So excited for you... But I really think you've earned the unemployment. You pay for it, employers pay for it, government mandates it: take it!
If I were you I'd forgo the middleman and attempt tutoring on your own. There's got to be a market for that. You could probably increase your margin and potentially learn some new skills... And maybe you could even get paid in cash if you catch my drift.
LiquidSapphire's Journal
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Hi Johnny - Thanks for stopping in. I am definitely taking the government dough! I just can't take it until late October, when my severance finally finishes paying its way out. Life might be very different then. Who knows? The middleman is really helpful right now... they give me added credibility, for one. For two, I am really rusty on my tutoring skills... I took through Calculus in high school but couldn't even answer some basic geometry and algebra questions because it's been too long. They have a really well defined curriculum for me to stumble through until I can finally re-learn this stuff again. For three, no marketing, I walk in and the work is right there! But yeah, definitely something I will consider for the future! And you know, it's something to do and it's available "right now" and it assuages my fears, if you know what I mean, whereas developing a business from scratch would take time. Apparently many parents get all bent out of shape about tutors having a teaching license (which I do not have) about most topics except high school math. Anyway, the situation is probably similar to Jacob doing that copy editing for a short while immediately after he ERE'd.
Chris - I don't know how close I am. I'm close in my head
But I won't know for sure until I can prove it to myself experientially. I have a few ideas I am trying out and test driving. Like you said it is a fun "challenge". Right now I am trying to obtain it via small little gigs and trying to get my monthly expenses regularly under $1200 but basically I am open for whatever as long as I do not hate it and it is not boring! Oh and it happens at least mostly during regular business hours.
Chris - I don't know how close I am. I'm close in my head
But I won't know for sure until I can prove it to myself experientially. I have a few ideas I am trying out and test driving. Like you said it is a fun "challenge". Right now I am trying to obtain it via small little gigs and trying to get my monthly expenses regularly under $1200 but basically I am open for whatever as long as I do not hate it and it is not boring! Oh and it happens at least mostly during regular business hours.-
Spartan_Warrior
- Posts: 1659
- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:24 am
Hi LS--as far as the insurance options go, you may already know this and be factoring it into your cost comparisons, but one thing that I just learned while looking into this is that most of the plans that include an HSA also contribute or "pay through" part of your monthly premium into the HSA. In other words, that 123/mo could be more like 73/mo in premiums and 50/mo automatic contribution to the HSA, versus just 73/mo in premiums for the regular one. Knowing this made me more willing to pay "extra" for the HSA-carrying option.
Glad to hear things are going so well otherwise! I'm excited for you (and a little jealous
Glad to hear things are going so well otherwise! I'm excited for you (and a little jealous
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
The one I have now passes through $62.50/mo for my $43.44 every two weeks premium but under COBRA that plan is going to cost something like $300/mo, no thanks. I am not seeing any mention of pass through on the private plans? I checked all of the info on the site about it, I am thinking if it exists it shouldn't be too buried, right? It would be a major selling point. It exists in the OPM plans though.
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Spartan_Warrior
- Posts: 1659
- Joined: Fri Dec 02, 2011 1:24 am
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
September 1, 2012
NW: 240,171.36
Total Current Assets: 259382.93
Assuming current expenses of $1200/month, Current WR = 5.5%
Anticipated WR in March 2013: 4.8%
My net worth is still increasing and will continue to do so for at least the next 7-8 months between getting my vacation paid out (STILL waiting...sigh), severance pay and unemployment. Crossing my fingers to get the vacation $$ this month, severance pay this month and next, and then unemployment should start up late October/early November. As I said before my unemployment check should end up being $513 per week and I spend less than that so I should still be able to continually save until it runs out. Right now it runs out at 26 weeks so on or around March 6, 2013. I also hope that the Permanent Portfolio generates something like a 4% real annual return during this time frame of no withdrawals so that would help as well. So it appears there’s a pretty good chance of hitting $300K in assets before I have to begin genuine withdrawals. Anyway, at that point in time, my intention is to only withdraw 3% annually from my nest egg and then to have some other fairly reliable income sources to make up any gap. I anticipate the gap to be about $5K per year. $2K per year from tutoring and $3K/year from elsewhere.
