The Road to Wealth (part 7 — €81k): If the Price Is Peace of Mind, the Price Is Too High

It’s been a while, but that’s OK. This is, after all, a journal of sorts, and there is no reason to write when there is nothing to write about.

Since my last post was so long ago (nearly 5 months!) here’s a one-paragraph recap:

In November (wealth at that time: €64k) I landed a position as a buy-side equity analyst. I thought this would be my dream job. I wrote then that I would probably be busy working and not have much time to write about The Road to Wealth.

Well, busy working I was. But my dream job it was not.

The function, in theory, is still perfect. But the company culture does not align with me at all. Whenever I am in the office, I feel uneasy. I do not get along with my boss; I do not get along with my colleagues. Experience this for 50+ hours per week for a couple months, and the joy of analysing companies quickly starts to fade compared to the terror of having to drag yourself into the office every day.

As such, I am already (after 5 months!) looking for a new job. I promised myself that I would not be unemployed again for the foreseeable future, so I will not quit before I find something else.

I know, I got lucky with this position. Very few people get their foot in the door as a buy-side public equity analyst. But I refuse to sacrifice my happiness for career prospects. As I have discussed many times, I don’t need much money to be happy, and I would rather work a job that pays less and doesn’t interest me as much, but which does make me happy.

As I read somewhere sometime, “If the price is peace of mind, the price is too high.”

Now, onto better things: having a job has allowed me to save ±€2k/month. This amounts to €10k over the past 5 months. Add to that some capital appreciation, and we went from €64k to €81k in 5 months. That’s nearly a 25% increase in wealth. Not bad! Reaching €100k before the end of 2022 is definitely possible, although the ultimate goal is still €200k.

Ah well. My coming months will be suffering through this awful job while trying to find something better. It sucks to have to go through the job searching process again, but not being unemployed does save some stress.

And it’s times like these that I realise what a wonderful luxury it is to live cheaply. Because I am able to sustain myself with so little, I have complete freedom when it comes to choosing a job.

I hope you all have been doing well.

Stay sane, and godspeed.