Major money success: I didn’t lose money this year!

January 11, 2016

I’ve played with the numbers from every angle, and I’m still not sure how this happened. This truth is that it almost didn’t.

Let’s face it, SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance) doesn’t pay a IMG_20160111_110023.jpgwhole lot, especially when you didn’t contribute for very long and you never earned a big salary. Especially when you live in an expensive city with high rents. SNAP (food stamps) almost covers my groceries each month. Almost. Fuel assistance helps with the utilities, but doesn’t cover them completely. Health insurance (after I pay the premiums) covers most of my costs, but I still spend a whole lot more. I am so grateful for all of these, but after I added them all up, I was still far short of what I needed.

After all, I still have to pay for those health costs and utilities, car expenses including insurance, household stuff like dish soap and toilet paper, and so much more. I spend very little on luxuries like gifts, clothes, or a meal out with friends, but there’s still the occasional purchase.

I’m super lucky. Last year my parents bought me a new laptop. Back while I was still working I bought a super warm coat and a low-end-but-nice sofa. I have savings from back when I worked. But those savings aren’t enough for the next several decades so I want to avoid touching them if I can.

I’ve been watching my bank balances. Down and up, up and down. I did some consulting work when I could. I sold random stuff I had around the house that I didn’t need or want anymore. I sold some of my knitting. I did a bit more consulting. Some months looked really good. Others looked terrible. I hated the uncertainty.

Back in the days when I worked, I had a steady paycheck. Those days are gone. I want to work now, but that income would still be unpredictable. And right now, it’s completely ad hoc. Still, when I looked at the numbers (yes, I’m a numbers geek) in December, I could tell I was close. Was it possible? Could I actually BREAK EVEN this year?

I was nervous when I went over my 2015 accounts the other day. I blinked. That couldn’t be right. I went over it all again. It was true. I came out ahead! Yipee!!

I’m very lucky. I know not everyone can do this. I know I couldn’t do it last year or the year before or the year before that. But it I did this year, and I’m grateful for that.

So how did this happen? Well, I had several consulting clients. I did some work that I didn’t particularly enjoy, but I did it for the money. This including knitting some things I didn’t enjoy knitting, helping someone set up a WordPress blog (I really hate doing the back-end work, but others do too, so they’ll pay for it,) and listing things on ebay, amazon, and craigslist (I hate dealing with that shit) that I’d have happily given away if I didn’t need the money. I did some other work that I did enjoy, like knitting awesome projects and consulting on things I enjoy. But it was all worth it.

Of course, that alone didn’t do it. This is where the luck comes in.

First, I had savings from back when I worked. I had invested those savings. And those investments earned interest and dividends. Now, this wasn’t a huge amount of money. And it’s not money I’ll spend yet – all that interest gets immediately reinvested. Still, it helped me get a lot closer to breaking even.

With all of the benefits, the work I did, and the investments, I was so close to breaking even. This is where more luck comes in. My parents gave me a large birthday check earlier in the year. Then they gave me a large Chanukah check last month. And those put me over the top. Thanks Mom and Dad!

And let’s be honest, being able to work at all feels pretty damn lucky right about now. Sure, I did a lot of research and put in a ton of effort to improve my health to this point. But we all know that sometimes all of that effort and research doesn’t help. I’m glad that this time it did.

So benefits + work + investment income + gifts = coming out ahead! Without any one of those, I wouldn’t have made it.

There are no guarantees in life. I have no idea if I’ll break even in 2016. I’m going to try to start a business and maybe it will work and maybe it won’t. What I do know is that I somehow made the money work out in 2015.

For that I’m grateful.

7 Comments | Expectations, Job, Limitations, Raves, Support, Unpredictable | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Standing scared on the edge

November 20, 2015

It was always the same. The instructor was telling me to jump. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. I knew it was safe. But I was terrified.

Some kids love jumping off a dock and into a lake. Those kids probably

5-9-2012 10-20-06 PM

Wish I could swim like these cuties!

know how to swim. Those kids probably aren’t scared of the unseen mysteries beneath the murky surface of the water. I, on the other hand, wanted to stay safe and dry on the dock. No such luck.

I did eventually learn how to swim. One day I was standing at the edge of a pool talking to someone, and a kid pushed me in as a joke. I had to be rescued. The next day, I finally learned enough to stay afloat. But in general, I’d rather learn how to stay afloat without feeling panicked as I sink to the bottom of a pool.

Now I’m standing at a different kind of edge. It’s just as safe (mostly but not completely) and just as terrifying (very.) I’m about to start a small business. I decided to do this months ago, but I wasn’t committed to it. This week I decided to commit fully to giving this a try. I might fail, but I have to try.

I still don’t feel like I can commit the kind of time necessary for this. I know someone who has a new baby and works a full time job and is starting a similar business, yet she’s finding the time. But then, she doesn’t have brain fog, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, and a huge number of medical appointments to deal with. Still, I should be able to put in at least a little bit of time.

Ok, I know I’m being a bit vague about the business. That’s partly because I want to maintain my anonymity here but also because it’s really irrelevant. I plan to write and sell a short book (I’ve written the first draft but still have a lot of work to do on it.) I’ll create a blog. And I’ll try to sell the book and other things (maybe an online course?) to people. The key is that I’ll be working my own hours. It will take twice as long for me as it might for someone else, and I have to be ok with that. I might plan to work 3 days this week and manage 5. Or it might end up being only 1. Or none. And that will be ok.

