Money, money, money, mon....ey.....

I’d be rich! Sometimes I feel like I work too hard for the amount of money I make. A typical weekday starts something like this:

• Wake up around 6 am
• Comment on blogs around 6:30am (if I didn’t hit the snooze button too many times!)
• At school by 7:30am (need my prep time!–grade papers, plan for the day, analyze the student’s work,etc.)
• Teach from 8:10am to 2:30pm
• Two days a week from 4:00pm to 6:00pm I have class
• Three days a week from 3:30pm to 6:00pm I help my husband with his graphic and web design business
• Around 6:30pm I might have time to quickly write up a post or draft up an outline for a guest post
• 7:00pm movie time! I don’t watch television, but I do watch a movie every night…thanks Netflix!
• 9:30pm-ish bed time.

The three days a week I help my husband my work day is literally a 12 hour day, of course this includes my travel time to school and back. No wonder I’ve been feeling sluggish by movie time, I’m worn out! But I got to thinking the other day about how much income I actually make. As a substitute teacher, currently in a long term position, my hourly is just under $40 an hour. The hours I work for my husband vary from $45 an hour to $75 an hour depending on the client project. If I calculated my weekly pay it comes out to about $1,620 for the week (I averaged my hourly for my husband’s clients…sometimes my time is spent working on pet projects that means zero pay!). However, if I broke this down by hour, from the beginning of my day to the end of my day, or movie time, my hourly is really about $25.92.

I’m sure some of you think the hourly isn’t too terrible. And it’s not. I don’t complain about how much I make in the grand scheme of things. However, because my days are so long and I feel like I’m working my butt off some days, I do feel like I’m getting short changed. Let’s compare some hourly wages and see if I can justify my complaining (my data is from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and is a median hourly rate):

• Social Worker: $22 per hour
• School Counselor: $24 per hour
• Librarian: $25 per hour
• Curator: $23 per hour
• Dentist: $68 per hour
• Veterinarian: $38 per hour
• Telecommunications equipment install and repairs: $27 per hour
• Tool and Die maker: $22 per hour
• Railroad operator: $23 per hour
• Financial analyst: $35 per hour

These hourly rates seemed a little low to me, however it is the median hourly rate calculated for all major US metros. You might have noticed that I didn’t include jobs that paid under $20 per hour as I was trying to compare occupations that came close to my total hourly wage. While comparing various occupations I made some assumptions such as, a railroad operator doesn’t need much formal education, but probably needs many hours of training. I’m sure it’s also a job one “works up to” in order to obtain. However, I was surprised by the hourly rate of a vet. They attend medical school for four years following their initial bachelor’s degree, the wage seems awfully low for so much education. And as for the dentist, maybe this needs to be publicized more often. More people need to choose dentistry, I guess! I suppose I can stop complaining now.

Do you think these hourly wages look correct? Am I making too much of a big deal over my hourly? Should I not look at my hourly this way, as the total amount of hours I spend working? Do you feel underpaid?

Lazy.....does that also equal dumb?

I consider myself a very patient, somewhat intelligent, hard worker. Though patient and understanding, the one thing that really makes me angry is laziness. Laziness begins early (I work with children and see this often); first it begins with not following directions the first time you’re asked. For instance, maybe when your mother asked you to clean your room, you said, “I’ll do it later.” But never did. Then it evolved into not doing classwork and homework that was expected of you. Your teacher, being patient and understanding, thought it was a developmental phase that you’d “grow out of.” You never did.

By the time you reached college, if you made it that far, you compared yourself to the other lazy college bums that skipped class and barely passed with a C- or a D. Who cared, no one was really checking up on you.You might of thought that you were like everyone else, lazy but you’d somehow end up being part of the middle-class owning a car, a home, having a job.

As you were approaching 30, you might have thought everyone else you knew who was 30 was living at home with their parents, too. You were no different. Times were tough! Making it on your own would have to be put on hold. If you were lucky, maybe you met a girl who was willing to bring home the money and support you as you found yourself. You never did.

