I've spent the day with my mind a buzz. It started off early with an little emotional fiasco. That did kickoff a brand new spreadsheet in which I listed out my personal and professional contacts by emotional risk categories. You see - earlier this week I lamented about the psychological impact on this single girl when someone leaves my messages unanswered. I'd really had enough - both with people treating me the way they do, and my responses to it.
We are all seeking financial independence, but in light of the unofficial kickoff to the carefree days of summer and coming national Independence Day, I'm taking one giant leap toward Emotional Independence. I'm tired of being indebted to fractured friendships and entrapped within my own emotional prison. I want to be free to feel free of confusing emotional entanglements. So I created a spreadsheet with which to track, inform, and guide my interpersonal relationships, emotional history, response times, and social obligations. One of the best things I use to soothe my anxious mind is a plan.
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When I first attempted to solve this problem, I tried to apply blanket rules to everyone - for example, after 3 unanswered messages, I take a timeout from that person for 3 months. But it was difficult to make that equitable because I have varying amounts of contact with individual people. For example, what if someone leaves 3 of 5 total messages unanswered vs someone I talk to more regularly who leaves 3 of 100 messages unanswered. It doesn't make sense that they would have the same consequence.
So now I'm trying to set up general guidelines by emotional risk category. And then I left spaces for 3 boundaries/modifications as again my relationship and interaction with each person is different. Since, the need for guidelines and boundaries ultimately stems from the impact interaction with each individual might have on my mood or emotional state, I started there.
This is just the first draft. So I'm allowing myself room for changes, adjustments, and tweaking. To make things easier, I called an official cease-fire to any future attempts to foster or fan the flames of old friendships. I just want to move forward with my new guidelines in place as a guide (a bit on the nose, I know).
Timelines
After getting more insight on how other companies within my industry are opening up their doors, I am leaning toward the possibility of not having to move until August. I think with states and local communities having to make decisions for K-12 students and college students, I think there will be a greater sense of urgency for things re-opening in August. I was already safely betting on moving no earlier than July 4, and now I am thinking it will be no earlier than August 1, which happens to be a Saturday. Exhale.
I haven't made an official post, but I moved up my death date to the year I turn 45. I can't think of the exact date right now, but I guess nothing really changes about my remaining time in the workforce. It goes a little something like this.
Jun to Dec 2020: New job. New job is my priority. My goal is to excel, be the best. Be everything I haven't been in my current job - be excited, excel, outperform, create value, be social, wear nice good looking professional clothes, be kind, have a great attitude. I want to make this job a priority, my primary focus. Everything else is secondary. Not that I think this job is A, B, or C. No, I just want to focus on something and given my background goal is financial independence, making work my priority seems to be a good place to start.
Jan to Dec 2021: Continue to do a good job at New Job. Make work my primary focus, from which all decisions are made. Do a great job to get maximum annual bonus, and if possible, shoot for a raise.
Oct 2021: Plan a 2 -3 week trip to Spain + Portugal. [Note the change. If I stayed at Call Center 2, I was hoping to do Spain in Oct 2020 and Portugal in Oct 2021 before The Final Countdown.]
Jan to March 2022: Stay at New Job long enough to get the annual bonus for the 2021 fiscal year. If I'm planning to work the full 2021 year, might as well stay long enough to get the bonus. Also, March 2022 can serve as an alternate date for the Spain/Portugal trip since my preference was to take a big trip right before resigning. And it's also my birthday month. In 2022, I'll be turning 38. Wowzers!
After receiving bonus, resign, move back to "Beach House" full time and begin Final Countdown.
A Modest Proposal
I am supposed to be giving my two weeks notice this coming Friday. It's scary somehow. I'm a bit more nervous than excited.
I haven't had that many professional gigs. So this is the first time I'm actually leaving one job for another. My first full-time office job I had right out of high school. I was laid off. Then I quit teaching full-time with no job lined up. Then I quit my HR job to go back to school. Then I quit Call Center #1 with no job lined up. And this brings me to Call Center #2.
At Call Center #2, I am on a team of about 6, and I am the only one that works the late shift every week. There are two other girls that alternate late shift week. As a result of working the late shift, I provide evening coverage for 3 other projects after 5p.
It doesn't seem likely, but I'm curious what I would do if Call Center #2 tried to get me to stay. New Job is offering me $120k base salary. Additionally, their bonus incentive is higher; their health insurance premiums are lower; and they match 6% 401k, vested immediately where Call Center #2 matches 4.5% and has currently ceased matching due to COVID.
My default answer was I'd stay at Call Center #2 for $120k carelessly thinking I'd be walking away from sooo much more money at New Job. But in reality, my base salary at New Job is in fact $120k. Yes, New Job's bonus incentive is higher, so in 2021, I might make a little bit more, but then I remembered I'd only get credit for half the year so that would make it about even with Call Center #2.
I think one important factor to consider is the fact that I hope to exit the workforce when I reach $250k, or in or around end of 2021. Staying at the Call Center would just make my life that much easier (albeit frustrating); I could just stay in my house and continue working from home.
Thinking out loud...
But even if I don't plan on having a career much more than 2 years, I think I still struggle with how to use Death Date. In this moment, I still want to do my best. Death Date is approaching whether I decide (at age 45) or God decides (whenever). In this moment, until I actually die I still want to live "my best life." But do I? So, I still should aim to achieve. Right? In theory, I would want to progress my career because I have the talent and it's an opportunity for growth. Until I actually call it, I think I should want to continue to progress, achieve, excel, and succeed. Right??
I'm not even convinced. If Call Center #2 offered me $120k to stay, I would seriously consider the offer. I'd love to say I'd choose the growth opportunity at New Job, but I don't know. If I can make just about the same money and have an easier life staying put, why wouldn't I choose that.
What I will say is, if I thought I had 30 more years in the workforce, then New Job would be the obvious choice. So maybe I'll go with that logic?
When I was struggling with how to allocate my investments, I was torn between allocating based on my early retirement age vs traditional retirement age. I ended up choosing the default of traditional retirement age because compound interest favors a greater time horizon and early retirement still seems like this abstract idea. So maybe using early Death Date vs traditional Death Date to inform decisions will have to be on case-by-case basis. Now I'm just rambling off on a tangent. I think for now, if I were offered $120k to stay at Call Center #2, I would still move forward with New Job because the potential to earn more still exists while still being able to meet my current savings goals. Additionally, it ticks off an archived goal of getting out of the Call Center and finally getting a once-coveted job with Big Pharma.
Shortages
Um... what are people actually doing for toilet paper and paper towel supplies. I have enough for at least a month that could stretch to at most 2 months. What happens then?
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