Good article. We’ve talked with thousands of people about their lives and their money and find that most people did not really choose their career/job. They sort of stumbled through life making one decision at a time for whatever reason and came across some opportunity – and that’s what they are doing now.

If they love it, that is usually just luck!

I love my job. My passions are finances (mostly figuring out strategies that work, cool tax ideas, and wise investing) and helping people – and that’s what I do. Even on vacation, I love to read financial books for good ideas, blog about finances, and hang out with friends and try to get to know what really matters to them. Vacation is like work – except at a slower pace.

I admit work is not perfect. We mainly just work with people we like – but some people can become difficult, some aspects (like paperwork) are not on the fun list, and I won’t always want to work as hard as I do now.

Most university students know very little about the thousands of possible careers and what they are really like. We always tell them to talk to lots of adults about their careers, what they like and don’t like, what they actually do in a typical day and how fulfilling it is. It is amazing how many careers are not at all like the stereotype.

I had an entire career as an accountant before getting into financial planning. I went into accounting because I was good at numbers. I worked as an accountant for Simmons (mattresses) and found that I hardly did any math at all. There were staff for that. The job was managing people and cost control in operations. I learned to like it – but it was completely different than what I had expected. Who knew that management accounting had hardly any math?

It is unfortunate that most people don’t love their work. We spend so much of our lives doing it. I can tell you from experience that the vast majority of people that claim to love their work and keep working past age 65 really only do it because they can’t afford to retire the way they want. They pursuade themselves that they love their work, because they know they have no option.

Your message, Kathryn, and helping people figure out how to find what they love and learn to love what they do should be a required course in universities.

Ed

Very nice article – I read it through a feed and could tell right away that FT didn’t write it!

Have you thought about teaching at a local community college? You could offer a 6-8 week course on basics of money management, perhaps seeking out students in certain demographics (recent immigrants, recent graduates, recent widows, etc.). It wouldn’t be so much for your personal financial gain but as you said, to help people.

But at least when you have found what you love the 12 hours are good hours.
Great post!

Do I ‘love’ my job? Not really but I can say that I love the industry. In my opinion, jewelry is one of those industries where you have do it for the love and not for the money because good money is hard to be made.

Ideally, with my education, I would much rather be working for a diamond company or mineral lab. I think maybe…just maybe my love might turn into a passion.

R.

If you have a passion for things, can shape those passions into work activities that can take various forms (technical, management, labor, consulting, writing, etc.), can make those work activities pay the bills, and handle the work at your own pace, then there really isn’t a reason to consider retirement in the traditional sense at all.

Clair

As a fellow high school teacher/coach I am glad to hear that I am not the only one tired at the end of a day. I love what I do, but am tired when the day ends. I am a math teacher and try to sneak some personal finance into every course (borrowing money, saving money, investing, credit cards, car loans, etc.).

I thought I found my passion many times over in different avenues of work, what I learned is I get bored very very quickly once I have the work figured out and dialed in.

Personality type is generally the driver.

dalmanca: Being a money coach is something I do with my volunteer hours. I’d love to be hired full time by a co-corporation helping / coaching employees on the basics of finance and getting out of debt. It’s not something I’d want to charge people for individually. It is something that could be a huge asset to companies whose employees are stressed out about their personal finances and they don’t know the first place to start getting their financial life in order.

For my regular job I’m in PR and training for a non-profit. I love the training and hope to transition to a job where I can do that full time, either in groups or individually.