So July 31st this year will be the two year anniversary of my leaving the civil service. I did actually leave on a Sunday. Great financially but odd on my cv, job applications and all that.
I still have a smidge of my redundancy money left, so I think it's best to share my wisdom on that one.
Firstly I didn't think of it as "extra" money, I thought of it as wages until I got paid again.
Knowing my own habits I started to dream of all the things I could achieve or buy with the money. If I get given money for my birthday I often find it more satisfying to have a little bit, like a tenner to spend on something frivolous like a decent bottle of wine rather than £200 as that can easily be 20 silly things and then you feel you wasted it.
So I wrote a chart out of all the things I could do with the money and divided it up into those chunks. Some things I bought like new duck down duvets, warm if heating proves too expensive and luxury if not. I put about a quarter towards the family holiday we had last year, this was teh I deserve it part of the money and memories can't be taken away from you. I bought a netbook, so I could start writing wherever I was, maybe one day for paid work, maybe just to assist with job apps. Proved helpful in these ways and as a tool when volunteering for arts organisations, this was the speculate to accumulate part, along with website hosting, business cards, MA membership. I spent the least I could and it's hard to say if any of that was directly helpful but I don't feel foolish spending a couple of hundred a year on such things altogether.
I then tried to earn as much as I could, this was a lot of temping a few promises of work and payments that didn't come to anything, those flaky loveable folks, hmmppphh. Well learning to think freelance is learning to be balanced between being flexible, useful and a mug. This for me is a work in progress. A side lesson is that I don't really mind If I enjoyed the task but if I hadn't being paid would have made the discomfort worth it, and I would have felt more respected.
Then I tried to keep my head straight that I wasn't rich or poor and that maybe I'd get a job before it all ran out and I could splurge the last bit.
It seems I have a good chance of getting my current job permanently it's a lot less money, more holidays and actually exactly what I wanted when I left. A lower position in an arts org I can learn and grow from and have a second career. So now I'm thinking I'm sure I'll be delighted if it does come off but I can't get excited after two years of purgatory.
I am getting more writing requests, now from artists which is great. Feel free to ask me and if you can pay me great! £200 an article seems the going rate.
I'll keep you posted,
Jen
