When I am not busy earning a secondary income as a Financial Blogger, I have a regular 9-5 job as a Financial Planner at a Bank Branch. After I get home from my regular 9-5 job I continue working for a few hours every night as well as on the weekends.
The funny thing about working so much is that I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything. I definitely get tired but even with a long work week I still have time to socialize with friends and work out 3 times a week. I keep my regular 9-5 job completely separate from my secondary income activities. Unfortunately I can’t discuss my Financial Blogging activities with my co-workers. It’s almost as if I am living 2 separate lives.
One of my closest friends recently asked me why I work so much. I wasn’t completely sure how to answer her question except to say that this is always how my life has been. I started working two jobs when I was 16 years old shortly after my parents announced their divorce. I have always worked two jobs and I am really not sure what I would do with my spare time if I didn’t work so much. I guess that I would find a new hobby, or maybe I would just watch a lot of television; I am not really sure. But the truth is that I can’t imagine my life without working so much.
The more I think about it, the more I wonder why we as young professionals focus so much on our careers. Let me ask you a question Dinks….why do you work so much?
There are usually 3 reasons why people work so much:
1. They Have A Lot of Expenses. Very often the reason why people work one or two jobs is because they need to support their current lifestyle. Whether we are supporting our family, paying off our debt, or trying to pay all of our monthly bills on time sometimes we work so much because it is essential to make ends meet for our day to day living.
2. They Are Obsessed with Saving. Sometimes people work a lot because they are addicted to the income. If we have a bigger incoming cash flow then we probably have a larger disposable monthly income and therefore we can save more money on a monthly basis. Some people enjoy watching their savings account balances grow and some people enjoy investing their extra income by buying stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.
3. They Really Love Their Job. For some people working a lot of hours each week is not about the pay check, it’s about the love of their job. Workaholic employees want to succeed or even excel at their job because they really love what they do. It’s not about getting a promotion and it’s not about getting a pay raise, it’s about the love for their job or helping their co-workers.
Why do you work do much?
Photo by tjmwatson
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
I would say mine are a mix between 1 and 2. I would work more in my job if I had the chance, but I’m an hourly employee and my manager doesn’t ever want to pay overtime (which is fair enough). I have a lot of expenses, and while my day job pays for them, I want to be able to save for the future, so I blog and am actually looking for a second job.
For me it’s about trying to build long term financial stability. I realize my career path may require some major changes in the next 5-10 years. So while I can I’m trying to be productive with my free time. Hopefully that builds up enough to make a career transition easier or enough that a career transition may not even be necessary.
It’s a combination of 1 and 3 for me, I think. I really enjoy going out to dinner, cocktails, quality clothes, etc. but I also enjoy not being in debt (I think – I haven’t been out of debt since taking out my student loans at age 17!).
But I also really enjoy my work. Not necessarily being in an office, but the actual hands-on part of what I do, I love. I enjoy “me time” too much to ever be an 80-hours-a-week worker, but I like my job and enjoy going into work every day.
I’ve been doing a lot more monetizing work in the evenings, like regularly blogging, writing how-to books to sell in the Amazon Kindle store, etc. Those are also things I enjoy but I wouldn’t be doing them (or at least, I wouldn’t be doing them in that way) if I weren’t hoping to make a profit off them.
But maybe it’s secretly number two, as I have the dream of making a million on the stock market (after I’ve paid off all my debt, of course) and retiring early to do whatever I want. :)
I’m a mix of 2 and 3. I definitely LOVE what I do, and like you I have no idea what I would do with my time if I didn’t work so much. Honestly I’d probably get really lazy, unmotivated and bored out of my mind. I feel like I need to be doing something productive with my time, making a difference and making headway. I definitely need to balance my social life with my work life, but since I don’t have a significant other or any kids right now, I feel I’m justified in working more.
I am a mix of 2 and 3. I want to be financially stable and I love working and staying busy. I have to be careful though, because I easily overwork myself and burn myself out.
Definitely a mix between 1 and 3. I wish my “day job” paid enough to cover everything, but it doesn’t. So I keep plugging along hoping the extra effort with pay off in multiples…
For me, it is number 2 which is to increase my savings that will be used for investments. The end target is to create a passive cashflow that will last for generations. Thanks for your sharing.
I think its great that we all work for different reasons and towards different personal goals but the one thing that we all have in common is that we all work. It’s unifying.
haha… #2 and #3 for me here all the way ;) It’s never good to be one extreme or the other, but I’d chose obsession with saving money over spending it all in a flash, haha… great post.
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