At first it may appear that I picked a bad time time to be laid off. Joblessness continues to increase, and it appears the U.S has cut about 62,000 jobs in June. This doesn’t show any signs of slowing either, and the trend continues as per below:

“The Conference Board’s Employment Trends Index fell in June. The index, which combines eight separate readings that track the job market, has now declined in 11 of the past 12 months.”

What to do? I do have some interviews lined up, but I’ve also been increasing my freelance work on the side. With my site portfolio and freelance writing gigs, I’m en route to make about $15,000 annually. Obviously this isn’t enough to live comfortably on alone, so I may take up a full-time job again or work part time in Finance and cover the rest via freelance. It might be an interesting experiment, deriving a steady pay check and benefits working part time while still giving myself quite a bit of flexibility and let’s face it, fun, through writing and Adsense.

I’m definitely torn, given that the jobs I’m interviewing for promise a much higher salary over my old full time gig. In the mean time I’m strapping on my work boots and hitting the ground running. We’ll see where things take me.

 Funny how well-laid plans are put to waste sometimes. I had originally intended to utilize my alternate income to pay off my debt even faster and then downshift to an interesting part time job, with the rest of my income made up from freelance writing, our niche site portfolio, and whatever else I felt like doing.

However I was recently laid off from my job (Financial Services + Subprime + Recession = ?), and so this income has been turned back towards living expenses. Thankfully I have a couple things working in my favor here:

1. Savings!: My emergency fund could, by itself, provide enough income for me to live on for 3 months. However I wouldn’t want it to come to that, so I have….
2. Freelance Work: Seems my writing projects and niche sites have been working to their intended effect! Despite the loss of my full-time job, I actually have enough from other sources to scrape by until i can either build up this income to a full-time job source or gnab some part time work and do a 50/50 scenario, half from my other sources and half from my part time job. This would have the added benefit of health insurance, as well.

I’ll be honest, here. Despite my well-cushioned position thanks to my emergency fund, I was terrified the first few days off during the week. Its weird watching everyone come and go to their 9-5s whilst I plug away at my home computer earning money writing and occasionally taking breaks to go outside and get a breath of fresh air or get some exercise. Everything seems strangely empty in the late morning/early afternoon. As time has passed, however, I actually love it. Being the master of my own time all the time has been a serious breath of fresh air, despite the precipitous drop in income.

Where I go from here is uncertain. I have a number of interviews lined up for full-time work, but my heart admittedly isn’t really in it. Do I want to go back to the corporate drudgery? Can I make enough money on my own? Is there meaningful part time work I can get instead? What about health benefits? All these things will be answered in time, but I’m resigned to enjoying myself in the interim.

Wish me luck.

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…

I’ve been really interested in exploring flexible work arrangements recently. One thing I’ve always hated about a traditional job is the concept that face time is just as important as productivity. It’s an outdated, archaic way of thinking (in my opinion, I’ve had plenty of disagreements) and I often find that people push against changes like this because “that’s what’s always been done.” Working when you want and how you want allows you some specific advantages. Let’s explore that for a moment:

• You work for the man, but you still win: Flexible scheduling allows you to put your hours in every week but on your own terms. You can choose to work when you want and how you want, an often-cited reason that people work for themselves. With a traditional job, you’d be able to keep the security, health benefits, and other trappings of corporate life while maintaining a level of independence as well.
• Loyalty: A company that is willing to work with you rather than against you is a firm you’ll likely feel a sense of loyalty to. This is an unusual trait in our fast-paced, get the money wherever you can job culture, but it’s been proven by a variety of studies.
• Fun: Can you honestly tell me a three day weekend every week does NOT sound like a good idea? Your options for enjoying a better work/life balance are greatly helped by a 4-day week or telecommuting options.

Don’t take my word for it though, let’s see what others have to say:

•  The Oil Drum thinks it would save us a lot of time and resources.
• MSNBC examined some companies who allow this type of flexibility last year.
• The Chicago Tribune talks about the effect on company loyalty.

Enjoy the weekend!

I talk a lot about my goals and what I need/want to accomplish financially before I hit my own pre-determined notion of financial freedom. There are certain things I could do to speed the process up. For example I could go the traditional “get another job” route and simply work two jobs, pay off my debt faster, and work my way toward freedom faster as well. However like everything else this has an opportunity cost. For one working 2 jobs would allow me very little free time and would likely not make me very happy for an extended period of time. Do I want to buy tomorrow with today’s time only to drop dead tomorrow? No.

However there are things I can do in the present that will serve me well in the future. I’ve been picking up small projects that I can do on a loose timescale. Setting up niche sites and writing some freelance articles along with paid survey services has netted me a substantial amount of alternate income each month, allowing me to pay off debt faster and save up to buy a house sooner.

This led me to thinking how much I really do prefer the idea of mobility and flexibility in my work. It’s not that I hate doing my job, per se, I like my job and what I do, but it’s the time constraints that get to me. Grinding out 5 days a week from 9-5 makes any job seem less fun after awhile, such is diminishing returns. Some get out of this by taking on different or challenging jobs, less they get stuck in the rut of boredom and repetition. This leads to the typical “climb the corporate ladder” mentality of reaching for new responsibilities and more money, which I’m not sure is right for me.

Instead what I have done is leveraged my position here at work to try and finagle a more flexible schedule. For me, four 10-hour days sounds a whole lot better than five 8-hours days. If I had, say, Wed. off and worked the other 4 weekdays, that would mean that everyday is essentially a Thursday or a Friday (which is to say 1 or 2 days away from at least one day off). It would also allow me the luxury of going out for breakfast on a Wed. morning when most people are cranking out their morning coffee and gearing up for rush hour. I’ve pitched the idea to my boss and I’m ironing out the details. Wish me luck!