Side Gig Changes and How That Affects My Early Retirement Goal

Table outdoors with open laptop, pen, notebook and a glass drink with straw

At the end of 2022, I started a second job or side gig as the cool kids call it 😊

I was attracted to this job because it was a work from home situation. My main job as a health worker involved going to work at a physical building and being on the frontline all through Covid – it could never be a WFH job. Consequently, all through Covid, I wondered what it was like to work from home.

Well … now I can say that I really love working from home! I especially love the short commute, from my bedroom to my study, haha!  And connecting to people from all over the country.

I was auditing businesses in my industry online. Before Covid, it was done onsite.

We were given 9 months notice that we would be expected to go back onsite in October this year. So for most of the year there was discussion about how many days they expected each auditor to work. In the end, they wanted a minimum of 3 days of availability per auditor.

Therefore for me, that would mean giving up 2 days of work at my main job (which I’ll refer to as Job 1 from now on) and being available for 3 days a week for Job 2.

We didn’t audit any businesses in September as we prepared to go back onsite in October. There were new platforms to master, new ipad to get used to, new processes etc. There was A LOT of NEW.. !!! But that also meant there was virtually no income (besides some hours spent training) from Job 2 in September.

So I’d like to update you on how my new working arrangements will impact my finances and my end goal of retiring at 55.

To be clear – the goal has not changed. But how I get there has indeed changed. And what that retirement looks like may change.

 

So ... what's changing?

Hours spent working, for a start.

I was working 4 days a week for Job 1.

Hours for Job 2 were more variable. I spent Wednesday making calls and attending Zoom meetings. PLUS working before going to Job 1 and after coming home from Job 1 for most Mondays and Tuesdays. And sometimes the weekends if it’d been a busy week.

What’s different now is that I will work 2 days for Job 1. And Job 2 will be done on those 3 assigned days. No more before or after working Job 1 on weekdays.

But the best part is that I’ll have my weekends back! In the past, I was always wondering at the back of my mind, if there were any online submissions waiting for me to assess. So I never relaxed properly.

I only realised this when I was on my recent holidays and didn’t have this thought hanging over me all the time. And how freeing that was – not thinking about potential work waiting for me.

The bad thing about the new arrangement is the instability of Job 2. Although I’m available for 3 days, it doesn’t mean that I’ll have businesses to audit on those days. The schedule may change as businesses request a change to their audit dates and the new dates don’t fit into my available days.

Therefore my income from Job 2 will be very variable. More on that later 🙂

Besides the income instability, there is also a LOT more administration work involved with Job 2 – just the retention of receipts and getting them reimbursed will need some getting used to. Plus I’m not loving the driving in peak hour traffic to and from the businesses.

The good thing though is that I’ll have more free time during the not so busy seasons. I’m hoping that I will use this time to explore more of what I’d like to do in retirement. Or pick up an extra day at Job 1 if they were desperate for staff (or I need the money?!)

This was back in 2019 when it was a new car for work - now it's mine!

I bought a car!

I’ve always driven a work car provided by Job 1. So I always knew that I’d need to buy a car when I eventually retire from Job 1. It’s been one of my saving goals for 2 years. Luckily the Future Car sinking fund was fully funded earlier this year.

Because I’m reducing my hours to only 2 days a week, I will no longer be entitled to use this work car.

I also need my own car to travel to the businesses I’ll be auditing for Job 2.

It has always been my intention to purchase the car I’m currently driving from Job 1 when I retire. This has only brought forward that purchase.

I’m very fortunate that my employer sold me the car at the residual amount left on the lease plus the penalty for breaking the lease instead of the full market value.

So now I have an extra category to budget for – a car! This is a huge change for me 🙂 The last time I owned a car was straight out of university.

I’d forgotten how many expenses owning a car entails – there’s registration, insurance, service / maintenance, petrol, tolls, roadside assistance membership. And I plan on saving for a future car.

Having all these expenses now will give me a more realistic picture of future expenses in retirement.

 

What's happening to finances now?

Travelling to businesses to perform audits is very much a part of Job 2 now we’re back on site.
 
I will be reimbursed 85 cents per km and also paid a travel allowance if my return trip to and from home is more than 75km.

My plan is that the fee per km payment goes to paying for petrol, service, registration, insurance and roadside assistance membership ie the ongoing costs of owning a car. I’m hoping that this will also cover my petrol and tolls for non work purposes.

