and play video poker, which I didn't do. Working nights over a long period of time really takes a toll. You are working when everyone is out having fun and vice versa. Lastly, I'm an introvert and serving is a very high stress people person position. I was very good at it but done for the time being. If I kept up my savings and work through 40yo (I'm 33 now) I would have had $1mil when I was 40.

[pbkmaine]

What's next for you?

[Mrlettuce]

I've been working as a manager for a fast casual chain for the last few years, working on getting out of that right now but there are some benefits -

Base pay is good plus bonuses at least once a quarter and sometimes every month
Free food during your shift, never have to pack a lunch and free coffee/espresso, definitely helps reduce food expenses
It's a physical job, I average about 7-10 miles a day walking
Probably the biggest benefit, especially since I started looking at FIRE as an option, is the daily reminder of how trapped people are - people come through the drive thru every day in their new cars on the way to work, spend $10-20 a day on breakfast/lunch and god knows how much on dinner EVERY DAY, drive to work where they will sit for 8 hours, spend 1-2 hours sitting in the car on the way home wasting gas in standstill traffic, and probably sit on the couch as soon as they get home - rinse and repeat every day  for 40 years and then not have enough money saved up.  Half of the people who come in and wait in line look miserable, angry I guess at the fact that everybody else has their lunch between 11 and 1 and decided to eat out too.  Seeing that every day just acts as a constant reminder that what I view as a choice many people simply consider mandatory.

[rob in cal]

      I've posted about my experiences previously, and keep a journal currently.  I've been delivering pizzas, pastas, sandwiches and salads for 17 years now.  Six years ago I was able to buy into the restaurant I work at as an investor, but my primary income still comes from delivery driving.  Hope to have a million in assets by sometime between 2019 and 2021.  How do I handle the fact that most of my delivery driver income is in cash?  I've found that banks will still allow me to deposit cash, as well as checks, into my checking account. From there, a ACH transfer into my Vanguard account works just fine.