I had a period of 6 months when I was unemployed burning through my savings.
It was one of the best times of my life. Like the author, I focused a lot of entrepreneurship, my mental and physical health, and traveled a lot.
But unlike the author, I came back to the workforce. I don’t know what’s the end game for the author, but I kind of feel torn here.
On one side, I’d say that it’s way easier to focus on building a business when you don’t have a job. On the other side, not having money to live on would stress me so much that I’m not sure I’d be able to do sport or engage in hobbies, let alone build a business.
Hi! Author here. You are very much on point. I only recently started looking for part-time jobs, and perhaps I should have mentioned it in the post. It's precisely what you said -- financial stress started impacting my hobbies and sports, and that's where I don't feel as comfortable anymore.
Wishing you the best! I think if you will be able to find a part time job that will cover your lifestyle financially, while dedicating the other half to entrepreneurship and hobbies/sport, it’s the best
> But unlike the author, I came back to the workforce. I don’t know what’s the end game for the author, but I kind of feel torn here.
His timing wasn't great. The tech job market is pretty dismal right now and will likely be dismal for a while. Unless we get back to a hot tech job market like circa 2020-2022 it's not going to be easy to find a gig after being out for 2 years.
In July 2001 I quit my tech job of 8 years so I could take some time to de-stress and work on projects thinking I could just jump back into a job 6 months later. Of course, that timing was really bad. Since there weren't any tech jobs available, in the Fall of 2002 I decided to go back to school and get a masters. We had a few months in 2003 where I made just enough money to get by by going to the Goodwill outlet store and buying books that could be sold online for a profit - Goodwill got wise to that arbitrage and started their own online store which kind of put an end to that. Had a few contract jobs in there that lasted anywhere from 4 to 6 months, even had a summer internship (at age 40! That interview was interesting), but it wasn't until 2006 that I found something permanent again. Fortunately we had paid off our house back in 1999 otherwise it would've been even scarier.
In fact, I touched only cash in the bank, I never sold any stocks, nor I ever touched the pension (not that I believe in pension too much, but I also can’t withdraw it without paying a hefty penalty).
Being “on track” is kind of an illusion to me. I believe it’s impossible to plan for more than 2-3 years ahead, let alone 20. I live below my means, invest as much as I can while finding a healthy balance between enjoying the moment and planning for the future.
It was one of the best times of my life. Like the author, I focused a lot of entrepreneurship, my mental and physical health, and traveled a lot.
But unlike the author, I came back to the workforce. I don’t know what’s the end game for the author, but I kind of feel torn here.
On one side, I’d say that it’s way easier to focus on building a business when you don’t have a job. On the other side, not having money to live on would stress me so much that I’m not sure I’d be able to do sport or engage in hobbies, let alone build a business.