So some good news is that I can earn up to 25% of my weekly unemployment amount ($128.25) and still get my full unemployment check. I should be able to stay under that ceiling with the tutoring job. So yay! I’m glad to find out that getting that part time job isn’t screwing me over in that department. I’m not even eligible for unemployment for a while but that is good to know. See look Johnny H, I am milking the system!
About that $3K gap, well, I don’t have a plan yet but I am working on it. I am slowly researching some skills I may want to develop and then offer as part of a small service-oriented business. I have also done some mystery shopping and also signed up for a bunch of credit cards with fat bonuses. Mystery shopping is probably only good for like $500/year before I start hating doing it. I can probably count on about $1000 from credit card bonuses at least every other year. I am thinking right now that I can just tool along in 2013 doing my best earning alternate income and then just work the Christmas retail season and/or the tax season rush at H&R Block if I cannot come up with any other ways to make money but this would be a worst case scenario for me. So yeah more to come here.
OK, about my costs. Now that I have found all of this time my transportation costs have gone to zero this month because I no longer feel the need to borrow the car to “save time” - I have more time than money so it’s no problem to take the bus or bike wherever. I don’t have a transportation plan though after the new year when my bus pass expires. That is still 4 months away though so I’ll figure it out then. Maybe I will just start buying the occasional bus ticket. It is $9 round trip system wide but can take 2+ hours one way so... :/ We’ll see. Also, as it stands right now I will be eligible for Medicaid on January 1, 2014 so my $73 insurance premium goes away at that time. I do try to pick up “interesting” mystery shops at restaurants when they appear. I make a token amount, we get the “going out” experience, we get a free meal, and all it cost me was some time filling out a survey at the end, and some freedom on where we went. Not too shabby. I managed to snag a free $80 in food at Benihana’s this month, and $5 for filling out the survey afterwards, for example. Pretty cheap for a fun date! That’s probably the best “shop” I’ve done to date. Mostly the reimbursement is only $20-$30. Anyway, I am hoping that my “recreation” category is generally lowered in general as I substitute some nights out with mystery shops. Also I am really close to a weight loss goal and I have completely cut out drinking alcohol until I meet it. Amazing what a difference that has made $$wise! If I had an embarrassing expense to post, it would be the amount of money I have given to the two local bars. In the last 12 months it is probably like $500 and I have nothing to show for it whatsoever. And here I am chasing pennies on cell phone bills and what not. Groceries are shockingly low. We have been eating a lot of food at home to just use it up. No secrets here. That and I have been extra price conscious on food. Like, instead of spending $4 on peanut butter with no sugar in it... I just didn’t buy any. I’m el cheapo lately on the food items lately. PB should be under $3 and it should be cheaper without all of the crap in it! damn it! That’s grocery shopping with your middle finger, baby!
About the PP - Despite not getting my leave paid out yet, I did buy some physical gold on Thursday and it so happened that it went up significantly on Friday so, woohoo! I’m already able to sell the gold coins for more than I paid for them including commissions. I found that on Thursday, goldmart.com was the cheapest place to buy. Had I had a larger order, I would have gone with a different dealer like Tulving but they have a 20 coin minimum. I have set my allocation up as if I have already received all of my separation funds (projected total assets at $280K) and so I currently plan to have 70K in each category, but right now I only have 50K in bonds. So once I get the money I am owed from the man, I’ll add to Bonds and should be pretty darn close to a 25% 4 way split. It seems to be Treasury Bonds are free to buy and so I should be able to add to my position slowly at no cost to me, unlike gold. As time goes on the more I appreciate the PP. I sleep well at night and feel reassured every time I hear a doomsday prediction with financial consequences. I also was able to implement it in the course of a day, whereas a well built dividend portfolio can take a year or more to build. I didn’t feel I had that kind of time so I am happy with my choice. Good stuff so far.