I don’t have a target or timeline for the Future Car sinking fund. But I just want to set some money aside for my next car. Who knows how much the extra driving will contribute to the wear and tear of the car? It would be good to be prepared, just in case. I do plan to drive my car for as long as I can.

Ok, so that’s the car expenses sorted. Theoretically, anyway!

 

What about the rest of my expenses?

Income from Job 2 is very variable.

It was always variable before but I could rely on the stable income from Job 1 for my needs and saving goals. The variable income form Job 2 was a bonus. It funded my wants eg a cleaning service, pilates, TMJ specialist sessions AND it added to my savings goals dramatically.
 

Now my stable income from Job 1 is halved. More on that later.

For Job 2, I can audit a maximum of 2 businesses a day so it’d be a maximum of 6 businesses a week. Our fee increased by 20% for the onsite model.
 

However, work is not guaranteed. During the busy seasons, I may be assigned 6 businesses a week but during the quiet season, I may be assigned none.

This is not even accounting for the businesses already assigned to me opting to change their assessment dates and then no longer fitting into my schedule. By the same token, I may be assigned another business because it no longer fits into another auditor’s schedule.

Our quarterly schedules are published about 2 months before the next
quarter. This will allow us to look for extra shifts in our other jobs
to supplement income if needed.

I’ve stopped salary sacrificing into my superannuation (retirement account) from Job 1. And combined with the recent income tax cuts, it turns out that my income from Job 1 is not quite halved, more like 60% of what I used to take home.
 

Therefore I’ll need to audit 1 business a week plus income from Job 1 to meet current living expenses. This is also assuming that the car expenses are funded from the various allowances of Job 2.

 

piggy bank with glasseswith blackboard in the background with retirement

And saving for retitrement?

To recap or bring you up to speed, I’m at the point of saving up a 2 year cash buffer. This would help mitigate any sequence of returns risk. If the sharemarket performs badly in the early years of my retirement, I will use the cash and allow the sharemarket to recover before having to draw down from this portfolio.
 

I was at first very worried about the very variable income of Job 2 and how that would impact my goal of retiring at 55 which was only a short 2 years away.

We are currently in the quiet season. My schedule this quarter (13 weeks from October to December) shows 23 businesses. So if nothing changes, I’ll have income from 10 businesses to allocate to the 2 year cash fund this quarter. This amount equates to half of what I would have saved had Job 2 not changed.
 

I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type this.

Also, the majority of the 23 businesses are scheduled for October and there are only 2 in December. This means that I have to budget well and not spend it all before December!

To this end, I made a list of bills due in these 3 months in addition to Christmas expenses. I will fund the all the necessary bills first before saving anything in my 2 year cash buffer fund.

I am nervous because this is different to what I’ve done since I found FIRE. I’ve consistently saved and invested first then dealt with expenses. I feel like I’m reverting back to life before FIRE when I spent first then saved what was left over. But hopefully, this time round, it’s just a temporary situation.
 
I have to remember WHY I agreed to this change and continued working Job 2.

 

Yarragon in Gippsland, Victoria

Why did I say yes?

Essentially I said yes to ADVENTURE.
 
Part of Job 2 entails travelling within the state, out to rural country towns. I haven’t seen much of my own state. So what better way than to be paid to do so?
 
Right now, there are auditors in every state and territory so my travel is limited to Victoria. But I’ve put up my hand to travel to other states if they ever need one in an emergency. Fingers crossed, I get a remote assignment eg Christmas Island or Norfolk Island – how cool would that be?
 

I’ve had 2 country trips so far and they were so much fun! I don’t mind the driving because the scenery is beautiful and it’s not start stop every 30 seconds like it is in the city. And the local produce! I am reimbursed for breakfast and dinner on these trips – there are maximum limits – but they are generous enough for decent meals. After the work is completed, I have time to explore the area. Bonus!

There was a steep learning curve when I first started Job 2. I had to pass an auditing course, learn how to use different platforms (I am quite tech challenged at the best of times!) and interact with people online. That’s not even mastering the job itself.

With the onsite model, there was once again new IT to grapple with; new processes for the actual job and also new invoicing systems to deal with claiming reimbursements for travel, meals and accommodation for country runs.
 

