If I say I retired early, they might think I don't need money. If I say I quit my professional job to chase my creative goals they'll think I'm a flake. I don't want to lie or mislead anyone. My creative pursuit is now my "job". I'm not making money at it yet, but have a lot of good things happening. My past profession heavily influences my creative work so I do talk about it.
I just can't figure out to word it so I don't sound like I'm either a spoiled trust fund baby or someone who makes bad decisions.
FIREd at 45 to pursue my creative goals. Now I have meetings with important people and don't know how to explain my life.
byu/Missmoneysterling infinancialindependence
Posted by Missmoneysterling
35 Comments
Simple you are an independent consultant.
I don’t have a good answer, but this is the type of question that ChatGPT or other LLMs are pretty good at workshopping.
Why would you sound like a flake if you say you quit your previous career to pursue creative work? That seems perfectly reasonable and normal for creatives?
“I’m fortunate enough at the moment to pursue my dream of [insert creative goal here]. While it’s not yet profitable, I’ve allowed myself [timeline] to see if this is something I can do full time as I have the savings to attempt this now. It’s the dream of a lifetime and I won’t take this opportunity for granted.”
“I had the opportunity to pursue certain interests, and I had enough freedom to do so.”
“Consulting”
If you retired early, you don’t need money (from anyone else).
If you do want to take your FIRE freedom to pursue something new that you want to really put your energy into and get decent income out of – you did quit your job to pursue *this*. People change careers all the time, and changing careers into something that fulfills your creative passion is not being a flake unless you’re bringing other flakiness to it.
“I took a sabbatical from my previous career to decide where I wanted to put my energy going forward, and decided I wanted to focus on [my passion project] full-time.” Something like that?
After building the foundation to support your pursuit of [x] you’re ready for the next step, or some other fluffed up version of doing what you used to do in order to support what you’re doing now.
You’ve been goal oriented and focused, not a flake.
Sounds like you started your own business and it’s obviously going well if you’re meeting important people. Why is that hard to explain? They have no idea about your revenue situation.
Why not just call it whatever the creative thing you do is? E.g., if you are painting now, just call yourself a painter. You get the idea.
I say that I am an investor. It opens questions that I can answer in many different ways depending of what I want to convey.
This would be an easier question to answer if you gave some clue of what you mean by “meetings with important people.” People you want to impress socially? People you want to work for because you’re trying to unretire? Investors? Potential romantic partners?
If it’s people affiliated with the creative industry you want to break into presumably you’d have no problems telling them. But if you’re retired it’s unclear who these important people are and why you need them to think certain things and not think other things about you.
„i am a consultant in the creative field looking to network and potentially work with you”
If perception is important to you, create a company. Register a DBA in your county and make a simple website. This is a couple of hours of work but can come in handy for several purposes. People can accept it easier when you have an at-home business that provides some kind of deliverable AND invests in other companies with good prospects for returns. I might buy a few shares of a more obscure company I like related to my interests, so I don’t claim to invest in coca-cola or something clearly outside of my expertise. In reality 99% of my investing is done in index funds anyway. If your “company” is generating sufficient “revenue” to pay the bills, no one will think thats a bad decision. Never say you retired, that is what ruffles everyone’s feathers. I left work for several years and slipped up a couple of times and used words like retired and mini retirement. That generated a whole lot of hate. The self-employed company approach worked much better.
You quit your job to start a new venture. You are the founder of “Studio Name”.
They don’t need to know jack about your FIRE status or financial freedom to pursue other interests which led to this. Not telling the truth doesn’t always mean you’re telling a lie. You can simply state the facts: you left your career, followed a calling that led to your current long-term interests.
“I saved up enough money to quit my day job and focus on my creative pursuits full time.”
“I’m retired”
Who cares if you sound like a spoiled trust fund kid. You know you worked hard for what you have, and now you have the freedom and flexibility to do what you really want to do.
But to answer your question, just say you’re self-employed in a creative field.
You transitioned from employee to business owner. No need to discuss personal finances and how your bills are paid.
If you’re meeting with them about producing material there is no reason why you need to say anything about your income streams. In fact, there is almost no professional meeting where you would need to describe your income streams or how you manage to produce your work
I don’t know the objectives of these meetings but keep it on the work and the next steps you’re looking for.
People don’t need to know whether your current endeavor is profitable or not. You changed career fields to pursue a passion – not “quit your stable job to chase a wild idea”. Just frame it as an intentional and thought-through move.
I have hired plenty of people who took off work a few years to pursue other things. They never bothered to explain their financial situation, nor was there any need or expectation for them to do so. I don’t know all their circumstances nor do I care. Good for them, but what are they showing up hoping to accomplish now?
Phrase it that you’re so confident in the path you are pursuing that you quit your old job to pursue it full time. Then convince them to see what you’re seeing in yourself.
Go ahead and watch this podcast from Tim Ferris and Bill Gurley https://youtu.be/rjSesMsQTxk?si=I4DIQLHpMBW95XQD
That will give you some prospectives on how to navigate your situation.
All the best in your ventures.
The best way that I ever saw this described was by saying:
“I worked hard at [insert previous career] and then after [insert event that caused the career change], I found myself at the right time and in the right place to pursue my goal of [insert goal].
And then pivot to the sales pitch. People don’t want, need, or care about your life’s story.
Sounds like you left your full time job to start a business based on your creative pursuits. Now you’re working to scale that business via the meetings you have with these people. Why not just say some variation that? It sounds like you’re putting your time, energy, and focus into the work that they value. That doesn’t make you sound like a flake, it makes you sound like an asset.
Lucky!!!
Good for you
I know people IRL who were early employees at Facebook, Google etc and fired on their stock options. They absolutely do not explain themselves or how they got there, because it’s not everyone else’s business.
If it comes up, they usually say they have their own company or they have some investments or some (rental) properties. They do not go into their whole “I am fortunate to be financially independent” story.
People change careers a lot. “For the first part of my career I did XYZ, but now I’m an artist/musician/writer” whatever your creative pursuit is.
Why would that be weird?
Consultant or Running a Family Office
The same thing all the trust fund kids say: nothing. You’re an artist and dont have to say anything more than that.
I did pretty much the same thing. When I meet with people to pursue my new endeavors my current situation or past never comes up. I suppose it depends on the nature of these meetings.
But I do suspect you’re assuming people think about you more than they do. We all have a whole life going on. When it comes down to it no one really cares or thinks about others much at all, especially in a business context. Just the way it is.
Have you seen every CEO of Fortune 500 companies? Their pay package? They are all FIREd. None of them have to explain why they do what they do.