#058 | How to pursue your passions and love life

August 24, 2020

Episode Summary:

We get a voicemail from a listener with a demanding corporate job who dreams of pursuing her passion to start a winery. We share our thoughts on what passions mean for your life, how you can find them and how you can pursue them. We also discuss the financial considerations for when and how to “make the leap.”

Episode Notes:

We talk about money, but it’s not really about money. It’s about being happy. Living a fulfilling life. Money just helps you get there. Either to reach your full potential or get you to fulfillment faster.

The reason we do all this is, this whole FIRE thing, as we’ve mentioned, is not to do nothing, but to do everything we’re passionate about.
Maggie’s passions: Helping people, minimalism, organizing things, buddhism, creating beautiful PPT decks, explaining complicated things more easily, reading, listening to podcasts, watching TV, being active and running, travel, this podcast!
Maggie’s thoughts on passions: Do you want to live to work, or work to live? She used to live to work. And with age, kids, etc. she started wanting to work to live. And this doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your job. It just means you recognize the role your job plays in your life.
Mike’s Passions: Travel, videography, Building/creating things, finance and helping people w/finance. And doing this! I wrote a book about it and am doing a podcast about it, because I am so damn passionate!
Mike’s thoughts on passions: The first part of his book is called “Time to Start Over with Money” and the idea is that in order to be better, grow faster and achieve financial independence, it’s not about the money. It’s about creating a purpose for money. And find your passions.
And we’re both passionate about being parents and creating rewarding lives for our families. Does’t need to be super lofty like saving the world.
Discovering your passions gives you a reason to save and the motivation to make difficult trade-offs seem worth it. So find your passions! It is the most important thing you can do to create a rewarding life.
The people that find a passion as a child and find fulfillment till their death are rare. Most people either don’t find it until later in life or don’t find it to the same degree. So don’t compare yourself to others.
If you don’t have something now, make it your mission to find it! Take classes, visit new places, create the opportunity to find a passion you can keep your whole life.
Figure out what really makes you happy. What creates energy for you vs. drains energy. This mind-mapping exercise Maggie once did from Design Your Life.

Once you narrow in on your passions, you need to decide the role your passions play in your life. Does it need to be how you generate income? Maybe not.

Do you want an activity you can do while also working? If so, this is OK.. your job might just be what allows you the $ to live and pursue other passions outside of your income generating job. Perhaps you’re a teacher so you can have extended travel over the summers. This is OK!
Do you want to replace just some of your income with a new passion job?
Do you want to replace all your income with a new passion job?

The first step applies to all of these: Pilot your passion. Test it out! See if dipping your toe into this future delivers the results you want. Next:

For the winery idea, visit a bunch. Talk to the owners. Interview them. People love to talk about their work, especially if they are also following their passions.
Join a professional group or community. It builds your network and also exposes you to more of the world.
Volunteer, work part time, take a month off and work somewhere.
Start a podcast and see if you like it!

Now let’s talk about finances in the case where you want to quit your job and pursue this passion full time:

If you want to replace all your income, you’ll need a solid business plan and an acceptance of the pressure that will come from making a business work.
If you want to replace some of your income, this is where it gets easier. If you have savings, can live off dividends and passive income or have a working spouse, then you can still pursue a viable business, but without the same pressure. And this is what we recommend:
Save like crazy
Develop some passive income streams or get alignment on your partner continuing to work
Spend a year piloting and learning
When you have a viable plan and the financial ability to live off little to no income from it, do it!

Top 3 Takeaways

A rewarding life requires passions. It could be one passion, it could be 10 passions.
Passions give you a reason to be better with money because you can live out your passions quicker or more fully. Your passions can be your why.
Save your money, invest it and create an environment where you don’t need to win or lose at starting a business. Keep it a passion. And if you can make it a commercial success, that’s amazing.

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