My Early Retirement Journey This Week:
Monday - I started the workday relatively fine. Today was a 9.5 hour shift. I despise it, but it affords me the opportunity to do my side hustle so I have to remember to be thankful for them accommodating me. I was fine when I got there. I helped train a new employee. What do you think about people who make snarky comments and hide them as jokes? I don't care for them. I held my tongue for most of the day as it didn't really hit me until that night. Work politics are annoying. I look forward to the day that I don't have to deal with it. I wish that day were now. By the time I left work, I was congested and had the beginnings of a headache. I attribute my symptoms to either a 9 minute walk outside on a high pollen count day or chemical irritants in the cube I was sitting in today to train the new employee. Argh. Work makes me physically ill sometimes.
Tuesday - Today I worked 6 hours at my day job and then went to my night side hustle (a teaching gig). Students were fine. Most of them showed up. A few of them came with excuses on why their work was late. I have to do something about that. At my day job, there was quite a bit of hullabaloo about one of the calls. People were talking about me in a way I didn't care for. It was annoying. It's mostly annoying not being able to speak up for yourself or be heard. Can't say I'm too surprised. I want to say people I thought more of were taking part but I don't really think that much of anyone I work with so that really just affirms my position. It turns out they were wrong and I was right but they still think they were right because I couldn't say anything. It's so annoying!
Healthwise, I was blowing my nose all day. It was a pretty miserable day. By the time I got home, I had a fever of 100.6*F. I took 2 Ibuprofen, ate some Ramen with fried pepper, and went to bed.
Wednesday - Woke up feeling a bit better. Temperature back to normal. Today is another 9.5 hour shift at my day job. Not feeling like eating much. My tooth hurts. There is a hole in my crown. I had an endodontic retreatment the day I returned to work after my surgery, and I think the filling they put in there has either fallen out or partially fallen out. Now my mouth hurts more. Internet down when I got home so I stared at the wall since I don't have cable right now. Did some dishes. Washed some bedding... I probably did that Monday night though.
Thursday - I did go to work today eventhough I couldn't sleep through the night. I think work is making me physically ill. I might need a new mattress. Sometimes my neck hurts; sometimes my back hurts; I wake up with fingers and arms that have fallen asleep. I don't know if it's my mattress or a psychosomatic response to work. I know not what exactly I want to do when I ever reach FIRE, but health and wellness is definitely at the top of that list. I can't let go of the feeling about some of my co-workers; I feel betrayed somehow. I do my best to leave everyone alone but sometimes it feels like they try to ostracize or judge me but in a passive in-ostensible way. I understand now why some people hate high school. If this is what it was like for them, I would have hated it too.
Thursdays are usually my errand day but I only had to get dishwasher tabs and some produce. I didn't want to make two stops, so I just went to Kroger. I probably overpaid for the dishwasher tabs at Kroger but Walmart doesn't sell lottery tickets and I buy lottery tickets for our small office pool on Thursdays. I also got some Zaxby's. One chicken nugget fell on the floor when I got home... I still ate it 😄. Ate 3 spring Oreos, flossed, brushed, and went to bed.
Friday – Woke up with tongue hurting. There is a small white bump on it. Compound that with my ongoing respiratory symptoms: my nose is running; my chest is congested; coughing productively with colored sputum. Don't forget still recovering from surgery. It’s not a great day. This is either motivation or discouragement for FIRE. Motivation to keep going so one day I won’t have to work when my body needs time to heal. Discouragement that I still have so long to go. Why am I wasting my youth preparing for old age. I haven’t fully reconciled that. Add to this also, the ongoing silent drama at work, being passed over for a promotion (more on that later). The hole in my tooth; ongoing jaw pain; constipation and abdominal pain. God, do you hate me?
Related Content:
Throwback 20s: My Free Trip to Washington DC!
So every now and then when I binge read other FIRE blogs, I wonder what the heck I was doing in my 20s when they were all seemingly frugaling away their coppers. To keep my head up and not get too bogged down with what I wasn't doing, I decided to start this Throwback 20s Series as a gentle reminder of the adventure portfolio I was building with a FIRE twist. So instead of bemoaning my twenties, I want to take some time to celebrate that part of The Journey! Come along! I urge you!
This week I'm highlighting domestic trips. For a long time I didn't have a passport to travel out of the country and visited 40 out of the 50 states before I turned 30! Let's not discount how amazing America is for greener pastures across national lines. Lots of people come here to visit!
THE HACK:
Family
Friends
THE DETAILS:
I was living in California at the time and really wanted to be there for the 2009 Inauguration. History was being made no matter what side of the line you were on.
My cousin was in medical school at the time in Washington DC = free housing!
