How I make 6 Figures Working Only 16 hours/week
How I make Six Figures Working Only 16 hours_week
How I make Six Figures Working Only 16 hours/week
Today we bring you an awesome guest post from a reader who prefers to go by Steveark. Steveark has FIREd (Financially Independent, Retired Early), but is still able to bring in six figures through his side gigs.
Steveark is not a blogger, but he likes reading pf blogs and you might have seen his comments here and there. (Update: Steveark has now started his own blog Steveark.com )
Recently, he left a comment on our blog, and he mentioned how he makes six figures working only 16 hours a week! I asked him if he could do a guest post talking about it because we and our readers are really interested in that type of information.
He graciously accepted, whipped up the post and sent it to us within a couple of days!
Without further ado….
The Six Figure Side Gigs
In 2017 I worked no more than two days a week and made six figures in net profit with five side gigs. On top of that I had an absolute blast doing them and did no marketing, the work just sought me out. I’ll tell you how I did that but first let’s do some math.
I made over $100,000 and worked approximately 800 hours, which is 16 hours a week for 50 weeks. That comes to $125 per hour and while that may sound unrealistic to you, my rate for new projects is actually twice that amount, $250 per hour.
I don’t need the money because I retired a couple of years ago with more than enough investments to fund my lifestyle, which is admittedly excessive by most FIRE standards. I’ll probably increase my rates up to $450 per hour over time since I’m finding out I’m well under what my competition charges.
So how did I put together what sounds like such a sweet deal?
To tell that story I have to go way back into my past. I knew from my first days in high school that I wanted to be an engineer. I chose chemical engineering as a university freshman and graduated four years later with my degree and took a job in my home state at a chemical plant.
I recognized early in my career that there were some parts of the job I liked more than others. I loved solving technical problems. I loved being the center of attention and in the spotlight. I loved being the smartest guy in the room. I loved teaching others and yes, I loved arguing when I won.
Maybe that says some things about me that are not all that flattering but it pays to know yourself and that is who I was and who I still am.
There were also parts of my job I did not enjoy, at all. I didn’t enjoy getting chewed out by the CEO. I did not like working nights and weekends when the facility was not operating properly.
I didn’t like the legal risks of operating a highly regulated business where I might be held criminally liable for misdeeds of others that I wasn’t even aware of.
I did not like the personal issues that came with having employees under my supervision. I did not like firing people.
So I began to imagine side gigs that would contain all the fun stuff and as little as possible of the ugly. I couldn’t actually start up any ventures while I was employed because my job took up all my time but I could find ways to build my skills in the fun areas.
I volunteered to be the company spokesman in giving speeches and presentations and tours. I became the company lobbyist in my spare time attending legislative sessions and testifying at the state house on issues that impacted us.
Eventually I started doing that in Washington DC. If you know where to look I’m all over YouTube testifying before both Senate and House subcommittees and going toe to toe with the EPA. That led me into being a witness for our company in various lawsuits which really fed that performer gene in my DNA.
Fast forward to two years ago when I had finally had enough and I walked away. Within two weeks I had three contracts that would earn me six figures that year. Over time I added a couple of more side gigs and kicked my fees up to $250 per hour.
My side gigs are all various forms of consulting. Two of them are retainer based, no hourly fee, I just work as much or little as needed for a flat fee helping negotiate solutions to regulatory issues.
Contract lobbying I do for $100 per hour if I believe in the issue.
Assisting in litigation as a technical expert and actually helping my old industry contacts with equipment problems were added to the mix later and those are the $250 per hour gigs.
Now you aren’t me, and you might not be a licensed and registered Professional Engineer so my particular side gigs might not resemble yours. But that doesn’t matter.
The important take away for you is that nothing that I’m doing now was a core part of my old job. Everything I’m doing now I purposely added to my job, at the cost of extra hours worked, just so I could be where I am today.
I looked at possibilities that would feed my needs, the needs to perform and negotiate and teach and I made the contacts I would need later to create and monetize them.
