I learned all about the various types of FIRE, and right now am 33 years old. I graduated with a bachelor degree in film when I was 25 but couldn't land any steady employment until about a month ago. Until just recently I've only been able to get inconsistent low-paying work as a freelance video editor.
I have it planned where I have jobs lined up, one part-time and the other full-time, working 80 hours a week combined if I work overtime. One of them is Amazon and starts at $19 per hour but is 1.5 times the hourly pay for hours worked above 40.
I still live with my dad, in San Diego. I figure if I can work for 80 hours per week for the next two years and to invest essentially all of that take-home pay into VOO in my own investment account, and allow it to then sit and grow, I could coast fire and have a good amount saved at the age of 65, and not feel stressed about retirement.
Any thoughts on this? I kind of want to do this to make up for all the lost time throughout my 20s of never saving anything because I couldn't get any job. And I'd like to still be able to take full advantage of being able to live with my dad.
Not sure what I would do after I'd reach my investment goals after the two years are over.
My dad's already pretty old at 73.
Sorry, I had meant two years, not one year. Mistake in the title.
Working 80 hours per week for one year investing it all?
byu/Bluebird_Mood inpersonalfinance
Posted by Bluebird_Mood
17 Comments
You NEED a life outside of work and that costs money. Burnout is a real thing and has huge negative impacts on you emotionally and physically. Find out what that life looks like then you can invest as much as you want after that.
> One of them is Amazon and starts at $19 per hour but is 1.5 times the hourly pay for hours worked above 40.
Being a human robot for 40+ hours a week is going to destroy you, both mentally and physically. Amazon will work you until you die and have you replaced before your body is cold
80 hour weeks for a few months isn’t sustainable. 80 hour weeks for two years will absolutely break you.
Spending that time acquiring actually employable skills will pay off far more than killing your self for two years for $19 an hour.
I worked 70+ weeks for like two months and I swear I could taste color at the end.
You’ll burn out very quickly. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
There’s a reason this isn’t a standard way people get rich or retire. It’ll kill you.
i get the urge to “make up for lost time,” but 80 hrs/week for 2 years is a pretty brutal bet on your body not pushing back.
maybe do a 3 month trial first? save/invest hard, see what your actual take-home is, see how your sleep and mood hold up. if it works, keep going. if it starts wrecking you, scale down before you hate your life.
also… spend some time with your dad too. money matters, but that part doesn’t compound forever.
When I was 21 I worked 2 full time 40 hour jobs for about a 6 month period. No days off. It was a casino job that was at night and weeends and office job during the day M-F. So I was working at least one job 7 days a week and then days where I had to go into both jobs.
But anyway if you can swing it do it. I was stupid and spend all my money as soon as it came in. I wish I would have invested it.
OT is the better deal always. At $19/hr you’d only have to work 26.67 hours of OT to get the equivalent amount of money as two jobs paying $19/hr for 40 hours each.
OT can also be the better deal from a commuting standpoint. 3 days of double shifts plus 2 regular is a better commute than extra OT days or commuting to two jobs 5 days.
I worked 72 hours per week for a couple of years straight and let me tell you, it completely wrecked my body. I do NOT recommend it. It’s really not worth it, even with a six-figure salary.
I did something similar. I’d suggest smaller windows of time than a year and take manageable sprints. It’s also difficult to find jobs that offer unlimited overtime.
Being on the other side has its own challenges. You have to continue living like your kind of broke while you have a huge pile of money right after you just deprived yourself of having an enjoyable life for a year which takes real discipline.
Inside of the process, one of the big challenges is not spending a ton of money to make up for the time you don’t have. There’s a lot of life issues and daily life stuff that you can do cheaply in more time or just pay money to make them go away and if all your time is at work you have to pay away the problems or let your life fall apart.
There’s some careers structured like this. Fishing, some oil and mining, wildland fire, certainly more. If you’re working insane hours for short sprints in a situation where thats expected or seasonal, you’ll probably get along much better and have more needs met by the company / coworkers/ existing industry and situations. Also often more interesting this way than some job in the city where you’re constantly looking at the life you could have and things to blow all your piles of money on.
Your plan works in theory for sure. Just preplan some trigger points to know when it’s not actually working in your life and be prepared to change it up.
Man, if you’re going to spend this amount of time you should spend that “overtime” you’re considering, on learning a trade or studying for a certification to get a higher paying job. The ROI would be huge. Your plan sounds absolutely miserable and I doubt you’d stick with it.
I wouldn’t. You’ll burn yourself out, maybe get sick, and have to spend all the money you saved.
Just save as much from every check as you can into your retirement accounts and play it steady. Get a little ot, sure, but don’t go working 80 hours/week.
Investing really hard as early as you can is good and will probably pay off. Breaking yourself to do so will not pay off, so you need to not overdo it. If you go this route, make sure to schedule some time off regularly to recover.
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Fire is just a recipe for disappointment and burnout.
Since you are young why don’t you take a risk on a career you like where there could be an ownership upside later, learning how to run your own firm or working at a small firm you can buy into as a partner. Invest in yourself, turning a 19 dollar an hour job into “fire” sounds like a nightmare.
I did something similar, but it took a toll. I feel like I got 5 years older in that one year.
I think it’s worth it if you know you’re just doing it for a short amount of time and using it to leapfrog to something else.
Do not work for Amazon for 60 hours a week. Whatever you will gain will not be worth it.
I say this having worked for a big chain distribution center with consistent overtime for a year.
It is not worth it.
It’s probably easier to upskill and get a job BUT just bc you spend time upskilling doesn’t guarantee you job and it still costs money to an extent. If this is only for a couple years then I’d say do it. But you should try to find something higher paying in the meantime/and or after