The Freedom to Make Fully Funded Lifestyle “Choices”

There has been a lot going on in the SSC household this year, with me getting positioned to move into a leadership role at work and Mrs. SSC making it to a finalist position for a new job at another university. These changes may or may not shake up our latest Canyon Lake plan, depending on which one comes to fruition, but it reminded us that we’ve positioned ourselves to be able to fully evaluate and take advantage of these opportunities when they come up. We have the freedom of choice in whatever opportunities show up. We keep talking about a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC), rather than Financial Independent Retire Early (FIRE) because we feel like we will most likely do something when we early retire. Like most bloggers that reach FIRE, few actually “retire”, but instead transition into having the freedom to work at the schedule, lifestyle, and type of work that they want to do, rather than be stuck in a 40+ hr a week job.

What we realized is that we won’t be leaving the workforce totally, we’re just transitioning into something else. Mrs. SSC has been more hesitant about this transition than I am which is what ultimately led to our Canyon Lake plan. She had the “misfortune” of getting her dream job a couple of years before we were planning to hit FIRE and enact our FFLC plan. Now that she’s been in that job a few years and away from megacorp, she isn’t scouring the PF blogosphere looking for “ways to early retire” from a job and lifestyle that she hates. We’ve been able to transition into a good comfortable lifestyle with both of us working jobs we love. Most bloggers, us included, talk about “retire to” something, or “find your ikigai” so you have purpose post career. What if your career is fun and you don’t necessarily want to retire from it?

But I Love My Job…

This is what Mrs. SSC is always telling me when talking about teaching. She wanted to go into teaching when she first got out of school and she even turned down a tenure track position at Cal Poly with the thought to return to teaching after some time in industry. Since that was her dream to begin with, when the Great Layoffs of 2014 – 2016 swept through our industry, we both started looking at alternative career options. For her, it was pretty simple, “I’ll look for a teaching job!” You know what is as rare as hen’s teeth? A geophysics teaching position… Since she started looking in 2015 there have been 7 positions that have become available, nationwide. Of those 7 positions, she applied to 3 of them. The first she got turned down and didn’t make the short list, then she got an offer with the next one, and currently she is interviewing for a finalist position with the third one.

Mrs. SSC right about now.

This potential position could be an even better setup for her than her current job. She is excited about the opportunities that she would have at the new position and the types of research that she could get into, even if this means we would have to abandon the Canyon Lake plan.

I’m Heading to Management!

I just found out that I’m being developed for a leadership position at my company. Have I mentioned how much I love working at my company? It’s been one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. I don’t know if it would continue that same way if I was in a leadership position, I just don’t know. Maybe it wouldn’t be nice, and I’d feel like my soul was slowly getting sucked from me and I’d turn bitter and resentful. If so, that’s great because we’ve positioned ourselves to put me in a position that I can walk away at almost any point forward from now and we will be fine financially. I’m excited to see how this position plays out for better or worse. Regardless, when I do move out to Canyon Lake I still won’t be retiring totally from my industry. Sure I won’t work 40 hrs a week anymore, and I won’t have ridiculous bonuses or other perks, but I have some irons in the fire for consulting in this industry. I think one or more options could work out, so like others, when I leave my company I would be free to work the schedule, and type of work of my choosing.

Fishing and kayaking would also be plentiful, maybe…
That’s the Freedom of Lifestyle Choices

The whole point for us, isn’t necessarily to achieve FIRE and then quit working, able to just slowly sip coffee in the mornings, make waffles on Wednesdays, take the boat out onto the lake, and be back in time to pick the kids up from school each day. That sounds all well and good and I’m sure there will be some of that, but we both have been trying to figure out what’s next. What would we do? Start a blog about things to do around Canyon Lake (that’s a huge vacuum waiting to be filled), or find some other thing we’re passionate about and do that, regardless of whether it makes money or not? Maybe even find another job in another industry. Gasp!

Good planning leaves room for choices

The beauty is that all of these things are possible because we’ve set ourselves up financially to not have to depend on income from those side projects. If Mrs. SSC lands her dream job 1-2 years before she could’ve quit working forever, what does it matter if she doesn’t retire then? If she is happy working in whatever job it is and it affords the lifestyle that we want, isn’t that a win for everyone? We think so.

Is there something you’d rather be doing than what you’re currently doing? If so, what steps have you taken to get there? If you did hit FI and could walk away from your current job, would you seek something else out or would you just enjoy being able to do nothing?