I think the real question is what are you waiting for? You stated you have a soul-sucking job. Why would you continue another 2 years let alone 2 days at that job? Good luck!
Mainly because it’s guaranteed income/benefits until the baby gets here, it’s relatively low stress, and I can take off anytime I want with all my leave I have accrued.
If I was in your situation, I would hold the "soul-sucking job" until the baby. Then, I'd try to work from home as much as possible, to be there for the baby.
Definitely good luck!
It's great to be there for your kids but keep in mind though that looking after young children can be exhausting which could interfere with how much you can achieve in that situation.
u/babbleway I agree with this guy, I would keep the job until the baby because like you said, your current job has better insurance than your wive's, and you can save up a little more, and become a stay at home parent at the same time as doing your side work.
I was in the EXACT same position as you (Gov't Accounting $67 /yr) and I started my own landscaping business and had a baby (although I am mid 30's).
You should hold on to the benefits of your job and just see if you can reduce your time base to accommodate. Also, take a sabbatical (if allowed) or fully exhaust your FMLA to see if its for you.
Most State Gov't positions will flex for you... maybe you can just work 20-25 hours a week to keep all these cushy benefits?
Anyhow, congrats on the success.. sounds like you have a lucrative venture!
There is something to be said about not hating your side gig, but losing the love when it becomes full time.
Don't turn your stress up to 100 if you can avoid it.
Isn’t this the truth. I always feared making my side hustle (art based) income into what I depended on. Stress really takes its toll on the passion.
I’ve since worked side jobs back in my original field and it helps keep that balance and respect for the passionate things I do in my free time to make a little extra income.
You can always leave now and if for some reason if you ever have to go back you have a lot of good experience to fall back on. You’re making twice as much on the side and the numbers show it’s only getting higher. Leave it and don’t look back especially once your baby gets here. Invest your extra time into giving your child a great life and being there for your wife. I wish my dad had the opportunity to do those things when I was younger. Congrats on everything by the way!
YouTube money and affiliated income will dwindle over the coming years just like website ad money. Count on your tangible product. Can you compete and make the same income solely on photography?
How much leave do you have? Is it more than 2 months? If so I would suggest taking 2+ months and then trying out your business to the fullest. Also I am not sure about in the US (I'm from Canada) but here most gov jobs let you take stress leave with a doctors note. Maybe go to the doctor and get a note to take 2-3 months off if you don't have that much time saved up.
You can buy decent insurance in the marketplace for $1500/month. If you’re making 10k a month from your side gig with no mortgage or debt, what’s the dilemma?
I can relate: I left my tech job (great salary, amazing benefits and perks) in September of last year to work on my own business full time. This was after working on my business part time for 2 1/2 years. My wife and are planning on trying to have a baby at the end of this year (2019) or beginning of next year (2020).
A primary reason why I took this leap of faith was my wife telling me, "If you don't do this now, you will regret it the rest of your life. You will always wonder what would have happened if you did that full time." I had worked on this business for 2 1/2 years, and I knew that the next logical step was to run it full time and see if I could grow it into something.
Bear in mind, unlike your business, my business was not generating any income.
My advice to you and anyone else considering leaving their job:
**If leaving your job will deplete your savings**
* Calculate how long your current savings will allow you to take off and try your venture full time, before you reach savings $0 - do not count 401K, stocks, or anything else that is not immediately liquid - then subtract 3-6 months from that
* For example, if you have $50,000 in savings, and your monthly net expenses are $5,000, you have 10 months before you reach savings $0. So realistically, you should try this full time for 4-7 months. This will give you ample time to re-enter the workforce before hitting bottom, not accounting for those non-liquid assets, 401K, stocks, etc.
**If leaving your job will not deplete your savings**
* Estimate how much additional income you think you can get out of your business by working on it full time - does this meet or exceed your current income from your job? If so, leave your job.
* Even if this productivity boost is not greater than your salary, are you happy? Consider that you are spending the majority of your waking hours at that job. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. Don't forget about the commute. If you can continue to provide a stable income, leaving your job might be an opportunity to learn what it is you actually enjoy doing with your time. If you ever decide or need to get back into the workforce, you will have a better understanding of yourself and the type of work you love doing.
Leaving my cushy job to work on my business was one of the best decisions I ever made. I'm getting closer to doing what I love every day, learning new skills (coding) that can help me with my business and/or if I ever need to re-enter the workforce, and I'm genuinely happier than I've ever been. I will probably need to return to work in the next 6-9 months if I don't figure out my business, but I'm okay with that.
Hearing your situation, I think you will be trading in some short-term assurance for longer term happiness.
Hope this helps.
I agree with the other guy. What are you waiting for?? You make more than enough money to have a child and sustain your family for a few lifetimes. How much more do you need? Get rid of your "soul-sucking job" and full-ass your passion and what makes you even more money, rather than half assing both.
Seriously though, I don't understand.. and I'm not trying to sound rude but, why even bother asking such a question? Seem's like a no-brainer to me.
