Does anyone have a job they stay at simply because they enjoy it?

[Ready]

I'm sure there are people like that, but if I was one of them, I wouldn't be hanging out on an ER forum.

What can I say? I like hanging out with you guys. There's a lot of very smart people on this forum and I've learned a lot from the collective wisdom of the group. I do feel like I have one foot in the ER world and one foot in the working world. I guess I don't quite fit into either bucket right now.

 

[Ready]

Somewhat similar situation for me. I contemplated full ER 2 years ago. Decided to try PT. I'm working a brutal 10 hours/week now...lol. I still enjoy the work and make a lot of money for just 10 hours. Some of the peripheral stuff is annoying but as soon as it starts to bug me the week is over already!

Yes, that sounds like my situation. I average about two hours per day. Low stress, very flexible hours. I get my work done around my exercise schedule. It's just enough to keep me challenged without feeling like it's a burden. To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what else I would get done in those two hours if I were to quit. I seem to have plenty of time to relax and enjoy life. I don't know that an extra two hours is going to make much difference.

 

[brucethebroker]

I loved my career job until I didn't any longer (helped along by the 2008-9 crash). Always envisioned never fully retiring, but going PT at around 70 or so. Suddenly, it wasn't fun, nor nearly as profitable as before crash. Too much BS, not enough $.

I now have a hobby job, with few hassles and lower $, but it is something I enjoy doing. Seems to be the perfect solution in semi-retirement.

 

[traineeinvestor]

I still do a bit of consulting (law) because I enjoy the academic aspects and I generally only have to deal with people that I like. I'll let it go at some point, but at the moment it's more of a hobby than anything else. The tipping point will probably come when I've finished the degree I'm working on at the moment and start to spend more time in in NZ so I can see my daughters more while they are in boarding school.

 

[panacea]

The closer we get to FIRE, the more we struggle to figure out what we really want to do. We both like our work but just don't want to be there 5 days a week, working a full-time schedule. I see us both continuing FT for 5 more years (that puts me around age 54 and DW at 52) and then cutting back to 3 days a week. That would be a work schedule I could do for at least another 5 years. DW says that her employer probably wouldn't allow it but I'm pretty sure they will. She's proven herself invaluable and they'd be crazy not to take her for 3 days a week if the alternative is zero days. It would be great to have a PT paycheck until 59 1/2 and having health insurance for as long as possible would be great too, especially considering the uncertainty with the ACA right now. In 5 years, both kids are through college so one PT job would cover all expenses... Two PT jobs would mean we'd continue to save. Or maybe we call that fun money and use it for more travel and entertainment.

 

[Aiming_4_55]

I am still working full time and enjoy my job for most part. What I don't enjoy is the do more with less/zero resources and the over selling of what we do to clients due to sales pressures. I'm not in sales but at times have to present operational aspects of the area. Sales just want us to say YES to close the deal and get their commission. It's the operational team that gets saddled with the "one off" that is a pain.

 

[Major Tom]

I liked my job a lot, and only stopped working because the company went out of business. However, the thrill wasn't as great as it used to be. I went from absolutely loving it to merely liking it a lot. Ideally, I'd have liked to have worked another 10 years but when I was gently shoved out of the workforce, I chose to stay out.

My job was as a DJ and producer, so I'm now playing at the same thing by building a small community radio station for my neighborhood. I hope to get it on the air in the next few months.

 

[Teacher Terry]

About a year after I retired I was asked to teach a online college class. 4 years later I still love doing it and it pays well. I can do it anywhere that I have internet so it does not stop me from traveling. I now teach it every semester including summers. Since this was different from my career it is offering me a chance to do something new.

 

[Midpack]

I know we all spend a lot of time counting down the days until we FIRE, talking about time versus money, and expressing frustration at all the things that happen at work that drive us crazy. But I'm curious to hear from folks who are in a position to retire but continue working because they simply enjoy what they do and would miss it if they stopped.

I have always generally enjoyed the work that I've done over the years. There were two things that made me not want to work anymore. 1) I do not like going into an office and having to be there all day. 2) I can't stand putting on dress clothes and sitting in them all day long.