How do you do that?
Start by taking an inventory of what lights you up inside. There are a number of commercial personality inventory evaluators like Meyers-Briggs and StrengthsFinder. Take your pick of any reputable one and see if you can come to terms with who you are and feel a whole body acceptance of what makes you happy.
Start imagining what kinds of part time ventures could stoke that fire. Don’t worry at first about fees or profits.
Volunteer for every possible task that lets you enjoy meeting those needs. If your job limits your ability to grow then find a way to build those skills in your off time, perhaps through volunteering.
Build your network of contacts that you will need later. Often, they’ll help you find places and opportunities to improve and those in turn will help you build your network.
Be patient. It took me some time to develop the contacts and skills I use now to have meaningful work in my retirement so you have to have patience but it is not an arduous process. Since you are building skills in your sweet spot it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like fun.
You might even find you keep working well past financial independence because you have built so many fun things into your work and life by then that you do not want to quit. That is what happened to me and I have no regrets about working longer than I had to.
Act now. The important thing is when you want to leave the corporate world behind you have a soft landing of interesting and enjoyable part time work. As much or as little as you want. You have to act now if you want to be ready later.
Most of my retired friends envy the fact that I have things to do that excite me in addition to the many active hobbies my wife and I share. You might be satisfied with volunteering, home projects, hobbies and travel but I find that all of those plus a couple of days of fun and challenging highly paid work is the right balance for me.
What about you guys? Do you currently have any side gigs? How much do they bring in? Once you FIRE, do you plan on doing side gigs?
How did you like Steveark guest post? We personally found the article very good, captivating and full of actionable tips. We invite him to come up every once in a while and keep us updated on his goal of reaching $450/hr.
Steveark is also thinking about starting his own blog, and we think he should go for it. He’s a natural! (Update: Steveark has now started his own blog Steveark.com )
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to comment, share and subscribe! We love ya and wanna get to know ya!
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Do you want to learn more about us? If so, you can also read these other posts:
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- Our Biggest Money Fight and 9 Lessons Learned
- Our 6 Financial Mistakes and 15 Lessons Learned
- How I Paid Off My $40,000 Student Loans Before Graduating
- The resumes that bring in $400,000+/year (Samples Provided)
Ms 99to1percent
Blogging about Personal Finance along with a little touch of humor. Immigrant who started from the bottom and now I’m here…to tell my story, inspire and learn from others. Paid off $40K in student loans before graduating. CPA. Saved a $100K emergency fund in my 20’s. Hopping to pay off $500K+ mortgage within 5 years at 39. Hopping to become financially independent at 45. Happily married. Mom of 1.
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40 responses
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[…] If you’re not ready to retire from a six-figure salary, consider semi-retirement to a six-figure salary. At 99 to 1 Percent, guest poster Steveark discusses How I Make Six Figures Working Only 16 Hours Per Week. […]
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[…] Work that is challenging and significant but not work that beats me down and kicks me in the teeth. I have clients that respect me and look up to me. I am no longer a Sisyphus facing a never ending and impossible task. I’m in control and the freedom of being my own boss is almost narcotic in its power. The knowledge that I have the time and money to reinvent myself as many times in the future as I want gives me a safety net under my high wire act. I don’t want to fail at anything but if I do, it is more of a shrug than a death. And instead of crazy 60 to 70 hour weeks I usually only work about two days a week. […]
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[…] Work that is challenging and significant but not work that beats me down and kicks me in the teeth. I have clients that respect me and look up to me. I am no longer a Sisyphus facing a never ending and impossible task. I’m in control and the freedom of being my own boss is almost narcotic in its power. The knowledge that I have the time and money to reinvent myself as many times in the future as I want gives me a safety net under my high wire act. I don’t want to fail at anything but if I do, it is more of a shrug than a death. And instead of crazy 60 to 70 hour weeks I usually only work about two days a week. […]
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[…] How I make Six Figures Working Only 16 hours/week […]
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[…] How I make Six Figures Working Only 16 hours/week […]
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[…] How I make Six Figures Working Only 16 hours/week […]
Good post with solid, core advice. The need for re-tooling skills is only increasing, so that’s where I’m personally focused, but I really like the point about “What lights you up inside.”
