{"id":172499,"date":"2014-05-07T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-05-07T11:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/getrichslowly.org\/blog\/?p=172499"},"modified":"2019-10-14T22:05:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T05:05:54","slug":"one-year-later-the-benefits-and-tragedies-of-self-employment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/one-year-later-the-benefits-and-tragedies-of-self-employment\/","title":{"rendered":"One year later: The benefits and tragedies of self-employment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost exactly a year ago today, I quit my full-time job to pursue my passion — writing. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, but it was also terrifying. I had spent the last six years working alongside my husband, a mortician, in the funeral industry. My job certainly wasn’t perfect; but it was stable, well-paying, and sometimes fun. I also loved the people that I worked with and was extremely attached to a few. On the other hand, I knew it was time. <\/em>I had been working full time and writing on the side for so long that I no longer knew what a “real life” was like. In fact, my “real life” was a mess.<\/p>\n

Everyone talks about how lucrative and exciting having a “side hustle” can be,<\/a> but no one talks about the toll it can take on your life. Since I worked 9 to 5 and had two small children, the only time I could write was at 5 a.m. before work or at 8 p.m. after the kids went to bed. This meant that I was working 16 hours a day at times — actually all the time. And the weekends?<\/em> I worked those too.<\/p>\n

But, like I said, one year ago today was the day I finally snapped. It was a Saturday afternoon and I had worked over 70 hours that week, yet I was stuck working late at my job \u2026 again.<\/em> I called my bosses and asked if I could talk to them. And when I showed up at their home, I nervously put in my three weeks’ notice and hoped they would forgive me. Then I called my husband.<\/p>\n

“I did it,” I said. “I quit my job.”<\/p>\n

We had been talking about it for months. I always said that I would quit when my side income surpassed what I earned at my full-time job. But saying it and actually doing it were two entirely different things. Ironically, leaving my mortuary job felt like a death in itself. I knew that once I left, there was no going back.<\/p>\n

“Awesome, Babe,” he said. “You’re self-employed now. It’s all you.”<\/p>\n

<\/span>The Benefits of Self-Employment<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once my final three weeks were up, I hit the ground running and started looking for writing jobs to fill my 40- hour work week. And it didn’t take long.<\/em> Soon I was working 40 hours per week, or more just to keep up with the various writing jobs I had acquired and my own two websites. But the work wasn’t draining me the way my old job used to. In fact, I felt like I had a whole new lease on life<\/a> — like I had rediscovered myself. The fatigue and exhaustion I felt when I quit my job had been replaced with inspiration, creativity, and passion<\/strong>. Some of the other benefits I noticed right away:<\/p>\n