I am using my throwaway account to describe how I became semi-wealthy in a short time span, by doing something that's perfectly legal but frowned upon by employers.
But first, my story:
I'd been working in tech for over a decade, and found that my quality of life was poor. I had a three hour commute to work, and I frequently found myself leaving the office at seven or eight o'clock, just to avoid the horrendous traffic that plagues all the big tech hubs. I basically had no life. I spent Monday through Friday sitting in a cubicle or sitting in traffic, and spent the weekends in front of the TV because I was too burned out to do anything else. My life was shitty.
A company called me up one day, and offered me a job. The pay wasn't good at all, but there was a catch - I could work at home.
I took the job.
Fast forward about five years, and my financial situation is worse than ever. I had a bunch of credit card debt, my house was underwater, I had virtually no savings.
I quit my work-at-home job and accepted a position that payed 40% more.
But there's a twist:
The very next day, my wife lost her job.
The former employer, who paid me poorly, didn't want me to quit. And I'd already accepted a new job paying 40% more.
Since one job was work-at-home, I figured that I might be able to 'juggle' them for a couple of weeks. Just enough time to put away enough money to cover one month's rent. How hard could it be? Basically I told my former employer that I wouldn't leave, while also accepting the new job.
But then something funny happened...
Two weeks turned into two months...
Then six months...
And it dawned on me that it's pretty darn easy to do two jobs at once.
I want to stress that this wasn't my plan from the onset. If my wife hadn't lost her job, I wouldn't have done this. I was trying to keep a roof over our head. I know a lot of people would think that I'm a shitty person for doing two jobs at once.
But if you're curious how this works...
The first thing that I noticed is that it's really not difficult to do two jobs. Basically there's a LOT of meetings when you have a boring white-collar job; I get sent to 3-4 hours of meetings, every single day, and 90% of the time there's no good reason for me to be there. It was one of the things that I hated about working in an office. So when I'm stuck in some boring meeting at one job, I'm getting work done at the other job.
The second thing that I noticed is that I don't really give a shit if I lose my job when I have two jobs. In cities like San Francisco, tech jobs grow on trees, if I lose my job I'll find another one inside of a week. This feeling of security made me sleep better at night.
The third thing that I noticed is that the money piles up in a hurry. In an average day, I'm stuck in four hours of meetings. If you earn $50 an hour, that's $200 every single day of the week, that's over $4000 every single month. It makes me lol that I used to sell crap on eBay to earn an extra $100 a month when it's trivially easy to earn an extra $4000 by double-dipping. I've tried everything under the sun to make money; I've invested in stocks, bonds, stock options, real estate, you name it. Nothing piles the money up faster than working two jobs.
The fourth thing I noticed, which I never expected, is that skills I learned from one job applied to the other job. For instance, one of my jobs required me to learn a new piece of software. A few months later, the OTHER job needed someone who had that skill. I wouldn't have learned it if it wasn't for the other job. This seems to happen all the time. I also get an opportunity to network more than I normally would.
Five years ago I was driving a seven year old Honda and my wife had my beat up old car. We lived in a rental. I spent fifteen hours a week commuting and my job was utterly mind numbing. Every single day I'd find myself in a meeting where I could barely keep my eyes open. I was terminally bored. My checking account was basically nil. After five years of doing this, I've basically socked away all the money from the second job. Consider this: If you put away 15% of your paycheck, it would take you 6.67 years to save up an entire years pay. By having two jobs, you accomplish the same thing in one year. If you planned on working for forty years, you could save up the same amount in six years by working two jobs instead of one. Oddly enough, I also enjoy working more than I did before. Ten years ago, if I was stuck in a boring ass meeting, all I could do is stare at the wall. Now I get actual work done, but not necessarily for the office that I am sitting in. Nobody asks questions if you're doing technical/serious work during a boring meeting. They only give you shit if you're browsing Reddit or FB.
Submitted June 04, 2017 at 07:53PM by Not_My_Real_Acct_ http://ift.tt/2qO1gIY