Hi Jim, Sounds like you got it covered, keep up the good work 🙂
Thanks for that comment, money is never a great end goal in itself. My favorite quote is “Life isn’t about how many breaths you take but about the moments that take your breath away.”
Steveark- this is such great advice. I started a couple of side gigs in 2017. It would be great to replace my income with only three best parts of my current job.
Mrs. 99to1 – Nice job snagging such an esteemed guest post. Steve seems to be all over the PF community and always has something interesting to say. Your work this year has been an inspiration. I can easily see how you have been as successful as you are.
Happy New Year to you both.
Thanks Jason, you are too kind 🙂
Thanks Jason and Ms 99to1percent, It was an honor and a lot of fun to write. It also increased my respect for the blogging community by showing me how hard it is to write a post! I thought I’d just knock it out in fifteen minutes but I spent hours and started over five times before I had something that actually felt like said what I was trying to say. And to think that real bloggers like this site post frequently, well, they really are working hard for the benefit of the community. It reminded me that over my career I came to notice that everyone, including me, thought that everybody else’s job was really easy. Except on that occasion when you had to try to do their job and you realized you had no idea how much they were doing behind the scenes to produce the visible results you thought were so easy!
Thanks Steveark. Yes, blogging is hard work, but don’t let that deter you. You can post once a week like us or even once a month. A lot of successful bloggers out there who only post once a week or month 🙂
Thank you for being truthful. You will agree with me that you didn’t earn that kind of money overnight. You must have spent number of hours developing yourself before you started to enjoy the rewards. Now it is even possible that you will soon be earning $500/hour.
Yes, rooting for him all the way to $500/hr and more 🙂
Absolutely true, I’m in a narrow niche and that is why my fees are almost absurdly high and I did spend decades working on getting ready for my life now. However I had enough freedom in my job that I was able to get paid to learn the skills. The only cost to me was working some extra hours but since it was on things I enjoyed and saw as an investment those extra hours were meaningful. The fact is I’m enjoying the work now and if it paid much less I would still be doing it. For most people even earning 10 or 20% of their expenses in retirement would be a nice boost and in some cases take them from a nice level of having enough to a level where they could throw in a few more trips or splurges. The size of the earnings were an attention getter but the the part that is most important to me is that the side gigs add quality to my life, and that adds quality to my wife’s life.
Thanks for the tips Steveark! How inspiring!!! Looking forward to following your journey through here and/or your own blog.
Yes, the story was very inspiring and engaging.
Being a professional expert witness seems interesting. Has it ever backfired on whoever called you to be a witness? I.e. the prosecution or defense wished they never asked for your help because your testimony ended up helping their opponent?
Hi Joe, that’s a very good question 🙂
Not yet but I’ve only been at this for a little while and a case eats up a year or more in small chunks of frantic activity. The most interesting and edgy part is when you are in front of hostile lawyers and a video camera for hours gettting deposed with the opposition team’s main goal of trying to make you look like you aren’t a real expert or that you made mistakes in your testimony and report. They hire their own experts to try to counter every point you make so it turns into an interesting high stakes debate. It makes you very careful about every single word you say or write!
Great guest post! I have seen quite a few people take that route. I work in consulting and several of my colleagues have made successful transitions to working part-time as consultants (and getting a much better hourly pay than before). The most important elements are to build your network and be patient, because building relations take time, but good relations can give you work for a lifetime 🙂
It’s so true. Even if you are not ready to go part-time yet, you can do it full-time and double,triple…your income.
