I’ve been an educator (university level, I have a PhD) for over 20 years and am in my early 50s. Education is okay, but it has its drawbacks, office politics, administrative time wasters, grades, meetings that have no purpose, etc. The biggest drawback though is that I can’t bring my dog to work. I’d like to retire from university education and combine the best of all worlds, being able to educate students while also not having to leave my dog at home while doing so. To me that would be a dream job. I want my dog resting on his blanket 5 feet away while I tutor/educate a student. To me it doesn’t get better than that. I’m not trying to get rich, quality of life matters more to me than anything. House paid off, low expenses, cars paid off (I drive old cars, take care of them, and love them), I am not financially burdened in any way. Walks with my dog in the morning, tutoring in the afternoons and being able to take him to the office with me afterward would be the ideal.
I am thinking of retiring from education and opening up a small tutoring/teaching business by renting some office space that also allows me to take my pup to work with me. Work 4 days per week, set my own hours, have the dog in the office to greet students/clients. Fees for tutoring would range from $50/hour to $75 and higher for highly specialized tutoring, and also group rates for students who want to study together at once. Would look to bring in a minimum of $1000/week. Even at a rate of $50/hour (the minimum I would charge), that’s only 20 hours per week. Maybe $1000/month for office space, the rest of the $3000/month is revenue. These I would consider to be minimums to make the business work. I’d aim for higher amounts and if I ended up offering group seminars, the earnings could be much higher. I specialize in mathematics and related areas, plenty of tutoring opportunities. I could also offer consulting for higher rates, though I especially simply enjoy tutoring. I could offer tutoring for GRE, GMAT, and other standardized tests as well.
I also am an accomplished musician and would also offer music lessons from the same office space (I have a history of teaching music in a former life and playing professionally). I’m not needing to make a lot of money, but the idea of bringing my dog to work every day AND educating minus the admin BS, grades, endless meaningless admin meetings, and all the rest of it seems attractive. I’m confident I could get students/clients because I am a very good teacher and know my material very well. I know how to advertise, market, and get my voice out there by word of mouth. As a university professor, I easily attract students when I put in just a tiny bit of effort. I’m easy to work with and students like me a great deal.
Would appreciate feedback/thoughts on this idea. I could grow the business as large as I want, offer seminars, group rates, and so on, or, keep it fairly small as a semi-retirement gig to pay the bills. Full control of everything, no administrative bloat or BS, just honest teaching and tutoring of students who want to learn to do well in their courses or careers. Most importantly, I’m 24-7 with my dog, where I go, he goes. That’s the most important thing here, to find a way to educate without leaving my dog at home for 6-7 hours per day. Leaving my job and trying this idea was more risky before when I had a house to pay off. But that’s all done now, my home is valued at approx. 500k so worst case scenario if my business failed I could always sell my house, scale down, and watch TV all day and would still get by working a couple days per week at the grocery store. At age 59 I’ll have access to about another 500k in retirement at least and social security around the corner at that point. So, I’d have plan B in place before I begin this venture. I’ve even thought of retiring early fully (FIRE), but I still want an income. The tutoring/teaching business would be the early retirement gig (at minimum), to get me to 59 when I can access my retirement funds in my 401k. Ideally, the business would grow and it would be a satisfying creative venture, but even if it didn’t grow and I was only making a few bucks at it, it would still mean I’m semi-retired and living the good life and only doing what I love (which is teaching and having my pup in the office with me).
What do you think? What am I missing? Would purchase private health insurance, I can actually get a better plan than what I’m offered at work now, and if I only make 30-40k per year, much of that will be subsidized (I realize prices are going up in January if Congress doesn’t act, but I’ll still have most of the premium paid for a very good silver plan with very reasonable deductibles and out-of-pocket max, I’ve looked into it).
Thanks in advance for your thoughts/feedback, much appreciated.
submitted by /u/Naive_Bat8216
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