My roommate (in a 4 person share) was a flight attendant for JetBlue = free airfare! ( I miss those $525/mon housing days)
MEMORY STOCK:
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| the mobs, the mobs, the mobs! |
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| who doesn't love a little pomp... |
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| ...and... |
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| ...circumstance |
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| I'm pretty sure I wasn't this close...this might be a stock photo |
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| awe, little ones... |
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| this is more representative of how close I likely was |
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| the mobs were serious..if I didn't mention it :) |
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| I loved all of it! |
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| Best trip ever! |
Why I Came Back to BlueHost
So I’m giving Bluehost another chance. Since Making Sense of Cents is my blogshero I decided to click through her link to give her credit.
Why am I going back? A few reasons.
Personal: Yesterday I worked 8a to 12n. Went to dental appointment for endodontic retreatment. Logged back in at work from 2:30 to 4:30p. Then commuted to part time job. Got home a little after 8p. That is a 12 hour work day after being out on sick leave for 2 weeks. I was thinking as I meandered my recovering body into my teaching gig if I were financially independent this would’ve been a 2 hour day to go to dental appointment and I’d be able to give myself the full 6 weeks for my stitches to heal.
Financial: My plan is to actively try to make money on this blog not just blog and hope for the best. My part-time gig ends early May 2018, and my goal is to have my Bluehost site up and running by then. That gives me time to allow the process to happen on a realistic timeline versus the instantaneous one I had in my head. I even set some preliminary goals:
Full launch: by May 2018
Income: $500/mon net revenue by end of first year, May 2019
Psychological: When I first went into blogging, I was lead/misled by the blogosphere that I could set up my blog in 3 easy steps and begin generating an income. Bluehost and Wordpress are the most popular and often labeled the best for that. I’m a big fan of letting others do the work for me/ not re-inventing the wheel. Bluehost was not easy to set-up and I did not make money instantly. So I went back to Blogger because that was easy and I thought with Adsense I'd at least make a penny or two right away. That hasn’t happened either. So if it’s going to take time on both sites, I’d rather just continue with Bluehost since there is more potential to make more and continuing to post on blogger keeps me writing which is what I’ve been itching to do while I still have momentum.
Thoughts? Any goals you had to revisit after a first failure to launch?
Blog Update | April 2018: 1 Month, 0 Dollars, 400 Pageviews
STATS:
Pageviews: 418 (all time)
Followers: 0
Revenue: $0, 3 failed attempts to enroll in Adsense, reason cited: insufficient content.
Expenses: $60 for Bluehost and domain
Net income: -$60 + work hours
Notes: After a little over a month on Blogger, decided to roll blog over to Bluehost. To keep it simple, decided April 1, will be one month blog-aversary!
Pageviews: 418 (all time)
Followers: 0
Revenue: $0, 3 failed attempts to enroll in Adsense, reason cited: insufficient content.
Expenses: $60 for Bluehost and domain
Net income: -$60 + work hours
Notes: After a little over a month on Blogger, decided to roll blog over to Bluehost. To keep it simple, decided April 1, will be one month blog-aversary!
Spring into Success: 5 Bible-Based Steps To Develop a Life Management Plan!
Happy Easter! My original title was Happy Easter: 5 Steps to Develop a Life Management Plan and Resurrect Your Life! That was a bit long. I am openly Christian and if that takes away from my readership, then so be it!
So I was listening to the sermon this week online, of course. Pastor Dale was preaching just what I needed to hear as I wade through the early stages of My Early Retirement Journey and this blog. The lesson was on wisdom and timing and he provided some guidance on developing a life management plan. Some of the things that stuck out to me were:
Are you sure I need a plan?
The idea here is that sometimes what you need in life is not a miracle, but a plan! When the children of Israel came to the Promised Land, God stopped the miracle of dropping manna from the heavens and instructed his people to develop an agricultural plan. So if they need a plan, so do you!
5 Bible-Based Steps to Develop a Life Management Plan
1. Evaluation - where am I spending my time right now? Do a time study. Like any good budget, look at what you're spending; this time instead of money, your other valuable resource is time. What are you spending most of your time on? You will discover a lot of waste in your life, much like a financial budget. Evaluate your time budget!
2. Allocation - where should I be spending my time? If you're going to get to this goal of who God wants you to be, you must allocate your time accordingly. Just like you need a money budget to reach your financial goal, you need a time budget to reach your life's goal and purpose. Create a calendar, create a plan (x hours with kids, y hours with spouse, z hours reading and gaining knowledge, w hours for work, etc...) This will be helpful along your Early Retirement Journey and after. For one thing once you reach FIRE, you will be able to re-allocate your time from musts like work to desires that help fulfill the purpose for your life. Here is an example of one FIRE'd blogger's weekly schedule.
3. Review - did my day go the way I thought it would? About once a week, reflect and adjust. Look to the next week. Am I going anywhere with my life this week? If not, adjust your budget to reflect how you intend your life to go. Be flexible with your plan.
