Job Scripts
Job Scripts: A Tail of Two Spouses
There are many ways to reach financial independence. Usually, most of them focus on one form of employment or another. Although some start by owning their own businesses, the majority of us begin our careers as employees. All jobs, however, are not created equally. And all employees don’t necessarily take the same path. There are various job scripts out there. Whether you are a company hopper or far more monogamous, the way you play the employment game can have profound effects on your path to financial freedom.
My wife and I are perfect examples of how each of these scripts plays out. We have taken very different paths in our professional careers.
Is one better than the other?
A Company (Wo)Man
My wife is the picture of a loyal employee. She fits the job script well. She started with her company right out of college. Although her job description looks nothing like it did at the beginning, she has found a way to move both upward and sideways within the same business. Twenty years later, her pay stubs are still issued by the same employer.
Twenty years.
There have been numerous benefits. Her wages have steadily increased. Her vacation time allotment is fairly luxurious. She got over six months off after the delivery of each of our children.
She has had a consistent 401K match, a number of years where she got a pension, and we have been provided health insurance at a deep discount for the whole family.
Not bad! It’s come at a price. She has had very little freedom long term. She has had to deal with long hours at times, bad bosses, travel, and a general loss of control.
When her boss says jump. She jumps.
The Job Hopper
My career pathway has been nothing like my spouses. The job script has been that of the job hopper. My first gig lasted just a few months. Since then I have worked for a big business, worked as a partner in a small group, and worked solely for myself.
I am an opportunist. I move from time to time to create either more income or more freedom. While I don’t have a nagging boss holding me back, I also have very little safety net.
I have no 401K match. No pension (except the one I created for myself). If I want to have health insurance and not rely on my wife, I have to buy it myself. No discounts.
I have maximum freedom, but also have taken on maximal risk. There is no one to catch me if I fall.
I am an island.
Which is Better?
I have oversimplified of course. There are many variations. Many job scripts. There is the company man that becomes the boss. The job hopper who never works for herself. The freelancer. The list could go on and on.
Is there any benefit to one over the other? When it comes to financial independence? Probably not. As we have mentioned before, income is only one leg of a stable financial plan. There is also saving, investing, side hustling, etc.
The point is to make an income that can take care of daily needs, and then what’s left over can compound over time.
Mostly, career decisions are based on risk tolerance.
For those who are risk adverse, working for one corporation for long periods of time may be beneficial. For those who are more adventurous, moving from position to position might just increase salary and lead to more opportunity.
Either works.
Notice how your script choices diversify your risk. In your previous job you generated money basically 24/7 and had basically no benefits. No paid vaca no health double SS payments and tax cost etc. You had therefore some freedom to be entrepreneurial with how you spent your time but it came with a significant risk. Your wife OTOH has paid vaca, provides health care for your family and covers medical, so her perks moderate your risk. Paid vaca induces you to take a little time off, her health care covers your risk, her 401K add sretirement power to your portfolio. You make it sound like she has a “choice” yet her choice to put up with rotten bosses and work late is to diversify the risk for your family. It’s not all about the W2 and its a cost once she quits that you will have to burden for yourself. If you had not your wife’s W2 job your so called FI may not be FI at all, and your ability to grow other avenues like speaking etc may be severely curtailed because there would be no-one to shoulder the extra risk. I first retired at 58. My wife didn’t work but raised our kids. A opportunity arose shortly after retirement to start a new practice and I could structure it to let it cover my risk costs so I worked another 7 years till I could again restructure my age 58 risk cost to a much lower risk cost. A t that point there was NO benefit to continue working. The majority of cost regarding raising and launching children was over, the majority of high dollar health care cost was over, my portfolio was exponentially flush and I had tax stream lining I needed to do to my portfolio that I could only do while living on cash. Many choices are dictated by risk mitigation not profit. How many bloggers do you read who “retired at 40” and their wives are still slaving away mitigating their risk while they sit on the couch pontificating?
You’re right that there are many job scripts, and both can successfully lead to FIRE. We used real estate as a big driver to hit our FIRE number, and my husband’s traditional job enabled us to get traditional loans, but the swings in my income as an entrepreneur allowed for big paydays to go towards down payments and accelerated debt repayment. We needed both our job scripts for that stage. That said, now we need more flexibility than his traditional job allowed so he left. The whole point of FIRE for us is to travel, so he left his job a couple of years ago. If/ when we tire of the travel, maybe one of us will get a job again — medical insurance is easier to navigate with a job, it helps with integrating into a community, there are lots of benefits. Or we may stick to our small business ways. There are many ways to make it work.
The great thing is you are agile and can pivot among the different job scripts to fit your needs.