soothing money anxiety with money goals and wins

 yesterday i was okay, and didn't think about work much

then this morning there was some habitual dread...

i am meeting with my boss and others tomorrow about my informal coaching plan

i know my strategy is just to smile and nod, but it's not making it any more exciting of an event...

oh well...just got to grin and bear it..

but outside of that..as this date i picked out nears....i'm feeling uneasy

my expenses for last year were about 63k including all the current line items in my life...

some like my car loan will be eliminated but the rest are part of my life that i now enjoy...

i won't be able to afford that on the 4% rule...

so i've been putting apps in internally...a little haphazrdly and half-heartedly....because i don't how achievable what i want is...

the biggest shift is i don't necessarily want to quit working as urgently as i did when i started my FI journey...

there's nothing saying i have to quit...

but i also don't love working...

just i think if i already had a job i didn't mind doing....i'd probably keep going...

but actually going through the process of finding one....is where i get a little lost...of like...what exactly am i trying to achieve....

and i really don't know anymore...

what's true..

- i like having an income stream

- i don't necessarily HATE working as much; but i wouldn't mind not doing it for awhile

- i do kind of want a break

- i'm feeling some hesitancy to give up my call center job; my first thought is to try to make it work....i just want some flexibility during the day..... that i'm just not sure how to achieve...

so for call center 4 - i like the salar and LOVE the workload....just wish i could be more mobile and not chained to my desk for 9 hours...

but it did help to list out some of the money goals i wanted to achieve this year

1 pay off my car - we checked that off last month, but still nice to reflec on!!

2 - pay off e. africa trip...have enough money to do that

3- save 5k in case i want to travel or buy anything the remainder of the year

3 - save 5k to put in my FIRunUp fund....i'm still working on the premise that i FIRE in jun 2025; my core expenses dictate i'll need at least 15k for the remainder of 2025; i can save 10k with call center job in 5 months; so will need to save the other 5k this year...and i have the money to do so..yay

so that takes some burden off...

so just left with the task of...what to do in 2025...

when i made my original FI plan.. i said 2026... hmmm maybe it's worth revisiting that....now that i think about it...

working call center will not be awesome...but maybe 2026 will give me the grace period i was looking for...this just popped into my head...so yeah...that'll give me food for thought....

i think i like this plan...

i did feel some instant relief....so there's that....