Hard to believe I have been keeping this journal for a little over a year. I think I started July 2011. I’m thankful for the opportunity to post monthly and the captive audience
It’s interesting to see how far I’ve come.
I resisted the urge to wipe out my rolling average and start over even though it’s higher than I’d like. I really do think it will fall modestly over time, settling in the 1100 range. I just need to be patient.
Rent: 500 (500)
Natural Gas: 7 (17)
Internet: 12 (15)
Electricity: 26 (23)
Water/Sewer: 11 (10)
Trash/Storm Drainage/Parks: 10 (10)
Netflix: 9 (10)
Cell Phone: 0 (11)
Groceries: 135 (192)
Medical: 0 (116)
Restaurants/Recreation: 58 (110)
Untracked: 0 (14)
Transportation: 0 (77)
Gifts: 0 (32)
Liquor: 0 (12)
Cat: 5 (16)
Gym: 10 (n/a)
Stuff: 73 (116)
Charity: 20 (23)
TOTAL: 876. (1296) Yeah. That’s crazy! I don’t think this is sustainable. I definitely hit some kind of trifecta this month - just reaaally good timing on some things like medical insurance, no gifts to give this month, no cell phone top ups, etc. I wasn’t even consciously trying that hard. I definitely didn’t set any kind of goal to keep spending under $1000. Crazy stuff. I will be curious to see what my first full month of ERE yields spending wise.
NW: 240,171.36
Total Current Assets: 259382.93
Assuming current expenses of $1200/month, Current WR = 5.5%
Anticipated WR in March 2013: 4.8%
My net worth is still increasing and will continue to do so for at least the next 7-8 months between getting my vacation paid out (STILL waiting...sigh), severance pay and unemployment. Crossing my fingers to get the vacation $$ this month, severance pay this month and next, and then unemployment should start up late October/early November. As I said before my unemployment check should end up being $513 per week and I spend less than that so I should still be able to continually save until it runs out. Right now it runs out at 26 weeks so on or around March 6, 2013. I also hope that the Permanent Portfolio generates something like a 4% real annual return during this time frame of no withdrawals so that would help as well. So it appears there’s a pretty good chance of hitting $300K in assets before I have to begin genuine withdrawals. Anyway, at that point in time, my intention is to only withdraw 3% annually from my nest egg and then to have some other fairly reliable income sources to make up any gap. I anticipate the gap to be about $5K per year. $2K per year from tutoring and $3K/year from elsewhere.
So some good news is that I can earn up to 25% of my weekly unemployment amount ($128.25) and still get my full unemployment check. I should be able to stay under that ceiling with the tutoring job. So yay! I’m glad to find out that getting that part time job isn’t screwing me over in that department. I’m not even eligible for unemployment for a while but that is good to know. See look Johnny H, I am milking the system!
About that $3K gap, well, I don’t have a plan yet but I am working on it. I am slowly researching some skills I may want to develop and then offer as part of a small service-oriented business. I have also done some mystery shopping and also signed up for a bunch of credit cards with fat bonuses. Mystery shopping is probably only good for like $500/year before I start hating doing it. I can probably count on about $1000 from credit card bonuses at least every other year. I am thinking right now that I can just tool along in 2013 doing my best earning alternate income and then just work the Christmas retail season and/or the tax season rush at H&R Block if I cannot come up with any other ways to make money but this would be a worst case scenario for me. So yeah more to come here.