I’m worried about the impact on my benefits, especially social security, at the beginning. But then, I also know that I can’t survive on benefits indefinitely. Right now I’m taking money out of savings each month to make ends meet. That’s fine for now, but one day those savings will run out, and then how will I get by for the next 4 decades? No, it’s better to not have to be on benefits at all, to cover my own expenses with my own business. So I’m going to try.

I face my fears every damn day with these illnesses. I worry about my health in ways most 30-somethings never even consider. It’s time to face a different kind of fear and take the leap. I don’t know how to do this, but maybe I’ll find a way to stay afloat anyway.

 

3 Comments | Decisions, Expectations, Fatigue, Job, Limitations, Milestones, Pain, Raves, Unpredictable | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Why I’m scared to work

September 14, 2015

Up until a few years ago, I just assumed I’d work a full time job. At one point I quit a job where I was miserable and I took some time off before going back to work, but of course I assumed I’d get another job, and I did. I always worked.

Until I didn’t.

I’m coming up on the 4 year anniversary of when I left my job for what I thought was a few months to rest and recover. Little did I know….

A lot has happened in those 4 years. At the start, doing any sort of work was out of the question. It took every ounce of energy I had to cook dinner or read a book. I didn’t have the physical or mental ability to do any sort of paid work.

Then slowly, I saw some improvement. I began to leave the house more. I did some volunteer work from home. I did favors for friends that involved using my brain in ways that I hadn’t in a while. My cognitive abilities still weren’t what they had been, but they were better. My physical health had improved, too.

As I felt better, I wanted to do more. I started thinking about small ways to make money. I sold my crafts. I did some more of the consulting that I’d let fall away. Someone asked if they could hire me to help them with a project and I said yes. It felt so good to get paid! Still, I was no where near being able to cover my bills. I needed something bigger.

I thought about that person who hired me out of the blue. I thought about the clients I had. That was good money with a flexible schedule and I could do most of it from home. In fact, with a little creativity and Skype, I could probably do it all from home. So how could I get more clients?

I don’t have all the answers, but I do have an initial plan. I’ve been reading a lot, I’ve listened to podcasts, and I joined Facebook groups of other people trying to make money in similar ways. The difference, of course, is that most them are working full time and they work on their side businesses in the mornings, after work, and on weekends. Even so, they probably put in a lot more hours than I can. On a good week I can do 5-10 hours, and on a bad week I’ll be lucky to do 2. So I figure that if they can earn good money in a matter of months, then I should be able to do the same within a year.

With a lot of the research done, I crafted my plan. And then I got stuck. I was scared. At the beginning, I probably won’t earn much, but what if I begin to earn more? How will I handle that? If I earn more than $780 per month for 9 months, and those months don’t need to be consecutive, then I’ll lose my social security benefits. That means I’d better earn enough to make up for that! But actually, that’s not the part that scares me.

No, what scares me is 3 years from now, and 10 years from now. If I can manage to earn a few thousand dollars per month doing work from home that I somewhat enjoy and that doesn’t strain me too much, then yay! Fantastic! Perfect! But what if I can’t keep it up? What if 3 years from now I’m back to where I was 4 years ago, completely unable to do any paid work? And I’ll need to reapply for social security. And what if I don’t get it? Or what if that happens 10 years from now? Or in 10 months? Or 6 1/2 years? Will I be living always in fear of being unable to support myself?

Yes.

But what if I don’t do this? What if I stay on social security without working? I’ll be watching my savings dwindle as I use them to pay for all of the things that my benefits don’t cover, like medical expenses, electricity, some of my groceries, car expenses, part of my rent, everything related to my car, and any sort of entertainment (yeah, right!) And what will happen when my savings run out?

So I have to do this. I have no choice. If I could work a regular hourly job then I could make sure my income stayed consistently at $779, but that just isn’t an option. So I know I need to do this.

But I’m still scared.

5 Comments | Expectations, Frustration, Isolation, Job, Limitations, Pain, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Knit 1, Purl anything

August 23, 2015

One of the hard parts about being unable to work at a job is feeling like I’m not doing anything substantial. Sure, I do favors for friends and offer advice online and do other intangible things, but it’s rare for me to do anything I can point 2015-07-09 12.01.45to and say “I did that” and be proud of it.

I started knitting as a child. My grandmother made such beautiful things, and she loved knitting so much, that I thought I should try it, too. At the age of 6 I learned the basics. Unfortunately, I never progressed much beyond those basics. Then a few years back a friend taught me to crochet, and I really got the hang of that. Before I knew it, I was making some complex items.

I spend a lot of time sitting on my ass. It’s sort of inevitable when you have chronic fatigue. So while I’m sitting and watching tv, sitting and listening to an audio book, or sitting and talking on the phone, I’m also knitting and crocheting. I always have multiple projects in the works at any given time, and I love creating them. The best part is, I’m making something useful! At the end of each project I have a physical, tangible item that I can say I made, and I can be proud of it. I sell some things and donate others. It feels good to donate hats and scarves to a local homeless shelter and know that I’m helping people.

Last year I taught a friend with chronic illness how to crochet. Like me, she knew how to knit, and wanted to learn something new. Now she feels the same way I do: excited to be able to make something, especially because she can no longer work.

Crocheting and knitting doesn’t solve all of my problems. But it solves one problem. And I’m grateful for that.

What do you do to feel a sense of accomplishment? Please comment below so we can get ideas from each other!

10 Comments | Expectations, Fatigue, Frustration, Isolation, Job, Limitations, Raves | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

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