Single Girl Life | My Week Ending Oct 26, 2018: I wish I knew how to quit you!

Welcome back to My Early Retirement Journey. In case you're just joining us, here's a little bit about me.  I am a single 30-something, openly Christian, hesitantly immigrant-y, human woman. I enjoy watching TV while eating takeout, and I want to retire early. I currently work as a consultant in a tele-health call center making around $40/hr. I started my professional life in 2015 at the ripe ole age of 31 after a few false starts. I spent 2016 paying off about $10,000 worth of credit card debt. I spent 2017 paying off about $20,000 in private student loans; I still have about $300,000 in federal student loans for which I am currently on an income-based repayment plan for the next 25 years, give or take.  I started really getting into savings and investing late 2017 when I stumbled upon the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) community.  In 2018, I made the decision to try to save for a sabbatical and maybe if all goes well continue the journey to early retirement.  Along this journey, I give weekly more personal than finance updates just like this one. Come along with me, I urge you!
My week

This week (Saturday to Thursday) I had four days off from work, but two days into it I realized I should probably go into work and try to save some vacation days for next year. I made it half a day and went back home.  But the days I had off were so glorious and refreshing.

Humans! If you haven’t gotten into Lifetime’s You, you are seriously missing out! It’s soo good in the creepy stalkery romantic way! TV is good again. Also did a 28 episode binge watch of Netflix’s Terrace House. Still good.  Oh to be a twenty-something model living in Japan looking for love! Maybe in my next life?

I didn’t touch my laptop or iPAD for the first part of my break and I finally felt like I was recharging. To think that blogging is keeping me from fully unwinding on weekends and weeknights makes me very sad.  So in my languid stupor, I decided to maybe take some time away from blogging. SAD FM.  It’s been touch and go. I have a few solid posts coming up and I don’t want to lose momentum. But I really relished my free time again! What is a single girl to do?

Wednesday –  This was the day I attempted to go back to work after a four day holiday. I realized it was on my way to work that I get the most down. At home, I felt fine about the thought of going in to work. Then on the drive in what popped into my head was the quote ‘the life you save may be your own.’ Maybe this is all I will be able to do in my lifetime. Is this the plight of being someone one like me (a hyphenated-American)? Maybe I won’t be able to retire in my 30s or early 40s but maybe I can be happier living elsewhere? Suddenly with that as an objective, two more years seemed doable. I left work after four hours.

Friday – Remember Brokeback Mountain's "I wish I knew how to quit you."

Just when I was getting used to the idea of taking some time away from ye olde blog, I got featured on TFD (again!)! That’s three features within about a week.  I am elated! I think I submitted my posts for each of these honorable mentions but it’s still been a grand week in single girl land! No, nothing Richter scale level has happened in terms of income or traffic, but it feels really good for the creative writer in me. Someone of their own volition is reading something I wrote when just yesterday I was just an anonymous troll binge watching tv and eating cookies (I still do that btw).

I don’t hate blogging, and I definitely don’t hate writing. I just can’t find a way to do it and other things. I try to set time limits, but when I get a little bit bored (watching my television shows) I say to myself oh I’ll just get online for 30 minutes. Thirty minutes ALWAYS turns into 3 hours or more. Then there goes my down time on weeknights and weekends.  How do y’all strike a balance especially with no monetary gain? Do I just change my mindset on measurable outcomes? But I am so heavily motivated by money!

I didn’t even intend to post this update this week, but I was just overcome with gratitude and warm fuzzies, I had to share with my virtual friends!

 

My latest wins (just pretend these are photos of my cute kids, and take a gander):

Sabbatical 2020: In Which I Take Back My Life (featured in Rockstar Finance newsletter)

5 Unexpected Lessons from Freeform's The Bold Type (featured on WomenWhoMoney)

How Being A Victim of Identity Theft Helped Me Take Control of My Finances and Pay Off $30,000 of Debt in 2 Years (featured on The Financial Diet)

 

Also some really cool pins that I made (these are now taking me under an hour to make, save, compress, and attach, some in 15 minutes or less!) Pinterest - something else I unsuccessfully keep trying to spend less time doing...

  

TV this week: You, Terrace House: Boys and Girls in the City
Takeout this week: nada, lots of crockpotting
Your turn

How was your week? What did you do? See? Feel? Think? Decide? How's your life journey in general?

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2 comments:

  1. You sound just like me. I’ll get my tablet out thinking I’ll only spend a half hour working, and it ends up being three instead. I try to unwind myself but also feel guilty if I’m not doing at least a little something each day on my blog. I take my blog very seriously and put my all into producing great work. Sometimes I get too involved but I’m also learning to take a little time to myself.
    Thank you for sharing because now I know I’m not the only one that gets extremely involved with working on his blog.

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  2. Right?! What are you overarching goals for your blog?

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