Hi Everyone,
The past few weeks I’ve been hyping myself up to quit my staff accounting job. I’m 26 years old and have about 32k in savings. I work remotely at a public accounting firm with an O.K. workload. Regardless of the hours, it can be stressful and tedious. I have firm boundaries not to work past 6pm when need be.
I feel the workload right now is manageable after a discussion with my supervisor, but my manager keeps talking about giving me more work for my “development”. I love accounting work to a degree but when the deadlines and monthly closes approach all at once I find myself holding my breath the entire time I’m working and even when I’m off I feel tense and burnt out.
I landed this job after graduation but I’ve had various jobs before this and some managerial experience. It’s been about a year and half at this place. I live at home so my expenses don’t exceed a grand a month. I make around 70k w bonuses and such.
Now here’s my dilemma. I have a YouTube channel which I started when I was a teen. I’ve had several videos go viral reaching upwards of 15 million views. I have over 100k suscribers but I make practically nothing from the channel at the moment. Over the years, I have been uploading but pretty infrequently. I get tons of comments telling my videos have been helpful etc and to keep uploading (I make tutorials-don’t want to reveal too much on here). It’s truly my passion and I love it and have a ton of ideas.
I understand that I could do both and I have been lately, but it comes at a sacrifice (not spending time with family/friends, skipping the gym, not eating etc.) To be successful, I feel like I have to dedicate more than full time hours on youtube and branch out to other platforms. I want to give it my all for once because over the years school and other obligations were my priority.
I feel like the bigger the risk, the bigger the reward but I can’t help thinking I’d be a big idiot by leaving my “cushy” 9-5 job in this market and dwindling all the money I’ve worked hard to save.
Please give me your honest opinions 🙏
You are young and could recover if you quit now. I encourage you to strategically grow your you tube to a point that it makes money. Also, how much are you investing in 401k and IRA? That $30k could be locked and growing steadily towards an early retirement.
I’m not sure if that helpsHello, fellow accountant. I also did public accounting, and I will say leaving them was one of the best decisions of my life. A job shouldn’t leave you feeling drained every day. I work in industry now, have about six years of experience, and make six figs working ~25-30 hrs a week.
As someone who also has a passion for content creation, I don’t think you should pick one or the other. Getting any kind of traction online is rare and I would be hesitant to let something like that go, as asking “what if” for the rest of your life might eat you up inside.
I think the sensible thing would be to find a different job, one that leaves you with enough energy to put into making videos. If you’re really serious about content creation, I would go for it. There will be enough opportunities to work in accounting if it doesn’t work out.
Outsource some of your work.
Casino. Blackjack. Hit on all 16s vs a 10. Double down on any 11 even against a 10. You ride that! You could win a million dollars
Having jumped around a few times myself – don’t be compulsive. Your 32k won’t go as far as you hope and without finding that repeatable model you’re going to end up spending your savings and be depressed that you have to start over. Keep working, save/invest, and work on your YouTube channel on the side.