Money Match-Up: Should You Work for Passion or Income?

Here's the latest post in the Rockstar Finance Money Match-Up series where two money bloggers argue opposite sides of an issue. Today's issue features another interesting debate -- whether your career should focus on following your passion or growing your income. We'll begin with Kate from On Our Way World who favors going for a job you're passionate about... “Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Proverb This oft-repeated truism is used to support the suggestion that if you’re passionate about what you do, and choose a job you love, it will feel like you are never working. I call bul!$hit. Look – I’m here to argue that you should choose a career based on passion, not on income potential – that a dream job is more important than one that brings the highest income - but I’m not going to suggest that just because you’re passionate about your job, it’s never going to feel like work. It is still work. It will (usually) be less life sucking than choosing a job you don’t love just for the money. People who are able to use their strengths on the job report higher satisfaction; when you do what you like, and what you are good at, you’re more likely to be happy at work. There’s solid research that job satisfaction has a significant impact on your health and well-being. Studies show that people with lower levels of job satisfaction are more likely to have sleep problems, depression and excessive worry, and lower scores on tests of overall mental health. While there are many factors that play into job satisfaction, your overall passion for the profession is undoubtedly one of them. I’m a nurse. I love being a nurse – I can’t imagine being anything else. It is my absolute passion in life. The salary for a new graduate nurse is about $65,000 per year which is a bit higher than the overall average for new college graduates at $50,000 per year. However, after a few years this advantage fades a bit – there are several four year degrees that often pay in the six figures after just a few years (less than a decade) in the profession, while staff nurse salaries, on average, remain stagnant in the mid-60K range. However, with continuing education, higher degrees, and branching out to different areas of nursing, I’ve developed it into a solid six-figure career, and one that allows me to work whenever I want, wherever I want (by teaching) while still doing clinical practice (my true passion) as a per diem/locum tenens employee. I really have the best of all worlds. Enough about me though – because it’s easy to talk about how you can find financial stability when your passion happens to be one of the higher paying career fields. Instead, let’s look at a lower-paying degree field. Education majors can expect to graduate earning around $38,000 per year with a bachelor’s degree and $65,000 per year with a master’s. We can agree that this salary, at face value, is not going to make you into a millionaire or help you reach financial independence at a very early age. However, as Andrew Hallam (the “Millionaire Teacher”) found, there are often creative ways to make a lower-paying job more lucrative. In his case, he landed a teaching job in Singapore where the salary was higher than what he earned in Canada, the taxes were lower, and the school paid his rent. Suddenly, that $38K per year goes a lot farther. Besides a higher salary, teaching overseas may provide a better work-life balance and tax benefits. Suppose you don’t want to move overseas? Lots of teachers earn extra by tutoring or teaching summer school. Or, you might do both – geographic arbitrage + side hustles (for example, teaching ESL online in your off-hours) can be a really powerful way to reach FIRE faster while still doing what you love (in this case, assuming that is teaching). I once knew an auto mechanic who really enjoyed what he did. He also had the opportunity to interact with a lot of owners of vintage cars and convertibles who needed custom canvas covers and seats made. He found a used canvas sewing machine and patterns for the covers and seats. He already had a developed client base, and with his high quality work, the opportunities kept rolling in. He made significantly more on his “side gig” than he did at his day job ($50/hr and upwards of $2500/job), but he was still doing what he really enjoyed. He paid off his mortgage last year in his mid-30s. Doing what you love, knowing your clientele, and recognizing their pain points can lead to huge financial gains. These are just a few examples how following your passion can lead to a solid income and financial independence. When you are passionate about what you do, and have more energy to devote to your work life, you have more confidence, energy, drive, and passion to improve your performance (which often leads to financial gain as well). When you know your business inside and out, whether it is one that is typically considered lucrative or not, opportunities present themselves. Work is still work, no matter how you slice it. There are bad days and good days, and no matter how much you love your job, there are going to be days you question your choice and sanity for going into your profession, whatever it is. However, if you choose a career that you love, those days will be fewer and farther in between. I would argue that choosing a profession based on passion, rather than money, is the path to happiness. Finding a way to better monetize your passion is the path to financial freedom. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Now let's switch to Lisa from The Give and Get who thinks it's better to choose a career based on income... Despite my parents moving a world away from their childhood homes, they raised their kids to choose the safe route. Over the years, I’ve felt the occasional twinge of jealousy when I see people succeeding in dream careers. Still, even if this is a less glamorous route, I think for me, and probably for most people, choosing the safe route can be the best vehicle for creating a lovely life.

