Time to coast/barista FIRE - things to prepare?

[fiskebyxa]

After my wife’s dad retired from being a successful accountant he immediately got his fork lift driver’s license. He told me that it had always been his dream job… There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

This is the dilemma I am having right now.
My current job pays my bills, but it is not my dream job.
Do I wait until retirement until I pursue my dreams, or do I try now when I'm still in good health but with uncertain outcome.

I used to work as a fork lift driver as baito when I was in uni. Good pay and really fun.
Bet your wife's dad is having a blast right now.

[fiskebyxa]

Yes, it is called 'one more year' syndrome and is extremely common for people who are on the cusp of voluntary retirement.

If you are forced to retire, you just make do with what you have, but when you choose to you have to deal with nagging doubts and the chance of regretting the decision

I have been in this situation for a while. Maybe 2-3 years.
Always waiting for that next bonus. Waiting for the yearly allotment of paid leave to come in. Better to wait until covid settles down etc.

I actually handed in a 退職願 in December last year, but management convinced me to stay by making my job duties easier.

My main job that I was hired to do is overseas sales.
When covid came, overseas sales slowed down considerably and I was assigned to do both overseas and domestic sales.
The domestic sales part was definitely not enjoyable and didn't suit me at all.

So, management removed me from domestic sales to make me stay.
I know that you shouldn't let the company convince you to stay if you hand in your 退職願.
But, I agreed, because my job would get easier and I could cash in some more money. And there was always that next bonus that would be nice to have.

It is just a matter of time though. I think it's difficult to change your mind once you've set your mind on quitting.
So, hopefully this second try to resign will be successful.

[fiskebyxa]

Gosh, a six-page thread that I haven't commented on yet?

Here you go...



¥35M is nowhere near enough--you should have 3-5 times that much at your age to even consider this. You've tendered your resignation, so live with that--but you should be looking for a new job in your career field, like right now, if not last week.

The "barista" angle is extremely weak. From scanning thru this, you have not thought this thru before submitting your resignation (and that's a huge understatement). You think you've made it, but you haven't. People responding to you here are being too polite. If you were my son/daughter, or son/daughter-in-law and talking about this, I'd say you were nuts.

And, I tried different ways to write more here, deleted it, tried again, and have given up.

You're not ready for what you're envisioning.

What took you so long
Brutal honesty is probably what I need and appreciate your feedback.

¥35M may not be enough. But barista/coast FIRE figures are highly individual.
Time will tell if this is a sensible amount in my case.

Both my jobs in Japan have been overseas sales with Japanese industrial manufacturers. I think I can find a similar job if everything fails.

This whole plan is what I see as Opportunity FI. I just want more free time to look for better opportunities in life, and to enjoy life more.

¥35M should be enough for me to:
-Take a long break
-Visit parents and spend more time with them (I have son guilt for not spending enough time with them)
-Try to create passive income
-Find a hobby/job that I am passionate about and hopefully earn more money than I currently do

Here are some comments I have received from people around me (not sure how relevant it is but I am half Japanese):

Japanese mom: Do whatever makes you happy. Try as much as possible in life.
Dad: Come back to Sweden and work here so that we can hang out more (I come from a small town in Sweden)
Sister: OK, does that mean they're gonna kick you out of the apartment (my sister and her family visit me quite frequently and stay at my place)
Japanese uncle: Why haven't you FIREd yet? Set up some passive income and get it done.

Japanese friends: Some find it interesting (or pretend to find it interesting), some don't really grasp the idea
Foreigner friends: Some very supportive, some think I'm crazy

[fiskebyxa]

That's what people said to me when I quit my career in IT to come to Japan and work on a farm.

I was back in IT 4 months later though, so maybe that proves your point.

It sounds more like they want a break rather than real FIRE, and like they said unless they really burn some bridges they can always get another job. The time out could even be valuable, as long as practicalities like "we're not willing to lease an apartment to you, unemployed foreigner", don't get in the way.

How come it didn't work out on the farm?

I have enough backups I think. I will not end up broke living under a bridge, I hope

[fiskebyxa]

I pretty much agree with you, but remember he is talking about coast fire, so he would be hoping to leave that ¥35m invested for 20 years or so and then get an 'easy' job that gives him less stress and covers expenses until he retires. But as he doesn't own a house and is still relatively young, I suspect those expenses might end up being more than such a job would provide. If he can pull it off, he'll probably be ok in retirement, but getting there might not be much fun.

The ultimate "easy" job that I am aiming for is passive income.
I am ready to put in a lot of work and effort to make it happen.
Most sensible people would set up their passive income generating business before quitting their job.

