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I respect the input of this community (though I don’t post here as often as I’d like due to some of the time constraints listed below). I posted this on Reddit in PersonalFinance too, but this community actually has the experience of what I am doing, so I would like your opinions and advice as well.
This is likely to be a very long post as I lay out my background and current situation. Thank you, in advance, for all who read it and your advice.
First, I’ll lay out my current situation and will attempt to break it up in to sections for easier reading and grouping.
Living situation: I am a 37 yr old male living in Kentucky in a suburb of Louisville. I am single with no children or dependents. The only outstanding debt I have are my house and car. I owe roughly $90k on the house and ~$7k on my vehicle. I have ~$30k in liquid assets from my eBay business. Most of my savings were spent on closing the house last year as well as new windows, doors, gutters and soffit. I purchased the home last year to provide more space for my growing eBay business. My current monthly expenses are below:
House $673.00 Internet $45.00 Electric $75.00 Gas $50.00 Insurance $94.00 Car $200.00 Water $25.00 Trash $20.00
These are monthly figures and obviously does not include food. Some unexpected expenses, like getting my septic tank pumped next week, are not included. My discretionary spending has been high of late as I take my current job and it’s income for granted (this is what I use to live off of and bank the eBay money for the business and to save). I don’t have a problem and actually prefer to live frugally, so I am willing to tighten and change my habits to support my goal of being a full time business owner.
My current FT job: I work from home 4 days a week and make roughly $20/hr. I work for a company that, overall, is a great company. I had worked for this company previously and came into my current position from someone I knew from my last go around. My title is Operations Analyst. I told them in the interview that my goal would be to work myself out of a job. That was in November of 2016. I am self taught in SQL and received the position due to my experience as they wanted someone on the team that could help with reporting and other data manipulation. When I started there were 3 of us on my team. Within 2 months one was fired, leaving us 2. My other associate is has been there for 10+ years and has a lot of operations knowledge, but very little on the technical side. I write, produce and publish all the reports for the team. Technically, there are 2 other analysts (seniors) on another team. One acts more as a project manager and I supply her with data and reporting. She has no technical knowledge at all. The other is very quiet and secretive. We rarely, if ever, collaborate or speak. She has been working on a project (that I have had 0 visibility on) for over 2 years that, from what I can tell, will add very little overall value. The project is something to be used to fix things on the back end, whereas if the front end issue was addressed, her project would be moot. So, one senior analyst has technical knowledge, the other does not. I have technical knowledge my other teammate does not.
I made it a goal when I started to update and automate as many processes as I could, because that is what I do. That is my specialty. I have done an excellent job at this, because we are now in a position where we need less than .5 FT employees to do both of our jobs (where there were 3 when I started). Technically, .5 is probably too high as I can do my daily work and hers in 2 hours or less (not counting any adhoc work that may come in).
I am now in a position where I have very little to do. I have automated daily process, created reports for the team so they do not have to request adhoc, gone above and beyond and created or improved other processes that were never in my job scope. We have a relatively new senior manager and 3 supervisors for a team of maybe 20-25. Hiring is frozen for the team and departures are not being replaced as we are in the process of automating a function that will eliminate a need for roughly 50% of the remaining employees. One supervisor has already been notified that he will not be kept on in his current position. The technical senior analyst is supposed to have her project wrapped up in the next few weeks freeing her up. I know there is no need for both of us as I have explained above. The other factor is I have envious/spiteful teammates that are watching everything I do and “telling on me”. My supervisor knows nothing of what I do (nor do most in the department). I never have a one-on-one with any of my managers. I have made it known to the senior manager about the lack of work. Another issue is when I do provide a new process and explain it to the team, it is instantly criticized and dismissed. This has led to me no longer enjoying my job, feeling defeated and never wanting to take initiative. If I did not work from home 80% of the time, I would not be there. I dread the one day a week I do have to go in. I have applied for a couple other positions, but with no degree, their experience vs. education requirements are ridiculous (5.5 years xp for entry level dev job, with SQL being one of their preferred skills as example). I have a couple of friend in IT looking for positions for me or keeping an ear open for something that might come up. I don’t know how long that will be or if I will last that long in my position.
That brings me to my next point. Do I even want to stay? I ultimately want to work for myself and the ONLY reason I would even consider another position is literally for the SQL xp. I would love to learn more and supplement my reselling business with contracting work on MY terms. Not for someone else.
My reselling business: I started reselling seriously in March of 2016 as a hobbyjob. I was bored and needed something to fill time and I enjoy making money as a hobby. I have done reselling off and on most of my adult life. I had one other serious venture back in the mid 00’s selling books, but space and the invention of the smart phone derailed that. My numbers have been growing steadily each month since I began. Last year I grossed right at $40k doing less than 20 hours a week. My lowest gross month in the past year has been $3k (this month, actually). I source stuff to sell one day a week since I also have a FT job that severely limits how much I can get out to find stuff and not work myself to death. Sunday’s are my “off” day and I do not source or list at all. So, basically, my only day to find inventory is Saturday. I am also limited on branching out to other venues due to time constraints.
The question: Do I give up my FT job to run my business FT? Can I still acquire SQL knowledge and/or find a contracting position with my current xp (I have roughly 4 years of SQL xp, but no xp in SSIS, stored procedures, functions, etc. Most of my work has been on the Business Intelligence Development side aka reporting)? Even without a SQL job, if times were tough I could deliver pizza or something part time. So, fellow redditors. What do you think? What would your advice be?
TL;DR Should I quit my FT job that is becoming worse by the day to pursue my side business full time?
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–Do you get paid by the hour and have to keep a time sheet? If so, how interactive is your job during the day when you work at home?
–If you’re salaried and you’ve automated many of your tasks, does it matter what you do during the day at home as long as are available on phone and systems are green to go? Curious if you could just put the job on autopilot and just muscle through the one day you go into the office.
–You need to save more if you’re making $3k+/month of eBay + a full-time $20/hr job. I assume you make at least $70k a year. Your expenses are no more than $24k. It’s very doable to save up at least $30k a year, right?
–It looks like your living expenses are between $1500-$2000/month if you include food, gas, fun. If you’re lowest eBay month is $3k just scavenging part time, then it sounds like you could absolutely quit your job.
–If you quit your job and just did eBay, do you have ay bad habits that would prevent you from running your own business responsibly (lazy, hoarding, addiction)?
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