Not once. Not twice. But three times. And maybe (quite possibly) one last time, when I finally hit financial independence, but only time can decide that fate…
It’s been 10 years since I left academia and ended up taking my first massive pay cut. So I figured, what better way to celebrate this 10-year anniversary than with a trip down pay-cut memory lane?
Recently, I went to my 20-year high-school reunion (what is time?), which of course, had me reflecting. Reflecting on the person I was in those high school years, so driven, running like mad on the hamster wheel.
When I finally landed a fancy professor job (aka what I thought was my dream job) at the age of 27, I thought I had it all. I thought everything I had ever worked for was finally paying off. I thought I’d made it to the finish line and that all my problems, all my anxiety and other issues that came from years of overachieving, were over and done with.
It can be embarrassing to look back and think about how naïve I was back then. But the truth of it is that my life was really just beginning. In fact, these past 10 years have been the best of my life so far. I haven’t missed academia one bit.
Here’s a brief recap of my pay-cut journey.
Pay cut #1
The first pay cut happened when I realized the dream job was NOT in fact my dream job, and I decided to leave that fancy professor job. At the time I decided to make the leap, I was doing some freelance science writing that didn’t even come close to the money I was taking home as a professor. And I never did come close to my professor salary as a budding freelancer. But I consider my first official pay cut when I decided, almost a year later, to take another W2 job as a science editor for $25,000 less than I had been making as a professor.
This pay cut was the best decision I could have made at the time because ultimately, it led me to discover slow FI. Need I say more?
But if you would like to hear more, you can check out this post I wrote with more details about that first pay cut, as well as some of the best financial decisions I thought I had made at that time.
Pay cut #2
After I worked my way back up the career chain, first as an editor and then as a medical writer, to a point where I was making more money than I had been at my fancy professor job, I took my second ever pay cut. I went down to an 80% schedule and salary and took a pay cut to continue working the job I was doing and for the same company, just at a rate of 4 days a week instead of 5, or 30 hours per week.
This pay cut was the best decision I could have made at that time because it allowed me to experiment even more with my post-FI, ideal lifestyle and try out ways of spending my time. My hospice volunteer work has blossomed because of this pay cut.
Pay cut #3
After reaching Flamingo FI (achieving half my FI number) and figuring out how I would want to spend my time outside work, and once that 30 hours started to feel like too much of my time was being devoted to work and not enough to my non-work-related passions, it was time for pay cut #3: cutting from 30 hours to 15 hours of work per week (again, same job, same company).
Which brings us to the present day.
This pay cut ended up being the best decision at that time because 1) I had reached Coast FI (and beyond), meaning that all I had to do was cover my costs. In other words, I didn’t need to save and invest because the money I already had invested should be enough to grow on its own and cover my traditional retirement. And 2), I knew exactly how I would spend all that extra time. I had purpose, I had an identity, and I had meaning outside of work, but I was finding all that purpose and joy needed even more of my attention.
Do I have regrets?
None. At least not when it comes to the pay cuts 🙂
One of my friends works at the small, liberal arts college in the town where Mr. Dink and I live. The 20-years-ago-highly-driven me would have said that her dream job was to teach at a place like this college. This friend sometimes, in her very loving way, tries to convince me to come back to professorhood and join her in working at the college. Blessedly, I don’t get annoyed with her. Instead, I feel immense peace. I have NO desire to go back to that world. And I don’t mind telling people that! Which has not always been the case.
Sure, maybe that desire will come back one day (I doubt it). But if that happens, I will deal with it then. For now, there’s none. Absolutely zilch, zero desire to enter back into the soul-crushing world of academia. And the best part? I no longer have any guilt or shame about that fact. In fact, Mr. Dink and I went to a Halloween party the other day (invited by friend above) with a bunch of people we did not know. I got talking to one gentleman who is slightly older than me but is a professor at the college, and my past came up. The old me would have clammed up with so much anxiety over having to say that I left. Instead, I casually mentioned I had left a long time ago because it just didn’t suit me, and he gave me a fist bump and said he admired me (to me just more proof of how absolutely dysfunctional academia is, but I digress…)
One of the best side effects I’ve found of my slow FI journey (and probably meditation too) is that I feel absolutely NO pressure to do anything I don’t want to do. I’m just living my life one day, one moment, at a time, and listening to what my body needs and wants. And I have never once felt that what my body wants or needs is to go back to academia.
6 months in to pay cut #3
And speaking of feeling no pressure to do anything I don’t want to do, pay cut #3 continues to prove that pay cuts have been the best things I’ve ever done.
Some of you may know that for a long time, I have kept a Financial Freedom List (FFL), or a list of things I want to do as I gain more time freedom on the journey to financial independence. Part of me wanted to immediately experiment with some of the things on this list when I downshifted to 15 hours of work per week.
However, I made it a goal not to add anything to my plate over the summer. I simply wanted to savor my newfound time freedom and allow myself the space to reflect and process how far I have come and where I might want to go next.
That decision to just let myself be ended up being invaluable as well.
I surprised myself when I realized, come Fall, that I wasn’t ready then either. A lot of these things on my FFL had been there for eons, and I was feeling pressure to finally do them. But pressure from where? Completely from myself. And for what? To check off some things on a list I made 3 years ago?
First I came to terms with the fact that we are always changing, and I am not necessarily the same person I was 3 years ago. I also realized that many of the things on my list were long-term things. Things I would be committing to in perpetuity. And when it came down to it, I wasn’t sure I was ready to take on those types of commitments. Or if they were even the type of commitments I still wanted in my life. In the same vein, those choices weren’t going anywhere (most of them are established programs that will be there whenever I’m ready/if I’m ready to take them on). And if they’re no longer around when I’m ready? Well I’ll leave that to the universe.
Come Fall, I craved more short-term commitments. I craved health and exercise. I craved individual and spiritual growth. So instead of taking on these long-term commitments from my list, I have instead experimented with some shorter-term commitments.
I signed up for an 11-week taiji quan class. Mr. Dink and I signed up for an 8-week kickboxing class. I’ve joined a few short-term book clubs. All experiments. By not taking on long-term commitments, I have been more available to say “yes” to random, spontaneous events. Like a friend who lives across the state randomly coming to my town because the urgent care she manages is here, and asking if I want to go on a walk on a random Thursday. Yes please! I’ve been able to take part in more bedside sings, which come up spontaneously and very last minute, with my hospice singing group. I’ve had the time and space to deepen my meditation practice and read dharma books.
My friends, while life rolls on and hard stuff still happens, I’ve never been happier. I can’t wait to see what the next season holds and whether there are any more pay cuts in my future.
How about you? Have you ever purposefully taken a pay cut, and was it worth it? I’d love to hear from you!