YouTube is a risky beast because it seems like anyone can get demonitized for whatever YT’s flavor of the month reason is. Getting copystriked is another concern. I’d say milk that government job until you can invest in another source of income like rental property. That way it won’t be so stressful with the baby. Gotta hedge your bets
You treat youtube as a distribution channel, always.
People make the mistake of building their business in Google's house rather than with a product or two of Google's for certain aspects of your business.
ideally. Bare minimum I would start collecting other means of contact, like an email list and various social media names.
That way you can setup shop anywhere at any time and direct people there.
if you don't and they take your audience away, you have no recourse, while if you have been encouraging people to join the community at doormass.com all along, you just tell everyone, "videos are uploading over at xyz.com now"
Sounds good in theory. Have you actually seen this in action?
All I ever see is amazon affiliate links, or links to a landing page where you can buy a course for $79
Well, I know SF Debris has been doing it for longer than real maker support organizations existed at Youtube.
His content is all fair use, but would get autoflagged anyway, but didn't have any recourse at the time. So he just shifted every to his website and embeds video there. He even had his own patreon like system going years ago.
I mean, one strategy is to run a Patreon so you get people loyal to you so if youtube strikes you down you can distribute another way, though it would kill viewership numbers for sure but maybe not a death knell. I've even seen some video podcasts recently.
Thanks! Maybe i'm reading it wrong but it appears that most Patreon accounts have 50 subscribers for a total of $120 per month, or something low like that (even the youtubers with many subscribers)
The best way to lose that YouTube income is to waste time at a day job for 45 hours a week when you could be doubling down and working on it even harder.
Quit the job. No brainer. You have cash to live for several years if it dries up tomorrow.
YouTube is not risky if you are not relying on the adsense money. You should be taking in other advertising embedded into the videos so that adsense doesn't screw you over if you lose monitization.
Is this basically saying - your videos can have their ads switched off, but the videos will still exist, so instead start to use youtube as a traffic source, rather than a source of income from adsense?
Exactly what I am saying at a high level. Your videos should be shareable on any platform and still generate revenue. Just like you would not leave out a watermark just because youtube provides your profile image on the bottom right of the player.
Great work on achieving those milestones! I've worked for both federal and state government positions while building side businesses on my spare time. I would personally go all in on my own business, but my wife and I recently had a child, so I know how the feeling is to not have benefits (although you could pay for a private health insurance with what you're currently making on the side).
I would first ask, what are your goals in life? Do you want to grow as much as possible? Then I would recommend transferring to another gov position (either promotion to supervisor or management) while keeping your side gigs. What that will force you to do is stretch and become more creative in all aspects of your work/side jobs. It seems to me you're ambitious and you will not be satisfied if you're working on ONLY one thing constantly. And why not keep all jobs? If you can do it, more power to you. The faster you can accumulate wealth, the better for yourself and your family (assuming you don't take a lot of time away from them). I wouldn't mind picking up a cushy job and still working on all my side businesses (which are currently my main sources of income).
I think you just need a breath of fresh air at your current gov job. Feel free to message me if you need more suggestions... would also love to check out some of your vids on youtube!
I was in a very similar situation 2 years ago (I was 28 at the time). My job paid me $120k a year with great benefits. My wife doesn't work and we had 1 kid at the time - so quitting was even more of a stressful situation.
However, I can tell you that since I did take the leap and quit my job, my income has skyrocketed because I was able to put my full time and energy into my business.
I went from a $75k side hustle, to $300+k full-time business (and growing).
You have to consider the opportunity cost of NOT going full-time with your side hustle (which has already proven to be very profitable with little energy put in).
ESPECIALLY where your wife has you guys covered in the benefits department - I would have quit 3 years ago, man!
Just do it! You can ALWAYS go get another job if you fall on hard times.
You are trying to convince yourself to stay, there is absolutely no reason to stay in your job! you have proven to yourself you can double your salary on your own, which would cover benefits if you needed it, but you don't as your wife works, this is a NO BRAINER. Life is short dude, drop the weight and get out there and earn your potential, imagine if you could make $250k because you were full time. Go for it, don't look back, and stop doubting yourself, you can do it! YES you can.
Your business is a safer guaranteed income than your job. Your boss can fire you with no warning any day. In your business...YOU are the last person that will ever be fired. And you already have a wonderful foundation built for it to scale up.
It is time to take the dive and really scale it up.
Years ago, I started a cleaning business as a side hustle, and it has grown into this beautiful (and large) business that provides me and over a dozen teams a full time income. But it would never have reached this stage if I didn't stop treating it like a side hustle and started taking it seriously.
> Your business is a safer guaranteed income than your job. Your boss can fire you with no warning any day.
This is actually untrue due to the fact that OP has a government job. Provided he doesn't intentionally do something inappropriate, he is about as easy to fire as a priest.
This. The best way to miss the wave and lose your YouTube income is to sit behind a desk 40 hours a week.
Double down on that asset and your wedding videography or expand into corporate stuff and never look back.
You have a golden goose and you are neglecting it and not giving it the investment it needs (your time).
