# I Got Laid Off... Now I Make $11,000 a Month Doing Whatever I Want

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/asiandadenergy-s-substack-podcast-7711112/i-got-laid-off-now-i-make-11-000-a-month-doing-whatever-i-want
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/asiandadenergy-s-substack-podcast-7711112/i-got-laid-off-now-i-make-11-000-a-month-doing-whatever-i-want.md
Podcast: [AsianDadEnergy's Substack Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/asiandadenergy-s-substack-podcast-7711112)
Published: 2026-07-04T11:00:33+00:00
Episode link: https://asiandadenergy.substack.com/p/i-got-laid-off-now-i-make-11000-a
Audio file: https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/205036573/0ac1d8c6611e0415ae8ffb3fbebdd4ce.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/asiandadenergy-s-substack-podcast-7711112/episodes/i-got-laid-off-now-i-make-11-000-a-month-doing-whatever-i-want
Duration seconds: 887

## Resource

When I got laid off from my Big Tech job late last year, I thought I knew what came next. Shock. Anger. Shame. Sadness. If you’ve ever been laid off, you probably know the feeling. It is as if someone has ripped away not just your paycheck, but your identity. After spending twenty five years in the technology industry, I suddenly found myself unemployed. Meanwhile, every week seemed to bring another announcement of mass layoffs across the tech industry. Friends were losing jobs. LinkedIn became an endless stream of people posting that they were “excited to announce” they were looking for work. It was depressing. But something unexpected happened. Over the following months, I slowly came through the other side. Instead of waking up every morning dreading another day of meetings, deadlines, and corporate politics, I started waking up excited. Some days felt almost euphoric. There were so many things I wanted to learn, build, and explore that I genuinely did not want the day to end. My layoff had accidentally pushed me into something I never would have chosen for myself. Early retirement. I Know I’m One of the Lucky Ones Before going any further, I want to acknowledge something important. This is only possible because I spent many years earning a high salary in tech while aggressively saving and investing. For well over a decade, my wife and I consistently lived below our means. We invested. We avoided lifestyle inflation. We paid off debt. Over time, those boring financial decisions compounded into something extraordinary. Financial independence. Without that foundation, this story would have been very different. I understand that. I do not take that privilege lightly. The People I’m Really Writing This For Ironically, this article is not for people who have already reac…

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