Hello, Dear Reader! For the 1s legions of you who read my last post, you’d have had good reason to believe that, at long last, my Money Man series of posts had finally come to an end.
Well, as it turns out, it ain’t necessarily so.
I’ve decided to put a tombstone capstone on the series. Primarily to provide a post-FIREing update.
How’s that hopey-changey thing working out for ya?
In the year leading up to my FIREing at the end of 2021, I wrote several posts addressing my post-FIREing hopes. Like being able to sleep better. And adopting an I-don’t-give-a-flute attitude toward work. And not having to deal with exasperating and/or awful people in the workplace.
I’m happy to report pretty great success on those fronts. I’m sleeping better, have shaken off most of the latent work-related stress I experienced, place almost no priority on work as a major element of my self-worth, and could not possibly be happier to not have to deal with exasperating and/or awful people on the job.
Not on my wish list, however, was addressing and conquering my almost lifelong feelings of financial insecurity and my scarcity mindset. I shoulda thought to put it on the list. But I didn’t even think to do so.
Addressing my latent work-related stress was probably at the top of my documented wish list items. First, to just be rid of the constant “buzz” of that stress. But also, because I’m sure that it was doing my health no good.
Catch and release
My success has had a fantastically positive effect on my day-to-day well-being and state of happiness. A bit to my surprise tho, it hasn’t fully allowed the “release” that’ll finally enable me to fully enjoy my post-FIREing life. I believe that the key lies in conquering my feelings of financial insecurity and my scarcity mindset.
It was pretty early on this year that I became aware that this release hadn’t occurred. Going into 2022, our investments were looking solid, and I had great confidence in our plan. Everything looked good. And while I’ve long predicted a recession, aside from the short-lived pandemic-related market mayhem in 2020, it never materialized. I had reason and hope that the good times would roll for at least a while into 2022.
Having FIREd with investments at a higher value than our target, my hope was that even if there was a downturn, our “cushion” would be high enough to withstand the whole of it. And then that the recovery would come in time so that said cushion would be replenished and increased.
Were that it was so.
What, me worry?
This year has, almost from the outset, and until recently, been almost a complete and consistent slide. I felt financial insecurity—born in no small part of a fear of sequence-of-returns risk—almost immediately. As things went from bad to worse, my feelings became more acute. Not debilitating. But feelings akin to the latent work-related stress that I’d previously felt. I did not like that, Sam I am.
Bothering me the whole time was knowing that our plan is solid and we’re almost assuredly going to be fine. Our assets are at an enviable level (even as depleted to date), our plan is sound, and our future prospects are almost assuredly bright.
The rational and lizard parts of my brain had, in effect, decided to do battle with each other. As the year went on, the rational part started to get worn down. I provided some details in a post earlier this year.
Are these feelings wholly irrational? Probably not. It’s good to be on the alert. And, yes, it’s possible that our plan will fail. Only if things got real realz. But still a chance.
But, are my fears at least a little irrational given our finances, the fact that The Missus continues to work and bring in income, and that we’ll be able to tap into even more revenue sources in coming years? Yes. And it’s because of these likely irrational—but no less real for being so—feelings, that the working-related aspects of my year have unfolded differently than I anticipated.
Out of work
As I mentioned in a post last year, I’d concluded that what I really wanted to do once I FIRE’d was to just . . . not . . . work. So, that’s largely what I did at the outset of 2022. I could almost feel the latent stress oozing out of my body. It was wonderful and confirmed for me that, for me, burnout had been real and deep.
For several months, the only work I did was for a no-stress side gig that I enjoy. The income was minimal. But it still felt like found money.
All along, however, I watched as the value of our investments decreased more and more. And then some more. Worse, the inflation rate soared. Although our personal rate of inflation wasn’t then (and hasn’t since) been super high this year, it still was significantly higher than it was for the last many years.
I hoped for a turnaround, but it didn’t come. However, the side gig that I mentioned picked up a lot, so I started bringing in more money. Not major or game-changing dollars. But enough (along with dividends we’ve started taking as income as opposed to reinvesting as we always had before, and a decent-sized tax refund) so that it allowed us to stave off having to dip into our investments and to continue living off of The Missus’ income and the cash buffer I’d created specifically for protective purposes.
Half time
As the side gig didn’t bring in a ton of money, and the markets and inflation got worse, however, I decided to start looking for a low-stress part-time gig. You might call that the result of mild panic. I wouldn’t argue.
I soon was offered a position that’s super low-stress and at a place with a really laid-back vibe. I’d also have the chance to be a mentor to far younger coworkers. That, I was very excited about and would dovetail with volunteer gigs that I’ve secured this year. Also, the hours and shifts offered were great, and I wouldn’t be working weekends or every weekday.
I accepted the offer.
It’s been fun. The job is nothing like those I held during my professional career, and very much like the jobs I held in high school and college. Maybe the best part is that when I leave after my shift, there’s no need at all to think about the job afterward. I can’t express how wonderful that is. Secretly, I sort of took the job as much to experience that feeling as I did for the money that I’d earn. It’s been worth it.
Between the side gig success and the part-time gig, I bolstered our ability to avoid having to dip into our investments. But the markets and inflation took an even more severe turn for the worst.
I became resigned to the fact that I might finally have to take money out of our investments. It wouldn’t be much (at least not for the foreseeable future), but it’d be in a depressed market, which bothered me a lot. More than it should have, too.
Surprise. Party!
Then something wholly anticipated happened: I was offered to do work of a type that I did during my career. While my side gig and part-time job pay lowish hourly rates, this other work would command a far, far higher rate. That was enticing. But the idea of getting back into the field I’d run from only a short while ago gave me pause. Great pause.
I soon learned, however, that the hours required would be very appealingly low, the job would be time-limited, the work I’d be doing was stuff that I actually liked for the most part and hadn’t been given the opportunity to do for several years, and I’d be doing this work for a genuinely wonderful person. To boot, even with limited hours, the money I’d likely earn would all but surely prevent us from having to dip into our investments not just in the short term, but also for several months more than the gig would last.
As they say, to thine own self be true. Knowing that I’d been all year feeling this (largely irrational) nervousness about our finances and failing to shake my scarcity mindset that clung to me like an albatross, I accepted the offer.
Future (not?) tense
Now, I don’t know when the prospects for our investments will turn around. But as I’ve believed all along, they will turn around. Given the unanticipated developments in 2022, the side gig that’s proved far more successful than I’d expected, the part-time job that’s providing a nice chunk of change, and the career-related work that’ll provide even more income—when that happens, we’re almost certainly going to completely escape from the sequence-of-returns risk waters we’ve been in.
Lemme tell you, I feel a heckuva lot better now than I did earlier this year, however irrational those earlier feelings were. It’s been a long, strange trip to get to this point. But for the first time, I can feel myself on the cusp of—after many decades—finally . . . finally! . . . overcoming my financial fears and scarcity mindset. I’m fairly certain that I’ll never completely slay those dragons. But I’ll be elated if I can take a commanding lead in the battle and push them into a corner from which they’ll likely not escape.
And in the end . . .
So, there you have it, Dear Reader. The fullish story on your humble blogger’s experience/relationship with money from the time he was a wee imp to the present, as a bigger dolt imp, and his career and post-FIREing life to date. No need to thank me. I know how grateful you are and how excited you were to read this series.
