It’s been well over a month now since I started my new job. It’s wild to think that only about 2 months ago, I was agonizing over the decision of whether to change companies and take another full-time job, when my ultimate goal is part-time work.
But as I agonized over this decision, I was thinking so much about this title question. Regular readers of my blog know how much of a fan I am of a slow FI (financial independence) lifestyle. Which is why my ultimate goal is part-time work. But can you embrace a slow FI lifestyle while still working full-time?
Today on the blog, I’m sharing why I think the answer is a resounding yes.
Coined by The Fioneers, slow FI is a mindset whereby one uses the freedom gained along their journey to financial independence to start living their best life now, not waiting until they hit their FI number (in its most basic form: 25x your annual expenses).
For me, the key to adopting a slow FI mindset comes down to intentionality. Ultimately, everyone living a slow FI lifestyle is being incredibly intentional with both their time and their money, and how they choose to spend both.
Just like personal finance is personal, so too are everyone’s slow FI journeys!
Person A may have a job that they hate, so they use a slow FI mindset and the financial freedom they’ve already gained to intentionally find a different job, something that lights them up. The new job may not pay as well, but they are intentionally choosing this path over burning out in a job they hate.
Person B may have a job they love, and so they intentionally choose to work full-time because it gives them purpose and advances their timeline towards FI.
And these are only 2 examples.
There are no wrong answers when intentionality is in the mix.
The more and more I reflect, the more I’ve decided that whether you can work full-time and still lead a slow FI lifestyle completely depends on the person.
I absolutely think it’s possible to follow a slow FI journey and still work full-time. I am currently choosing this path. And here are some of the reasons it works for me, that I hope may inspire you too.
My identity is not tied to my job
Although I don’t see anything wrong with it if this happens to be you, and the job you do for income just happens to be your life’s passion work, this is not how I feel personally. And it’s a big part of what helps me work full-time while still being on a slow FI journey.
This wasn’t always the case. If you know my story, you know I used to be stuck on the hamster wheel, chasing everyone else’s definition of success instead of figuring out my own. Because I didn’t even know what my own definition was, I took on everyone else’s, and didn’t do any self-reflection.
But once I got off that hamster wheel, and started to realize there was more to life than just my job, everything changed. My whole mindset around work changed.
Over time, I no longer relied on my job to make me happy.
On one of my favorite podcasts, Hello Monday, there was a guest named Simone Stolzoff talking about his book The Good Enough Job. Stolzoff’s mission, his hope for us, is that we stop putting all of our energy into our jobs, living our lives around the margins. Instead, he wants us to find work that allows for time to look for meaning outside of our jobs.
This is my ultimate goal, what I’m ultimately working towards. To be able to find meaning outside my job. I have a good idea of what this meaning is for me, what I would do if I wasn’t working full-time, and yet I also have well-paid work that fuels my financial independence journey. So although I sometimes find it difficult to balance meaning and working full-time, for now, I’ve figured out a “good enough” balance so that I’m able to find and satisfy some meaning while I’m still working full-time.
But Stolzoff also talked about how studies have shown that people with greater “self complexity” (people with more to who they are, more sides to them, than just what they do for work) are more creative and also more resilient in the face of setbacks.
A person with self complexity, if given negative feedback, will handle it better than someone without self complexity because their identity is not tied to their work.
This reminds me of how it’s hard for me to relate to a lot of my colleagues because they all take work so seriously. They see it as honorable if they work 60 hours a week. They don’t understand why I wouldn’t voluntarily offer to work extra to get a project done that doesn’t even have a tight deadline. They don’t understand why I’m not dedicated to the work to the point of self-sacrifice. They don’t understand that my life doesn’t revolve around my work. I’m not sitting at my desk with an hour to go in my work day thinking about how else I can be helpful. I’m working hard to get my assigned work done, and I’m waiting for the day to end so I can get on with my life. With the other things that bring me meaning.