4. Be aware of your weakness - all humans have limitations. Some weaknesses that waste our time resource include immaturity with emotions (i.e. wasting a whole day being mad or irritated about something evil planted in our life); procrastination; laziness. Build fences to protect yourself from your area of weaknesses. I write lists to combat laziness. Sometimes when it seems like I have too much to do, I start listing it. If it starts to feel overwhelming as though I'll never get it done, just writing it down is a task I can cross of the list. Then if it seems as though I won't get it all done today, I start to feel defeated and my instinctive desire is to do none of it. To combat this, I ask myself what is at least one or two things I can do today to make some progress. Sometimes, all I can do is divvy up the tasks into other days. Now I have a plan and it breaks up what was a mountain of tasks into little molehills to conquer. Additionally that feeling of accomplishment is enough momentum to approach the tasks over the next few days.
5. Make adjustments - your seasons of life change; that's why I use the Seasons category in my blog, both as an homage to my favorite hobby, television watching, and to the different seasons of life I anticipate on My Early Retirement Journey. Things happen in life. Make sure your plan is moving your development of what God has assigned to you for your life. You want to be the best at it it. Meaningful success is being the best at what God has assigned to you!
FINAL THOUGHTS: Make a plan. Ask God to bless your plan (Prov 16:3, James 4:13-15). Apply discipline. Achieve success.
So I was listening to the sermon this week online, of course. Pastor Dale was preaching just what I needed to hear as I wade through the early stages of My Early Retirement Journey and this blog. The lesson was on wisdom and timing and he provided some guidance on developing a life management plan. Some of the things that stuck out to me were:
- Adopt a life management plan (and My Early Retirement Journey was born! )
- Delay gratification to make your life better (i.e. this is how evil gets us; we want the easy life, but don't eat the ice-cream if good health is your goal)
- Don't do nothing waiting for inspiration; get out there and do something and let inspiration come
- Make a plan + apply discipline = SUCCESS; without this you just have good intentions
Are you sure I need a plan?
Proverbs 16:3 (TEV) Ask the Lord to bless your plans, and you will be successful in carrying them out.
Proverbs 21: 5 (MSG) Careful planning puts you ahead in the long run; hurry and scurry puts you further behind.
The idea here is that sometimes what you need in life is not a miracle, but a plan! When the children of Israel came to the Promised Land, God stopped the miracle of dropping manna from the heavens and instructed his people to develop an agricultural plan. So if they need a plan, so do you!
5 Bible-Based Steps to Develop a Life Management Plan
1. Evaluation - where am I spending my time right now? Do a time study. Like any good budget, look at what you're spending; this time instead of money, your other valuable resource is time. What are you spending most of your time on? You will discover a lot of waste in your life, much like a financial budget. Evaluate your time budget!
2. Allocation - where should I be spending my time? If you're going to get to this goal of who God wants you to be, you must allocate your time accordingly. Just like you need a money budget to reach your financial goal, you need a time budget to reach your life's goal and purpose. Create a calendar, create a plan (x hours with kids, y hours with spouse, z hours reading and gaining knowledge, w hours for work, etc...) This will be helpful along your Early Retirement Journey and after. For one thing once you reach FIRE, you will be able to re-allocate your time from musts like work to desires that help fulfill the purpose for your life. Here is an example of one FIRE'd blogger's weekly schedule.
3. Review - did my day go the way I thought it would? About once a week, reflect and adjust. Look to the next week. Am I going anywhere with my life this week? If not, adjust your budget to reflect how you intend your life to go. Be flexible with your plan.
4. Be aware of your weakness - all humans have limitations. Some weaknesses that waste our time resource include immaturity with emotions (i.e. wasting a whole day being mad or irritated about something evil planted in our life); procrastination; laziness. Build fences to protect yourself from your area of weaknesses. I write lists to combat laziness. Sometimes when it seems like I have too much to do, I start listing it. If it starts to feel overwhelming as though I'll never get it done, just writing it down is a task I can cross of the list. Then if it seems as though I won't get it all done today, I start to feel defeated and my instinctive desire is to do none of it. To combat this, I ask myself what is at least one or two things I can do today to make some progress. Sometimes, all I can do is divvy up the tasks into other days. Now I have a plan and it breaks up what was a mountain of tasks into little molehills to conquer. Additionally that feeling of accomplishment is enough momentum to approach the tasks over the next few days.
5. Make adjustments - your seasons of life change; that's why I use the Seasons category in my blog, both as an homage to my favorite hobby, television watching, and to the different seasons of life I anticipate on My Early Retirement Journey. Things happen in life. Make sure your plan is moving your development of what God has assigned to you for your life. You want to be the best at it it. Meaningful success is being the best at what God has assigned to you!
James 4:13 -15 (NIV)
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
FINAL THOUGHTS: Make a plan. Ask God to bless your plan (Prov 16:3, James 4:13-15). Apply discipline. Achieve success.
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