Not far from 40, you may be having a panic attack, realizing everyone is passing you up. However, never being able to hold down a job for more than a few months has made it difficult to attain that middle-class dream you thought you were entitled to.

What will happen to you as you approach 50 and can no longer easily find part-time jobs that high school students are applying for? Never having really worked very hard, you may be at a disadvantage to those 30 years younger and willing to slave away to earn that minimum wage salary. What happens during your retirement years, or when you’re too elderly to work? Who will care for you then? Not having worked enough to save up for retirement will come back to bite you in the arse.

Don’t fool yourself, laziness and stupidity end up going hand in hand.
Do you think laziness and lack of intelligence are one in the same? Or, does laziness breed stupidity? Am I wrong? Are lazy people really misunderstood geniuses? What do you think?

This photo reminds me of the journey towards financial freedom; lots of steps that are sometimes elusive.

I’m realizing that my goal to purchase a house with in the next year is still many months away. I started out with a 3-step plan: pay down debt, raise my credit score, save for a down payment. My first two goals are going swimmingly; I’ve paid off close to $8,000 in debt and am working towards paying off my line of credit and my car loan. I used a debt repayment calculator and found that at the rate I’m going, I should have both paid off in under two years. That’s great news, if I can pay it off before then, even better. I’ve also raised my credit score by over 100 points in a year. All there is for me to do is keep making my student loan payments, use my credit cards lightly, then pay them off in full every month. If I keep this strategy up, I should see a 740 score this year.

However, I’m struggling with the 3rd step of my plan: save a down payment. These last few months my income has waned. As a a temporary employee with a school district that is running out of funds, I’m seeing this as a long-term pattern. My husband’s business is doing okay, but he is only bringing in enough income to equate to one salary plus a part-time employee (who is a programmer). This means I have to develop a new plan for bringing in more income.

My plan is still in the fuzzy- vague-I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet stages, but at least I have a direction:

• Option A: Be a marketing genius and bring in more work for my husband, which would create a job for me. This plan is more long-term and the results wouldn’t be immediate. However, if I am successful, it would be my ideal option.
• Option B: Take on a part-time position with a local company or the Census Bureau. This would bring in extra cash for a few months while I develop a more long-term strategy, still allowing me to take teaching gigs.
• Option C: Stick it out with the current school district and hope their budget improves. This is a risky scenario, I don’t want to wait until the bitter end only to find out I was right all along.
• Option D: Go get a permanent position and switch professions. I’ve been teaching for almost 9 years, I haven’t had to work in a corporate office or go on a job interview in a very long time. I like my summers off and my three weeks of winter break. This option scares me!

As I switch gears and begin moving towards option A, I realize I need to be really organized and manage my time wisely. I can easily fall into a pattern of sleeping too late, or wasting time running errands when I ‘work’ for my husband. To optimize my time, I’ll begin focusing on tasks using my task manager in Outlook. This should keep me in line.

Have you had to change jobs lately? How do you manage your time when you’re at home? Which option would you choose if you were in my position? Do you use a program to help organize your tasks?

A Lazy Day

I’m one of the lucky gal’s who gets today off. As a substitute teacher, I  pretty much get every national holiday off, a week for spring break, three weeks of winter vacation, and a full 12-week summer vacation. Not bad, considering of those 180 working days I’m home by 3pm. Of course, I don’t get paid on my days off, but that’s a whole other story. So, today I’m spending my day relaxing in the warm California sun. Oh, yeah! Our temp’s have zoomed back up to 77 degrees, making me realize why I pay so much for living in sunny Southern California; the weather!

