My Thoughts: W-2 Employee (Patent Examiner) vs. 1099 Self-Employed (Realtor)

In terms of my career, I have a lot going through my mind these days.

This post is just me putting my thoughts in writing.

I work as a W-2 employee. I am a patent examiner at the USPTO. I’m coming up on 14 years in October. This job is completely work-from-home, pays decently, and has incredible benefits. I am currently on a part-time schedule, where I work 2 days/week. However, I don’t really enjoy this job. I am thinking of leaving this job in 3-6 months, but now I’m having second thoughts.

I am also self-employed as a realtor, running my own business. I have been practicing real estate for about 9 years now. I had always planned for this to be a hobby or a side hustle. However, in the past 2-3 years, I got incredibly busy with real estate and spent more time doing this than my other job. The income is unpredictable, but when it’s good, it easily surpasses my other job’s annual income in just a few months. In a bad month, my income can be zero. For the most part, I really enjoy practicing real estate, and I feel that I’m pretty good at it. But as the sole source of income for my family of 4, the unpredictable income is scary.

Here are some of my pros and cons of being a W-2 employee:

• Pros of being a W-2 employee:
  • Steady income. I get paid biweekly from the federal government. This is the gold standard of job security. If I stay here, my income is pretty much guaranteed.
  • Excellent benefits. Benefits include a government pension, TSP(401k) matching, Roth TSP, health insurance, annual leave and sick leave, Federal holidays. Health insurance is a big one, since we are a family of 4.
  • Work from home. With this job, I can work 100% from home. The USPTO was a pioneer in the work-from-home movement, creating a hoteling program which allowed us to work completely from home.
  • Uninterrupted vacation. When I go on vacation, I don’t have to think about my job. I can enjoy my time with my family and not have to worry about anything.
  • Autonomy. My job has a very flexible schedule. As long as I get my work done, no one bothers me or expects me to be in front of a computer at certain hours.
  • Great supervisor. Right now, I have the best supervisor I’ve had since being at the USPTO. He leaves me alone to do my work and trusts me to do my work. He schedules meetings or trainings only as necessary and uses our time efficiently. I really couldn’t ask for more.
  • Free time. Since I’m able to get my work done relatively quickly, I have free time to work on other things.
• Cons of being a W-2 employee:
  • Capped income. As a federal government employee, I know my income will always be capped by the GS scale. It’s enough to be comfortable, but I’ve always had greater ambitions.
  • Boredom/limited creativity. I don’t get to work on the things that I want to. Instead, I have to work on the things that I’m told to work on.
  • Limited growth. I reached the position of primary examiner (GS-14) in about 6 and a half years. I’ve been stuck in that same position as I approach 14 years. I could try to become a supervisor myself, but I don’t have enough passion in this field (patents/law) or the motivation to go for that.
  • Tedious work. Patent law can be incredibly technical and tedious. I have some easy cases, but the difficult ones are tedious. Imagine writing research papers every day. Now imagine doing that for 14 years. Not fun.
  • Isolation. This job requires a lot of self-discipline and self-motivation. When I do this job, I am alone sitting in front of a computer, reading and writing. For the reading part, I try to leave the house and go to a coffee shop to work to break up the monotony.
  • Of these cons, I think the last two are the main reasons I want to leave. I don’t want to look back on my life and regret that I spent 30-40 years doing something I didn’t enjoy. I don’t want to regret not going for the things that I wanted to try because I was too risk averse.

Here are some of my pros and cons of being 1099 Self-Employed:

• Pros of being 1099 self-employed:
  • Uncapped earning potential. Being self-employed, I can earn as much as I want (or as little as I want). I get to control my income (see below as I also listed this as a con). If I am super disciplined and motivated, there’s no limit to how much I can earn.
  • Freedom. I can run my business however I want. I have the freedom to implement and work on any or all of my ideas. I can work on things that I am passionate about. In this case, it’s serving people (customer service).
  • Flexible schedule. I can work whenever I want and rest whenever I want.
• Cons of being 1099 self-employed:
  • Uncapped earning potential, BUT I control my income. There are many days that I don’t feel like doing the work I need to do. Being self-employed, I can do whatever I want! This also means I won’t earn anything for doing nothing.
  • Freedom, BUT no guarantees. Even though I can do whatever I want, it won’t guarantee that I earn anything. If my ideas fail, I’ll earn nothing. Most of the time, implementing ideas costs money (e.g. marketing) and time.
  • Flexible schedule, BUT probably more hours. Since I run my own business, I have the freedom to do no work if I want. But being self-employed, I’ve found that I usually work a lot more hours to run my business successfully. Business owners often joke that they go from working 9-5 to 24/7. While it’s not 24/7, I have worked past midnight many times and often work nights and weekends (and vacations).
  • Always thinking about the business. Since it’s my own business, I’m always thinking about what needs to get done. Even when I’m on vacation, I need to make sure all my clients’ needs are being met. Many times, I’ll still have to take my work with me on vacation and take phone calls. On one vacation, I remember being in a hotel lobby on the phone after my kids went to sleep. On another vacation, I remember having to go back to my hotel room from the beach to handle something for my clients.
  • A lot more responsibility. As a business owner, I am responsible for everything. If I hire someone to do something for me, I am responsible for everything they do. For example, if they are late for an appointment with my client, that reflects badly on me, not my hire, and I have to take full responsibility.

As I mentioned above, my supervisor at my government job is super chill. I already let him know that I plan to leave in 3-6 months. But now, I’m having second thoughts. With the shifting market, business has slowed down. Working at 40% (2 days/week) in my government job has been much more manageable, almost easy. I’m trying to decide if the pros of keeping the W-2 job outweigh the cons.

Is keeping the W-2 job distracting me from focusing all my efforts on my 1099? The real estate business is seasonal and cyclical. I don’t want to be chasing clients for business. I like being available to help them when they need help, not when I need income. One benefit of having the W-2 job is that I sincerely never put my interests above my clients’. I never needed the money, and I believe that was one of the reasons I was able to provide my best service.

I am currently the primary breadwinner for our household. My wife quit her consulting career when we had our second kid. One benefit of being so busy over the past 2-3 years was that we were able to pay off our mortgage. Now, we have no debt and a decent financial cushion. However, being so busy meant that I had less time to spend with my wife and kids. I’m looking to create more a balanced life.

When is enough enough? Maybe my goal shouldn’t be to sell a ton of houses. I think I’d be happy selling about 15-20 houses per year. And I could keep my other job at a 40% capacity. I feel like that would provide more than enough income and give me more time to spend time with family and friends and time to work on other things.

I know many other people have gone through the same struggle. It’s hard to give up steady income for something that’s not guaranteed. There are many times I doubt myself. Can I succeed in this business? Will I be able to work hard enough to do the things I don’t want to do even when I don’t want to do them? A lot of the real estate training I’ve been doing focuses so much on mindset. If you’ve gone through something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have any advice, I’d be happy to listen.