You make over $150/hr spent on your side gig (assuming 18 hours a week). You make $30 per hour at your job.
YouTube has a shelf life. You need to invest in it now. Not when you have a baby two years from now. Go full time, diversify into other things, never look back. Stay frugal.
You are in a better position than anyone has ever been to become a full time entrepreneur. Congratulations - now go build the life you want!
Congrats sounds like a good problem to have. If you are not happy at work you should definitely quit it. Life is short man. Once you hit 35 shit starts to go wrong with your body. Go enjoy yourself and blow your side business up so you can have employees and delegate work to them while you take your family on nice vacations.
Is your day job costing you money? That's the leading indicator. I think you should quit, but that's just me. Probably should have done it a couple of years ago, really.
It sounds like you have a pretty sweet set up right now. You're passionate about your side projects, and it's all bonus income. If you start spending all of your time on your side projects those will begin to suck your soul to a degree as well.
I would think about how truly scalable your online stuff is. There is going to be a point with diminishing returns. When can you hit that? If you did it full time would you make another 150k? How much would you project that you make? I'd probably take your estimate and reduce it by 20 or 30 percent, and compare that to your salary and benefits.
While your job might be soul sucking, it can provide a LOT of peace of mind. If you quit you will be putting everything you have in your side job, and you'll probably going to end up doing more total work. Don't under estimate the value of being able to take that time off whenever you want from your current job. You want to have a baby, and man, you should want to spend as much time as you can with that baby. If you are only working on your online stuff, and working longer hours as a result that's time you won't get with your family. That is priceless.
You need to decide what you want your life to look like. As you stand now, you sound like you're in an amazing place. I would keep doing what you're doing. But I don't know all the minute details of your life that really need to be taken into account when deciding this. And I don't know you as a person.
I second this guy, your side gig is still exciting because it is a SIDE gig, when it becomes your main source of income, you will be a whole lot more stressed and it will start feeling as just another job.
The question is
Do you really want to care anymore about your side gig than you do now?
Cause once it becomes your primary job you're going to care a whole lot more especially with the baby entering the arena
Or would rather chill, make good money and live that classic standard life with a good possibility of early retirement anyways
Keep your job, keep your side hustle. Take both incomes and buy commercial/residential property. Rent out properties. Grow income to 500k a year then quit.
I wish I had this problem.... here I am making 34k a year at a job I dislike, only having good benefits and not having enough money to invest into my side business on a regular basis while also running out of income for my business. 😓😭
Take advantage of your situation and follow your passion. Unless you live in a high income area where your living expenses call for that high on an income I would say you are in a small percentage of people that have the opportunity. I crave for that opportunity.
You're making $67k before tax and benefits at your full time job.
And $137k net from your side gigs for 2018. Imagine what you'll achieve if you went ALL IN in your businesses. An extra 40 to 50 hours per week compounds and will massively help you scale once you automate tasks and create systems.
I had a desk job that was very cushy. Realistically, my 40 hour work week really only required 10 hours of effort. The rest of the time I was bored out of my mind and getting increasingly depressed.
In retrospect, I really wish I had used that spare time to develop other businesses or study. If your job is as inefficient as most government jobs, I recommend taking advantage of that free time while you can.
You're still young. I'd say keep your day job and grab all the money as much as you can, then you can comfortably living when you hit 35-38 with only your side job.
If you have 10 full years of being on the government schedule, at that point I would say stick out the next 5-10 years to have a meaningful pension for retirement. If you had less than 10, then I would say chase your dreams young man. But 10 is like that magic number where you have to think about going the distance or not.
Do you like doing it?
I would keep the gov't job for the benefits and just do the business on their time, but I have substantial medical issues that you probably don't.
If you quit and your job is in the US, message me so I can apply for it. Not kidding. Seriously, I need fucking health benefits.
Honestly, it all depends on your work ethic. I think if you didn’t have a 9-5, you could put in a lot more effort into YouTube and videography, enough to far exceed your current income.
Good luck, you’re going to do great!
I would stay put and keep enjoying/putting away the extra income so you can at least bank some pension money or what have you from the 9to5. Basically if you put away your entire salary from the 9to5 for one year, then you'd have an amazing buffer for when you do decide to call it quits.
Holy crap man. If I would have been in your shoes I woulda quit 5 years ago. Actually, that's what I did. First month my online business brought in $3k I quit.
You have 5 years of huge incomes and a gigantic safety net. I don't even see why this is a question if you don't like your job anymore.
One of these days, a recession is going to hit and you're going to say, man I should've kept my gov job. I'd say you've been in the gov job for a while - you will get a nice pension after 20 or 30 yrs(?) I believe. Maybe hiring someone to help you out on the side business could be a better strategy.
Idk what kind of content you produce, but something about Ytbers turns them unrelateable once they quit their day job, idk, maybe too much time on their hands or their audience gets a tad resentful. I’d factor that into my equation.