I like the constant learning – it keeps me on my toes! And it’s another aspect of this adventure.

The second reason I said yes is the thought that I can continue with Job 2 when I retire from Job 1. So far, I’m having a blast with Job 2. As long as I’m enjoying Job 2, I’m happy to keep going. 

By then, it won’t matter so much that my schedule and income is variable. In fact, the extra income will be a bonus. Or I can use it first before drawing down from the shares portfolio, especially when there is a sharemarket downturn. Therefore I may not need to save as much for the 2 year cash buffer fund.

 

How am I able to say yes to adventure?

I didn’t want the uncertainty of future income to prevent me from saying yes to adventure. But … and this is a BIG but … I have saved enough in my various sinking funds and my investments are on track. So I felt I could say yes even though future income will be unpredictable.
 
I just needed to give myself permission to access these funds, namely the Emergency Fund and the 2 year cash buffer fund, should I need it in the next 3 months.

So far, for October, I haven’t needed to access them. Phew! I was able to pick up 2 extra days at Job 1 so I’m not nearly as stretched as I thought I’d be.

I am still grateful to past me for saving up!

Right now, I have nearly 11 months saved up in the 2 year cash buffer fund because I’ve decided to tip the Emergency Fund into it. It would be awesome if I could end 2024 with 12 months saved. We’ll see!

 

Final thoughts

It seems contradictory – this idea of saying yes to adventure now when the ‘end’ ie retirement is so close at hand.
 

But I really don’t want to wait until I fully retire to say yes to adventure.

There is definitely uncertainty ahead.

Will I be able to save up the 2 year cash buffer fund on time? Will I retire from Job 1 anyway? Will I continue with Job 2 after I retire from Job 1? What if I get sick of the country trips? And so on.
 

I’m choosing to embrace the uncertainty – that is a part of being on an adventure, after all. You never quite know the ending until well, the end.

I’ll keep updating you all!
 
In the meantime, I’m slightly more consistent posting on Instagram and Facebook so you can follow my progress, more in the moment, if you like 🙂

 

Have you changed your job close to retirement? How has that change impacted your retirement goal?

2023 Goals Review And 16 Months Progress Report

It is the end of April 2024 as I write this – so a review of my 2023 goals is long overdue. Apologies, my friends!

My word in 2023 was Adventure. I wanted to discover new experiences and activities as I prepare for retirement.

Well … there were two new big experiences in 2023.

1. Working a second job or as the young ones call it, a side hustle

2. Having Mum who has dementia in respite care at 2 different aged care facilities

There were also 2 overseas holidays in there somewhere …

1. Working from home

Working a side hustle from home is wonderful. I finally get to experience what working from home feels like and … I love it!

As a healthcare worker through the pandemic, I still went into work every day so I never got to experience the highs and lows of working from home that the majority of workers experienced.

But it is time consuming. I work one full day plus before and after my main job which doesn’t leave me much time to do anything else. There are upcoming changes – I’ll keep you posted when they eventuate later in the year.

2. Mum in aged care

Having Mum in respite care twice in aged care facilities was an adventure I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The emotional toll was horrendous. Watching her not coping in the facilities was very difficult. It will not get any easier as her dementia progresses and Dad needs time off from being her primary carer.

All right, let’s recap on what my goals were in 2023. I had 4 financial and 4 non financial goals. How did I go?

 

Goal 1 - Invest $30k in my shares portfolio

This goal was not accomplished because of Goal 4!

A reminder – my shares portfolio is what I will use to fund the 5 years of living expenses when I retire at 55 as I can’t access my superannuation (retirement account) until aged 60. 

My financial adviser, Deline assured me that I was on track to retire at 55 (HOORAY!!!) and that I could STOP investing in my shares portfolio. At this stage, the balance was not where I wanted it to be but I had to trust the math.

On a side note, the balance as at the end of April 2024 has exceeded that figure in my head – the figure I thought I needed to see before I could stop investing. So I’m very glad I listened to Deline.

I must admit I couldn’t stop cold turkey. I reduced the amount for a couple of months before stopping completely. But when the market was down in October/November, I couldn’t resist and invested some side hustle income.

In the end, I invested about $14k which included cash dividends received.

Goal 2 - Replenish emergency fund

I feel secure having 6 months of living expenses in my Emergency Fund. It was fully fiunded but I raided it to replace major appliances that died in 2021/22.
 
