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Oct 26, 2017    |       9 comments

Changes Coming – Decrease in Work Hours

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Since April, I have been consistently working 70+ hours per week – 40+ for my W2 job, 25+ for my primary 1099 job and then a variety of other hours for other 1099s. This week, my primary 1099 announced that they would be reviewing contracts for reduced hours for the next quarter. And now I will be decreasing my work hours, at least temporarily.



While I was not worried, as I am one of their top producers, I thought it might be a good time to cut back a little without long term repercussions. As of this week, I am cutting back from 25+ hours per week to 10-15 hours per week for them.  I am also taking the last 10 days of the year off from them.

Time to Revisit My Monthly Budget

Now I must revisit my budget, at least for the next quarter. And test the waters on cutting back just a bit OR opening some hours to another opportunity (no, I don’t have anything waiting.)

During my conversation with them, I let them know that I would like to revisit this in early January to plan for next year. And that was great for them. (I got an email ‘thank you’ from my bosses boss thanking me for voluntarily taking a cut in hours to help them plan for the rest of the team.)

I am not thrilled with my cut in budget. But I am excited with the opportunity to see what working less hours feels like, especially over the holidays.  Want to help me out…take a look at my recent budget, I’m taking about $800 out of my 1099 income per  month for November and December.

I will be working on the cuts over the weekend. I need to put them into place soon.

And on the Personal Side

I am hoping this will help address some of the issues my kids are facing specifically tied to my limited availability due to all my work time. This was really the driving reason for my quick decision to test drive working a few less hours.

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Oct 26, 2017    |       14 comments

Unpredictability

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It’s funny, even after 3 years of blogging here, you guys always keep me on my toes! When publishing posts that I think might be controversial (like this one or this one), I’m met with nothing but understanding and support. And then I write a post that I think is more innocuous (like this one) and I’m met with backlash on a level I haven’t seen or experienced since early on in my blogging days. Before my financial successes, I was initially met with quite a bit of criticism (some constructive, some….not-so-much).

Nevertheless, I’m in academia. If anyone is familiar with the struggle of responding to “Reviewer #2” (an academic meme), then you know you must learn to grow thick skin.

For the record – nothing in the comments was as bad as “Reviewer 2.” In fact, most of the critiques were well-founded and reasonable. I agree with (most of) you! It’s definitely time for a reset. I’ve been working toward that end and am making some good progress on a total budget overhaul. I appreciate the time and efforts many of you took to leave tips and suggestions or recommendations. I’ll look forward to receiving more help and support when I actually post my budget numbers (eeeeeek! I’ll need it!)

For the time being, I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for your feedback! If you haven’t yet, check out the comments on my “controversial” post – I’m making my way through and trying to respond to as many as possible. I’m not always responding to specifics (in terms of numbers) because some of that will be addressed in a forthcoming budget post.

Have a great rest of the week!

~Ashley

 

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