side gigs

Staying connected while retirement to the cpa community

09Apr

CPAs: Want to Stay Connected to the Profession in Retirement?

Podcast BlogApril 9, 2022

There’s a fork in the road when it comes to retirement. You leave behind your career to begin a new fulfilling chapter in life, but how do you fill your time? Some travel, others spend those years making hobbies a lifestyle or help raise their grandchildren. However, what if you aren’t quite ready to step away from the financial field but want the flexibility retirement offers?

You could consider remote work or meeting new people and learning new things! Or maybe the goal is just to supplement your retirement income streams. Now, consider when you are working in retirement there may be additional tax or Social Security risks involved.

The following are great ways to stay connected to the CPA community:

Consulting

Nearing retirement means that you are typically looking for a part-time gig with likely not as much demand as a full-time job. Fortunately, a lot of businesses, even CPA firms, are always looking for financial professionals with experience. Having the skills from your working years means that you are fit for the job. Plus, consulting gigs are not demanding, offer great flexibility, and create a stable stream of income.

Contract jobs

Want something like a consulting gig, but only seasonally? Contract assignments are an option! These could include only working during the tax season or doing seasonal bookkeeping. Contract jobs are much more common for experienced workers than entry-level positions.

Teaching

If you wish to do something related to the field, but not quite the same, consider teaching. Many four-year universities and community colleges are looking to hire professors. You may even be able to offer training services through businesses. Another great teaching opportunity is tutoring, and this can be done at a college or even high school level. Luckily, moreover, this can be done in-person or even online. Some virtual services offer great passive income opportunities!

Research

Since you spent most of your life practicing patience and have a sharp eye for detail, those skills would make you a great researcher. Be it with finance or another field, gathering and organizing data is something you could still do, even part-time. Research into your local universities, get in contact with your network, and see if anyone is looking for research help. You might like it!

Grant writing and administration

Putting together grant applications utilizes the skills you have mastered as a CPA. You help write the grant and then if the money is funded you can help manage and track the funds or project. Stepping into grant writing and administrative work uses your knowledge of bookkeeping, tax legislation, and project management. You easily become and asset to their team (and sometimes these are offered as contract gigs)!

Your retirement years do not have to be spent completely giving up what you love, what you have done for so long. There are new ways to keep yourself in the field especially as the digital and virtual world expands! You may even find a new passion.

01Apr

Understanding Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE)

Podcast BlogApril 1, 2022

Brought to light from the 1992 book Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominquez, the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) community was born as a movement that analyzes spending in terms of working hours as the ‘payment.’ For example, if your hourly pay is $12, a tube of toothpaste at $4 is 20 minutes of work. Being founded on the extreme frugality of spending, the movement is heavy on saving and investing, too.

With their dedication to saving and investing, FIRE followers aim to retire decades before 65. Those within the community typically work to save, invest that money, and when their assets are about their 25-30 times their projected annual expenses, will retire fully in their 30s or 40s. Some may work part-time. To maintain their desired lifestyle, FIRE folks will withdraw 3-4%. There have been various FIRE perspectives come to life since its rise in 1992 depending on lifestyle needs. The core three are as following:

Fat FIRE – This style takes aggressive savings and investment strategies and is more suitable for those with larger incomes than the average worker. Oftentimes this is the FIRE lifestyle for someone who does not want to reduce their standard of living.
Lean FIRE – With extreme saving and investing methods and a minimalistic lifestyle, the restricted living often has these folks living on $30,000 or less a year.
Barista FIRE – As the mid-grounds for Fat and Lean, folks here typically quit their traditional full-time jobs and use a combo of minimalistic living with freelance or part-time work. This is typically to maintain health benefits, support themselves, and not touch their retirement funds.

More to FIRE than Meets the Eye:

FIRE does not mean entirely quitting work nor does just apply to retiring early. There are many accessible elements that could be applied to your retirement planning and financial health. Planning for your future is the core of the FIRE community. It is about getting better with your money—be it better saving, methodical investing, or intentional spending:

Planning – In 2021, a study showed 25% of Americans did not have a retirement savings at all. Of those, almost 40% felt they would never get on track to have the retirement they want. FIRE emphasizes the importance of planning and saving.
Discipline – To achieve what your plan entails there is a great amount of discipline involved. FIRE is about maximizing your income and minimizing your overall expenses. Setting a budget, strictly sticking to it, creating income streams now and saving.
Invest wisely – Ideally, taking a certain percentage of your monthly income to invest is the idea of FIRE. The money adds up over time and grows. Strategies under FIRE are a little more extreme, encouraging to sometimes invest large amounts than the typical working person.

For further information on FIRE and much more, listen to our podcast episode “F.I.R.E., Side Hustles, and Retirement with the Financial Panther” of The Retirement Risk Show.