The No-Income Work Experiment // Testing Our Commitment to the Principle

The cornerstone of our early retirement vision is to move beyond the need for money, and to do work only when it’s enjoyable for us, regardless of whether we get paid for it or not. All good in theory, right?

It is no secret that I don’t monetize this blog, and I’ve talked about some of the reasons why — not wanting to question my own motivations in recommending products, namely, but also just not wanting to spend time sorting through the offers that come my way. But there is another important reason I haven’t shared before:

I’ve viewed the blog as a real-world test of whether I could be okay working hard at something over an extended period and not getting paid for it, even while others around me are getting paid. A true test of our commitment to the idea.

It’s easy to assume a lot about what early retirement will be like before we’ve gotten there even if, in reality, we have no idea. We aren’t even sure if we know those people who are our future retired selves. We’d much rather test ideas out than assume they’ll be true, like finding out if I can actually get things done without a structured environment. And with this experiment, finding out if I could keep at something without getting jealous of those doing the same work (or even less, or less well) and earning plenty more.

So what have I learned, and what does it tell us about work in early retirement? I’ll jump right into that in a sec, but first…

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We’re super excited to start sharing more about ourselves in the coming months, leading up to the big unmasking of our non-emojied, real life identities this fall, most likely in October.

Rather than clog the blog with too many personal and goofy details (because the world does not need to know how our morning routines evolve, for example, or what our favorite cheap, zero waste recipes are), we’re launching an email newsletter where we can share more of that stuff, plus actual substance like the books we’re reading, the things we’re learning about retirement in real time, and anything else that feels important but doesn’t fit into the tidy confines of a blog post.

And because it’s us, you know we won’t spam you or try to sell you anything. It’s just a chance to interact more with folks who are interested, and another way outside of the comments here and on Twitter to get to know more people — like you!

As a special incentive to join, we’ll be sharing our real life identities in the newsletter a whole TWO WEEKS EARLIER than we’ll share it on the blog. So if you’re at all curious, then join in the newsletter fun!

A note to WordPress subscribers: If you’ve been receiving our posts by email from WordPress (not just in your WP reader), then you may already be subscribed. If you received a welcome email from me this past weekend, you’re set. But if not, you may wish to subscribe here, and then you can unsubscribe from the WP emails if you don’t also want to get the reminder of every new post. So many options!

Subscribe right here, or at the bottom of any post.

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Back to the work-hard-for-no-payment question. (Or in the email newsletter example, paying to work, much like blogging itself.) The specific impetus for this question stems from our desire to do a bunch of things in retirement that may or may not ever return us a penny, namely activities that align to our purpose, like taking on different creative pursuits and volunteering in substantive ways for organizations in our community.

Could we really be happy doing that stuff as much as we think we want to, even if we earn nothing from it? 

In a vacuum, it seems easy to say that, sure, we could happily keep doing work like that even with no monetary gain, because we’ll have the incredible luxury of not needing the money. But we don’t live in a vacuum. We both like to feel valued for our contributions, and wonder how valued we’d feel if, for example, we did the same work as a volunteer that someone else did at an hourly rate, especially if we found that person underperforming. Could we keep doing that job? Or would we eventually feel that our time or contribution wasn’t being valued at the level we’d feel we deserve?

The Experiment

This stuff isn’t easy to answer in theory. That’s why I decided to treat this blog as a real-world experiment on this topic, once it became clear a few months in that people were actually going to read it, a fact that continues to delight and amaze me.

As a part of the experiment, I’ve been forcing myself to stay consistent in posting twice a week, just like I might have to if this was an official volunteer job or creative product, and along the way I’ve been asking myself these questions:

Could I stay motivated to keep putting a high level of effort over a long period into something that returns no direct monetary compensation?

Could I derive satisfaction from that work, without pay, without falling into the trap of defining my success in terms of digital gold stars (e.g. likes, comments, follows)? 

Could I be okay doing this work while watching others doing similar work rake in the dough? 

If it seemed like the work might lead to something else that would pay, could that be compensation enough? 

Let’s take a look at what I’ve learned throughout the experiment.

Staying Motivated Without a Paycheck

Could I stay motivated to keep putting a high level of effort over a long period into something that returns no direct monetary compensation?

I’ve believed for a while that I am at my most creative when I am not putting monetary pressure on that creativity, or as Elizabeth Gilbert says in Big Magic, not expecting my creativity to pay my bills. And I do think that has been true here. I’ve had the privilege to write a bunch of posts on topics I probably wouldn’t touch if I cared what potential sponsors thought, and those posts are some of my absolute favorite. But that’s a different question.

My question here is long, sustained motivation, something I’ve at times struggled with. I have been known to crush hard on new hobbies for a short time and then burn out, what a friend once called my “two week obsessions.” So even things I’ve done 100 percent for fun have lost my interest, or I’ve struggled to stay motivated to work at them. (Yeah, how’s the training for that second marathon coming? Wait, bad example. Not purely fun, at all.)