OK, about my costs. Now that I have found all of this time my transportation costs have gone to zero this month because I no longer feel the need to borrow the car to “save time” - I have more time than money so it’s no problem to take the bus or bike wherever. I don’t have a transportation plan though after the new year when my bus pass expires. That is still 4 months away though so I’ll figure it out then. Maybe I will just start buying the occasional bus ticket. It is $9 round trip system wide but can take 2+ hours one way so... :/ We’ll see. Also, as it stands right now I will be eligible for Medicaid on January 1, 2014 so my $73 insurance premium goes away at that time. I do try to pick up “interesting” mystery shops at restaurants when they appear. I make a token amount, we get the “going out” experience, we get a free meal, and all it cost me was some time filling out a survey at the end, and some freedom on where we went. Not too shabby. I managed to snag a free $80 in food at Benihana’s this month, and $5 for filling out the survey afterwards, for example. Pretty cheap for a fun date! That’s probably the best “shop” I’ve done to date. Mostly the reimbursement is only $20-$30. Anyway, I am hoping that my “recreation” category is generally lowered in general as I substitute some nights out with mystery shops. Also I am really close to a weight loss goal and I have completely cut out drinking alcohol until I meet it. Amazing what a difference that has made $$wise! If I had an embarrassing expense to post, it would be the amount of money I have given to the two local bars. In the last 12 months it is probably like $500 and I have nothing to show for it whatsoever. And here I am chasing pennies on cell phone bills and what not. Groceries are shockingly low. We have been eating a lot of food at home to just use it up. No secrets here. That and I have been extra price conscious on food. Like, instead of spending $4 on peanut butter with no sugar in it... I just didn’t buy any. I’m el cheapo lately on the food items lately. PB should be under $3 and it should be cheaper without all of the crap in it! damn it! That’s grocery shopping with your middle finger, baby!
About the PP - Despite not getting my leave paid out yet, I did buy some physical gold on Thursday and it so happened that it went up significantly on Friday so, woohoo! I’m already able to sell the gold coins for more than I paid for them including commissions. I found that on Thursday, goldmart.com was the cheapest place to buy. Had I had a larger order, I would have gone with a different dealer like Tulving but they have a 20 coin minimum. I have set my allocation up as if I have already received all of my separation funds (projected total assets at $280K) and so I currently plan to have 70K in each category, but right now I only have 50K in bonds. So once I get the money I am owed from the man, I’ll add to Bonds and should be pretty darn close to a 25% 4 way split. It seems to be Treasury Bonds are free to buy and so I should be able to add to my position slowly at no cost to me, unlike gold. As time goes on the more I appreciate the PP. I sleep well at night and feel reassured every time I hear a doomsday prediction with financial consequences. I also was able to implement it in the course of a day, whereas a well built dividend portfolio can take a year or more to build. I didn’t feel I had that kind of time so I am happy with my choice. Good stuff so far.
Hard to believe I have been keeping this journal for a little over a year. I think I started July 2011. I’m thankful for the opportunity to post monthly and the captive audience
It’s interesting to see how far I’ve come. I resisted the urge to wipe out my rolling average and start over even though it’s higher than I’d like. I really do think it will fall modestly over time, settling in the 1100 range. I just need to be patient.
Rent: 500 (500)
Natural Gas: 7 (17)
Internet: 12 (15)
Electricity: 26 (23)
Water/Sewer: 11 (10)
Trash/Storm Drainage/Parks: 10 (10)
Netflix: 9 (10)
Cell Phone: 0 (11)
Groceries: 135 (192)
Medical: 0 (116)
Restaurants/Recreation: 58 (110)
Untracked: 0 (14)
Transportation: 0 (77)
Gifts: 0 (32)
Liquor: 0 (12)
Cat: 5 (16)
Gym: 10 (n/a)
Stuff: 73 (116)
Charity: 20 (23)
TOTAL: 876. (1296) Yeah. That’s crazy! I don’t think this is sustainable. I definitely hit some kind of trifecta this month - just reaaally good timing on some things like medical insurance, no gifts to give this month, no cell phone top ups, etc. I wasn’t even consciously trying that hard. I definitely didn’t set any kind of goal to keep spending under $1000. Crazy stuff. I will be curious to see what my first full month of ERE yields spending wise.
@ LS
Really awesome you are off the treadmill!
I like your plans and I think the 6 months or so until your benefits run out is a good deal of time to figure out how to move forward ... if I were you I would try out lots of different things and see what I like doing best
As for your alcohol issue - perhaps you can try brewing beer? It sounds like fun and not too complicated ...