I stopped working full time four years ago, but I continue to work part time, from home now. I feel like we are financially more than well positioned to stop working, but I have to admit I would miss the challenges if I did. I enjoy the interactions with customers and employees. I enjoy problem solving. I enjoy negotiating business deals. And...I guess I just enjoy seeing money deposited into my checking account every two weeks.

Does anyone else have a similar situation?

People who enjoy their job/career until their 70's, 80's even 90's may not be common, but they're certainly out there. Of course by definition, this is not the place to look for them...

 

[Sue J]

My job (school crossing guard) is not a career, it's something I started doing after our kids were grown. I needed to complete my Social Security credits so I looked for something that would get me the minimum earnings per year needed to get the credits. I think it was around $1000/credit so $4000/yr.

After I completed the credits I kept doing it because I just enjoy it. The last 7 years or so I have been putting my earnings into an IRA. Before the ACA (taxable income used to determine your subsidy) I put my income into a Roth IRA, now I put it into a traditional IRA. I put 100% of the gross in the IRA, not just the paycheck amount.

In the summers I'm an usher for a large outdoor music venue. They have rock and country acts but it's also the summer home of The Cleveland Orchestra. There are 20 or so orchestra concerts and I work about 1/2 of them. I normally don't work the other shows unless they need a couple of ushers to put wristbands on guests with special tickets. That's done up at the entrance gate and then I get to leave before the main show.

I was at one of the orchestra concerts last summer and some of the ushers were talking about what they use the pay for. Some use it to make ends meet, others use it for spending on extras. I said that I put it all in an IRA and they looked at me like I was crazy! Comments, like, "Why do you do this if you don't need the money?" and "You don't spend any of this?" It's like they never had a thought of saving money for another time.

One nice thing about doing a job just because you enjoy it is that if you stop enjoying it you don't have to do it any more. So far I still enjoy both of these and I like knowing that while I like earning something for the IRA, I don't have to do it, I choose to.

 

[Philliefan33]

I would like to do some volunteer work. The senior center started a new program offering to help people to establish a budget and teach basic money management skills. I offered to help, but was told they were cancelling the program because nobody was signing up.



If I do volunteer work it needs to be mentally challenging for me. I'm not interested in driving the senior center bus around the neighborhood. I guess I haven't found the right opportunity yet.

You might consider being a tax aide through AARP. You can get more info and enroll on their website.

 

[Ready]

You might consider being a tax aide through AARP. You can get more info and enroll on their website.

Sounds interesting, but I barely know enough about taxes to be dangerous. If it wasn't for TurboTax I would have needed to hire an accountant many years ago. Accounting was never my area of expertise.

 

[Philliefan33]

Sounds interesting, but I barely know enough about taxes to be dangerous. If it wasn't for TurboTax I would have needed to hire an accountant many years ago. Accounting was never my area of expertise.

No need to be an accountant! There were eight of us volunteering to do taxes at the senior center, all of us retired, none of us with an accounting background.

AARP provides training before tax season and we use software similar to TurboTax.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

I loved my career job until I didn't any longer (helped along by the 2008-9 crash). Always envisioned never fully retiring, but going PT at around 70 or so. Suddenly, it wasn't fun, nor nearly as profitable as before crash. Too much BS, not enough $.

Same here. Also I have two young kids and I find myself grocery shopping on my lunch break and too tired after work and dinner to do anything but sigh over the toys in the living room. I started taking Fridays off and found that I use them to do all the house chores I didn't during the week- not relaxing on the pier as I had imagined... The plus side to that is, Fridays doing housework makes weekends more enjoyable. The downside is, I really can't take any more time off without retiring, so that is what I am going to do.

 

[Taxman59]

Good friend and former co-worker has almost the same j*b that I had. She didn't have the compliance piece, and she has told me that she will w*rk until she is at least 62, (probably 65) so she can get some health benefits (she doesn't understand that the benefit is only $4k per year!). But she loves the work she has, and she is paid very well.
Edit to add: I loved my job for the first 10 years or so, liked it for 7 or so, and hated it for the last 4+ years, so it can change fairly quickly.

 

[Surewhitey]

Like half my j*b, decent vaca policy, access to tools and boss. Politics squash the plusses. Counting the days though...

