Layout:
Home > A New Chapter Has Begun

A New Chapter Has Begun

July 29th, 2021 at 09:35 am

It's been a very long since I posted and has been a very big few months.  Last year my work (now my old work) asked me to work full-time and I agreed to work full-time until May, which they agreed to... however the job I was doing graduated into really needing full-time work, which was no longer my plan, as I want to run my own business!

So last month I took the leap and resigned!  It was time.  I worked there for just over 16.5 years, which is a wonderful effort.  They were lovely people and we got along well, so I valued that and it made it easy to stay working at the same place for so long.  But ultimately I wanted better work life/balance and the job was working in the city travelling a minimum of 1hr15mins each way.  I was sick of the travel before the pandemic and working from home made me realise that travelling that long each day is too long to commute.

So I was working as an assistant accountant/bookkeeper with an annual wage of $59,148 and an hourly rate of $32.50.  But I guess if you look at the travel time included the daily amount earned for the day of 7 hours was $227.50 (before tax), but add in 2.5 hours it took to get to the job and get home and the hourly rate dropped down to $23.95.  It just did not seem worth it anymore.... but we'll see what financial position I am this time next year, and whether I got it right or got it wrong!

My work was fine about it.  They dropped a few hints that perhaps they thought I was crazy to leave secure employment, but I am looking forward to some personal growth (along with a shorter commute) and a different way of life, but they gave me a lovely send off of lunch one day and a lovely morning tea the next - it was all very sweet and emotional because it was the end of an era.  Because I was there for so long I walked away with long service leave of 15 weeks pay and holiday pay of 8 weeks pay, so this is a nice financial cushion to tide me over until I get my next role.

I worked out that I need to transfer $3k per month to contribute towards our bills and spending money, so we now have 5 months left.  So far we haven't been spending too much and have been living pretty comfortably, which makes me happy that we should be ok for a little while.

Because I had not had holidays since 2019 and was pretty run-down DH ordered me to take a rest of 2 weeks, just apply for a couple of jobs each day and mainly relax, which I've been doing.  I have been applying for jobs, and have been catching up on emails and bills with the bookkeeping business which got left to the wayside when I got really rundown, but have also been watching movies and going for little drives, and we are going away camping next weekend which is exciting.

I am hoping to commute up to about 45 minutes each way but have agreed with DH that if I get to 3 months without a job I will apply for city jobs again.  Last week I got a call about a city job and got an email interested in me working for them however it was also inner city, so we will see if I have to bite the bullet and go back to long commutes!

But next week will mark my third week out of a job so my new schedule will start... I have created a schedule to give myself structure and avoid falling into the trap of laziness, working towards getting a job for half of the day (currently am thinking of allocating the morning but if I get interviews in the afternoon then I will swap it around), and building up my bookkeeping business for the other half of the day.  I now have 2 clients - one who I have had for a long time (and have a lot of catching up to do to bring him up to date - both of our faults!) and one from my previous boss, as he doesn't want to do the bookkeeping work (he is a high-ranking accountant so this is not a good use of his time and I am grateful though; this work is up-to-date and will take about half an hour a day).

I have been following your blogs (and commenting occasionally), and now that I have more time available look forward to blogging more regularly and speaking with you all more regularly!

8 Responses to “A New Chapter Has Begun”

  1. Wink Says:
    1627564159

    Congratulations on your new chapter! Will you be focusing mostly on building up your own business or getting a new job? I had a very long work commute for many years and it really is draining.

  2. CB in the City Says:
    1627565294

    Wow! That's a big step. I wish you the best! And I hear you on the commute -- I did that for years -- very draining.

  3. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1627606189

    Wink I’m aiming for a 50/50 mix each day but it might happen that after looking and applying for jobs it might not take half a day so might be able to allocate more time of the day to building up the business. We’ll see how things go next week!

    Thanks Wink & CB - the long commute was ok for the first decade but after that it started to get on my nerves and then just got more and more annoying as time went on. 1hr 15 minutes was the minimum - anytime there was a train drama or something the travel time could blow out majorly. Plus the jobs DH has been getting over the last few years are higher paying with more responsibility so he is often too tired to cook dinner so our eating became really unhealthy as I would also get home really late. I’m hoping now to be home early enough to cook dinner and have a little bit of work/life balance!

  4. mumof2 Says:
    1627632111

    congrats on the newest chapter in your life....enjoy your time off..especially with the weather we have been having...maybe now is the time to really start getting your business out there and working from home..you would love that...I wish you all the best for your future endevours

  5. Dido Says:
    1627868500

    Congrats on making the jump and hope it all works out as you hope. Enjoy your time off and camping!

  6. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1627868736

    Thanks mumof2 &Dido!

    Mumof2 I will be trying to get my business out there in the time I have available definitely, who knows what will happen when I do? It might go better than expected.

  7. rob62521 Says:
    1628444057

    You are a brave soul to do this and I admire you for it! Hope it works out and you get your own business started. But as you you indicated, that was a long commute!

  8. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1628465185

    Thanks Rob! You were brave a long time ago to retire early, people like you inspire me to change things up now and again! I definitely want to avoid a commute like that if possible next time around

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]