This weekend I not only helped my husband with a client project, finished 3 school projects, but also had the luxury of spending Sunday and most of today doing absolutely nothing. My favorite thing to do, out side of bike riding (I got to do this as well this weekend). I’ve decided that I can shrug off the guilt of doing nothing because I accomplished plenty on my three days off. But, that brings me to making the most of a 3-day weekend without the guilt. It all boils down to time management:

• Saturday: Since my husband manages his own business, he often has to catch up on projects on the weekends.  I helped him for a few hours. Results: completed one project, got paid.
• Sunday AM: Skype meeting with my brother who is starting his own business. Not only is he 12 hours ahead of me time wise, he also has different work days, Sunday being one of them. Results: finalized his logo, he should pay soon. (He’s my bro, so I can’t harass him too much!) Since I had to wake up early for the meeting, I had enough time to finish 2 school projects. Results: Two down, one more to go.
• Sunday PM: Had time to throw in a couple of loads of laundry while my husband cleaned the car and bikes (my Valentine’s Day gift, I think). Went to a friend’s for an early B-B-Q via a bike ride. Wrapped up the evening with a movie at home and a beer. Results: My do nothing time! Minus the laundry, of course.
• Monday AM: Sleep in! Finished the final school project. Will hop on my bike later today and head out for my 2-hour class. Results: I finished everything without being pressed for time and stressed out.

Since today is a holiday for many people, I intend to catch up on some pleasurable reading and not worry about the remainder of the week’s impending work.

How are you spending your 3-day weekend? Did you get to do something romantic or plan a weekend get-away? Are you one of the lucky people who get’s every national holiday off?

This Thanksgiving I visited my family. They live a couple of hours north of me in a small town, and I visit them a few times a year. They moved to their small town (population just under 7,000) right around the time I entered college, I decided to stay behind in the “big city” because I had too many things going on. My brother, however, was only in middle school at the time of the move and had no choice but to move with them. He has basically grown up in a small town.

Small towns can be great. At least, that’s what I’ve heard and read. I wouldn’t really know from a first hand experience. They seem quaint and homey in some ways. Yet, they can also be inhibitors when it comes to looking for work. For instance, my brother is almost 30 and still lives at home. He has gone from part-time job to part-time job never holding on to any one job for more than 6 months at a time. There are many factors influencing his spotty work history, but his one excuse has always been that he lives in the middle of nowhere and it’s hard to find work.

Over the years I’ve tried to give him some tips on how to get a job, where to look for a job, even some specific examples of places that are always hiring. I have been employed non-stop since the age of 16, so my experience should be helpful to his particular situation. Of course I realize that all of my experiences have been in a city of millions and the job prospects are ubiquitous. But, I’ve also struck out on my own and worked for myself. This is something that can work anywhere, small town or big city. As long as the person is willing to work! (This is the main point here!)

While visiting this week, he made a comment about how he was only working about 16 hours a week and would like to work more. Trying to be a helpful sister,  I mentioned that he should look into part-time work in town (they live in a community about 15 minutes from their small town).  I specifically pointed out that Starbucks may be hiring for the holidays and he might want to look there. He poo-pooed that idea, coming up with excuses as to why he couldn’t get a job there.

I soon realized that he didn’t want to work part-time in a retail or restaurant type setting,  based on his excuses for not applying for jobs in town. So, I gave him some entreprenuerial ideas that I thought he might be more open to. The community where my parents live have many retired people. One thing that immediately popped into my head was running errands for the elderly. I told him that he could pick up their groceries for a fee, or be their driver on certain days. Another helpful idea was to mow their lawns, or help them with landscaping. The properties in that community are all over an acre, much too large for older people to take care of on their own. He again came up with an excuse as to why that wouldn’t work.

This made me realize that he really doesn’t want to work. Every idea I came up with, and I thought they were quite good, he had an excuse as to why it wouldn’t work. His excuses weren’t based on experience, he hasn’t tried any of the ideas I’ve mentioned over the years. Instead, they are based on his unwillingness to work. Many of his excuses over the years have revolved around the fact that the small town they live in has a limited amount of jobs available. This may be true, but the number one reason he hasn’t been able to solidify a career for himself is his weak work ethic. As he gets older, his priorities may change and he may decide to develop a stronger work ethic. For now, he is content living with my parents indefinitely.