J Wynia is someone with whom I have a constructive blog/podcast crosstalk. His most recent post on using your earnings from creative work to fund retirement is spot on with what I’ve been thinking lately. He also is exactly correct on my motivations for keeping things the way they are with the podcast as a sidelight and working a day job.
Fifteen years ago I would have thought the height of life would be to have no day job and be a writer and creative person working for myself. Nowadays, I think the setup I have is pretty darned good and I don’t want it a different way. My job pays well, lets me spend my days around people I like, provides enough challenge to keep it interesting and gives me benefits to boot. I don’t begrudge them that time during the weekdays.
I think J does an excellent job of deconstructing why people think getting rid of the day job is so fabulous, a lot of which has to do with unrealistic romantic fantasies about how life would be. If working at Long John Silvers was good enough for Wayne Coyne during the first decade of the Flaming Lips working an enjoyable software job should be good enough for me.
I also like J’s money management tips, which I think are sensible in general. In my case, I’ve already got fully funded 401Ks and IRAs, and we already have almost no debt. We do still have a car payment now, which will be paid off in a few months. It’s a four year used car note, but we’ll have closed it out in under two years. At that point, we will again have zero consumer debt and only the mortgage will remain.
Check out his post. I’m not pointing out every single thing I think he’s right about, because it’s basically the whole thing. J is on it, boyeee!
