May 19, 2010
It’s amazing how much you can get done without a regular 9 to 5 taking up most of your day. Your day can start as, well-rested and refreshed, you have that leisurely cup of coffee or tea, basking in the morning sun with the paper. Work and errands are queued up, run on your schedule and so much more gets done.
Or does it?
Sometimes, after a round of several appointments and errands I’d feel terribly accomplished, but there was a sneaking suspicion that it simply wasn’t sustainable productivity. After all, it was rarely producing any income. On the flip side, getting up pre-dawn for work five days a week and squeezing in the personal stuff when and if you can feels so constrictive that the lure of the open schedule is a siren song. Of course, that alone is hardly good reason to stop working full time and I’d be unhappy if I weren’t being productive and earning money to hoard like a treasure-loving dragon.
There are days, though, that the idea of building an empire of something that is nearly self-sustaining, doesn’t require endless meetings to keep alive or keep moving, and doesn’t rely on the vagaries of a single entity for survival is awfully enticing. That and all the new Dr. Who and Caprica episodes that I know I’m missing are nibbling away at my patience. Ok, again, I know, not a valid reason. As a reforming workaholic, I claim right of not yet knowing how to balance work and play.
Have you considered the merits and drawbacks of being your own boss? If you could make an honest and respectable (however you define that number) wage, would you?
Mrs Micah recently asked Are You Ready to Become Your Own Boss?
I know that’s Nicole of RainyDaySaver‘s goal;
VH of Funny About Money is doing quite well sort of running her own show between the CopyEditor’s Desk and her community college classes;
Mrs. Money’s really liking the idea of ditching her full time position because she’s not happy with her job, thence to perhaps become a SAHM for at least a year;
On the other side of the fence, Paranoid Asteroid has no intentions of going freelance or entrepreneurial, and several people agree with her. Unfortunately I can’t find that post!
Which side of the fence do you prefer?
May 15, 2010
It’s been long enough since any graduations of my own that graduation ceremonies are now utterly unmotivating. Or so I say now. May is a bit early for my taste, but maybe around June I’ll feel the energy from Pomp and Circumstance!
In the meantime, there’s something about a) coming back to my old room and b) traveling on a Saturday that makes me just want to hole up like a hermit and so that’s what I’ve done today.
I’ve emerged to spend $30 in pursuit of grooming and feeding. Both were good.
The latter was a catch-me-up session with a dear friend whose family news left me stunned and wandering the mall with unseeing eyes for half an hour until my brain cleared. While there were no deaths, there was a close call, and several other life events as defined by say, your health care provider for qualification to change your plan have or will occur. None of the good ones, though. The best I could do with give great big hugs and wish things would improve, rapidly. Y’know the weird thing? I felt guilty. It all happened after I moved, and I thought, “well crap, my world didn’t completely fall apart aside from that one really tough week, but your family took the hit.”
It felt like the odd void of disaster in my family was moved to someone else I love. Crazy, I know.
In any case, I’ll be writing the usual cousin check for a graduation and another four years completed. As always, I’m inmensely proud and scrambling for an appropriate card to tuck it into because darned if I didn’t take the box of cards up north with me when I moved!
And can I say? I’ve missed this crazy SoCal sun!! I’ll have to remember how not to get sunburned tomorrow.
March 22, 2010
“Finite means, and deciding how to spend them, has a delicious tension that infinite means can’t supply.”
– From Carla Power’s The Pleasure of Pinching Pennies on Oprah.com
I can’t tell you know much I love that sentiment. The paragraph continues …
“If the lamp’s genie had granted Aladdin limitless wishes instead of just three, where would the fun be in that? The link between thrift and being fully engaged with life’s possibilities was recently noted by Barbra Streisand, of all people. Back before she got famous, she had to stretch her $45 clerk’s salary all week. “Those were amazing times,” she told a talk-show host, “when you have your future ahead of you, and the challenges of making that $45 last, and appreciating every penny.
Spoken like a true multimillionairess, you may scoff. The glamour of making ends meet frays pretty fast when you’re worried about losing your house or going without health benefits. There’s thrift, and then there’s fear, and nobody should confuse the two. But for those fortunate enough not to want for basics, there is a glorious discipline in trying to stretch your money to fit your vision of the world. Like a good workout, or great sex, weighing up how you spend your money recenters you, allowing you to feel the reach and heft of yourself moving through the world.”
