Today was my last day at my corporate job. It originally was a good job, but gradually became soul-sucking. This last couple months I was only there for the paycheque, and then even that wasn't enough. I gave about 6 weeks notice when I refused to sign the new contract effective April 1. March was the longest month of my life. But it's over! I'm exhausted, and exhilarated.
I'm now either semi-retired (investments cover half of expenses, which are low), self-employed (with no income or clients yet; I'm starting a money coaching business), or intentionally unemployed. Whichever it is I'm overjoyed.
I started thinking about early retirement when I was 21, about 2 months into my first job. I'm 38 now.
I was one of those people who just couldn't decide whether I should work full time and hit FI sooner, or work part time and work longer. Well, I've made that choice now, and I've taken my life back. Part time, or full time working for myself is my plan now. No more full time for an employer ever again, unless it's something that really speaks to me.
I'm going to start a journal to share some of my activities, and to help with my self-motivation. I'll probably do that tomorrow.
So far here are my thoughts and challenges:
-wasting time on the internet and my phone is a big problem for me. I can't turn off my phone completely as I need to answer calls and emails from potential clients and friends. But I need to stay off of FB and the internet for the majority of the day. I have a few thoughts of how to accomplish this:
1. Switch my mental mindset from "rewarding myself" with getting to look at my phone or forums to "rewarding myself" with sitting quietly, walking, reading, or doing anything that isn't technologically based.
2. Hiding my FB app in a folder, adjusting the settings so there's no notifications, and otherwise making it less obvious to me.
3. Scheduling phone and forum time into my day. This will be at my least productive part of the day.
4. Using my journal to fake accountability by reporting my success or lack of success.
5. Keeping my laptop off of the internet as much as possible. This includes working in other places such as a library or coffeeshop, not signing into their wi-fi and thinking of it as more of an office.
Plans for tonight - study for a test I have tomorrow. Rest in silence. (I did a retreat last fall and it was an excellent experience. Need to get back into retreat mode.) Read. Phone time from 9:45 to 10:00.
It will take a while to get a good routine going. Tomorrow is mostly catch-up cleaning stuff, studying, errands, and test taking. On Thursday I'll work on my new schedule and some pressing business things.
In the future I'll keep my ramblings to my journal thread. But I'm in transition mode now, so this was a helpful exercise.