u/Snoo-83866

I’m quite sure my time in big tech in coming to an in the coming months. I will be doing absolutely everything possible to NOT take another full time role for a year or two.

Sooo who has mastered the art of the profitable side gig or managed to sustain themselves without a traditional 9-5?

My dream gig would be building something I can market and sell or finding some niche product I can sell through ecommerce. I want complete control over my stress levels and work hours.

I am not really interested in freelancing or doing the fractional thing since it feels like BS meetings, deliverables & client stress.

Curious to hear what others have done and how they’ve made it work. Thanks all!

I may have been targeted with too many Instagram stories but now at 40 years old I am kind of convinced I also have autism.

I was diagnosed with ADHD in high school and am pretty text book “inattentive” type.

I’ve definitely struggled more and more socially as I’ve gotten older and feel I’m become more awkward even around people I am close to.

Anyway, my question is - is there any benefit to exploring an autism diagnosis? For those who have gone down that path, what did it unlock for you?

If I get laid off, my dream is to leave NYC and move closer to family in NH. I’m 40, kids and so over in office work & big city expenses.

How big of a career suicide move is this? I would freelance & consult - or if that’s too unstable I’d get a remote role. Life would be cheaper there & we also have a good amount saved.

I’d be a 55 mile commute from Boston. Not ideal but doable if i really ran out of job options.

I’m scared to move away from a major jobs hub but also really ready for this next chapter & being closer to grandparents & cousins.

We have an old house with asbestos shingles; the old owners put (cheap & terrible looking) vinyl siding over it.

Has anyone dealt with this before? Wondering how complicated it would be to remove existing siding and reside the house. Unsure if we have to remove the asbestos completely or can cover it again. We are in NY.

We are a couple in our early 40s with two kids. One of us enjoys their job, the other does not. Both of us are in tech and at risk for AI taking our jobs in the next few years.

I have been learning more about FIRE and starting to seriously consider it though I know we are no where near #s in this group.

We have $1M in investments, $400k in home equity, $100k 529s & $200k in cash. This year we’ll officially be done with daycare payments and into public school, which will help us save more.

We live in a VHCOL area and gears are starting to turn around how we could significantly reduce our monthly spend to hyperdrive savings.

What are your best tips for getting started with this movement? What are some bold changes you’ve made to lower living expenses? We are semi considering relocating to lower housing & taxes…but may have job tradeoffs.

Ultimately I want to be work optional by a certain date; one of us will likely work full time for healthcare / income whereas the other will help with kids and dabble in consulting part time.

We moved to lower Westchester from the city 6 years ago. We do not have family here and chose Westchester as the best solution for a suburban lifestyle with good schools and space for our growing family.

Now a few years in, I feel discouraged at what our lives actually look like here. We live in a small fixer upper I am tired of doing work on. In order to move to a new house with more space it would be $1.2-1.5M and we’d still need to renovate it. A move in ready 4 bed, 2.5 doesn’t seem to exist or is $2M. With the shift in mortgage rates, a new monthly payment would be astronomical on top of higher taxes.

We are professionals 20 years into our fields who make good money. Lately I just feel like we will never achieve having a decent house, yard and life in Westchester and are considering moving somewhere cheaper. Even in top school districts in other states property taxes are easily half what we pay.

I guess I am just looking for any advice here or people who have considered the same shift.

Westchester has so much to offer and so much potential - we’re just really evaluating whether the trade offs are worth it 😕

(Obviously the elephant in the room is can we do our jobs outside of NYC, but we are in the process of working that out)

Against all of my better judgement I joined Meta last year (not the Mets lol). I knew it would be volatile but I wasn’t expecting a mass layoff in my first year. Despite working for a while this will be my first big, planned layoff. I am hoping for the best but nervous.

Does anyone have words of wisdom? I will have 2.5 weeks of uncertainly to go, it’s so hard to stay focused and productive knowing I might not have a job on the other side of this. Sigh.

Any advice to stay sane?