Not having my identity tied to my work is a beautiful thing for me. It’s been revolutionary. And it is ultimately tied to so many other aspects of why I can have a slow FI mindset and still work full-time.
Because my identity is not tied to my work, I can also …
Let go of the pressure
The old me, before I discovered slow FI, would have wanted to climb the corporate ladder. The old me wouldn’t have stopped until I was seen as the most “successful” person at the company. I lived for the next thing, the next jump in title, the next raise.
Because my identity was tied to what I did for a living.
Now, after discovering slow FI, that all has changed. I know my why for slow FI.
That pressure is gone, because I don’t crave the promotion. I crave having more time outside of my working hours to do the things that give me meaning.
I no longer feel like I have to climb the ladder or get promoted to be seen as successful (or maybe I just no longer care about being seen as successful). I can work hard while I’m on the clock, and then shut it down for the day. That is such a glorious feeling for me.
The pressure is off, because I’ve implemented my slow FI journey into my work.
Set good boundaries
Because I don’t want to climb the ladder, I have been forced to set better boundaries. It was tough at first. The imposter syndrome I experienced at the beginning of my career in medical writing was no joke, and it is still there, just to a much lesser degree. But setting boundaries has helped immensely, and now I am a huge fan. So much so that I wrote a whole post dedicated to the topic of setting good boundaries at work.
The best part? My limiting belief that setting boundaries would make me look bad, would result in worsening performance reviews, was completely false.
As one example, when I decided I didn’t want to be a manager, I cut back on all the extra responsibilities I had been taking on to try to get promoted to a manger position. I thought this would result in worse performance reviews, worse customer reviews, and fewer peer awards. And you know what actually happened? Nothing changed! I was still praised by my managers. I will still one of the most highly requested editors by our customers. And I still received countless awards from my peers. Boundaries are NOT bad, people.
As I’ve gone on to join other companies and take on other roles, I’ve found the same or similar outcomes of setting boundaries. I’ve noticed co-workers start to use their Microsoft Teams icons differently, actually putting themselves as “offline” at the end of the day, like I do.
Set good boundaries, and they’ll become contagious.
Lead by example, and you’ll see what happens.
Be picky with job choice
Not only do I no longer want to climb the ladder, I’ve started to become vocal about it. I started to flip the script when it came to work, and it helped me land my current job.
I started the process of reaching out to recruiters I’d kept on the backburner late in 2022, and I didn’t start at my new job until late May 2023.
I had to pass on A LOT of companies where our goals were not aligned.
This would have been so scary for me, even just 2 years ago. To let a company know what I want instead of cater to what they want. But the more I have learned about my industry, the more senior I have become, and the farther along I’ve gotten on my slow FI journey, that more confident I’ve become in knowing what I want, and what I need to do to get what I want. I knew I didn’t want to change jobs unless I was honest and transparent about what I wanted, even if recruiters laughed in my face (by the way, I only had one “laugh” at me virtually over email when I asked if they had any part-time roles).
Being honest about my career goals was scary. I had to admit to people, with confidence, that I didn’t want to follow the traditional path. That I didn’t want to advance in my role the way most people in my position do. That I didn’t want to be a manager.
But although it was scary, it allowed me to find the role I’m currently in. Most everyone was kind about it, and even if what I wanted was not what they were looking for, they would tell me they admired my honesty. That I would eventually get what I wanted because of my honesty.
And that honesty eventually paid off. I finally found a company where they didn’t just scoff or hesitate by my desires for my next role, they embraced it. They embraced me. They assured me that I would be in the driver’s seat, that I would dictate my path. We’ll see how it turns out! So far, so good.
I constantly remind myself of my goals
Another way that I’m able to live a slow FI lifestyle and still work full time is that I constantly remind myself of my goals. They are always in the forefront of my mind.
I’ve done the self-reflection work on myself over the years to know I want to downshift to part-time work when I hit my financial goals (I’m striving for Flamingo FI, or half my FI number, before downshifting).