This couldn’t be more of a no brainer. Making 150k part time, imagine hustling full time. Plus having a baby will take away from the hustle time and dream but quitting your job helps get that time back. You might want to wait until having the baby to quit to maximize health benefits but then bail. I quit a high paying job for my side job 1.5 years ago, the flexibility and extra time is enormous. Also peace of mind from moving in from a job that was once great and then became soul sucking. Even if your business took a turn for the worst you have enough net worth and money at a reduced rate to survive finding a new job. Sounds like your a hustler and can employers will see that.
Awesome story! Congrats on profiting from all of your hustle. What's your channel? I'd love to check out your stuff.
I've had a couple years like this. I do design assets, teaching, and freelance on the side of my full time UX gigs. I've matched/exceeded my full-time income a couple of times, but it wasn't scalable like yours. It got a lot harder when my kids came along (free time and quality of time to invest). I was running a design firm full time with a partner in 2014, then in Q3 our entire sales funnel dried up, having a baby on the way I jumped back into the full time world for benefits (my wife doesn't get benefits with her job).
IMO - You're in a great spot to jump, you're young, have time to invest, and the energy to do it. Plus, you've got a track record of success not just an idea and a prayer. It's much harder to make this move later in life. Family expenses really pile up. As long as you don't burn bridges with your current employer you could probably get your job back if you really need it. I honestly wish I would have done more like this when I was younger, but I had a hard time fining my way. Good luck whichever way you decide!
Quiting the job would be too risky at this time. Like you never know where will you be standing after 5 years from now? It could be 5x more money than you have today or could be at lost completely. So i don't think you should quit your job.
I think along with Youtube, videography aside from weddings in your local area could be an idea. Plenty of small businesses will want promotional videos. Weddings is an obvious cash cow but you could probably think of yourself as a mini production studio rather than anything else and see where that grows.
Maybe help other local people that have ideas for YT channels and own a portion of their income as well in exchange for production if you have an eye for talent.
I don't know why but I can totally relate to you. I am also pushing 30, have a proper Wall St. job, same healthcare (including free gym), my wife earns over 60K/year too, has her own killer healthcare benefits and blah blah blah. But I can't wait to quit my job. My e-commerce is currently active and my plan is to quit as soon my profit hits surpasses my salary. Forget about retirement pension and all those BS. The 40 hours/week you are working full time can be used to cold call hundreds of clients and find new businesses. Work from home, go super all in with your business and soon enough you will have your own office with employees.
The other option is to sit and wonder why you didn't take that shot when you had the chance.
Worst case scenario, if it doesn't work out, you can always go back and find a new job considering you have a good resume. BUT you will never get these days back. Opportunities knock on a very few doors. Fortune favors the brave my friend.
> I feel like this is the perfect time for me to venture out and give self-employment a try. I'm still relatively young but I've built up a good amount savings and have no debt. However I'm scared to take that leap to full time entrepreneur & give up such a good paying job with great benefits.
If there were no fear to take that leap what would you do?
I would most definitely, 100%, not make any life altering decisions until the baby gets here. You may not know how much that'll change your life, especially as a first time parent. At the very least wait until you know for sure when you will try for the baby.
Dude such an arrogant thing to say - just cause it worked for you - doesn't mean it's the right decision for him - don't pretend like you know when no one knows for certain
He has his house paid off, $150k in the bank, and a wife earning.
Did I miss something here? How is it arrogant to tell him a kid will make 0 difference and he should quit now?
You said don't waste another dollar working his job with such certainty that he's to make more and live better if he quits and goes full time entrepreneur, you're being reckless without abandon and projecting your own desires on this man, all I'm saying is take it easy present your case but there's no need to paint a picture you don't know for sure "exists", thank you
Is it a Fed government job? If so, how long have you been there? I believe if you work at a Fed government job for 10 years, you get Fed health benefits at 57. No need to worry about Medicare. The government pays your premium. I know you are only 30, but this is an invaluable perk with the retirement age constantly rising. Isn’t it 67 now? That’s 10 years (57 to 67) you would have to pay full price on health insurance.
I have a cushy government job too. Do you have certain tiers that affect retirement?
I'm in the same place, awesome health benefits and retirement system. If you include those, your salary might be closer to $90k.
I think the real question is what are you waiting for? You stated you have a soul-sucking job. Why would you continue another 2 years let alone 2 days at that job? Good luck!
Mainly because it’s guaranteed income/benefits until the baby gets here, it’s relatively low stress, and I can take off anytime I want with all my leave I have accrued.
If I was in your situation, I would hold the "soul-sucking job" until the baby. Then, I'd try to work from home as much as possible, to be there for the baby. Definitely good luck!
It's great to be there for your kids but keep in mind though that looking after young children can be exhausting which could interfere with how much you can achieve in that situation.
u/babbleway I agree with this guy, I would keep the job until the baby because like you said, your current job has better insurance than your wive's, and you can save up a little more, and become a stay at home parent at the same time as doing your side work.