The distinction made here between thrift and penury is critical — there was absolutely nothing fun about working 80 hours a week, trying to make decent grades in college, all the while wondering if I was going to bring home enough to pay both the rent and utility bills. There was nothing glamorous about dropping silent tears over my checkbook, willing the numbers to match up and stay in the black.
But years after that was over, when I graduated and started making a little more money, I made choices for myself. I started to appreciate what was truly important and why they meant more to me than eating out or buying Stuff. My parents’ choices made more sense: buying used clothes; handing clothes down through four cousins; only allowing me to borrow, not buy, books; and helping displaced family with comparative luxuries like take-out food, money and shelter. It took some years before I realized that they were making perfectly acceptable sacrifices for their kids to provide basic necessities to our extended family.
When you have just enough to get by, your choices are your values. Your lifestyle brings out the grit and creativity that usually hides deep in your bones.
_____________________________
My post on buying a car (should I or shun’t I?) was included in this week’s Carnival of Personal Finance! ’twas rough times out there, the Carnival is overrun by the classic ninja vs. pirates vs. nuns vs. fighting robots vs. real estate agents vs. zombies!
August 13, 2009
Aside from the spending reports from my recent travel, let’s just say I’ve … been paying so little attention to my cash flow that I have no idea how much I’ve spent this month. But that’s not the worst part – I’ve been going out sporadically, but no more than once or twice a week, and for pretty low-key stuff. Local burger joint, and suchlike.
No, my real stupidity is located in the travel reservation part of life. During my most hectic lead-up to two weekends ago, I made reservations at a Best Western for a single night stay in the middle of nowhere because that’s where an old friend was getting married. After days of squeezing in hotel and rental car research between other obligations, my travel companion and I came to the realization we just couldn’t afford it.
Cue: cancel the hotel reservation. Right? RIGHT???
Oh no. THIS idiot forgot about it completely.
Seriously. 100% completely forgot it until a note of the $98 transaction popped up on Yodlee charged to my trusty new credit card. When the truth dawned on me, I was as wordless as a much less cheerful Andy Runton’s Owly …..
“????” I said.
Then “!!!!!”
You may not think it’s physically possible to kick oneself and hang head in shame at the same time, but it is. Oh, it is. (“!!!!!”)
Now I’d better creatively replace that money. (“……”)
This is what happens when you stray from routine: mistakes that cost you big money. Normally everything that has a cancellation date is recorded meticulously on the day of the call, as well as on the day that I have to make the cancellation call by. My planner, however, has been languishing on my desk since July 1st, and that’s all my fault.
August 6, 2009
1. A set of ninja hooks for my super-classy future foyer. When I have a place of my own …. Y’all know my decorating theme will be whatever Makes Me Laugh, right? [And this is why in more lucid moments, I ask anyone with an ounce of sense and taste to take care of my interior design.]
2. A full size mouse. Not the squeak-squeak with whiskers kind, though I don’t mind them, I want .. I NEED a full size mouse for my computer. Rheumy fingers don’t like this micro-POS that I got from an ex-boyfriend in college for my first computer to hold me over until I found a real one. It’s been nine years. I deserve a grown up mouse. And with 4 USB ports, I don’t have to splurge on wireless if I don’t have the money.
3. A trust fund.
What??? Don’t give me that dirty look. I’ll buy you all ice cream if you stop looking at me like that. You can’t imagine the good I can do in the world with a trust fund. Think of the animals! Oh, you didn’t know? My childhood dream was to get rich enough so that I could own a ranch and collect all the old unwanted animals where they had enough food and room to roam. I’m pretty sure someone else was going to get paid to pick up the mess, though. I only do grooming.
3a. For those of you still judging me, I’ll take a final decision on an interview bag as a close, but poor, second third option. I think we’re closer, but it’s still going to cost $30, probably. It looks a lot better than the first option. I did return the first and second bags I took for a trial spin.
4. To give the best birthday and Christmas presents ever, always. It’s really hard, and I’m already worried about Christmas.