I would try to set up a passive income generating business right now if I could, but I'm just too lazy I suppose.
So, I am doing it the wrong way. Quitting first, then hoping to create passive income generating business. (with some part-time income while doing this)

I think this path will be more challenging and more fun compared to the safe seishain route.

[adamu]

That's what people said to me when I quit my career in IT to come to Japan and work on a farm.

I was back in IT 4 months later though, so maybe that proves your point.

How come it didn't work out on the farm?

Three reasons.

1. I'm really not cut out to work on a farm
2. I wanted it to be a chance to learn Japanese via immersion, but raking mud alone in a rice field wasn't teaching me much Japanese.
3. It was a volunteer programme, but it really just felt like providing free labour to someone's business.

I went to a language school for 3 months after that, and watching the savings go in the wrong direction was enough to push me back into a "proper" job again.

Both my jobs in Japan have been overseas sales with Japanese industrial manufacturers. I think I can find a similar job if everything fails.

I work for a startup where we might need someone in overseas sales in the near future. Get in touch if things don't work out.

[yakushika]

The FIRE number is about retirement and living standards as far as I can tell. But does it include the ability to start your own business, whatever that might be? Say you wanted to open a restaurant or coffee shop, or take on some rental properties, or start a language school - that is going to take some capital investment, so do you need to include this in your FIRE number? My own experience is that the capital investment is more than you plan, and payback is slower, even though we got there in the end. So maybe you, or others in this position, need a bigger financial cushion to start with?

Which brings me to a second point - if your employer wants/ needs you so much, get them to pay you more. You can be direct or indirect about this depending on your relationship with them, but if they do want you to stay longer, do it on your terms, not theirs. And build your nest egg with the extra pay.

[beanhead]

Gosh, a six-page thread that I haven't commented on yet?

Here you go...



¥35M is nowhere near enough--you should have 3-5 times that much at your age to even consider this. You've tendered your resignation, so live with that--but you should be looking for a new job in your career field, like right now, if not last week.

The "barista" angle is extremely weak. From scanning thru this, you have not thought this thru before submitting your resignation (and that's a huge understatement). You think you've made it, but you haven't. People responding to you here are being too polite. If you were my son/daughter, or son/daughter-in-law and talking about this, I'd say you were nuts.

And, I tried different ways to write more here, deleted it, tried again, and have given up.

You're not ready for what you're envisioning.

Thanks for this. It made my day.
Whether it is enough or not is all about the living costs. The OP referenced that Japanese guy who FIRED on 10M yen.
If you scrimp and save and resign yourself to a life of living on cup ramen and suchlike, I guess this could be possible. Not for me, though.
Plus, as others have noted, you still need to pay into nenkin and kenko hoken, plus housing, plus taxes. Many of these costs will rise over time, so the OP really needs to make clear what that 'barista' job which covers his basic living costs is.
And of course lifestyle and necessary income would all change if he got married, became a Dad etc...

[RetireJapan]

The OP referenced that Japanese guy who FIRED on 10M yen.

I'm kind of/not really coast FIREing with my wife -we're at something like 30x expected annual living expenses and it doesn't feel safe yet

[captainspoke]

...
Plus, as others have noted, you still need to pay into nenkin and kenko hoken, plus housing, plus taxes. Many of these costs will rise over time, so the OP really needs to make clear what that 'barista' job which covers his basic living costs is.
And of course lifestyle and necessary income would all change if he got married, became a Dad etc...

Well, at least u/fiskebyxa @fiskebyxa checked back in, and I think their response to my comment was very good. (I'm not sure which way to tag someone here.)

I’ll certainly stick with ¥35M not being enough, especially as noted that there could be some life/lifestyle changes—or at least a person should allow enough wiggle room for that to happen.

I’d’ve expected the barista side or part of this to be more specific. Instead, it appears to be 'maybe this', or 'maybe that', and a reliance on the idea that “it’ll probably be okay”, or just leaving it at being confident that it’ll work out. And along the way here, other people here have offered ideas for jobs, and some cautions connected to that kind of work that fiskebyxa seems either not to have thought thru too well, or perhaps had not presented their thoughts on that very thoroughly when first posting about this. That's not the exciting part, after all...!

In the same way that more savings/investments would allow more freedom on down the line (and leisure/comfort), having a clearer idea (set of ideas?) about the barista side would do the same. Plan A there may be fine and be all you’d need for happily ever after, but plans B and C should be as fleshed out and as do-able and as adequate as plan A.

Another thing I was a little confused by was how the term 'passive income' was used--perhaps referring to income types that seemed broader than I would include there. That's probably just my take on things, so maybe not so important.