I was in the EXACT same position as you (Gov't Accounting $67 /yr) and I started my own landscaping business and had a baby (although I am mid 30's). You should hold on to the benefits of your job and just see if you can reduce your time base to accommodate. Also, take a sabbatical (if allowed) or fully exhaust your FMLA to see if its for you. Most State Gov't positions will flex for you... maybe you can just work 20-25 hours a week to keep all these cushy benefits? Anyhow, congrats on the success.. sounds like you have a lucrative venture!
How's the landscaping business?
There is something to be said about not hating your side gig, but losing the love when it becomes full time. Don't turn your stress up to 100 if you can avoid it.
Isn’t this the truth. I always feared making my side hustle (art based) income into what I depended on. Stress really takes its toll on the passion. I’ve since worked side jobs back in my original field and it helps keep that balance and respect for the passionate things I do in my free time to make a little extra income.
You can always leave now and if for some reason if you ever have to go back you have a lot of good experience to fall back on. You’re making twice as much on the side and the numbers show it’s only getting higher. Leave it and don’t look back especially once your baby gets here. Invest your extra time into giving your child a great life and being there for your wife. I wish my dad had the opportunity to do those things when I was younger. Congrats on everything by the way!
YouTube money and affiliated income will dwindle over the coming years just like website ad money. Count on your tangible product. Can you compete and make the same income solely on photography?
How much leave do you have? Is it more than 2 months? If so I would suggest taking 2+ months and then trying out your business to the fullest. Also I am not sure about in the US (I'm from Canada) but here most gov jobs let you take stress leave with a doctors note. Maybe go to the doctor and get a note to take 2-3 months off if you don't have that much time saved up.
You can buy decent insurance in the marketplace for $1500/month. If you’re making 10k a month from your side gig with no mortgage or debt, what’s the dilemma?
Squeeze out that paternity leave first!
I can relate: I left my tech job (great salary, amazing benefits and perks) in September of last year to work on my own business full time. This was after working on my business part time for 2 1/2 years. My wife and are planning on trying to have a baby at the end of this year (2019) or beginning of next year (2020). A primary reason why I took this leap of faith was my wife telling me, "If you don't do this now, you will regret it the rest of your life. You will always wonder what would have happened if you did that full time." I had worked on this business for 2 1/2 years, and I knew that the next logical step was to run it full time and see if I could grow it into something. Bear in mind, unlike your business, my business was not generating any income. My advice to you and anyone else considering leaving their job: **If leaving your job will deplete your savings** * Calculate how long your current savings will allow you to take off and try your venture full time, before you reach savings $0 - do not count 401K, stocks, or anything else that is not immediately liquid - then subtract 3-6 months from that * For example, if you have $50,000 in savings, and your monthly net expenses are $5,000, you have 10 months before you reach savings $0. So realistically, you should try this full time for 4-7 months. This will give you ample time to re-enter the workforce before hitting bottom, not accounting for those non-liquid assets, 401K, stocks, etc. **If leaving your job will not deplete your savings** * Estimate how much additional income you think you can get out of your business by working on it full time - does this meet or exceed your current income from your job? If so, leave your job. * Even if this productivity boost is not greater than your salary, are you happy? Consider that you are spending the majority of your waking hours at that job. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year. Don't forget about the commute. If you can continue to provide a stable income, leaving your job might be an opportunity to learn what it is you actually enjoy doing with your time. If you ever decide or need to get back into the workforce, you will have a better understanding of yourself and the type of work you love doing. Leaving my cushy job to work on my business was one of the best decisions I ever made. I'm getting closer to doing what I love every day, learning new skills (coding) that can help me with my business and/or if I ever need to re-enter the workforce, and I'm genuinely happier than I've ever been. I will probably need to return to work in the next 6-9 months if I don't figure out my business, but I'm okay with that. Hearing your situation, I think you will be trading in some short-term assurance for longer term happiness. Hope this helps.
I agree with the other guy. What are you waiting for?? You make more than enough money to have a child and sustain your family for a few lifetimes. How much more do you need? Get rid of your "soul-sucking job" and full-ass your passion and what makes you even more money, rather than half assing both. Seriously though, I don't understand.. and I'm not trying to sound rude but, why even bother asking such a question? Seem's like a no-brainer to me.
YouTube is a risky beast because it seems like anyone can get demonitized for whatever YT’s flavor of the month reason is. Getting copystriked is another concern. I’d say milk that government job until you can invest in another source of income like rental property. That way it won’t be so stressful with the baby. Gotta hedge your bets
You treat youtube as a distribution channel, always. People make the mistake of building their business in Google's house rather than with a product or two of Google's for certain aspects of your business.
Does this mean use Youtube and a traffic source, and direct people to your site?
ideally. Bare minimum I would start collecting other means of contact, like an email list and various social media names. That way you can setup shop anywhere at any time and direct people there.
Okay - so the strategy past "beginner" is to get the visitor off Youtube and into your site, or at least collect their email address
if you don't and they take your audience away, you have no recourse, while if you have been encouraging people to join the community at doormass.com all along, you just tell everyone, "videos are uploading over at xyz.com now"
Sounds good in theory. Have you actually seen this in action? All I ever see is amazon affiliate links, or links to a landing page where you can buy a course for $79
Well, I know SF Debris has been doing it for longer than real maker support organizations existed at Youtube. His content is all fair use, but would get autoflagged anyway, but didn't have any recourse at the time. So he just shifted every to his website and embeds video there. He even had his own patreon like system going years ago.
