Nice man!!!

Way to find something that warms your heart as well as your wallet! :)

And 2012 – wow… that’s a long time to be reading this blog, haha… I’m glad you’re still enjoying it!

Looks like we were around $300k net worth back then with 0 kids and only 1 income, and now we’re up to 2 incomes, $800k net worth and 3 kids! Everything is expanding! Haha…

Keep saving those lives! :)

I have been a follower of your blog since 2012. Back then my wife and I were worth a minus $150K and 7 years later we are now a positive $350K plus two kids under the age 4. We feel very lucky to have this career that allows us to build wealth even while going down to 1 income. By my simple calculations, my total compensation is closer to $235K per year: 8 weeks paid time off, 401(k) profit sharing of $25K per year, FREE PPO health plan w/ $6K into a HSA, 1/2 FICA taxes, $5K bonus, $2.5K continuing education fund.

In a month, I’m about to embark on a new adventure: become self-employed as a CRNA. This FIRE community has been tremendous on this journey. Thank you!

You have totally found yourself a dream job! Haha… that sounds magnificent! And you’re only 25 too – your journey has only just begun! Soak it all in!

I can say my job is not really stressful at all. I spend most of my time in the lab, so the main thing that gets stressful is spending hours on an experiment only for it to fail, but that’s just how science works!

If I’m not in the lab I am at my desk reading science articles, writing research updates, or updating my lab notebook/stats.

I don’t have to clock in or out, or even submit timesheets. I typically work M-F 7-3 (I luckily get to choose my own schedule).

I take a pretty long lunch everyday where I eat then take a walk around campus and read a book for leisure.

Ultimately I want to be a full time blogger and youtuber, so this job allows me to spend my free time at home working on those goals!

I honestly can’t complain because I work under a great mentor with a great team and this job beats all my past customer service jobs significantly! :)

Going to freelance from full time would be possible, but it’s going to be difficult. I managed the transition because I had an understanding boss who allowed me to work fewer days in the week while I built up a client base. Without that, you’d need a fair bit of money as [HCF] says, that and some big balls.

Managing your own business comes with it’s own challenges too, plus working for mostly overseas clients would mean you’re likely out of sync time wise. You’ll probably have meetings at unsociable times. This, and the fact that you’ll be working from home means there will be very little separation between work and life.

This is all going to serve to increase the stress of work. On the other hand most people are going to be able to earn more than working locally, meaning they’ll either be better off, or may not need to work a full week, or both. Plus for me personally, I’ve never felt more secure in work – it took a couple of years, but I am always backed up now – haven’t had to go looking for work for probably over a year. So more stress, not a great work/life balance, but it has it’s benefits. :)

Very cool you have options, at least!! AND that you know yourself well enough that you don’t want to take on any more stress to the situation… I learned that the hard way once moving up to a more managerial position instead of just doing the stuff I actually *enjoyed* doing.. (Why is it that when you get good at something the next step is often managerial when managing people has nothing to do with the actual *work* you just got good at?)

Haha… The Good Life :)

I’m protected (lowers the stress a LOT) and well paid (for government here, I’m in one of the best-paying departments) for a reasonably stressful job, say around 60, but I can easily make it higher these days because of my very low tolerance for BS.

However… moving up the ladder would increase the stress to at least 80, so I’m meh about it.
I’m thinking of a lateral move in statistics or web development later (I have solid basics of both and can learn) if it makes sense in income increase and work conditions (especially work from home, which I’d love, but you can’t when you’re a chemist obviously).
Same thing as [HCF], I’d still only make a fraction of the salaries displayed here, though.

Actually, I could, but finding clients and managing a business is not an easy task in my opinion. Also, if you want to go for a transition from employment to freelance you better have a 6-12 months living costs saved up to smooth it out. These are missing prerequisites yet :)

Right?! It really is. I get to meet the owners and pets at the premeets and then sometimes cover jobs for our contract employees if something comes up or they have the day off. People and fur clients. It’s great!