I'm also interested to hear how your expenses will change in ERE beyond being car-less - I'd spend time thinking about reducing your rent, which is your largest expense. Perhaps you can find a fixer-upper and slowly restore it while you live in it (ask MMM to teach you the ropes as you now have time ...) ... and after 2 years, any capital gains up to half a million bucks will be tax free (if this exception still exists ... I think it does but I'm no expert)
Just my random positive thoughts for you
Hope you enjoy your freedom,
Magnus
Really awesome you are off the treadmill!
I like your plans and I think the 6 months or so until your benefits run out is a good deal of time to figure out how to move forward ... if I were you I would try out lots of different things and see what I like doing best
As for your alcohol issue - perhaps you can try brewing beer? It sounds like fun and not too complicated ...
I'm also interested to hear how your expenses will change in ERE beyond being car-less - I'd spend time thinking about reducing your rent, which is your largest expense. Perhaps you can find a fixer-upper and slowly restore it while you live in it (ask MMM to teach you the ropes as you now have time
...) ... and after 2 years, any capital gains up to half a million bucks will be tax free (if this exception still exists ... I think it does but I'm no expert)Just my random positive thoughts for you
Hope you enjoy your freedom,
Magnus
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
October 2, 2012
My lawsuit is underway and I am surprised at the amount of stress it is causing me hence my delay posting here. It reminds me of all of the reasons I hated working for that place; all of that stress back in full force. How did I ever put up with this all day every day? I should have left that job long ago and just taken a different job. So dear reader, if you are in a job you hate, and you are more than a year away from your savings goals, take it from me, start looking for another job. You don't even realize how toxic it is for you until you leave it.
So some lessons learned. First off, work was a huge burden of stress and now that I am not working there anymore, some of that stress is gone. (It was all gone for a while, when the lawsuit was quiet.) So yeah overall my life is definitely better. I would say that if you imagine the course of a typical week as a series of peaks and valleys, I got rid of most of the valleys. I am stlll searching for some more peaks though, but I was having that problem before anyway. I left my employment without a solid view of what I was going to and so I figured I would have this difficult “now what should I do with my life” period that is hard to solve. Perhaps that is hard for you INTJs to comprehend but I am an ISTJ and it is harder for me
I tried tutoring for a while but I quit. It became a job I disliked and dreaded. I was babysitting more than teaching and the scheduling process was very inconvenient for me. I figured if I was going to put up with that much crap I might as well just go get another government job and make way more money. It’s good anyway because now my schedule is more open to meet with lawyers and stuff like that.
I am still thinking that I won’t have to begin withdrawals until March and at that point assuming no additional income my withdrawal rate would be about 4.6% or thereabouts. I’d like to earn about $5K to $6K next year so I can get that down to 3% but I am not going to worry about it too much right now. Akratic said I probably have a couple years of work ahead of me, but nothing says they have to be the next couple years... so I am taking that to heart and just take a break from work for now. I still am doing little minor things for token amounts of money but nothing that approaches $5K or $6K. Mystery Shopping, Credit Card bonuses, giving plasma a couple times when I got “bonuses” for doing it, etc. Frankly I find I can only focus on a couple of major life goals at a time and this month it’s my lawsuit and some other things like getting my house cleaned up and ready for the winter and getting back on my diet and getting back to the gym and stuff like that and so finding meaningful life work is just not a major focus at this point in time. Maybe if I get a nice settlement this will all be moot anyway. One year's worth of salary in settlement will get me to a 3.38% withdrawal rate if I keep my spending largely the same. The gap to 3% would only be about $1500 of earnings annually, or around $125 a month which is pretty achievable, and anything above that would be gravy/lifestyle inflation.
