Doing a little consulting on the side now which is nice
 

When I was an environmental, health and safety consultant, I worked for several firms and then did my own gig for a few years. One of my old clients, another E,H&S consulting firm has their Certified Industrial Hygienist out on maternity leave and turned to me to help them out as another CIH. I've been helping them out in the evenings and on weekends to design sampling programs, direct their staff on doing the actual work during the work week, I write/review reports, etc. Its sort of nice, exercising my brain a bit in ways that I haven't had to in a decade. $100/hr for me, they bill me out at $210/hr. I get no benefits, but I'm under their general liability and E&O insurance as a part-time employee. Made enough this month to buy a new Rolex Submariner, not that I need another one. But nice side money. SmileWavy

Nice! I need to do a gig like that as well. Find myself bored in the evenings and weekends some of the time. Sounds like you found the right balance.

Then buy me one, Papa Hugh! SmileWavy

Glad you're enjoying the work.

What's taking me some time is getting back into the swing of hunkering down and WORKING on the computer after the end of my day job. Not drinking a beer or two, not futzing around here. Also, while the company has some report templates, the Word and Excel programs are a lot busier, and to me, less intuitive than I remember in terms of generating automatic Tables of Contents, List of Tables, automatic footnotes, lists of references, inserting Excel spreadsheets into Word documents, etc. I haven't done serious report writing for about a decade. But I'm getting up to speed. Also, what pleases me, is that I know the Management of the company really appreciates my "old world" expertise to solving problems that the 20 something year old kids have no concept about. Stuff like I recommended that they use a micrometer to measure some zinc plating for a client to measure deposition rates from a galvanizing operation. They had no idea what a micrometer was. Never learned about one in their BS or MS industrial hygiene college curriculums. I brought a micrometer in and they had never seen such an item.

If you are plan on saving any of the side business income you might consider looking into a solo401k which may allow you to shelter 100% of the consulting income. I have been reading up on them recently and am about to meet with a tax guy in the next week or so to confirm the rules

Hey Hugh...congrats! I'm a big fan of anyone who holds more than 1 job!

My older brother in Va. is a machinist and owns a fabrication business. He used to repair small instruments on the side so micrometers "spoken here"! :)

I used to think that expensive consultants are an unnecessary expense. But if they're the only ones in the room with common sense, they are quite a bargain. And if they have experience and knowledge, even more so.

Thanks, I should talk to my tax guy about this. I was going to consider it as ordinary income, but would love to shelter it. I don't know how much I'll make out of this gig, but certainly enough to get taxed at a higher rate when added to my ordinary income.

What you're a Doctor and you don't own one? I thought all Doctors were "Rich". :)

Hugh,

I know it's a tad late to make a career change...but...did you ever look into working for an oil major as an HSE guy? I know quite a few guys that are ex military that work for some very large companies doing HSE. From what I can tell they are also making looooooooooooooooooooooots of money.

I've got 6-7 years to retirement. I'm sure that they make good coin. I make really good coin. OTOH, in the years I've been with my employer I've been to a bunch of countries. Places I'd never have had the chance to see. Maybe when I "retire" in 6-7 years.

Did you ever get the chance to check out the Beauty and the Beast(Disney) lock-up, in Vancouver?
Talk about disgusting.
Wall to wall rat feces, with rat urine running down the walls.
A former rice warehouse.
Disney must have saved a few bucks there. : )

I have been contracting/consulting with one of my old employers too. Works out great, not a ton of money but I get some technical work I really miss from my former job. In fact I never wanted to leave in the first place but the offers coming in were just too good. I still may go back full time some day but the difference in pay I make now is just too high...nice being back on the technical side of things doing a job I'm really good at.

I'll have to look into that solo401k too...thanks!

set up a 401k

Nice side job!

I used to do IT consulting "on the side" and that's how I funded the pool, Porsche 911, etc... Unfortunately, after 2008, the side jobs have dried up and only one has returned...

Good to see Hugh!

I got a call a week ago yesterday. Company I have helped in the past called needing a captain for their medivac airplane. I did medivac for 14 years so its old hat for me. Got two days of flying in with them and it sure helps the "Christmas fund" a lot!