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I think you'd be surprised. Plenty of people are interested in going into public service and especially policy related work. The high industry salaries can actu

I think you'd be surprised. Plenty of people are interested in going into public service and especially policy related work. The high industry salaries can actually be a positive here, they allow workers to be FIRE'd in a decade or less. At that point they can switch to a lower stress/higher impact gov job and the salary being lower isn't a huge problem.

no_wizard 3y ago
Statistically, this doesn't really happen though. The % of people who make enough to adopt a realistic FIRE strategy are not going into govt service in large numbers, not by a long shot. Even the more traditional retiring early crowd isn't going into public service The govt has record vacancy at the local, state, and federal levels for jobs[0][1][2] Even taking steps to lower barriers to entry, they can't fill them. [0]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2023/02/09/amid-strong-labor-market-state-and-local-governments-struggle-to-hire/?sh=63923c573975 https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2023/02/09/amid... [1]: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/11/government-jobs-pandemic-recovery-federal-state https://www.axios.com/2022/07/11/government-jobs-pandemic-re... [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20231002185558/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/business/economy/local-government-jobs-unions.html https://web.archive.org/web/20231002185558/https://www.nytim...
- HDThoreaun 3y ago
  I think the key here is that the job has to be intriguing enough. Working on shaping US AI policy is something that many people would sacrifice quite a bit to do. Pushing paper not so much. Most fed jobs are on the paper pushing side of things, which also makes the actually interesting jobs harder to fill due to the reputation for bureaucracy. Probably why they made this fancy recruiting site.
antisthenes 3y ago
You won't be able to FIRE on $180k for 10 years (or less), not even close. The thing about FIRE is you actually need way more money than regular retirement, because you have to plan for a 40+year retirement instead of a 15-20 year one. On top of that you need a higher margin to account for uncertainty.
- philsnow 3y ago
  HDThoreaun is saying that it's possible to work in the private sector for a decade and save/invest enough to FIRE, especially if in your "retirement" you're also pulling in $180k/y and getting government benefits. There's "barista FIRE" (save enough and then go work as a barista, typically at starbucks because they had unusually good benefits, but I don't know if all that has changed after the unionization), but honestly working for the government seems like it could be even lower-stress than being a barista.

no_wizard 3y ago

Statistically, this doesn't really happen though. The % of people who make enough to adopt a realistic FIRE strategy are not going into govt service in large numbers, not by a long shot. Even the more traditional retiring early crowd isn't going into public service The govt has record vacancy at the local, state, and federal levels for jobs[0][1][2] Even taking steps to lower barriers to entry, they can't fill them. [0]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2023/02/09/amid-strong-labor-market-state-and-local-governments-struggle-to-hire/?sh=63923c573975 https://www.forbes.com/sites/christianweller/2023/02/09/amid... [1]: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/11/government-jobs-pandemic-recovery-federal-state https://www.axios.com/2022/07/11/government-jobs-pandemic-re... [2]: https://web.archive.org/web/20231002185558/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/27/business/economy/local-government-jobs-unions.html https://web.archive.org/web/20231002185558/https://www.nytim...

HDThoreaun 3y ago
I think the key here is that the job has to be intriguing enough. Working on shaping US AI policy is something that many people would sacrifice quite a bit to do. Pushing paper not so much. Most fed jobs are on the paper pushing side of things, which also makes the actually interesting jobs harder to fill due to the reputation for bureaucracy. Probably why they made this fancy recruiting site.

antisthenes 3y ago

You won't be able to FIRE on $180k for 10 years (or less), not even close. The thing about FIRE is you actually need way more money than regular retirement, because you have to plan for a 40+year retirement instead of a 15-20 year one. On top of that you need a higher margin to account for uncertainty.

philsnow 3y ago
HDThoreaun is saying that it's possible to work in the private sector for a decade and save/invest enough to FIRE, especially if in your "retirement" you're also pulling in $180k/y and getting government benefits. There's "barista FIRE" (save enough and then go work as a barista, typically at starbucks because they had unusually good benefits, but I don't know if all that has changed after the unionization), but honestly working for the government seems like it could be even lower-stress than being a barista.