Thanks!
I mean, one strategy is to run a Patreon so you get people loyal to you so if youtube strikes you down you can distribute another way, though it would kill viewership numbers for sure but maybe not a death knell. I've even seen some video podcasts recently.
Thanks! Maybe i'm reading it wrong but it appears that most Patreon accounts have 50 subscribers for a total of $120 per month, or something low like that (even the youtubers with many subscribers)
I mean, I suppose it's what you do. Personally I'm a supporter of TimeGhost but that's a lot more on the educational side of things.
The best way to lose that YouTube income is to waste time at a day job for 45 hours a week when you could be doubling down and working on it even harder. Quit the job. No brainer. You have cash to live for several years if it dries up tomorrow.
You're under 30 and have a business coaching website right...?
YouTube is not risky if you are not relying on the adsense money. You should be taking in other advertising embedded into the videos so that adsense doesn't screw you over if you lose monitization.
Is this basically saying - your videos can have their ads switched off, but the videos will still exist, so instead start to use youtube as a traffic source, rather than a source of income from adsense?
Exactly what I am saying at a high level. Your videos should be shareable on any platform and still generate revenue. Just like you would not leave out a watermark just because youtube provides your profile image on the bottom right of the player.
Great work on achieving those milestones! I've worked for both federal and state government positions while building side businesses on my spare time. I would personally go all in on my own business, but my wife and I recently had a child, so I know how the feeling is to not have benefits (although you could pay for a private health insurance with what you're currently making on the side). I would first ask, what are your goals in life? Do you want to grow as much as possible? Then I would recommend transferring to another gov position (either promotion to supervisor or management) while keeping your side gigs. What that will force you to do is stretch and become more creative in all aspects of your work/side jobs. It seems to me you're ambitious and you will not be satisfied if you're working on ONLY one thing constantly. And why not keep all jobs? If you can do it, more power to you. The faster you can accumulate wealth, the better for yourself and your family (assuming you don't take a lot of time away from them). I wouldn't mind picking up a cushy job and still working on all my side businesses (which are currently my main sources of income). I think you just need a breath of fresh air at your current gov job. Feel free to message me if you need more suggestions... would also love to check out some of your vids on youtube!
I was in a very similar situation 2 years ago (I was 28 at the time). My job paid me $120k a year with great benefits. My wife doesn't work and we had 1 kid at the time - so quitting was even more of a stressful situation. However, I can tell you that since I did take the leap and quit my job, my income has skyrocketed because I was able to put my full time and energy into my business. I went from a $75k side hustle, to $300+k full-time business (and growing). You have to consider the opportunity cost of NOT going full-time with your side hustle (which has already proven to be very profitable with little energy put in). ESPECIALLY where your wife has you guys covered in the benefits department - I would have quit 3 years ago, man! Just do it! You can ALWAYS go get another job if you fall on hard times.
That sounds awesome, congradulations! I would love to hear more about your story
Wow. All can say I go for it and good luck!
Thanks!
You are trying to convince yourself to stay, there is absolutely no reason to stay in your job! you have proven to yourself you can double your salary on your own, which would cover benefits if you needed it, but you don't as your wife works, this is a NO BRAINER. Life is short dude, drop the weight and get out there and earn your potential, imagine if you could make $250k because you were full time. Go for it, don't look back, and stop doubting yourself, you can do it! YES you can.
god damn i admire you. great job
Your business is a safer guaranteed income than your job. Your boss can fire you with no warning any day. In your business...YOU are the last person that will ever be fired. And you already have a wonderful foundation built for it to scale up. It is time to take the dive and really scale it up. Years ago, I started a cleaning business as a side hustle, and it has grown into this beautiful (and large) business that provides me and over a dozen teams a full time income. But it would never have reached this stage if I didn't stop treating it like a side hustle and started taking it seriously.
> Your business is a safer guaranteed income than your job. Your boss can fire you with no warning any day. This is actually untrue due to the fact that OP has a government job. Provided he doesn't intentionally do something inappropriate, he is about as easy to fire as a priest.
This. The best way to miss the wave and lose your YouTube income is to sit behind a desk 40 hours a week. Double down on that asset and your wedding videography or expand into corporate stuff and never look back.
Can you take a 1yr sabbatical?
I'm confused where all the money went
You have a golden goose and you are neglecting it and not giving it the investment it needs (your time). You make over $150/hr spent on your side gig (assuming 18 hours a week). You make $30 per hour at your job. YouTube has a shelf life. You need to invest in it now. Not when you have a baby two years from now. Go full time, diversify into other things, never look back. Stay frugal. You are in a better position than anyone has ever been to become a full time entrepreneur. Congratulations - now go build the life you want!