Net Worth: 259785
Total Assets: 279990
Gold: 26.4% - IAU, American Eagles
Bonds: 20.7%, TLT, 30-Y Bonds held directly via Vanguard & Fidelity, may go to all 30-Y held directly sometime soon
Cash: 27.3% - TSP G Fund, various checking accounts, HSA
Stocks: 28.5% - TSP C and S Fund, 4:1 ratio
Expenses (average since Jan 1 in parenthesis)
Rent: 500 (500)
Natural Gas: 7 (16)
Internet: 12 (15)
Electricity: 28 (24)
Water/Sewer: 13 (10)
Trash/Storm Drainage/Parks: 10 (10)
Netflix: 8 (10)
Cell Phone:0 (10)
Groceries: 276 (201)
Medical: 0 (94)
Restaurants/Recreation: 45 (103)
Untracked: 10 (14)
Transportation: 20 (71)
Gifts: 70 (36)
Liquor: 0 (11)
Cat: 25 (15)
Gym: 10 (10, I guess, even though I just joined)
Stuff: 89 (113)
Charity: 0 (20)
TOTAL: 1123 (1277)
So a little unemployment hack is that you can elect COBRA (TCC for the Feds) either 60 days from the date of separation or 65 days from notification of the process, whichever is later. (note: dates might be different for private sector) My agency took until September 17 to notify me and so I have 65 days where I can retroactively activate health insurance if I need it. I gave a copy of filled out enrollment forms to boyfriend and 2 family members to file if I am incapacitated and will start new health insurance in mid-November. So I canceled the health insurance I had and got a refund.
Downgraded Netflix a touch. Purchased coupons on eBay and stocked up on a few shelf stable items. Huge Costco trip to stock up on stuff. Started xMas shopping. Yeah that's about all I have to report at the moment.
My lawsuit is underway and I am surprised at the amount of stress it is causing me hence my delay posting here. It reminds me of all of the reasons I hated working for that place; all of that stress back in full force. How did I ever put up with this all day every day? I should have left that job long ago and just taken a different job. So dear reader, if you are in a job you hate, and you are more than a year away from your savings goals, take it from me, start looking for another job. You don't even realize how toxic it is for you until you leave it.
So some lessons learned. First off, work was a huge burden of stress and now that I am not working there anymore, some of that stress is gone. (It was all gone for a while, when the lawsuit was quiet.) So yeah overall my life is definitely better. I would say that if you imagine the course of a typical week as a series of peaks and valleys, I got rid of most of the valleys. I am stlll searching for some more peaks though, but I was having that problem before anyway. I left my employment without a solid view of what I was going to and so I figured I would have this difficult “now what should I do with my life” period that is hard to solve. Perhaps that is hard for you INTJs to comprehend but I am an ISTJ and it is harder for me
I tried tutoring for a while but I quit. It became a job I disliked and dreaded. I was babysitting more than teaching and the scheduling process was very inconvenient for me. I figured if I was going to put up with that much crap I might as well just go get another government job and make way more money. It’s good anyway because now my schedule is more open to meet with lawyers and stuff like that.
I am still thinking that I won’t have to begin withdrawals until March and at that point assuming no additional income my withdrawal rate would be about 4.6% or thereabouts. I’d like to earn about $5K to $6K next year so I can get that down to 3% but I am not going to worry about it too much right now. Akratic said I probably have a couple years of work ahead of me, but nothing says they have to be the next couple years... so I am taking that to heart and just take a break from work for now. I still am doing little minor things for token amounts of money but nothing that approaches $5K or $6K. Mystery Shopping, Credit Card bonuses, giving plasma a couple times when I got “bonuses” for doing it, etc. Frankly I find I can only focus on a couple of major life goals at a time and this month it’s my lawsuit and some other things like getting my house cleaned up and ready for the winter and getting back on my diet and getting back to the gym and stuff like that and so finding meaningful life work is just not a major focus at this point in time. Maybe if I get a nice settlement this will all be moot anyway. One year's worth of salary in settlement will get me to a 3.38% withdrawal rate if I keep my spending largely the same. The gap to 3% would only be about $1500 of earnings annually, or around $125 a month which is pretty achievable, and anything above that would be gravy/lifestyle inflation.
