Tag Archives: self-employment

What Would You Do If You Were Self-Employed?

Posted by in Employment • 11 Comments

To many of you, I’m living the dream. I recently quit my job, moved to sunny Los Angeles to be with my fiancee, and started my new self-employment lifestyle.

It’s really great to be able to sit by the pool whenever I want, lunch breaks are mandatory, and there’s never traffic during my commute. My life sounds amazing, but it’s still not quite what I imagined. It’s possible that I’m a huge complainer and will never be happy, but maybe there’s something I can do about it.

Don’t get me wrong, in the grand scheme of things, it’s great. Business is great. I’ve been able to spent more time writing and pursuing opportunities as a result have made more in the past month through advertising and writing than ever before, but there are too many hours in the day when I’m not doing anything constructive. I need to be busy, so I’m applying for jobs, because what better way to get ahead and save for life’s big goals than to have two incomes?

I’m not content living the dream of college kids: making money but working few hours. No, I always want more, even if I don’t know what that is.

What Would You Do If You Were Self-Employed?

While I’m in the process of getting a job, I’m going to have lots of time on my hands. So I’m taking suggestions from you guys about what I should do with my time. I don’t want suggestions about what I should do. Rather, I want to know what you would do. Would you learn a language? What skills would you improve?

Would you just enjoy it and play video games and watch tv all day? Maybe I just need to appreciate what I have and relax more instead of trying to work more!

Please send me your feedback, if I hear something inspiring, I’ll be motivated to take action and be the self-employed worker I want to be!

The Downside To Self-Employment

Posted by in Employment, Money Stories • 27 Comments

On the surface, self-employment sounds amazing: set your own hours, work wherever you want, and nobody tells you what to do.

However, in reality, things aren’t quite as peachy as you may imagine and there are several downsides to self-employment.

I have been really looking forward to not going to having to commute to work each day and I figured it would be great to focus on the things that interest me most. What I’ve found the past week has been very surprising.

I wake up nice and early, spend an hour or two on emails and other blog related things, and then I hit a wall. There simply isn’t that much that I can do to improve my business. If I were busy all day I would be ecstatic, but that simply isn’t the case. I have this “job” that I’ve been working on the past 2 years while maintaining a day job, so stretching it out into an 8 hour day simply isn’t going to happen.

I have very little to complain about. This is my office.

Instead of people yapping away at an office, my life soundtrack consists of Pandora and the sweet sound of SportsCenter. In my world, it simply doesn’t get much better.

And yet, there is something missing.

I do enjoy my beach trips and when I’m busy, it’s impossible to complain, I have it all. But sitting in the same place with nobody to talk to is a bit too much for me to take.

So if you guys are ever bored, feel free to send me an email, hit me up via twitter, or some other way (Google + anyone?), it will make my day. I love hearing from readers and other bloggers, THAT is a life I could get used to.

Readers, do you think you could handle self-employment the way I describe it? What would you do to keep busy?

Will I Get Cheap When I Become Self-Employed?

Posted by in Budget, Business • 11 Comments

So I’m moving out to California and am planning on being self-employed for the foreseeable future, though I’ll be applying to jobs and hopefully have some good news on that front. With a healthy emergency fund and a steady income coming in from blogging, I am set up well for someone who’s quitting there job with no future prospects.

I’m not worried about not having enough money because I know I will make enough to cover expenses and then some, but I can’t always count on that income coming in, can I?

My main concern is that I will want to squirrel away as much money as possible so that I can protect myself from disaster should my blogging income not keep up the way it has the past few months.

I like living below my means, but sometimes I take it too far. Will I not want to eat out? I’ll be able to afford it, but I don’t think I’ll want to spend it.

With a steady job, it’s easy to see how allowances like that are allowed on a regular basis, but when the income isn’t as guaranteed, how should I handle it?

At what point will my emergency fund be big enough for me to not be stingy? 3 months of expenses? 6 months? 12 months?

I’m very excited to be self-employed. I will get to set my own hours, work on my pet projects, and have time for the things I want. But will I be afraid to be myself and spend any money?

Readers, what advice do you have for me? Should I try to live my normal life? Or should I save as much as possible for later?