Your dream might never pay the bills

My dad, a true believe in the “safe route,” became an accountant (following in his steps, I became a lawyer). Early in his career, my dad audited musicians. In doing so, he would see musicians pawn their instrument, get paid and then buy their instruments back. It was an endless cycle. (Why the government was wasting their money auditing these poor schmucks is anyone's guess). This story had a lasting effect on me (as was my dad's aim in retelling it to me). The lesson wasn't that your dream job doesn't pay but that glamorous careers aren't glamorous for everyone. For instance, my friends have told me that karaoke in Nashville is a spectacle. Everyone is supremely talented because they’re Nashville is a mecca for aspiring country stars. But the problem with dream jobs is that there are people who have mind-blowing talent, an incredible work ethic and are also well connected - and most still won't make it. There's a LOT of luck involved because most people's dream jobs are dreams for a reason - they're difficult to obtain and maintain. For most people, a regular job just makes sense to keep the pursuit of the dream alive for as long as it takes. And even if the dream job never pays the bills, that’s still ok. Author Elizabeth Gilbert worked a day job even after the massive success of her book Eat Pray Love. In her book, Big Magic, she warns of putting too much pressure on your art to make money for you: “But to yell at your creativity, saying, 'You must earn money for me!' is sort of like yelling at a cat; it has no idea what you're talking about, and all you're doing is scaring it away, because you're making really loud noises and your face looks weird when you do that.” Instead, Gilbert advocates pursuing your dream for the sake of the pursuit and working to financially support the dream. She had no idea that her dream job would eventually pay off, but even if it never did, the pursuit of the dream was enough. There’s nothing wrong with keeping a dream that doesn’t pay the bills. Having another job can help you keep your dream alive.

Your high-paying job can help you achieve your dream

I’m a lawyer but I don’t want to be a total buzz kill; I still believe in working on your dream as a side hustle. What you lose in time, you make up for in benefits from a full-time job (and I’m not just talking about health insurance, though that one is considerable). Consider the following ways that a stable higher-paying job could help you achieve your dream. A. Duh, You Take the Higher Paying Job for the Pay What a high-paying job lacks in excitement it makes up for by providing a stable foundation from which you can strategize on the best way to achieve your dreams. It means you don’t have to pick the highest-paying but least rewarding gigs. You don’t have to give yourself a timetable before you need to move back home. You don’t have to make all your decisions about your dream based on money. When your job provides the money, your art is free to fulfill you. B. Working May Provide Needed Structure It’s true that it may be difficult to continue your dream while working long hours at the job. But for many people, having the structure of a regular schedule at work means that you can be more focused and efficient on pursuing your dream job. Also, there’s some research that distraction and creativity are linked. C. You Might Learn Important Skills Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams has credited "talent stacking" as the reason for his success. Though not the best artist or comedian, but he is a good artist, a good comedian and he focuses on a particular office-niche. This is what makes him unique and valuable – the stack of talents. It's nearly impossible to become the best in one niche, but combining multiple strengths across related fields could be a unique recipe for success. Maybe you’re the writer who gets material from interacting with regular people in an office setting. Maybe you get a day job in the same field as your dream, which allows you to get connected to the right people. And basically any dream career can benefit from a day job in sales or marketing. Your day job doesn’t have to be a liability – it can be a pivotal component in your plan to achieve your dreams.

You might fall in love with your high-paying career (or hate your dream job)

I have a friend who had dreamed of working at a certain company for many years and when he got it, moved clear across the country, leaving his girlfriend behind. He's hoping he can make it a year. It's not that he dislikes his job but he hates his boss. That's the thing with dream jobs: reality does not always match the dream. It’s nearly impossible to know everything about what any job will entail until you are already in the trenches and the results might be unexpected. Surprises will happen: you might detest your dream job or grow to love your day job. Author and professor Cal Newport writes that to be happy, your work must fulfill three universal psychological needs: control over your time, the mastery of useful skills, and connection to others. When people think about dream jobs, they often think about fame, money and glamour, but those are ultimately unfulfilling. And if you're pursuing a highly competitive job, it's likely that you're going to have to forfeit some of these needs. Probably every one of us can name someone off the top of our heads who lived miserable lives despite succeeding at a dream job – famous actors, DJs, musicians, intellectuals. Anecdotally, the people I've met who love their jobs do not have glamorous jobs – they were engineers, project managers, marketers. What these jobs lack in thrill, they make up for in a steady paycheck and all the characteristics mentioned above. The future is uncertain – taking the higher-paying job might just set you on a path that gives you everything you wanted in a job.

You are not your job

Some people think that having a Plan B is a setup to fail. It depends. If you want to be a world-class gymnast or ballerina, then yes, you should go for that while you're still young. But for most people, our first job is just our first act. Taking the higher paying job is just one decision you make on the amazing story that will be your life. You’ll have second, third and fourth acts in your life (and gymnasts and ballerinas have to do something when they retire too). You can be the doctor that became an actor, the, accountant that became a goalie, the model who became a stockbroker and finally a media mogul. Picking the higher paying job now doesn't mean you’ve made a decision to do anything for the rest of your life – the rest of your life still up to you. You are not a sellout; you haven’t given up. You’re just deciding that you want to start your career on the strongest financial ground you can. Frankly, I believe this to be an ideal situation – enough money to pursue your dreams and your dream serves as a constant reminder not to overspend on frivolous items. In the end, you're not your job and you're not your dream. You can create a lovely life for yourself apart from either of these things. When you look back at your life, I hope you see that you strived to do everything – whether high-paying day job, dream job, hobbies, relationships – with the utmost passion and create a life worth dreaming about. ------------------------------------------------------------------ So, those are the two sides of the issue. What do you think?