When the COVID19 Pandemic hit, I opted to not return the nursing home in an effort to maintain my health for myself and more importantly for Mother Fran. The thought of exposing myself to a building of over 100 people scares me. This has put a major cramp in my earnings so far for 2020. Luckily, I tightened my belt years ago and don’t need to make a big salary. I have been doing a lot, and I mean a lot of yard work in order to pay my bills and meet my financial goals. I don’t know if/when I will return to working at the nursing home; but I know it will be my decision. That is Freedom with a capital F.
My thoughts on money and how much I need have evolved over the last ten years. I worked primarily for one company for most of my 20’s, 30’s and into my 40’s. I worked my way up from a temporary relief worker to full time staff, to manager, coordinator and eventually director level positions. It was a human service agency so the money was not good, especially when I first started but I enjoyed my work, and met some pretty amazing friends.
When I started the job, my best friend and I talked about wanting to make $20,000 per year. That sounded good when we were earning less than $8.00 per hour. That was my first financial goal at that job. Next we wanted earn the amount that was equivalent to our age. So at 30, we wanted to earn at least $30,00o per year. By the time I left the agency at 43, I was making quite a bit more than my age and thought I was doing pretty good.
I started my next job making a bit more than when I left the human service agency but then my earnings stopped rising. Working at a nursing home as an Occupational Therapist paid well but there was no room to rise unless I wanted to be the Director of Rehabilitation; and I did not!
This is when my idea of how much money I needed to live my life started to shift. At this point in my life, I was planning on taking the summer off to help Mother Fran after hip surgery. I wanted to pay for 2 months of expenses before I left for the lake so I wouldn’t need to think about money while I was gone. This included my rent, car payment, insurance, health insurance and my school loan. My plan was coming together and I found getting ahead on my expenses rewarding and amazingly easy.
Those two months at the lake were amazing and I didn’t know it but they would change my life. You see during that July and August, a few rather important seeds were planted. Taking an extended time away from work and spending it at my happy place was a game changer! I met someone special that I wanted to get to know better. I realized how much I loved my family and wanted to return to NY to be closer to them. By the end of August, I had decided to move back to the Finger Lakes and to take six months off. I wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get my financial life in order in order to meet this goal but the seeds were planted and I was ready.
When I returned to Massachusetts, I started to devise strategies to save money. First I went through my credit card statements and figured out where I spent money and where I could stop the flow. I started recording all cash purchases and made serious changes. I cut way back on going out for drinks and dinner with friends. I made calls to find cheaper car insurance. I bought an antenna and cancelled my cable. I stopped shopping for clothes I didn’t need by literally banning myself from entering Kohls, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx. It is funny but I still have trouble walking into those stores. I stopped grabbing snacks at gas stations and fast food places.
At that time, I had a goal that was more important than any of these material things, I knew my WHY! I wanted to quit my job to spend time at the lake with Mother Fran and not even look for work for six months. Nothing I could purchase was more important to me than that goal. I needed to save up six months of living expenses so I could continue to pay my school loan, car loan, credit card bills, as well as the money needed to buy things I really would need like food! Amazingly, putting this into practice was incredibly easy. I already had a dry run when I prepared for my two months earlier that year.
That six months of freedom was a wonderful experience for me but it kind of ruined me at the same time. My sister, Child #1 warned me. She said that I would have a hard time returning to full-time work after experiencing this semi-retirement. Truer words have never been spoken. I found another job at a nursing home in NY but my heart was never in it. I had lived the life of a retired person and loved it. I did not want to return to life of the employed. After six months of full-time work, I requested to go per-diem and with a few side gigs, I have managed quite well for the last 5 years.
Now, I don’t come close to earning my age but I no longer feel like I need to. If I made $54,000 per year (my age) and spent $44,000 per year, I could have $10,000 to invest. On the other hand, if I make $34,000 per year and only spend $24,000 per year, I still have $10,000 to invest. So with my new spending habits, I can live my life on way less money than before. To me, that means once I pay my monthly bills, max out my Health Savings Account and my Roth IRA and reach my annual financial goals, I don’t have to kill myself working at a job I don’t love. This is my financial logic in My Little Blue Kayak. This is how I think about money now and this is how I choose wealth.
That is Freedom with a capital F!
A few weeks ago, I was working at someone’s house and she was working from home on her computer. I saw her through the window and felt bad that she had to work on such a beautiful day. The irony was I was working at that very moment as well. I enjoy my work so much, it often doesn’t feel like work!
That is Freedom with a capital F!
Choosing health, wealth and happiness is all about giving yourself FREEDOM!
Other posts on this topic include: I Moved the Lake and Change a Little, Change a Lot.
Lake Girl
