Changing course

I had expected to work in my current job until the time came (about 3 years from now) when Sam graduated from high school and left for college. Then Graham could retire and we could make our move. Currently we are thinking about Oregon as a retirement location and this coming summer, while we check out four colleges in the Northwest for Sam, we will also be looking carefully at the town of Corvallis as a location for our next stage.

However, things have been increasingly unquiet at work over the past two years, and although there has been some very positive things that have happened, enough was going on that I felt it was time for me to move on.

Because there are some people who read this blog that I have met through my work, I am not going to go into specifics and I also want to put in this: Bob is a good advisor. In the three years I have worked with him he has helped over 100 people gain knowledge about their finances and get control over the direction where they are going and how their retirement years will be funded. My departure from that office is not an indication that you need to be worried at all about his advice.

I never expected to work in the financial field. Lisa and Dan's dad was a stock broker and while my attitude towards the financial world has a lot more to do with his inabilities and illness, there is still something about it that gives me pause. Many people come into the office expecting something miraculous. Generally these are people who have not given retirement a thought all their working life. They either put minimum amount away and some actually have never funded a retirement account of any kind. In those circumstances, there is little any financial advisor can do but explain the facts of life.

At one point in the past year Bob asked me if I wanted to get my license and I could become a partner. I never had any desire to be the one to give financial advice. Until this position, I never gave my own financial future much thought. Like many of our clients, I had put money aside in a retirement account over my working career. I had no idea what funds to chose so took the stock broker's advice and left it alone. "Think long term" has been one theory for many years, and it worked for many years. Just not in this kind of volatile market.

I have learned a lot. I had a lightbulb over my head moment when it occured to me that the main reason the Universe had placed me in this job was to make sure Sam's inheritance from Dave's dad was positioned well to help fund college as well as part of that European trip we just took. There might just be money for a car as well, which is driving him nuts, as you can imagine. (He gets his license in about a month as his 16th birthday is coming up.)

But, as I said, there came a point where I needed to let this go and move on. I will finish out this month. I have been trying to make sure the office is well organized and will start training a temp, maybe even today.

So what will I do? Well, I had been pondering what I would do when we moved to Oregon three years from now. I need to continue to contribute to the household income and it occured to us that if I could avoid a 9-5 job, it would permit the greatest flexibility for travel and other fun activities. So we started a trial ramp-up of my former amazon.com book selling business and it has been doing well.

Years ago in Nashville when Dave was so very ill and I was essentially a single parent, Sam and I housesat for a close friend while she and her son went on vacation. They had two cats and a dog which of course needed attention. When she returned and I went over to give her back her key I asked what the room full of books was all about. It was NOT set up like a library; books of the same genre were not together. Fiction was not alphabetized by author's name. It was, I believed, a mess.

She explained she sold books on amazon.com to supplement her income. It was a great idea and she taught me the ropes. I started going out to yard sales with Sam each Saturday morning. My budget in those days was severely stressed and I could spend no more than $20 or $30 each week, but that turned into $200-$500 a month income and made a huge difference.

Since I moved to Huntington, Graham's and my joint income did not necessitate the need for additional funds. In addition, life on Saturday mornings with Sam's running made visiting yard sales difficult. I had met a couple at the public library book sale and he bought my inventory.

Both the woman in Nashville and this local friend do not work regular 9-5 jobs. However, they earn between $1500-$3000 a month with their book business. Why not me?