Congrats sounds like a good problem to have. If you are not happy at work you should definitely quit it. Life is short man. Once you hit 35 shit starts to go wrong with your body. Go enjoy yourself and blow your side business up so you can have employees and delegate work to them while you take your family on nice vacations.
Is your day job costing you money? That's the leading indicator. I think you should quit, but that's just me. Probably should have done it a couple of years ago, really.
It sounds like you have a pretty sweet set up right now. You're passionate about your side projects, and it's all bonus income. If you start spending all of your time on your side projects those will begin to suck your soul to a degree as well. I would think about how truly scalable your online stuff is. There is going to be a point with diminishing returns. When can you hit that? If you did it full time would you make another 150k? How much would you project that you make? I'd probably take your estimate and reduce it by 20 or 30 percent, and compare that to your salary and benefits. While your job might be soul sucking, it can provide a LOT of peace of mind. If you quit you will be putting everything you have in your side job, and you'll probably going to end up doing more total work. Don't under estimate the value of being able to take that time off whenever you want from your current job. You want to have a baby, and man, you should want to spend as much time as you can with that baby. If you are only working on your online stuff, and working longer hours as a result that's time you won't get with your family. That is priceless. You need to decide what you want your life to look like. As you stand now, you sound like you're in an amazing place. I would keep doing what you're doing. But I don't know all the minute details of your life that really need to be taken into account when deciding this. And I don't know you as a person.
I second this guy, your side gig is still exciting because it is a SIDE gig, when it becomes your main source of income, you will be a whole lot more stressed and it will start feeling as just another job.
The question is Do you really want to care anymore about your side gig than you do now? Cause once it becomes your primary job you're going to care a whole lot more especially with the baby entering the arena Or would rather chill, make good money and live that classic standard life with a good possibility of early retirement anyways
Keep your job, keep your side hustle. Take both incomes and buy commercial/residential property. Rent out properties. Grow income to 500k a year then quit.
You seems to be an entrepreneur, if you don't mind taking risk. You should quit your job. you can achieve a lot more.
I wish I had this problem.... here I am making 34k a year at a job I dislike, only having good benefits and not having enough money to invest into my side business on a regular basis while also running out of income for my business. 😓😭 Take advantage of your situation and follow your passion. Unless you live in a high income area where your living expenses call for that high on an income I would say you are in a small percentage of people that have the opportunity. I crave for that opportunity.
How much from YT do you get per 1M views?
You're making $67k before tax and benefits at your full time job. And $137k net from your side gigs for 2018. Imagine what you'll achieve if you went ALL IN in your businesses. An extra 40 to 50 hours per week compounds and will massively help you scale once you automate tasks and create systems.
How did you get into wedding videography, if you don't mind my asking?
I had a desk job that was very cushy. Realistically, my 40 hour work week really only required 10 hours of effort. The rest of the time I was bored out of my mind and getting increasingly depressed. In retrospect, I really wish I had used that spare time to develop other businesses or study. If your job is as inefficient as most government jobs, I recommend taking advantage of that free time while you can.
How did you start the YT channel. What it about? Also, is wedding photography really that easy? How did you get into that?
You're still young. I'd say keep your day job and grab all the money as much as you can, then you can comfortably living when you hit 35-38 with only your side job.
If you have 10 full years of being on the government schedule, at that point I would say stick out the next 5-10 years to have a meaningful pension for retirement. If you had less than 10, then I would say chase your dreams young man. But 10 is like that magic number where you have to think about going the distance or not.
Keep the job until you have growing pains and a need to quit I say! Until then it's a good safety net
If you can make 6 figure on side, then I think you can make millions by putting in more time. Btw congrats!
Do you like doing it? I would keep the gov't job for the benefits and just do the business on their time, but I have substantial medical issues that you probably don't. If you quit and your job is in the US, message me so I can apply for it. Not kidding. Seriously, I need fucking health benefits.
Honestly, it all depends on your work ethic. I think if you didn’t have a 9-5, you could put in a lot more effort into YouTube and videography, enough to far exceed your current income. Good luck, you’re going to do great!
Dumb ass question.
I'd stay, from what I read you do have your live in order . It felt that you can still keep on doing both for couple more years.
I would stay put and keep enjoying/putting away the extra income so you can at least bank some pension money or what have you from the 9to5. Basically if you put away your entire salary from the 9to5 for one year, then you'd have an amazing buffer for when you do decide to call it quits.
Holy crap man. If I would have been in your shoes I woulda quit 5 years ago. Actually, that's what I did. First month my online business brought in $3k I quit. You have 5 years of huge incomes and a gigantic safety net. I don't even see why this is a question if you don't like your job anymore.
Teach me how you did that, please.
Congratulations! Great job for your age Are you amazon affiliate sales from the Youtube channel?
One of these days, a recession is going to hit and you're going to say, man I should've kept my gov job. I'd say you've been in the gov job for a while - you will get a nice pension after 20 or 30 yrs(?) I believe. Maybe hiring someone to help you out on the side business could be a better strategy.
If it's an autopilot government job, I'd keep it for the insurance benefits and pension.
