» Introducing Nine to Five’d in Dublin Early Retirement Extreme: — a combination of simple living, anticonsumerism, DIY ethics, self-reliance, resilience, and applied capitalism

Published on June 22nd, 2010

I’d like to introduce another one of my applicants: Nine to Five’d in Dublin (MovieWriter for short), who is looking stop working a day job to focus 100% on writing screen plays.

In a nutshell, I want to “retire” so I can write films full-time. I write now even though I have a full-time day job, but I’d like to lose the day job and write all day. It’s a compulsion, and something I’m good at, but not one that might ever make me much money (I’m going with worse-case scenario here).

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t always been good with money. Right now, I’m carrying credit card debt of nearly 4,000 euro. I don’t save enough. But I’m willing to change, and as a first step I’m selling my house which is in a nice, suburban location, and moving closer to the city so I can walk/cycle to my day job. I don’t own a car and have no plans to. So that’s got to be steps 1 and 2 addressed somewhat, right?

My biggest problem areas, that I need to address, are expenses relating to clothes and those relating to my screenwriting (entering competitions, traveling to festivals, etc, etc, etc. Last year I spent 4 grand on this – must find a way to promote my stuff more cheaply).

Anyway, that’s it. I’m prepared to make some big changes for this, because I’m now 31 and have been working one day job or another that I hated since I left college. I want to escape nine to five and recognise that I need to change my financial thinking in order to do so.

The best way to maximize creativity is to ensure that money is no longer an issue. This great talk on what motivates us by Dan Pink (with animation) which I got from Robert Hurdman. There are four ways to do this: 1) Grants, which have a problem of running out and restrict what can be done with the creativity; 2) Writing for profit, which may or may not work depending on where one’s interest lies; 3) A job which does not zap the creative energies, e.g. don’t take on a writing job to support the writing; and 4) financial independence, which is what I use.

You may also want to read this post about a dramatic shift in priorities by Raymond Tung.

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9 users responded in " Introducing Nine to Five’d in Dublin "

George (the original one ;-) said,

I’ll warn you now, we’re going to want to see a debt scorecard in a couple months! 🙂

Insurance Izzy said,

That is pretty cool that you are actually taking the initiative to start doing something you love. Even if you don’t make it big in the film writing industry, at least you will have tried.

As far as travelling expenses, I would think you could just send in your scripts instead of flying yourself there personally. If not, there are usually discounts for travel for different memberships. Ordering well in advance also makes the expense less.

Mneiae said,

FI gives you the ability to chase what you want and belong to yourself. I can’t wait to see Dublin’s story!

Nine to Five'd said,

Thanks a million to Jacob for putting up my post. Yeah, the travel can be cut down, it’s just nice to go to the States (or indeed anywhere) and meet movie people. Plus it’s a good way to network and hopefully get stuff made.

FI is THE best way to do more of the things you love, however, so all expenses will have to be cut to meet the big goal. I’m prepared to keep a debt scorecard…

Robert said,

Nine to Five’d: I think it’s fabulous that you’ve found what you love to do. I think some people go through life without finding it. How did you discover your passion?

I’m glad that Jacob enjoyed the Dan Pink talk and linked to it here (and thanks for the mention). I get so frustrated at organisations that are blind to this truth. They treat people like we need to be manipulated into doing better work, or like we’re holding back our best work until they just pay us more.

Nine to Five'd said,

I’ve always been a movie fanatic and I’ve always loved writing. You’d have thought screenwriting would be obvious but I only started writing scripts a few years ago. It’s now morphed into an obsession, which most days I think is a good thing. Everyone should try hobbies until they find the one that makes them achieve the holy grail – “flow”…

sarasuperid said,

If America is where the movie makers are, America is where you should be. If you can figure a way to move to America to a place near to where you will sell your movies, but in an affordable place. (Idaho is cheaper than California, certain parts of California are cheaper than LA, etc.) And used a car share or something to get to your festivals and meet execs.

Nine to Five'd said,

Agree re. U.S. move – I’m going to spend the next 6 months to a year getting out of debt and building up some savings first, and in the meantime I’m going to try and get a film-related day job. If I’m going to work in admin, it might as well be for a film company.

Aury (Thunderdrake) said,

I’m trying to go the route of financial independence. even if it’s just 1000 or 2000 dollars a month, that’s fine for me. Since I won’t be a liability on anyone. 😛

I got a lot of fantasy/sci-fi I wanna write. But finances can certainly be a barrier to concentration.

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Introducing Nine to Five’d in Dublin

9 users responded in " Introducing Nine to Five’d in Dublin "

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