5. A cozy little home of my own, with all the stuff I need in it. Financed by a lovely JOB of my own.
**Other Wish Listers (this all started from Stacking Pennies)
Fabulously Broke
Little Miss Moneybags
Stacking Pennies
I’m only sort of tongue in cheek about most of this list. I really do want that mouse though. My fingers are cramped already, I don’t need help. My biggest real wish is to be done and DONE with this stupid disease business because it is getting in my way. I hate losing whole days to pain and fatigue, it’s such a WASTE.
June 30, 2009
Contributions for health, dental, other insurances, and supplemental retirement accounts are not taken from your final check; your contribution to the Retirement Savings Program is taken, and the university’s matching contribution is made. Other deductions such as parking citations, charges on your ID card, wage assignments, applicable taxable tuition assistance benefits, etc. will be deducted automatically from your final check.
Here we are!
After weeks and months of build-up, mood swings, job hunting, and all the other associated mumbo jumbo, we have survived until the final day without experiencing bodily harm (this was actually a little bit of a concern), completely losing my mind, or going stark raving mad. The latter two seem the same, but they’re not. The last option seems more permanent.
Happily, we’ve arrived. But there’s still work to do! Namely: deposit checks!! [oooh yes, *rubbing hands* I’ve been waiting for this moment.] By 3 pm of this day, I ought to receive my (a) final paycheck as detailed in the above quote, (b) a severance and vacation payout, and (c) quarterly supplemental income. I also sort of expect a (d) supplemental check to match the severance and vacation payout, but am not sure when and if that will appear. The HQ hasn’t exactly got their you-know-what in order, most of the time.
Secondly, investment accounts! My 403(b) and 401(a) are both with Vanguard, and I’ve accumulated enough to just leave them be. No rolling over, no cashing out, no losing about 40% of it.
There’s one more investment account coming due. In my first two years of employment, non-exempt employees had access to the We Think You’re Stupid Plan. I’ve spoken to the folks responsible for dealing with the now-obsolete WTYS Plan, and have found that they will roll the account balance over into my existing Vanguard account. Since they froze the plan, everyone was immediately vested! She wouldn’t tell me what the balance was at the time, but it’ll just be a nice surprise, whatever it is.
Thirdly, benefits! I’ve stocked up on my prescriptions for now, and should have enough to last me until September. Unless I have to do it sooner, I’m going to wait until about 40 days before signing into COBRA. If there’s no immediate need, and I manage to land another job, why waste the premiums? Reduced or not, that’s cash. There’s no problem with waiting since you can activate it retroactively so long as you pay the premiums for both months.
Also under this heading: life insurance. The life insurance policy I settled on is a measly $200k policy that I can port from my employer. It was the easiest option available to me, and while I’m no fan of PF guru-isms and simplifications, sometimes I just have to take the easier path so that the job gets done.
There you have it, folks. As prepped as a person can be, I’m walking out of this home away from home of the past 4.75 years and grateful that I can.
“What’s next?”
–Jed Bartlett, West Wing
June 9, 2009
It’s June 9th.
I still haven’t gotten feedback or follow-up from the place I really really want to hear from, and I have a couple anemic freelance options to consider.
One is a lock but it’s just a favor for a family friend, a one-off deal that I could probably complete in a solid week.
The other is something I really don’t want because it’s going to a huge mess to navigate (workload + politics — TONS of politics) but it may come down to that or unemployment. I’d rather put off the latter for a while longer if there’s a solid financial advantage to making this commitment. We’re in talks this week. A very “we’ll see” situation.
I’ve done my best to keep maintain Zen-mode since the end of last month but it’s slipping from my grasp like a wiggly water toy you play with at the Discovery Channel Store.
The delicate fabric of that calm is revealed when those closest to me ask the most innocent questions about my plans or job situation. It feels something like a vise of atmospheric pressure closing in, reminding me that I still haven’t got my life ordered properly and by the way, young lady, what do you intend to do with your life when you grow up? I’m not sure which movie character menacingly delivers that line, but I’m properly chastised/chagrined every time.
No answer, I’m afraid. But I’ll repair the bastions of calm and move along my day. Trying not to fret too much about the terrifying maw of a completely unscheduled life after a date three weeks into the future.
Strange. Writing about it is rather calming.