That is great advice Carl. Throughout my career when I would go to training seminars I always tried to buy the speaker or instructors drinks at the end of the day and get to know them. Most industries are kind of small communities where over time you can get to know a lot of the big players and even though it may not be fair most business decisions come down to a combination of profits and relationships. You can’t necessarily control the economic side of the equation but you can hustle on the relationship side. You have to be real and sincere, you can’t build good relationships with a mercenary attitude of what is in it for me, but if you genuinely like people that will show and you can make some friendships with like minds that enrich your life and usually help enrich your income as well.
This is spot on, Steveark! A strong network with genuine and deep relationships will not only enrich your life, but might bring lots of exciting opportunities – some of which might make your rich. For example, many of the most interesting job offers I have gotten have been through good relations.
Yes, one must try and build relationships and also not burn bridges.
Very Inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
As this shows, we often have more options than we realize. With a little creativity and a lot of courage, one can create revenue streams that serve you instead of the other way around. Too many workers feel trapped in a little box they just can’t get out of.
Also, note FI can really help with the courage, negotiation leverage, and time to consider/develop side gig options.
I agree, FI will motivate you to make more, save more and invest more. Can’t go wrong with that.
That is great advice. I often think about what I do not like about my job, but maybe it is time to think about the good too…By focusing on those things we can create a job worth working and continue the path to a life worth living.
That’s so true DDD. Focusing on the positive and turning into consulting is a great idea. Also consulting inherently comes with less office politics, less useless meetings,…since they pay you for every minute you work.
It definately helps to have a profession where you have enough expertise to create side gigs. Many of us in the medical field have the versatility to reduce our hours once we are FI to make extra frivolous spending money like i have done. I work an avg 10 hours a week and still bring in 100k in income. I still have the enjoyment of making a difference in peoples lifes w/o the stress and unbalance of a 5day/40hr work week. Choose your profession wisely for those just starting out….
Oh wow, that’s great Jason. If you don’t mind, what do you do exactly?
I work as a perfusionist….. its a OR tech in surgery
wow, that sounds like a dream job. And it’s impressive how you are able to work only 10 hours and still bring in loads of money. If you want to guest post with us, to talk about how you chose that career, and how you achieved such success, let us know 🙂
Steveark! Welcome to the blogging community! You’ve been around for awhile, and if you keep writing posts like this – you won’t have to mess with Pinterest or Tailwind like the rest of us! I agreed with a lot of your points. A few echo strongly with me. I never understood it why a company decides to put people underneath an awesome, self-motivated, highly performing individual…when under-performing people can take away the time of that person being great in their job. I’m glad your company had an outlet for you that led you where you are today. About testifying at House and Senate committees – it made me reminisce about an old colleague I had. When I met him in mid 2000’s, he was a hardened old man from having to testify for similar situations back in the 80s & 90s. I eventually befriended the guy, learned his story – and how much emotional & physical wear and tear it took on him and his marriage. It definitely takes the right personality to be able to stay mentally strong and come out OK after those events. Looking forward to seeing more from you in the future.
lol I look forward to the time I won’t have to use Pinterest and Tailwind.
About your ex-colleague, I can see how it can take a toll on someone especially if the testimony might put a company out of business, or put someone in jail or on death row 🙁
I definitely agree with the philosophy of investing in yourself and your skills. It doesn’t have to cost money, it can be as simple as – like Steveark said – volunteering, networking, keeping up with news/trends in your industry, reading, and just putting yourself out there and being open to personal growth.
Yes, it doesn’t have cost you a dime. Some companies will even pay for you to take some courses, go to conferences,…
Great thoughts Steveark! You’re a good writer for sure.
I was wondering if you had any ideas on how to seek out ways to “Volunteer for every possible task that lets you enjoy meeting those needs.”? That’ll be different for everyone but do you have any thoughts on ways you opened yourself up for those opportunities?
This is such an inspiring post. Love the part about the soft landing after a corporate job. Also, one of the few posts which talks about doing a lot of fun things post retirement along with a few hours of dedicated productive work. To me, that combination is what sounds most workable too.