Finance

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Paused

Nothing much to report at my end. The week or so of cold weather we had was conducive to finally getting some real downtime at home and my days have pretty much been filled with cat cuddles, movies, and embroidery.

Without going into too much detail, a large payment from a client is very long over due so I’m having some cash flow issues. Resolution is in sight, but I don’t expect to get much more done here in Blaine except for perhaps a day trip.

It feels like I just got here, but incredibly enough, I’ll be pulling out mid-day on Tuesday! And I’m heading south, into Oregon! And it will be in Oregon that my RVing life will change forever. Da da da dum.

(I won’t be offended by the eye rolls that result from that last bit. 😀 )

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Officially Retired!

I got some great news this morning; my retirement from the civil service has been finalized at long last!

It was just a couple of months over six years ago that I took my oath to serve and protect the Queen, naively buying into the myth that I was getting signed on for the best career this country has to offer. For some, it is a good fit and I do miss the financial security I had back then, but I need to be challenged. The reasons why I left are still valid and I do not regret my decision.

Because of a kerfuffle I really should not get into on a public forum, I do not trust the pension plan administrators. So I had a lump sum pension amount transferred to my RRSP where I will be able to keep an eye on it, allowing for a clean break.

It has taken just over year to finalize my retirement and I am so relieved that I can finally shut the door on that part of my life. It’s a huge gamble that I’m taking, but I have faith that it will pay off.

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Easing the Pressure

I’ve been scraping by since I got to Osoyoos nearly a month ago and I’m spending an incredible amount of time looking for contracts and new clients. It’s not leaving me time for other commitments that won’t garner income until early next year. So, I finally decided to loan myself enough cash to ease the pressure well into December, but not so much as to make me complacent. The markets have been good in the past few months, so not taking a loss made this decision quite a bit easier.  I’m not happy with this situation, but I have to keep reminding myself that what I’m working on these days will pay off, just not immediately. It’s actually rather an exciting time in my life!

The bit of the puzzle of wealth building that I only just acquired is one I wish I’d understood a decade ago: passive income. That, not earning big gobs of money, is the key to early financial independence. For example, Sorting It Out wasn’t a huge financial success, but it has brought me a steady trickle of mad money since I released it and I sold enough copies of it in September to cover both my insurance payments! So, while working on another book might not be making me money right now, it will at some point, just as will my Suite101 articles. The trick is to remain solvent while the passive income accumulates. 🙂

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Insourcing

When I work crazy hours like I did this past summer, outsourcing makes sense. I eat out a lot and rely on technology to do some chores for me. But when I’m paused like I am now and stretching the budget to the limit while I await a new source of funds, outsourcing is a waste of money.

Today, I insourced three things:

1) Laundry

I haven’t had to pay for laundry in almost a year and a half! Needless to say, the Wonderwash hasn’t been getting that much use other than for dishcloths and delicates. Today, I put it, and the drying rack, to good use and did a couple of loads by hand, saving a very tangible $6.

2) Dinner

!!! I forgot what a good cook I am! 😀 Tonight was definitely a ‘big’ dinner night since I’ve been moving around all day and was just about ready to eat cardboard by late afternoon. I made chicken breasts in a shallot/dried mustard sauce over spaghetti noodles with Brussels sprouts navidad. Last night I accidentally opened a can of corn instead of pineapple, so I threw the corn in with the sprouts. Since I’d just a tad overpeppered the veggies, the sweet corn balanced the heat out very nicely. I might make a chocolate cake for dessert, I’m feeling that domestic. 🙂

3) Dishes!

Rent here is site plus power. A good way to reduce my power usage is to reduce my use of power hungry devices like my beloved dishwasher. *sighs*

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Matters of Income

Oh, I was born to be retired! 😀

It’s been such a lovely couple of days, what with the good weather and lack of schedule. I’m slowly catching up on things at home and have reorganized the study into a place where I might actually be able to be productive. One thing that amuses me is that after a year and a half on an evening and late-night schedule, I’ve been an early bird for over a week! I know it won’t last, these phases never do, but I’m feeling a tad turned around!

Income-wise, I’ve applied for a few contracts, was accepted as an article writer for suite101.com, and visited the Osoyoos employment office. The setup is exactly as it was two years ago in Oliver, advertising jobs that I can find online, in addition to picking positions that are not going to be worth my while. I’m fairly convinced that I’ll be wasting my time looking for a job at a physical location and am focusing on online contracts. I’m only committed to being here two to four months and will be taking a week off in November, so that makes me look even less desirable to potential employers. I will look for a cashier-type job when the holidays come around, if I’m still in Osoyoos then.

Also, this time around I don’t have RV park management expecting 60+ hours a week in exchange for a site (*cough, cough*) so I am expanding the search radius to Pentiction for professional-type jobs that would be worth the commuting time and expense.

One of the things I’ve learned about earning income on the road is that I’m better off having a bunch of small contracts than a single full-time job. This gives me more security in that if one contract falls through I still have some income and it allows me to pretty much set my own schedule. This latter part is especially important since it means that if I find a short-term lucrative project, I can take it on by shuffling my other commitments without worrying about the full-time job that’s eating up all my time.

There are still three weeks left before I hit desperate status, so I’m just going to chill, work my contacts, and enjoy pretending that I don’t have a care in the world. 😀