 

[Danmar]

I loved my job for most of my career. Once I became FI in my early 50's I noticed the "love" declining. By the time I retired at 56 the love had turned into something more like "bored acceptance". Was glad to retire(10 years ago) and have no intention to ever work for money again.

 

[Out of Steam]

My job (school crossing guard) is not a career, it's something I started doing after our kids were grown. I needed to complete my Social Security credits so I looked for something that would get me the minimum earnings per year needed to get the credits. I think it was around $1000/credit so $4000/yr.

I'm in a similar position of wanting to earn Social Security credits after I retire. A variety of jobs come to mind, though something seasonal would probably work best.

 

[scrabbler1]

Not interested in working again. Full or part time. Not even "hobby".

I have enough hobbies as it is and I have to pay to do them.

Amen, Robbie!

I will say that for the first 10 or so years of working, my enjoyment of the job outweighed the negative aspects of the thing I despised the most about it, the long, tiring commute. But that positive gap diminished later into the 1990s and eventually became a negative gap. And once that happened, I needed to lessen the commute by reducing the number of days I commuted to the office. At first, I did some telecommuting. But the company ended that a few years in and I had to return to some of the horrors of commuting a few more days a week than before. I knew at that time it would be my undoing, as in retiring.

I, too, Robbie, have enough hobbies and volunteer work. Some of these activities require money but some of them require very, very little money. And I don't miss working at all!

 

[googily]

Used to like my job, then various changes changed it more to not minding it much, plus they basically left me alone. DH and I wanted to RE more because there was so much non-work stuff we wanted to do with our lives.

Alas, now that I'm alone, I'm still working, but certainly not because I need to. Mainly it gets me out of the house, and megacorp is treating me very well in these early months of widowhood (not expecting much of me!). I figure I'll finish out the year, then maybe see about switching to part time, mainly for the health insurance.

 

[Ready]

Used to like my job, then various changes changed it more to not minding it much, plus they basically left me alone. DH and I wanted to RE more because there was so much non-work stuff we wanted to do with our lives.

Alas, now that I'm alone, I'm still working, but certainly not because I need to. Mainly it gets me out of the house, and megacorp is treating me very well in these early months of widowhood (not expecting much of me!). I figure I'll finish out the year, then maybe see about switching to part time, mainly for the health insurance.

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

 

[googily]

I'm really sorry to hear about your loss. I hope you're doing well. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm okay, though of course sad and still a bit bewildered. Reading the boards helps me look for little tidbits on constructing a post-work life on my own, since I *think* that not every poster here is part of a couple! [emoji4]

 

[coveredbridge]

DW is still working and still likes her job (school teacher). She says it's an easy job and she plans to keep working until she doesn't like it anymore. I know she also enjoys the social interaction with her fellow teachers.

 

[Scuba]

Amen, Robbie!

I will say that for the first 10 or so years of working, my enjoyment of the job outweighed the negative aspects of the thing I despised the most about it, the long, tiring commute. But that positive gap diminished later into the 1990s and eventually became a negative gap. And once that happened, I needed to lessen the commute by reducing the number of days I commuted to the office. At first, I did some telecommuting. But the company ended that a few years in and I had to return to some of the horrors of commuting a few more days a week than before. I knew at that time it would be my undoing, as in retiring.

I, too, Robbie, have enough hobbies and volunteer work. Some of these activities require money but some of them require very, very little money. And I don't miss working at all!

+1 on all sentiments!

 

[jollystomper]

I like my IT consulting job. 80% of it is more like a hobby, things I would choose to work with on my own time. I also never thought I be paid this much for a job - particularly without having any direct personnel reporting to me - and it is way more than our expenses so we can choose to save a lot a still spend to enjoy life. I work mostly from home now so the occasional commute is not an issue.

I do however want more daily control, the ability to do whatever I want, so that is my retirement consideration. I also have a lot of people and projects outside of work that I can spend time on and enjoy, so I do not feel any loss of identity. I am not ruling out working part time for something that I enjoy. Megacorp has in the past offered voluntary retirement programs to work part time for a while before full retirement (in fact one that was offered 5 years ago was a reason I found this forum). If the offer comes up again I would jump at it.