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What is early? What is stopping working? I semi-retired at 44, but I am still working as a contract programmer and bill for about 20-25 hours a week. I worked
by jepler 5y ago
What is early? What is stopping working? I semi-retired at 44, but I am still working as a contract programmer and bill for about 20-25 hours a week.
I worked a ho-hum programming job for nearly 20 years (yes, just the one), feeling miserable for at least the last 3. There was no "cashing out", though when the company sold to private investors I got something like an extra 75% of a year of pay. It wasn't that money, but saving (index fund investing) all along that would have let me say "to heck with it, I can retire today" (albeit with a slightly reduced standard of living).
Instead, I waited until something part time & much more fulfilling came my way. Now I get to work on open source all day, or as little as I want, and I get paid for a substantial chunk of it. To my surprise, working 50-60% as long each week not only means I don't have to do dip into investments, but I can still add to my investments.
Now, the timing of this change was not great, because 5 months later COVID hit, so the travel aspects of my new life haven't materialized in the way I thought they would. When I start travelling as freely as I thought I would when I left traditional work in late 2019, that's when I hope to truly feel semi-retired.
When will I fully retire? Not while I can get paid to work on open source software, largely on my own terms. When will I stop working on open source? Hopefully not anytime soon.
- isoprophlex 5y agoInspiring story, thanks for sharing. Any tips on finding "something part time & much more fulfilling"? Did you just wait for something to find you, did you actively search out opportunities..?
- jepler 5y agoI've been using & contributing to open source for a long time. I had the good fortune to end up on the radar of the project lead for Adafruit's CircuitPython, and when he found out I was looking for something different, it was also the right time for them to bring someone new on board. Their embedded & creative teams were already all set up for someone who wanted to make a part time remote commitment. So it feels like there was a big element of luck, but also I feel that having a history of open source work visible on github, as well as creating personal connections in the open source world, helped it happen for me. There aren't a whole lot of Adafruits out there, where you're shipping new hardware products weekly, most of them with open source drivers.
- pdrojack 5y agoHow does working on open-source gets you paid ? I am new and curious
- jepler 5y agoMost of my work is contract work with Adafruit. Almost every week we put out new hardware and most of those get open source drivers and/or creative projects that appear on Github and the Adafruit Learning System. The sales of the hardware fund the development of the software (& the new hardware).