This goal was finally accomplished in May 2023. It’s taken more than a year and accomplishing it felt really good because it was a goal carried forward from 2022.

Goal 3 - Save $5k in home maintenance fund

This goal was accomplished, thanks to my side hustle income.
 

So I decided to aim for $10k.

I always wanted to have $10k in my home maintenance fund but didn’t think I could achieve it in one year so aimed to save $5k instead.
 

Because of this fund, I was able to take advantage of state government rebates and installed an electric heat pump hot water tank.

My original gas hot water tank was 7 years old. I didn’t want it to die in the middle of winter, forcing me to decide quickly to install anything recommended by the plumber. Which was what happened previously.

This is part of my plan to switch to an all electric house ie bye bye gas forever. There is still the central gas heating and stove to go – I’m waiting for more government rebates.
 
By the end of 2023, the Home Maintenance Fund was 90% funded.
 
Since I’ve been regularly contributing to this fund, I haven’t needed to raid my Emergency Fund.

2024 update – the dishwasher’s electronic control panel decided to die out of warranty, of course. So the home maintenance fund came to the rescue again.
 
And in February 2024, the fund is fully funded, YAY!!!

 

 

 

Goal 4 - Engage a fee only financial adviser

Mission accomplished.
 
I didn’t have a good experience at the start of 2018 after I’d pay off my mortgage and was wondering what to do with the ‘excess’ money that would have gone to the mortgage.
 

I had about $10k surplus at the time. I knew I should invest it but didn’t know what to do. No one was interested in talking to me. The guy at the bank said it wasn’t worth my while to engage him.

But thankfully, since then I discovered the FIRE community, educated myself and improved my financial literacy significantly.
 

All the saving and investing I’ve done so far is DIY. So I wanted an expert to cast their eyes over my numbers and tell me categorically if I’m heading in the right direction. I figured there is still time to course correct if I’m not!

I found Deline from Instagram. I had been following her for a while and liked her posts so I felt comfortable reaching out. Knowing that she understood FIRE was also important to me. It saved lots of explaining, haha.

Over the course of a few months and 3 meetings over Zoom, she worked through all my numbers. Based on what I told her I’d like to spend in retirement, she confirmed that I was on the right track. Phew! And could in fact, increase my spending a little. Believe me, hearing that was so comforting!

And as a result of her advice, I started new goals which I’ll detail below.

 

Goal 5 - Declutter

This goal was a massive fail!

I even enrolled in Joshua Becker’s 12 week online course, Uncluttered but didn’t do the work. The timing was unfortunate because the side hustle was starting at the same time. I can access the course at any time but haven’t done so again.

I just work in my cluttered study with towering boxes of stuff around me …

Sigh! I’m thinking this is one of those goals that will be accomplished when I finally retire – surely there’ll be no excuses then!

Goal 6 - Go to bed at 11pm

I would describe this as a semi failed goal. 
 
But I’m not giving up.

I succeed for the most part but get derailed on nights when I don’t have to work the next day.
 
This will be an ongoing goal.

 

Goal 7 - Go outside for 30 minutes every day

This goal can also be described as a semi failed goal.
 
I definitely do not achieve it daily but will try to make up for it on weekends. What having this goal has achieved is to raise my awareness of how little time I spend outdoors. It is much easier to achieve when I’m on holidays and exploring new territory.
 

So once again, this will be an ongoing goal.

 

Goal 8 - Do something new or visit somewhere I've never been before every month

This was definitely much easier when I was on holidays and exploring new places. I found it much harder to do at home though it started off well at the beginning of the year.
 

I visited and joined new libraries. Ok, this may have contributed to the semi failed status of Goal 7. I was able to borrow more books on my Libby app 🙂 And ended up reading 93 books in 2023.

Discovering park runs also contributed to time spent outdoors. I was participating in a 5km park run every week. And even participated in one for 2 weeks in London. But once I came back from my holidays, it was winter and I never went again until March 2024.

 

I visited Sydney, London, Amsterdam and Hong Kong in 2023. There was some work involved in Sydney but overall, I was on holidays.

I certainly enjoyed new experiences in these cities I’ve visited before in the past.

