Well, that escalated quickly! Mere weeks after musing about quitting my day job to become a financially independent entrepreneur, I did just that – handing in my notice last week. I’m going to focus full-time on blogging, freelance writing, and growing my fee-only financial planning service.
My wife and I did a lot of soul searching these past few weeks. We decided that the opportunity to grow this business on my own schedule was just too enticing to pass up. Simply put, it’s a perfect time to bet on myself – especially in the wake of the deep cuts coming to Alberta’s public sector, which will effectively squash any opportunity for growth and advancement in my current career (there’s even talk of a 2 percent salary roll-back).
Couple that with the realization that I’m earning $50/hour working 40+ hours a week, while making close to $250/hour on the side working 12 hours a week, and the choice becomes much more clear.
Besides the obvious appeal of being in charge of my own financial destiny, I’m most excited to spend more time with my wife and kids. I’ve mapped out 4-hour work days, Monday-Friday, leaving afternoons, evenings, and weekends free to be more involved with my kids’ activities and to pursue new hobbies with my wife. We of course also want to continue travelling whenever and wherever possible (without being constrained by a limited number of vacation days at work).
I quit my job, but I still have another month or so at work before taking some much-deserved time off in December. I plan to come out of the gates swinging in January with a new business plan dedicated to providing more educational content on this blog, pursuing new writing opportunities, and taking on more financial planning clients. 2020 is going to be a great year!
In the meantime, I’ll be busy with this transition and answering questions such as:
- Whether we have enough life and disability insurance now that I’m not covered through my workplace plan
- Whether to take out a salary or withdraw dividends from our small business to meet our living expenses
- Whether to leave my pension in the employer plan or take a lump sum and invest it in a LIRA
- How to set up a health spending account to meet those ongoing needs
Thanks for all of your support – without it I wouldn’t be able to pursue this dream. As always, I’ll keep you posted on my decisions and progress along the way.
This Week’s Recap:
I managed one post here this week – your financial plan is a compass.
Over on Rewards Cards Canada I listed some scary good credit card deals.
From the archives: How a career change improved my life. 10 years ago I moved from the hospitality industry to the public sector to find more work-life balance. It’s hard to believe a decade later I’m making another bold transition to take back control of my time and financial destiny.
Weekend Reading:
Cash back or travel rewards? It’s an ongoing debate, but here’s why the Credit Card Genius team has a strong preference for travel rewards.
An important read from Erica Alini at Global News, who shares three ways the TFSA magic can work against you.
Rob Carrick’s latest article explains why Canada’s biggest bank teaches young clients a lesson on trusting big banks. This topic is extremely frustrating for me (my experience was with TD, not RBC – but still holds true).
Dale Roberts and I are on the same page when it comes to why robo-advisor Justwealth offers the best RESP account in the country.
Here’s a controversial subject that was deftly handled by Highview Financial’s Dan Hallett: Do dividend-paying stocks offer bear market protection?
I’ll also share this post from Dan, which was published last year in Investment Executive. It’s about offering a second opinion to his friends who are getting bad investment advice from their advisors:
“Each advisor was providing good overall service, as demonstrated by the client’s desire in both cases to continue their respective advisory relationships. But both advisors get two big “thumbs down” for not designing more client-friendly solutions.”
If you follow the stock market closely you’ll have undoubtedly heard of the cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio, or CAPE ratio. Nick Magguilli calls it a sCAPEgoat and shares why these valuations get more attention than they deserve.
Million Dollar Journey blogger Frugal Trader explains how he plans to maximize RESP withdrawals for his kids.
Mark Seed shares an excellent interview with Millionaire Teacher Andrew Hallam on reaching financial independence on a teacher’s salary.
On the topic of financial independence, here’s a TED Talk from Lacey Filipich on why you should think about financial independence and mini-retirements:
Here’s part two of The Blunt Bean Counter’s excellent series on what to do when your spouse dies before you. This part deals with taxes.
Finally, here’s an interesting idea out of London’s Gatwick airport. It is testing out new technology to board passengers by individual seat, which could be faster and avoid long lines. That’s assuming everyone’s on-time.
