The knot that has been in my chest nonstop since I started working is surprisingly gone. Since moving to Seattle and away from the pressure and stress of NYC, for the first time it is well and truly gone. I think the reason is a combination of things. At Company #5 that involved: Continue reading “Unraveling The Knot”
It might be the tumultuous nature of ad agencies, but I seem to have accidentally dodged some serious bullets in my career. In the moment a lot of situations have looked less than ideal, but in hindsight (like most things) they look amazing. My Mom truly believes there’s a reason for everything and each step is pointing you in a positive direction. I’m less optimistic, but it’s a nice thought and looking back at my career it seems to be very true. Continue reading “Dodging Bullets: Work Edition”
Something strange has been happening since I started my new work from home job. I no longer get the Sunday Blues. Sunday just feels like a weekend day instead of a countdown to another work week. I actually used to get Saturday blues in school because we’d have to do all our work on Sunday before classes started on Monday. College was better since we set our own schedule and I usually did all my work during the weekdays so my weekends were truly free. Since entering the working world the Sunday Blues has been very real. It feels like Saturday is the only real weekend day. Even if I felt the Sunday Blues to a lesser extent Sundays were usually spent doing chores: laundry, cooking for the week, errands etc. But now things feel different. Not only do I not get the Sunday Blues, weekends hold less magical appeal than they used to. Because now I work 8 hours a day on my couch, usually with my partner nearby while taking breaks to cook or take a walk. Weekdays feel less like weekdays. They don’t involve being away from home for 10-12 hours or commuting or being around distracting people. It involves comfy clothing and the time to think. Another unexpected benefit of working from home.
Continue reading “The Power of an Emergency Fund”
My 4 months of funemployment in 2016 was the longest I have been funemployed in my career. In previous years I had only been without a job for about a month at a time, which was exactly enough time to network, find another job and do little else. This longer stint originally frustrated me. One company claimed to want to hire me before I even left my previous job, but was then put on hold. Then I went traveling. Despite my schedule rarely having me in Seattle for more than 24 hours another company a few weeks later said they wanted to hire me, but it fell through. I kept traveling. Another company inexplicably worked around my busy travel schedule and let me do several interviews over the phone claimed they wanted to hire me. And this too fell through in the end. There were several less serious disappointments along the way. Continue reading “Funemployment Helped Me Find What’s Important”
As a reminder to my future-retired-in-her-30s-self, I wanted to catalog a typical day in my life while working. This is an example of a not stressful day where I didn’t work late. And you still don’t want to do it do you 🙂 Continue reading “Day In The Life Of A Worker Bee”
It’s that simple. I love my new job. Each job I have seems to get better and better. Thank you universe. I’ve been trying to put my finger on why it’s so amazing.
Is it because of my client? Not really – she’s nice, but demands a lot and is difficult to read.
Is it because of the work I’m doing? Kind of – it’s not creating ads or adding to the gross manipulation of the marketing industry. Instead I’m thinking of ways to get people to work better together and helping advance my client’s career. I’m basically a ghost employee for a tech giant.
So what is it about? Continue reading “I Love My New Job”
In my 2016 State of the Union post I mentioned that I’ve changed my FIRE timeline twice in the past year. Last January I ran the numbers and decided that no matter what I was retiring on the eve on my 30th birthday in October of 2019. To accomplish this I decided that I would live on $14,000 a year, which is $4,000 less than my projected annual spend based on my current living situation ($18,000). I discovered and researched a large list of side hustles that could bring this minimal amount of income to make up the difference and discovered that that same $4,000 is what I usually spend on opulent vacations – which I assume I’ll need less of when my entire life is a vacation. Continue reading “Extending My Timeline to 2022: I Don’t Hate My Job”