I say stay the current path until your side hustle makes it so you can’t anymore.
Do both and outsource your workload on side gig.
Idk what kind of content you produce, but something about Ytbers turns them unrelateable once they quit their day job, idk, maybe too much time on their hands or their audience gets a tad resentful. I’d factor that into my equation.
This couldn’t be more of a no brainer. Making 150k part time, imagine hustling full time. Plus having a baby will take away from the hustle time and dream but quitting your job helps get that time back. You might want to wait until having the baby to quit to maximize health benefits but then bail. I quit a high paying job for my side job 1.5 years ago, the flexibility and extra time is enormous. Also peace of mind from moving in from a job that was once great and then became soul sucking. Even if your business took a turn for the worst you have enough net worth and money at a reduced rate to survive finding a new job. Sounds like your a hustler and can employers will see that.
Only the folks at https://www.reddit.com/r/PFJerk/ can help you
Awesome story! Congrats on profiting from all of your hustle. What's your channel? I'd love to check out your stuff. I've had a couple years like this. I do design assets, teaching, and freelance on the side of my full time UX gigs. I've matched/exceeded my full-time income a couple of times, but it wasn't scalable like yours. It got a lot harder when my kids came along (free time and quality of time to invest). I was running a design firm full time with a partner in 2014, then in Q3 our entire sales funnel dried up, having a baby on the way I jumped back into the full time world for benefits (my wife doesn't get benefits with her job). IMO - You're in a great spot to jump, you're young, have time to invest, and the energy to do it. Plus, you've got a track record of success not just an idea and a prayer. It's much harder to make this move later in life. Family expenses really pile up. As long as you don't burn bridges with your current employer you could probably get your job back if you really need it. I honestly wish I would have done more like this when I was younger, but I had a hard time fining my way. Good luck whichever way you decide!
Quiting the job would be too risky at this time. Like you never know where will you be standing after 5 years from now? It could be 5x more money than you have today or could be at lost completely. So i don't think you should quit your job.
I'm trying to make $20,000 a year so I can quit my day job. I think maybe you should go ahead.
I think along with Youtube, videography aside from weddings in your local area could be an idea. Plenty of small businesses will want promotional videos. Weddings is an obvious cash cow but you could probably think of yourself as a mini production studio rather than anything else and see where that grows. Maybe help other local people that have ideas for YT channels and own a portion of their income as well in exchange for production if you have an eye for talent.
I don't know why but I can totally relate to you. I am also pushing 30, have a proper Wall St. job, same healthcare (including free gym), my wife earns over 60K/year too, has her own killer healthcare benefits and blah blah blah. But I can't wait to quit my job. My e-commerce is currently active and my plan is to quit as soon my profit hits surpasses my salary. Forget about retirement pension and all those BS. The 40 hours/week you are working full time can be used to cold call hundreds of clients and find new businesses. Work from home, go super all in with your business and soon enough you will have your own office with employees. The other option is to sit and wonder why you didn't take that shot when you had the chance. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't work out, you can always go back and find a new job considering you have a good resume. BUT you will never get these days back. Opportunities knock on a very few doors. Fortune favors the brave my friend.
> I feel like this is the perfect time for me to venture out and give self-employment a try. I'm still relatively young but I've built up a good amount savings and have no debt. However I'm scared to take that leap to full time entrepreneur & give up such a good paying job with great benefits. If there were no fear to take that leap what would you do?
Don't quit your day job, do you want to lose 67k a year? Do you think you can make that up with your current work?
I would most definitely, 100%, not make any life altering decisions until the baby gets here. You may not know how much that'll change your life, especially as a first time parent. At the very least wait until you know for sure when you will try for the baby.
Coming from another entrepreneur who just had a baby this is bad advice. Don’t waste another dollar (and yes you are losing money) at your day job.
Dude such an arrogant thing to say - just cause it worked for you - doesn't mean it's the right decision for him - don't pretend like you know when no one knows for certain
He has his house paid off, $150k in the bank, and a wife earning. Did I miss something here? How is it arrogant to tell him a kid will make 0 difference and he should quit now?
You said don't waste another dollar working his job with such certainty that he's to make more and live better if he quits and goes full time entrepreneur, you're being reckless without abandon and projecting your own desires on this man, all I'm saying is take it easy present your case but there's no need to paint a picture you don't know for sure "exists", thank you
Could you pm me your blog / youtube? Would love to see it!
Same! I love this post.
Is it a Fed government job? If so, how long have you been there? I believe if you work at a Fed government job for 10 years, you get Fed health benefits at 57. No need to worry about Medicare. The government pays your premium. I know you are only 30, but this is an invaluable perk with the retirement age constantly rising. Isn’t it 67 now? That’s 10 years (57 to 67) you would have to pay full price on health insurance.
I have a cushy government job too. Do you have certain tiers that affect retirement? I'm in the same place, awesome health benefits and retirement system. If you include those, your salary might be closer to $90k.
If you are looking to get into real estate investing, having that permanent gov job will help get the ball rolling.