A 9–5 Isn't Always The Answer to Becoming Financially Stable.

I know because I've had 9–5's that didn't provide what I wanted and needed.

A year after graduating college (2019), I got an account management job. Before that, I had been trying to make it as a life insurance agent — I was only twenty-two.

I didn’t know many people, didn’t have the confidence to do the job, and didn’t like it all that much. It was the definition of hustle until you die.

At one point, I worked 12-hour days, six days a week.

At first, I was excited to have my first official 9–5, but after a few months, I started to doubt that it would get me what I wanted out of a job. After a year and a half, I was miserable. To top it off, I was laid off almost two years later (during the height of the pandemic) in early 2021.

Ironically, it was an immense relief.

That’s when I knew a corporate/office job was not for me.

That same year, I started writing on Medium; I also founded an LLC and, for the first time, started taking risks for myself and my future.

After a couple of months of being unemployed, I got a part-time job at Amazon to help pay for my expenses (at the time, I lived with family, so I didn’t have many).

After another couple of months, I started hunting for a full-time job, but this time, I only applied to work-from-home positions.

In November of 2021, I found a remote job that paid a decent amount. I felt I was finally making some strides toward getting a job that could provide for my needs and wants.

The kind of job that gives you flexibility doesn’t make you compromise your values and morals and provides enough money for your needs and extra to work towards other goals.

Unfortunately, that bliss didn’t last very long.

Out of nowhere, my hours started getting cut. I tried to communicate with the new manager multiple times but never got a straight answer about why this was happening.

Lo and behold, five months after starting this job, I was laid off again.

Fortunately, I had a back-up.

Shortly after starting this job, I also took on a side job as a bartender.

I had never done anything like it, not even waitressing, so this was a new experience. Luckily, I became very good at it.

I’ve always been a diligent and responsible worker, so showing up on time and picking up the skill was relatively easy.

This became my saving grace. When I had no other jobs to rely on, I turned to bartending full-time, and the rest is history.

It’s also a job I’ve been able to do for over a year and a half and not feel completely drained or miserable after that length of time.

I’ve realized that spending 40 hours staring at the same four walls drives me up the wall, especially if I’m sitting still and don’t get a chance to move.

Bartending offered me what I wanted — variety and all the other things I mentioned earlier.

I’m the kind of person who can’t do the same thing for too long. Otherwise, I start getting anxious. I need an environment where I can move and where the tasks aren’t exactly the same every single day. Repetitive, that’s fine. But the exact same thing? Nah.

They say that doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results is the definition of insanity…

Not only did I get the variety I wanted, but I also got a raise. How?

I get paid well for doing a good job — more effort and care equals more tips and shifts.

People appreciate it when you’re genuinely nice and attentive. The boss and managers see it, too.

At a restaurant or bar, people want to unwind, relax, and enjoy a meal with friends or family. They want a change from their hectic lives and work environment.

Treating people with kindness goes a long way.

Thanks to serving and bartending, I’ve become financially stable and independent. I live on my own in a relatively small but very cozy and remodeled one-bedroom apartment — a dream of mine since I was eighteen.

I’ve saved a good chunk of money and paid off most of my student loans, and I’m still saving and investing toward my future.

The best part is that I don’t work full-time hours. Most weeks, I average about 30 to 35 hours.

Some of you may ask, what about benefits? I can get health insurance on my own through my state’s health insurance market.

For any additional benefits like retirement, I do it on my own, which I prefer because large corporations nowadays are very unreliable and offer crappy benefits anyways.

All of this is thanks to a ‘simple’ bartending job — technically two since I work at two restaurants.

If you’re trying to become financially stable, bartending/serving may be the answer if you can’t tolerate sitting in a cubicle for eight hours, five days a week.

I’d rather work as a bartender for a few years and invest in myself and writing side hustle than return to an office job where my mental health is at risk.

Another thing I’ve noticed about this job is that people will not disrespect you as often as they would if they were communicating with you over the phone or email.

This depends on the place — fortunately, you have a right as a server to refuse service to someone who’s completely inappropriate.

When I was working as an account manager, I was treated worse. People would yell over the phone, call me names, tell me to put whatever up my a**, you name it.

Never has it gone to that extent, at least for me, at any of my bartending jobs.

Have people been condescending and overly demanding? Sure, but once I tell them they need to be patient because there’s one of me and two hundred other customers, they stop mistreating you quickly.

People don’t like it when you call them out for their poor behavior to their face — doing so respectfully makes them check themselves.

Which is another point I want to make. This kind of job builds a skill that’s dying today — communicating and dealing with people face to face.

As a bartender, I’ve met all kinds of people, including recruiters, and they’ve told me they would instead hire someone like me, who has customer service experience rather than technical experience.

The technical stuff can be taught, but having the skill to communicate directly with people and deliver a pleasant experience is what they want.

Most people working these corporate jobs have never worked a customer service job, and it shows. They ignore details or don’t have the skill to tell when a person is not fond of the experience nor care to offer anything to make the experience better. They don’t care about building good rapport.

As a bartender, I’ve developed a sense of knowing when someone is not exactly thrilled or needs something — anticipating needs and offering other solutions.

Now that I think about it, I’ve gotten multiple job offers on the spot. Although this is nice, none of the jobs I’ve been offered pay anything close to what I make right now.

At the end of the day, isn’t that what we need? More money so we can have better options and resources to create the life we truly want?

Maybe serving or bartending can get you there. Even as a side job, it can make a huge difference.