Courtesy of Amber Smith
Amber Smith, 27, had been gearing up to retire by the time she was 40. Then she became her own boss.
She left the corporate grind earlier this year and turned her side gigs into a full-time job. Smith might still retire early, but it's not as much of a priority.
"Now that I'm self-employed, I'm like, OK, I actually enjoy this, and I have the control to alter it however I need to, and I'm not stressed out, so I'm not as worried about hitting that goal," she said about the early retirement goal.
Smith worked in tech jobs for about five years. Her last position before moving into full-time self-employment had a base salary of $94,000. But she yearned for more freedom.
"I was at this job, wasn't totally happy with it, and I knew I had been making decent money doing my side hustles part-time," she said. "So, I spent a lot of time doing the math, being like, could I actually make this work if I took them full time?"
Her side hustles included reselling items on platforms like Poshmark and eBay and making money through her TikTok and YouTube accounts and from brand deals.
Since becoming self-employed, Smith said, she's made enough from her now full-time gigs to cover expenses. For instance, she has made around $24,000 in sales from Poshmark and eBay so far in 2024, but that includes before she resigned at the end of February. "I haven't had to take any money out of my emergency fund," she said. "I've still been able to put away money in savings each month."
While she was somewhat nervous about the transition from corporate 9-to-5 work, she has found the change to self-employment to be positive.
"I feel way less stressed out," Smith said. "I'm just happier in general. I would actually cry about my corporate tech job way more than anyone should cry about their job, and my side hustles never made me cry, and they still don't make me cry now that they're my full-time thing."
Smith's advice for people considering quitting their jobs is to already have a budget and a backup plan in place.
"I think the big thing is make sure you're ready," she said. "Have a good idea of your expenses and your income so that you are truly prepared so that you don't find yourself having to go back to that job before you want to, if ever."
Smith said her backup plan was to apply to be a waitress or bartender instead of returning to the corporate world right away because "I knew it was just not great for me mentally, emotionally."
"I mean, it paid very well," she said. "I am very thankful for the benefits I got while I was there. I did meet some really good people, but ultimately, it's not somewhere I wanted to be for the next 40 years of my life."
Smith, who lives in Iowa, tends to stick to a typical 9-to-5 schedule to partly stay matched up with friends who have to work during that time. Still, she likes that she can get other things done beyond work within these hours. She said it's "nice to be able to work out, read a book, run my errands in that time."
Her schedule can include kicking off the morning with a walk and reading on the couch. "When I'm doing that, I'm like, oh, I couldn't be doing this right now if I was working my corporate job," she said. But then in the morning, sometimes I will go sourcing for new inventory."
Her afternoons are filled with taking photos for reselling listings or edits for her content creation work. She said she tries to end her self-employment duties by 5 p.m.
"Sometimes I do stuff in the evenings; while watching TV, I'll do something on my laptop," she said. "But I also try to think, OK, I chose this. I don't want to feel like I'm overworking myself or that I have a bad work-life balance."
Smith likes "the treasure hunt" of finding inexpensive items for her clothing reselling gig "and knowing that it's worth so much more."
"Some things that I've found have been Taylor Swift t-shirts from her early tours, and people really like those," she said.
Two of the pros of working for herself are being able to sometimes spend time with family members in the middle of a day or week and feeling less stressed. "The flexibility has been really nice," she said. "I definitely travel a lot more than I think I would have if I had a PTO policy I had to consider."
One con, though, is a drop in income if she travels, unlike if she was taking paid time off. That's because she said she can't ship packages when away. Another downside is the tax differences from working in corporate. She said she has to pay quarterly taxes and has learned she needs to put aside money "so it doesn't hurt as much" regarding how much she would owe.
Overall, Smith said the switch to self-employment has been good. "I just feel a lot more peace now, and I love being in control of my time," she said.
Have you left your corporate job, made a career change, or turned your side hustle into a full-time job? Reach out to this reporter to share your experience at mhoff@businessinsider.com.