But let’s assume I find work I truly love doing, this blog being the best example of that. In that case, how hard is it to stay motivated without pay? Turns out the answer is: surprisingly easy. I’ve learned over the past two years that there are so many rewards that come from hard work that have nothing to do with money: getting positive feedback, hearing that I’ve helped people think something through, making new friends, feeling good about how I’m improving my writing. (And, I admit it, I even kinda love the rare troll cameos.)

Lesson: I don’t need money to stay motivated, but I probably need some other types of rewards to make it feel worthwhile.

Deriving Satisfaction Without Digital Validation

Could I derive satisfaction from that work, without pay, without falling into the trap of defining my success in terms of digital gold stars (e.g. likes, comments, follows)? 

This is a trickier question for me, both because I am a natural gold star seeker, and because you guys have been so incredibly supportive and engaged that I feel the digital gold stars coming left and right. So I haven’t been able to test this question as I’d hope to in a truly scientific experiment. (And I am not complaining. I am so grateful that you’re reading, and that some of you comment and engage, and I’d take that every single time over having the conditions for a scientifically defensible study!)

What I do know is that posts that get far fewer comments than others do bum me out just a little, even though I know rationally that some posts are harder to comment on than others. I know this as a reader of other blogs that sometimes I love a post like crazy but feel at a loss of what to say in response. Fortunately, many of those posts that get fewer comments also tend to be the most personal and heartfelt, and I never regret having posted them. So the satisfaction I feel comes not from the digital approval, but from myself.

Lesson: I will probably always have to work on caring less about gold stars, but regardless of what I’m doing, I need to focus on my own intrinsic rewards. As for whether this would still feel worth doing if no one was engaging, that’s a question I can’t answer.

When Others Are Getting Paid

Could I be okay doing this work while watching others doing similar (or less, or worse) work rake in the dough? 

This question comes directly out of my career life. When I have learned that others doing similar work are paid more than me, I have not been okay with it, especially if I think they don’t work as hard or deliver work of equal quality. Not that I can always do anything about it (though I have successfully asked for more), but it never sits right with me. So bringing this question into a blog context made total sense, plus it’s easy because so many bloggers share their blog income online (yay transparency!).

And this one really highlights for me how interrelated all of these questions actually are. If I was cranking out two posts a week AND people weren’t reading it AND I wasn’t getting paid while others were? It’s hard to imagine I’d feel good about that and want to keep going. But people are reading and sharing awesome thoughts in response, which adds value to our life and feels like its own form of payment, muddying the waters on this one.

This is not the answer I ever thought I’d give, but I can honestly say it doesn’t bother me to see others making money off their blogs, sometimes huge money, regardless of how much time they seem to put into it or how much value they offer readers. I’m thrilled to see people getting paid for their time, and I also feel enormously privileged that I don’t need to make any money in exchange for mine. I do sometimes feel irritated when I see people get recognized who I think offer bad or unethical advice, but that’s a whole other thing.

Lesson: As long as I’m getting something fulfilling out of it, I think I don’t mind if others are making money while I’m not. I think. 

Free Work As a Bridge to Paid Work

If it seemed like the work might lead to something else that would pay, could that be compensation enough? 

All of the earlier questions in the experiment point to me being a-okay doing unpaid work in retirement, so this one is less important than I would have initially guessed. But I’ve always wondered: if I wasn’t getting those digital gold stars or other forms of “payment” from the work, would the promise of it translating into other paid work be enough to keep me motivated? I can’t say for sure, because I have those other things, but I suspect that promise would be sufficient motivation on its own.

I’m doing way too much behind the scenes right now because of some possible opportunities, as well as some opportunities we’re working to create, but it doesn’t feel as taxing as it would if we weren’t so massively fired up to do it all. This is fundamentally an experiment on motivation, and the possibility of translating this blog into other opportunities is beyond motivating, even without money being part of the equation. Add money, which we don’t necessarily need to make, but which would take pressure off of our portfolio, and we’re that much more eager to keep going.

Lesson: Even if the work itself doesn’t pay, the possibility that it could open other doors to work that would pay money or offer some other value to our lives is motivation enough.

Conclusion

I’m thrilled with everything I’ve learned throughout this experiment, and feel excited to keep pursuing projects in retirement whether or not they’ll ever net us any cash. (Though we do still expect to earn some money in retirement. We’re not above being paid.) I’m sure there will still be moments along the way that force me to check my ego, or to speak up to make sure our contributions and time are valued, but these overall results are wonderfully affirming that we aren’t clinging to a principle we can’t actually live by.

Next step: Find out if this stays true when we don’t also have “real career” income coming in! 

What Do You Think?

Do you ever wonder something similar, if you could do substantive and sustained work in retirement without caring if you were getting paid, even if others were? Any guess how you’d feel? Anybody else tried an experiment like this? What other forms of “payment” do you think you might seek out in retirement, other than money? For those who are already retired, any insights to share with those who are still aspiring? Anyone want to make a counterpoint argument about how our time in retirement will become MORE valuable, and therefore we should always be aiming to get paid, and to get paid a lot? We’d love to hear from all different perspectives. Hop on down to those comments and chime in!