Net Worth: 259785
Total Assets: 279990
Gold: 26.4% - IAU, American Eagles
Bonds: 20.7%, TLT, 30-Y Bonds held directly via Vanguard & Fidelity, may go to all 30-Y held directly sometime soon
Cash: 27.3% - TSP G Fund, various checking accounts, HSA
Stocks: 28.5% - TSP C and S Fund, 4:1 ratio
Expenses (average since Jan 1 in parenthesis)
Rent: 500 (500)
Natural Gas: 7 (16)
Internet: 12 (15)
Electricity: 28 (24)
Water/Sewer: 13 (10)
Trash/Storm Drainage/Parks: 10 (10)
Netflix: 8 (10)
Cell Phone:0 (10)
Groceries: 276 (201)
Medical: 0 (94)
Restaurants/Recreation: 45 (103)
Untracked: 10 (14)
Transportation: 20 (71)
Gifts: 70 (36)
Liquor: 0 (11)
Cat: 25 (15)
Gym: 10 (10, I guess, even though I just joined)
Stuff: 89 (113)
Charity: 0 (20)
TOTAL: 1123 (1277)
So a little unemployment hack is that you can elect COBRA (TCC for the Feds) either 60 days from the date of separation or 65 days from notification of the process, whichever is later. (note: dates might be different for private sector) My agency took until September 17 to notify me and so I have 65 days where I can retroactively activate health insurance if I need it. I gave a copy of filled out enrollment forms to boyfriend and 2 family members to file if I am incapacitated and will start new health insurance in mid-November. So I canceled the health insurance I had and got a refund.
Downgraded Netflix a touch. Purchased coupons on eBay and stocked up on a few shelf stable items. Huge Costco trip to stock up on stuff. Started xMas shopping. Yeah that's about all I have to report at the moment.
Your job situation seems like an evil that will not die. Patience, though some demons die slowly, die they do
From one INTJ to an ISTJ I offer this: relax. Drink your coffee black, gaze at the stars with the same wonder you did as a child, look longingly at a sunset and ask yourself why it seems so beautiful to us. Go on a meditation walk, clear your mind of the weeds that sometimes encroach on an otherwise beautiful mental landscape of wildflowers. Know in your heart, in a away that you can not know mentally that things will be OK. If all this fails to help you relax, I have found that a good gin and tonic cures many ills.
Transitional periods are enviable. Their intensity springs from the fact that much change comes about as result, yet they offer us outstanding opportunities to grow as people if we only let them.
Wish you the best...
From one INTJ to an ISTJ I offer this: relax. Drink your coffee black, gaze at the stars with the same wonder you did as a child, look longingly at a sunset and ask yourself why it seems so beautiful to us. Go on a meditation walk, clear your mind of the weeds that sometimes encroach on an otherwise beautiful mental landscape of wildflowers. Know in your heart, in a away that you can not know mentally that things will be OK. If all this fails to help you relax, I have found that a good gin and tonic cures many ills.
Transitional periods are enviable. Their intensity springs from the fact that much change comes about as result, yet they offer us outstanding opportunities to grow as people if we only let them.
Wish you the best...
-
LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
Thanks all Good food for thought... definitely an interesting part of life when I consider it as a spectator. That's hard to do sometimes. Transition period 'tis indeed!
Things are better; I have representation selected and nailed down and I/we think I have a shot at winning this thing. The judge pretty much told the agency lawyer she had an uphill battle so we'll see what rabbits they attempt to pull out of hats. Should have the first court decision around early January I suspect unless I settle earlier.
Good food for thought... definitely an interesting part of life when I consider it as a spectator. That's hard to do sometimes. Transition period 'tis indeed!Things are better; I have representation selected and nailed down and I/we think I have a shot at winning this thing. The judge pretty much told the agency lawyer she had an uphill battle so we'll see what rabbits they attempt to pull out of hats. Should have the first court decision around early January I suspect unless I settle earlier.
