re: Career Change-Mid 40s CPA/CFP Related

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2 hours in the car everyday and 16 hours of yard work every weekend? You are on a treadmill. Can your wife do some yard work? I’d look for expenses to cut to afford a yard guy. You need your weekends to recharge at minimum. How big is this property and house?

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2+ hours in the car M-F. That’s why I tell my wife I really don’t want to drive when we go somewhere on the weekends. I still do it though. We’ve got 20 acres in which I have to mow 8-9 acres, run the saw to keep limbs back and then burn, normal periodic oil changes, and just dealing with house stuff as it comes up. There are plenty of 16 hour weekends but, I try to knock it back to pretty much all day Saturday where my Sundays get freed up. Doesn’t always work though. Plenty of Sunday afternoons are spent on the mower. My wife has got the sweet end of the deal. She weedeats around the house(lol) while I mow. Seriously though she has some issues with her neck and it hurts her to do too much. She works a lot too. There are plenty of Sundays where she is at the computer working. We have looked at our budget and we are at a point where about the only thing left to cut is our daughter’s gymnastics. I really don’t want to do that because she really needs something like that as an outlet and a way to be around friends. I’m keeping all of this up without a tractor! Unfortunately, we don’t have the money for one right now. This is a big reason why I started this thread because something has to give and I need to figure out what changes to make so we can have a little more freedom.

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Sounds like this house and property own you, not the other way around. Selling the house would be an easy decision to make although it may hurt your pride.

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This is blunt, but absolutely the truth.

At some point, owning something becomes a series of chores that overwhelm your freedom.

We trade time for money in our jobs. The rest of our lives need to focus on protecting time.

Good luck. Change is difficult whatever you decide.

The commute is consuming your free time. Any chance to work from home until you get the pension?

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You can’t drive and work more than 10 hours a day, come home and do yard work until bedtime, and enjoy life.

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I know. When we bought the place it seemed like a good thing at the time but, I’m getting to the point that a yard with a battery operated mower sounds wonderful. I used to make fun of people who owned battery operated equipment. Guess karma came back!

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Can you work from home more? Your time is being consumed by the long commute. Is there a state job closer by that you could take? Just to get the pension.

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No, I don’t have the option to work from home without leaving the State. Even then I don’t know what I would do working from home. Wife does it and loves the flexibility with the kiddo, but she does have to work on the weekends a good bit.
I’ve been looking for another one but, there are very few in my area that pay what I get paid and that’s still not a lot. Most are in the bigger cities which would make my drive even further.

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Sounds like this house and property own you, not the other way around. Selling the house would be an easy decision to make although it may hurt your pride.

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I appreciate you saying this. I haven’t really thought of it like this but, it’s absolutely true! I believe if I were able to have my career situation somewhat sorted out, I’d be ready to move on from the house. I’ve been thinking about this all day and selling would be the best option at this point. I just need to make sure wherever we would end up that I’d be able to find a decent job.