By keeping this overarching goal in mind, and by knowing my why for slow FI, I’m able to take the day-to-day stress of working full-time.
I actively choose every day to continue on this path in service of my goal. When things get hard, I remind myself what I’m working toward.
By taking this approach, I can also make changes if needed based on my goals. Take, for example, what I just did recently. Even though things were “just fine” at my last job, I decided to find a new one in service of my goals. I found a similar, low-stress role but with higher pay and better benefits/flexible working in service of my slow FI goals and lifestyle (if you want to hear even more of the nitty gritty of this job-switch decision, check out this post).
And who knows. Maybe I’ll downshift before reaching Flamingo FI, but it will happen because it’s in service of my goals, because I’m being in intentional.
I get some purpose from my job
Sure, it’s not my life’s work. I have many other passions outside my job that I believe are more important, and I have plans to explore these passions more as I downshift. But for now, while I’m still working toward my goals, getting purpose from my job is important, and it helps me embrace a slow FI lifestyle while working full-time.
As a medical writer, there a plenty of downsides to working in big pharma, but I have also worked on several life-saving drugs. There is definitely some purpose when you’re helping a drug that treats a rare disease get to more patients who need it. But that’s not always the case. And when my work didn’t align with my purpose (like when I was working on an aesthetic account, think Botox), I found other ways to create purpose until I got to work on something else.
I’m not afraid to take my vacation
I am always appalled at how few people actually take all their vacation days.
Sadly, while I’m still working full-time, I live for my vacation days (even if it’s just to stay home, because let’s be real, I think everything is better at home anyway).
Sure, there are the higher-ups who feel like they can’t take a vacation without either shit hitting the fan while their gone, or feeling like they can’t unplug while they’re away, or knowing that it’ll just create even more work for them when they’re back. But that’s on them, they’re choosing that path.
That’s another huge reason I don’t want to move up the ranks. In my mind, more responsibility = more stress, even when vacationing. That’s the price they pay for a higher salary. By all means, I get it. But I’ve realized it’s simply not for me. Not worth it for me.
Despite knowing that my coworkers aren’t taking all their vacation days, despite the guilty feeling of knowing I create more work for others when I’m away, I still use all my vacation days. Every single one. It’s one of they very few upsides of working a 9-5 and not having any flexibility around when you work. In my opinion, vacation days are there to be used. And you best believe I keep track of them and make sure they all get used. I note which types of vacation days don’t roll over (for example, personal days at my current company), and I use those first. I do everything in my power to make sure I don’t miss out on that precious paid time off.
One of the biggest draws for me with this new company was their better vacation policy. Compared with my last job, I get an extra 5 days of paid time off, more recognized federal holidays, and even a floating holiday that I can use for any holiday of my choosing.
And I intend to use every single one of those days to live out my slow FI dreams.
I’m intentional with my time between jobs
I’ve job hopped a decent amount in the past few years. Not necessarily because I wanted to, but because it made sense for my goals and where I was at in my career. With this last job switch, for the first time in my life, I negotiated an extra week off between jobs. I wanted to maximize this time.
While I’m still working full-time, I know how rare and precious it is to get extended time off from work. It’s not easy.
So I knew I wanted to capitalize on this precious opportunity to take some extra time off. I planned the whole thing. I asked for an extra week, because it was important to me. And they gave it to me!
I decided to be intentional with that 3 weeks off, and I thought of it as a sabbatical. A job-switch sabbatical, to be exact.
I was intentional about it, and I learned so many valuable things about my slow FI life during that time off. It really gave me some perspective on future goals. I highly recommend it if you’re able to make it happen during a job switch.
So, there you have it. The ways that I’m able to embrace a slow FI lifestyle while still working full time. If you’re on a similar journey, do you do anything differently? What’s on your list that’s not on mine? I’d love to hear from you!