I ran across an interesting obstacle today with my team leader at work. He noticed that in one of my e-mails I had mentioned freelance writing for some income on the side. As a licensed general securities representative, apparently I have to report ALL of the income I earn outside of my regular job to FINRA, the agency that oversees us financial folk and makes sure we’re behaving properly.
I chuckled a little as I filled out the paperwork. While I suppose my boss knowing that I do in fact have a number of income streams could be off-putting for my next promotion (though I can’t imagine it will be a problem, I work hard and love working in the industry), it did make me feel more secure. I had to write a number of different sources since I bring in money from a variety of places. For me, that’s good, because it means I’m building an income safety net. The more sources of income I have, the more freedom I have to choose what I want to do and where I want to go. In a way, maybe my team lead will respect that I have the option to walk away if I wasn’t happy with my situation there. Or he’ll decide I’m not committed enough to my job, one or the other!
The important thing is to avoid doing such things AT work, which can lead to trouble, but gets tempting when we have downtime…