And Now for Something Completely Different…
If you’re a fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, you’ve heard the phrase “And now for something completely different”. They used it to segue from one unrelated comedy skit to another. That’s what this particular adventure and blog post feel like. Mrs. FIcology and I worked in a fireworks tent for the 2 weeks it was open for the 4th of July. If you had asked me 5 years ago what I’d be doing in retirement, there’s probably less than a 0.00000001% chance that “working in a fireworks tent” would have made the list.
If you know anything about the Midwest, you know 4th of July and fireworks are huge; it’s like a way of life. Fireworks tents spring up in mid-to-late June like dandelions after a warm spring rain. They steadily pick up business and then get bombarded with customers on July 3rd and 4th. Two days later they’re all gone like the dandelions from a freshly mowed yard. For the entrepreneurs that run them, it can mean a lot of profit in a very short time. But, it’s a ton of work during that time, often in 90-100 degree heat.
How It Came About
Our son, FIcology boy, worked summers for a couple on their farm. This same couple also does a fireworks tent each year and they asked him to work there also. They treated him like family and employed him every summer for 3-4 years, maybe more. It’s rare (and wonderful) when someone loves your kid almost as much as you do. This is one of those rare finds and we’ve been so grateful and blessed that this family crossed our path. It’s been life-giving to our son, and to us.
Fast forward to the present — FIcology boy has grown up into FIcology man, graduated college, gained employment, and no longer has the capacity to work on the farm or in the fireworks tent. During this time, we’ve built a casual friendship with the tent owners. They’re wonderful, quality people — the kind of people that you just want to be and enjoy being around. So, Mrs. FI and I asked if we could help out in their fireworks tent. We may lack the raw horsepower that FIcology boy, errr man, has; he’s 6’7” and built like a brick shi… — well, you know the saying. But, maybe they figured he must’ve gotten his work ethic somewhere and decided to take a chance on us. Regardless, we were delighted!
Why We Wanted To
When telling friends we were doing this, more than once I got a response like: “Why in the world are you doing that? Are you just bored?” There are a lot of reasons this was appealing to us and it did not disappoint on a single one of them. For brevity, I’m just going to bullet-point them:
- To serve the couple that served our son. This is a chance to give back to them for the years of love, employment, encouragement, and self-esteem they breathed into our son.
- To serve our community and to be a light. This is a chance to greet people cheerfully, have conversation, help them out, carry stuff to their cars, thank them, and hopefully make their holiday a little better.
- It was a couple’s activity. Mrs. FI and I could do this together.
- To do and learn something new. One of the appeals of FIRE’ing was the freedom to try and learn new things. I definitely learned things I did not know before and I love that!
- For some extra cash. We’re not really in it for the money. But, I did FIRE a little earlier than I’m comfortable with (see post 017 | The Decision to FIRE), so a little extra cash is calming. We probably made enough to cover our upcoming Colorado trip (driving and staying in a modest Airbnb) which helps with the budget.
- It’s only two weeks. The only commitment we had was to see it through. We’re not going to tell someone we’ll help and then bail on them. Even if it had turned out to be awful (we knew it wouldn’t), we can do anything for two weeks.
How It Turned Out
So… that was some of the hardest work I’ve done in a while, lol. It was 2 weeks of setting up tables, unloading trailers, unpacking boxes, stocking products, loading customers’ cars, and helping customers all culminating on July 4, followed by tearing it all down and packing it away on July 6. I logged over 21,000 steps on my Fitbit in one day. The last week of work was all in 90+ degree heat. Let me tell you, after a 12-hour day hustling in sweat-soaked clothes, I was chafed in places I didn’t know you could chafe. (Sorry for the mental picture.)
BUT, it was actually really enjoyable and I feel like it had a lot of benefits:
- Physical & mental well-being. Despite being exhausted at the end of each day, I’ve felt physically and mentally as good or better than I’ve felt in years. I have a knee that’s slowly going bad and it actually felt better than it’s felt in over a year despite being up on it continuously. Plus, one of my fears about retiring is physical and cognitive decline. I believe that’s a real risk if you don’t take steps to prevent it. Maybe I’ll do a future blog post on this topic. This experience definitely helped ease that risk.
- Community. Check out post 009 | Community: Life or Death / Boom or Bust for the importance of community. This was another huge benefit we gained. An operation this intense requires working as a team with the owners and other workers. You can’t help but get to know each other and bond over the common goal of running the tent. We made new friends and strengthened our friendship with the owners. We even found a new dog sitter for our FI Min Pins.
- Money perspective. Again, we weren’t really in it for the money. But, I did notice myself quantifying any purchase in terms of “time in the tent”. For example, I met some friends for coffee one morning and dropped $6 with tax & tip. I immediately thought to myself: “that’s almost 30 minutes in a hot fireworks tent”. Similarly, Mrs. FI and I went out for Mexican food one night after work and I joked: “we each had to work over an hour in the fireworks tent for this meal”, lolol. I’m obviously being a bit cheeky, but I do think it’s a valuable lesson in perspective for anyone at any stage of their FI journey.
- Learning. I love learning new things and we learned a lot about fireworks: terminology, regulations, the different types, and pricing. We learned the business, POS systems, inventory, setup & breakdown, and wholesaler operations.
- Bonding with Mrs. FI. Mrs. FI and I actually worked really well together. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised, lol; we tend to approach tasks differently which can lead to some conflict. But, we worked great as a team and I feel like we came away even closer than we were before.
- New respect for a different point of view. As a member of the FI community, I tend to think of fireworks as “setting money on fire”. Note: I said “fire” (bad) not “FIRE” (good). So, to me, they’re a bit silly and excessive. But, people who love fireworks, this is their “thing”. It’s their one big celebration of the year where they have family over, cook out on the grill, and party. This is their vacation, their summer blowout. When you think of it like that, even in the $1,000+ range (and yes, quite a few people spend that), it’s actually pretty cheap compared to any vacation. So, I have a new level of respect for that.
- Purpose. If you read post 019 | Life After FI, you’ll know that purpose and identity are something I, and others, struggle with in retirement. For 2 weeks, we had a LOT of purpose and responsibility. That felt good.
- Self-esteem boost. I know this job wasn’t super difficult. But, there is a sense of accomplishment that we took this on, we learned it, and we did it successfully. I’m proud of myself and Mrs. FI.
Takeaways
After this experience, I’m excited for more. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend trying new jobs. It’s fun, educational, rewarding, and you get to pocket a little extra money. If, like me, you FIRE’d a little early or maybe your investments are down, it’s amazing how a small amount of extra earnings can correct your trajectory — check out 020 | How FIRE Doubles Each Dollar’s Effectiveness.
We plan on helping out again next year, if they’ll have us. And, maybe, I’m going to help some on our friends’ farm. If I do, maybe I’ll do a blog post on that experience. Thanks for reading, friend!