After everything I’ve written about being true to yourself and going for your goals, you might wonder why I’m now telling you to think about waiting. This concept comes from Kristy Shen. She gives some intriguing reasons to wait to follow your passion and focus on finances first. One of her main arguments is that money buys you time and financial security opening you up to more opportunities to do what you love.
Everybody’s life situation is different. I 100% believe everyone needs to cultivate hobbies and passions, but not everyone can turn hobbies into a career especially in the short-term. The financial independence movement taught me one thing that can change everything. If you don’t NEED to be successful in your business venture or passion side gig to pay the bills, you can take more risks and experience more failure growing a brand or business with less stress. In the long-term, this can actually lead to more success.
I know you are probably rolling your eyes right now because I’m basically saying wait until you are retired to do what you love full-time. Yup. Pretty much. But what if you could retire at age 35? 40? Or even 50? Maybe you don’t have quite enough to never work again, but what if you had enough that you could afford a massive pay cut to follow your dream career? This is where learning about how to become financially independent can make all the difference. It can free you up to do what you love with NO boundaries on your time.
Recapture Time
Why have I become so intrigued by the financial independence movement? I have a deep desire to be a massive content creator. I’m developing skills as a musician and songwriter, giving speeches at Toastmasters, writing a historical novel, creating an online presence, blogging, teaching financial literacy, and who knows what else I’ll become interested in the future. I’m doing all this while working a full-time job, being super active in my church, being married, and living with a chronic illness that can completely wipe me of all energy for days.
I know every life coach out there would argue against this, but as things currently are in my life, I’m very limited in how much I can grow my personal brand and business. I’m not going to stop trying, but the time and energy resources really limit my opportunities for hyper-growth and my entrepreneurial manifesto explains that there are some things I’m just not willing to do to make it happen. Sleeping only 3-5 hours per night just isn’t an option for me!
Where does this leave me? I need to recapture time! How can I recapture time? Not be reliant on a full-time paycheck to pay my bills. Learn how to become extremely financially fit and knock it out of the park (or at least a ground-rule double.)
Career Hacking
If I remember anything about how I chose my first college, it was that pretty much ZERO thought went into it. I was interested in sports so I went to college for sports management. I didn’t know what job I’d be looking to get into. I didn’t know if it would pay well. I ended up getting a degree in education even though I never once actually wanted to be a teacher. I did, however, learn to LOVE so much about teaching, but that didn’t really happen until I had my own classroom.
So many people try to decide as an 18-22 year old what they want in a career and then end up having loads of debt and few job opportunities related to their degree. What if we taught our college students to think about careers through a financial lens? What jobs could I get as a 23 year old that would be the best return on investment? Becoming a doctor or lawyer doesn’t actually make financial sense unless you really want to be one. Many jobs in the trades only take 2 years and pay really well. Choosing a career path that interests you and makes financial sense can pay HUGE dividends in the long-term. Avoiding large amounts of debt and years of lost income finishing a degree are factors every college student needs to consider.
Finding a good paying job in the short-term that opens you up to the opportunity to get started investing a huge percentage of your income can then allow you to have the flexibility to follow a passion later when you actually know what you want to do with your time or can afford to chase something that is less lucrative financially. Then, because you are close to financial independence, if you only made $20,000 doing a passion career, it wouldn’t really matter. (And yes, even with having children. There is a lot written on this topic for families as well.)
It’s Hard to Make a Living Doing Your Passion
Making it on YouTube is hard. Building a side gig into a career on top of a full-time job is exhausting. The life of a “starving artist” can be extremely stressful. Building a small business is all-encompassing. Living authentically to yourself is NOT the easy path. It’s the hard path, but can be substantially more rewarding than working in a career your whole life that you don’t care about. Just do it. Make it work however you can, but for me not needing it to pay the bills is the absolute best thing I can imagine for my personal situation.
Can I wait ten years to finish my first book? I hope it’s done in three, but either way, I’m playing the long game here. For me, I feel it is the only option. I’m not quitting my job and going “all-in” on building my own business. I’m also not working 80-hour weeks to build my following online. Instead, I’m focusing on learning as much as I can about investing, cultivating my hobbies, optimizing my budget, and building a foundation for a future life where time and money are less of an obstacle to my creative outlets. Patience is a virtue and for me I’m open to not following my passion fully…yet, but when I do, look out!