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LiquidSapphire
- Posts: 510
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 6:40 pm
I have put off writing here for a while because I haven't really been sure what to say. I have not tracked Net Worth or expenses for the last two months and I'm not sure why but I have some theories. I think burn out from thinking about "do I have enough" is one. I think I saw comments on the forum of "PP has gone down a LOT OMG!" and I thought it best to just. not. look. for now. Still haven't. I think I have been spending more but not a lot more... maybe $100 a month more or something... I don't even know and I don't want to know, I don't want to calculate it, it's a really weird reaction I don't quite understand. It generally takes 30-60 minutes a month to calculate and categorize it all and I just can't bring myself to do it. (Now if some genie came up to me and said, do you want to know how you've been doing, I'd say yes, but I can't bring myself to find out the numbers myself.)
I think part of it is I can only deal with so much unpleasantness at one time and I have a lot of subconscious stress with my lawsuit and the uncertainty of what I am doing with my life and I now spend a lot of time alone and don't have the social interaction I did, anyway, I am having difficulty coping. I like can't even be bothered to do the most simple things. Like, dishes. Laundry. Get the mail. I wonder if it is some version of depression or something. Anyway, I was so completely unprepared for the amount of stress my lawsuit is bringing me. Anyway, we'll see what happens... I take solace knowing I am at least causing my former employer stress as well and being a general pain in the ass. ha ha ha
I can say though that I don't have enough money to relax because I was driving myself batty trying to think of ways to drop my 5% WR down. In the end I became scared to go out and do anything that costs any money. Even like, 10 bucks, I had to sit and think about, and I don't think I want to live like that. And so now I have swung the pendulum the other way and I am buying what I want when I want and I am not calculating it and so there. And so I don't even know what my WR is right now. I don't know what my new monthly normal is or even my net worth. It's really weird because this is very out of character for me. I think it is a general reaction to stress. But basically I am thinking about going back to a full time job but just one I enjoy. I still refuse to take another shitty job or a crappy commute. So I am trying to find something enjoyable close to home that I can get excited about.
Yeah so an update of nothing but I was already logged in here after avoiding it for a while and so I thought I'd post something
I think part of it is I can only deal with so much unpleasantness at one time and I have a lot of subconscious stress with my lawsuit and the uncertainty of what I am doing with my life and I now spend a lot of time alone and don't have the social interaction I did, anyway, I am having difficulty coping. I like can't even be bothered to do the most simple things. Like, dishes. Laundry. Get the mail. I wonder if it is some version of depression or something. Anyway, I was so completely unprepared for the amount of stress my lawsuit is bringing me. Anyway, we'll see what happens... I take solace knowing I am at least causing my former employer stress as well and being a general pain in the ass. ha ha ha
I can say though that I don't have enough money to relax because I was driving myself batty trying to think of ways to drop my 5% WR down. In the end I became scared to go out and do anything that costs any money. Even like, 10 bucks, I had to sit and think about, and I don't think I want to live like that. And so now I have swung the pendulum the other way and I am buying what I want when I want and I am not calculating it and so there. And so I don't even know what my WR is right now. I don't know what my new monthly normal is or even my net worth. It's really weird because this is very out of character for me. I think it is a general reaction to stress. But basically I am thinking about going back to a full time job but just one I enjoy. I still refuse to take another shitty job or a crappy commute. So I am trying to find something enjoyable close to home that I can get excited about.
Yeah so an update of nothing but I was already logged in here after avoiding it for a while and so I thought I'd post something
Glad to have an update LiquidSapphire. Sounds like some tough stuff you are going through.
Here's some unsolicited advice: go to the gym every day. It could help in a few different ways such as getting out of the house, giving the feeling of accomplishing something, establishing a routine, working off stress, and possibly some social interaction if you attend a group class, etc.
I think you're on the right track anyway, looking for a job you like, and spending at a level where you aren't making big sacrifices (I'm guessing you're probably still not spending all that much either).
Here's some unsolicited advice: go to the gym every day. It could help in a few different ways such as getting out of the house, giving the feeling of accomplishing something, establishing a routine, working off stress, and possibly some social interaction if you attend a group class, etc.
I think you're on the right track anyway, looking for a job you like, and spending at a level where you aren't making big sacrifices (I'm guessing you're probably still not spending all that much either).
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secretwealth
- Posts: 1948
- Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 3:31 am