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Tobold@GMail.com
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Wednesday, May 11, 2022
So I quit my day job ...
Yesterday was my last day at work. Technically I am on holiday until end of June. And then a 3-year period begins, in which basically my company pays for my inofficial "early retirement", until I can officially retire and receive a state pension. It's a weird construct of European labor law: After me having worked for over quarter of a century for the same company, I have very strong legal protection against being fired. Thus making a deal with me where I stay a home ("released from work") in exchange for a reduced salary is cheaper than firing me. But putting aside the legal details, I'll just say that I am retired from now on.
Maybe, if you don't know me very well and read that title, you thought that I decided to quit my day job in order to put more time and effort into my influencer career on social media. I have seen a lot of YouTube videos like that over the past year or so. It is part of what has been called "the great resignation", a movement where at least some people were prompted by the COVID pandemic to rethink their lives, and ended up quitting bad jobs in order to do something else. On YouTube that "I quit my day job" announcement is usually directly followed by begging for money, via Patreon or YouTube subscriptions. Don't worry, I'm not asking you for money. I'm fine, financially. I only have a rarely used "buy Tobold a coffee" button on my blog, and am not at all counting on any income from the internet.
Honestly, it scares me if young people decide to go for a full-time influencer career. The general public on social media is the shittiest employer imaginable, providing zero stability, being highly demanding, and often being rude about it. An influencer career today is what a career as sports star or rock star was for earlier generations: The glamour of the few very visible successful cases hides the sad reality of the many people who try and fail. And even if somebody achieves a modicum of success and manages to pay the bills at the end of the month with his YouTube / Twitch revenue, that might change any time, when suddenly the subject he is streaming about becomes not popular anymore.
Having said that, being retired I might have a bit more time for blogging, and especially for playing games, which is what I am mostly blogging about.
- posted by Tobold @ 7:22 AM Permanent Link
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Congratulations Tobold. You are now an independently wealthy gentleman of leisure. I am a few years away from retirement myself but increasingly I find myself looking forward to it. Hopefully with the blessings of good health and adequate financial means it is going to be a new adventure in life to explore.
Congrats. I wish we had that over here in the UK. All the best and I am sure you will find something enjoyable to do.
Congratulations!!! For most people I know it takes a lot of hard work and sound decisions to retire in a way that allows you to continue to enjoy life. I'd love a post about what you plan to change going from working full time to retirement. The Retired Gamer can be your new moniker :)
For most people I know it takes a lot of hard work and sound decisions to retire in a way that allows you to continue to enjoy life.
I've done the hard work part, but I won't take credit for the sound decisions part. A really important factor in my case is the fact that I am married and we have no children. Or what is known as DINKs, "double income, no kids". That turns out to be financially very beneficial, but the decision wasn't taken out of financial considerations, so that is more of a happy accident.
I am also not exactly the best example for the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Yes, I'm retiring "early", but only 3 years earlier than the official early retirement age in my country, and 10 years earlier than maximum retirement age. Which means that a state pension will be playing a significant role in my future finances. Both me and my wife each will get a pension which is higher than the salary of a full-time worker at minimum wage level. And with our savings we will have a mortgage-free house. Basically I wouldn't be screwed if my other savings *didn't* yield 4% every year, just living on a state pension and rent free would already cover all our basic needs.
Note also that I am technically a "boomer", which means that I benefitted from financial conditions at least for the first half of my career that millennials today can only dream of. Yeah, I made a Ph.D. on $500 per month income, which certainly wasn't luxury, but at least I didn't have any student debt at the end weighing me down. And the employment conditions and benefits at the start of my career were notably more generous than now.
If I sometimes sound like a socialist on this blog, it is because I believe that workers and employees used to get something akin to a fair share of the value they created when I was young, and that a lot of "financial innovation" and development of employment practices that happened since has been used by companies to screw workers and employees out of that fair share.
I've done the hard work part, but I won't take credit for the sound decisions part. A really important factor in my case is the fact that I am married and we have no children. Or what is known as DINKs, "double income, no kids". That turns out to be financially very beneficial, but the decision wasn't taken out of financial considerations, so that is more of a happy accident.
I am also not exactly the best example for the FIRE movement (Financial Independence, Retire Early). Yes, I'm retiring "early", but only 3 years earlier than the official early retirement age in my country, and 10 years earlier than maximum retirement age. Which means that a state pension will be playing a significant role in my future finances. Both me and my wife each will get a pension which is higher than the salary of a full-time worker at minimum wage level. And with our savings we will have a mortgage-free house. Basically I wouldn't be screwed if my other savings *didn't* yield 4% every year, just living on a state pension and rent free would already cover all our basic needs.
Note also that I am technically a "boomer", which means that I benefitted from financial conditions at least for the first half of my career that millennials today can only dream of. Yeah, I made a Ph.D. on $500 per month income, which certainly wasn't luxury, but at least I didn't have any student debt at the end weighing me down. And the employment conditions and benefits at the start of my career were notably more generous than now.
If I sometimes sound like a socialist on this blog, it is because I believe that workers and employees used to get something akin to a fair share of the value they created when I was young, and that a lot of "financial innovation" and development of employment practices that happened since has been used by companies to screw workers and employees out of that fair share.
Wow, congrats!! I'm glad you're not retiring from blogging, I'm not sure I'm ready for that. Pretty crazy that I've read a blog long enough to see the author go through a major life change.
My time is coming up but I've worked for tons of different companies so I've had to invest in my own retirement. I'm hoping to be done in about 10 years but the earlier the better.
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My time is coming up but I've worked for tons of different companies so I've had to invest in my own retirement. I'm hoping to be done in about 10 years but the earlier the better.
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