Category: Musings

Writing for Myself

by A Purple Life, posted in Hobbies, Musings

I seem to be writing several posts lately about what I don’t want to do 🙂 . I’ve learned a lot this year and it’s only early February. While working as an advisor for this financial start up I was asked to write blogs for her. I originally declined saying I had to write blogs for my current company (true) and was already struggling with that. That is still true to an extent. I find it a lot easier to write about a subject I am passionate about (finance) without a hidden agenda or a particular tone I need to hit that is not my own voice.
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Writing Cured My Writer’s Block

by A Purple Life, posted in Hobbies, Musings

My latest job is unlike anything else I have done in my adult life. Instead of being a cog in giant ad agencies where everyone has their place and sometimes I’m asked to lend a hand in another part of the process, we are now all responsible for creating every part of the process. There are no writers or designers or strategists. There is no one dedicated to client service. We are all of these things. We are consultants. We’re whatever the client needs us to be. This is so refreshing and exciting. In the ad world I am usually bored with my work after 3 months and hungry to quit after 6, but now what we do changes so rapidly I’m always learning or doing something new. Continue reading “Writing Cured My Writer’s Block” →

I Don’t Want To Be A Financial Adviser

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Musings

After hearing that I want to retire early several people have tried to talk me out of it – saying that I just haven’t found the right career or job. “What do you like to do?” they ask. “Personal finance” I respond. “Why don’t you become a financial adviser?” they say. My original response was that I do not like the idea of my pay being linked to giving biased or bad advice. Continue reading “I Don’t Want To Be A Financial Adviser” →

Eating High Fat Made Me Like Cooking

by A Purple Life, posted in Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings

I’ve never enjoyed cooking. I’ve always seen it as a chore. I cook something for an hour, dirty many pots and pans and since I’m a fast eater scarf it down in about five minutes. This does not seem like a great use of my time. Bad ROI 🙂 . Now that I’m eating Low Carb, High Fat food while doing an Uber Frugal Month challenge I’ve discovered something weird. I don’t hate cooking anymore. I haven’t done a full 180, but I don’t mind cooking. I usually do it at least once a day. I make my breakfast from scratch: 3 scrambled eggs cooking in half a tbsp of butter, an ounce of mozzarella cheese, an ounce of an onion (high carb/sugary – who knew?) and whatever treat I want to put it in: yesterday it was pesto (yum), today it was avocado (YUM!). It takes maybe 10 minutes and I eat it slowly with my tea in a sun-soaked living room. Continue reading “Eating High Fat Made Me Like Cooking” →

Dietary Musings Part II: High-Fat, Low Carb

by A Purple Life, posted in Food, Keto, Musings

I’m surprised by what my brain absorbs and clings onto. I just re-read my original Dietary Musings post. It was two years ago when I looked into a vegan/whole food plant based diet. I planned to record my ailments that the books I was reading claimed would be resolved by eating this way to track my progress. It….didn’t go well :). Cutting all animal products out of my diet made me tired, constantly hungry and didn’t cure anything. I dropped it after less than a month of creating unique recipes that frankly didn’t taste like much of anything at all and went back to my original American diet which includes bouts of low calorie eating combined with overeating at restaurants and binge drinking. Continue reading “Dietary Musings Part II: High-Fat, Low Carb” →

No Sunday Blues

by A Purple Life, posted in Jobs, Musings

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.

The Power of an Emergency Fund

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Jobs, Musings
“I heard there might be layoffs” my colleague said to me, her eyes wide. “Cool” I replied while turning back to my computer. She looked at me in shock. Apparently that wasn’t the normal response. I’ve worked in ad agencies all of my career and I have been laid off three times in five years. The shortest time I’ve been at a company is two weeks. The ad world is extremely turbulent. We are at the whims of other companies (our clients) and their budget. It’s a service industry and if big companies are tightening their belts in response to a recession, for example, there is a lot less ad money and agencies have almost yearly layoffs as a result. And who gets laid off? The newest, youngest hires AKA me 🙂 .

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Funemployment Helped Me Find What’s Important

by A Purple Life, posted in Finance, Jobs, Musings

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” →