 – pattiserie/cafe crawl and omakase in Sydney
– explored canals in London, West End shows and of course, afternoon teas in various establishments
– visited art galleries, museums in Amsterdam and The Hague; enjoyed learning about windmills in Kinderdijk
– ate my way around and hiked new-to-me trails in Hong Kong. It was also a new experience to win a flight ticket to Hong Kong during their promotion to attract tourists back to the city
 
And now we come to the additional financial goals I set after the consultations with my financial adviser.

 

New goal 1 - Future car fund

I currently drive a work car so will need to purchase a car when I retire. The plan is to buy the car I’m currently driving from my employer.
 
The set amount from my weekly pay that was going to purchase shares was diverted to this fund instead.

It was 74% funded at the end of 2023.
 
2024 update – I am ecstatic to report that it is now 100% funded by the end of April 2024! Vroom vroom!!

 

New goal 2 - 2 years of living expenses cash buffer

The short answer is I did not make a start on this fund in 2023. 
 

At first, my plan was to use the side hustle income to save towards the 3 cash goals – home maintenance fund, future car fund and 2 years of living expenses fund.

In the end, I found it easier to use my side hustle income (which is variable per month) for the home maintenance fund and a regular amount from my main job towards the car. It was driving me insane watching all the funds grow at a snail’s pace.
 

Now that both the smaller funds are fully funded, I will direct everything towards the 2 year living expenses fund. And when this is fully funded, I can retire!

The purpose of this fund is to ensure I have cash on hand in case the market falls which in turn means the value of my share portfolio falls, just when I need to access funds at the beginning of my retirement. I will draw on my cash reserves instead of selling shares in that event.

More progress report …

Annual expenses in 2023

I spent 13% more in 2023 compared to 2022. 
 
The extra expenses were due to general inflation but the main increase was in home maintenance – installing the electric heat pump and fixing the electrical switchboard. I also started having a fortnightly cleaning service from September 2023, fully funded by my side hustle income. My travel expenses were roughly the same as in 2022. Food costs were 1% higher.

My income increased by 25%, thanks to my side hustle.

My savings rate was 42% (based solely on after tax income) which was a small improvement (increased by 3%) compared to 2022.

 

Net worth

My net worth grew by 21% 🙏
 

I have not included my paid off home in this figure. I don’t plan to move and haven’t kept up with the value of similar properties in the area. There is a lot of construction work in my suburb, with old houses replaced by gigantic units.

My net worth therefore consists of the value of superannuation, shares portfolio and cash accounts.
 
There were also 2 exciting milestones reached in the past 16 months.

 

Milestone 1 - $1M invested

My investments totalled $1 million 😮 at the end of 2023!
 
This is purely a combination of my superannuation (retirement account) and the shares portfolio outside of superannuation.
 
It wasn’t something that I was looking out for so it came as a surptise when I calculated my net worth at the end of December 2023 and realised a significant milestone was reached.
 
The predominant feeling I felt was RELIEF. The “end” is truly in sight now.

Milestone 2 - Superannuation balance doubled

My superannuation balance has doubled since 2018, the year I started to pay attention to it. During this period of 6 years, there were only 2 years when I maxed out the contributions.
 
When I reached Coast FI in April 2021, it had increased by 1.5 times. Since reaching Coast FI, I reduced my salary sacrificing drastically and relied mainly on mandatory employer contributions.

I cannot access my superannuation until 2031, when I turn 60 and no longer working. That’s 7 years away. Dare I hope that the market will be kind and another doubling occurs? I’ll update you on the progress 🙂

 

Final Thoughts

Until I sat down to write this post, I had no idea of how much was achieved in 2023!
 

Financial goals are being ticked off and milestones reached that I wasn’t even paying attention to.

And having only one more financial goal to aim for before I can quit work is doable even though the amount I need is quite high. But I still have two and a half years to go.
 
I did not factor in the time required for my side hustle in 2023. I am faster at the work now but the workload has also increased in 2024. But I am most grateful for the income it’s bringing in and the financial goals I’ve been able to tick off, purely because of the extra income. So I’m not complaining.
 

Overall, while my non financial goals were only semi successful, I’m happy to continue trying – I was aiming to enjoy the process and not focus on outcomes so much.

There you are – that’s my 2023 done and dusted. Follow me on Instagram or Facebook if you would like more regular updates or progress reports.

What will the rest of 2024 bring, I wonder?

 

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