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Fiery Millennials

Financial Independence from a millennial's point of view.

Awful Beautiful Life

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I tell you what, when it rains IT POURS.

For­tu­nate­ly in my case I’m in a down­pour of all good things. My prob­lem (not that I real­ly have a prob­lem) is that EVERYTHING is hit­ting all at once. It’s an over­whelm­ing mix of tons to do with lots of time I can’t do any­thing. I’m not doing any­thing at work — lit­er­al­ly not doing any­thing. I haven’t done any­thing at work since I got back from Europe. So I can’t do any work for the old job, I can’t do any­thing for the new job and yet I have to sit in my chair at work for 8 hours a day. For­tu­nate­ly, I can do most things from said chair that need to be done, but I will still be cut­ting things close.

I’m remind­ed of the “old” Dar­ryl Wor­ley song “Awful Beau­ti­ful Life”. 

I laid in bed that night and thought about the day
And how my life is like a roller coast­er ride
The ups and downs and crazy turns along the way
It’ll throw you off if you don’t hold on tight
You can’t real­ly smile until you’ve shed some tears
I could die today or I might live on for years
I love this crazy, tragic,
Some­times almost magic,
Awful, beau­ti­ful life

Just a small sam­pling of my to-do/­done list from the last week:

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  • Shut off utilities
  • Shut off internet
  • Return equip­ment
  • Change address with Post Office
  • Coör­di­nate mov­ing process (get every­thing sched­uled, do inven­to­ry walk through, super­vise all day of move out and move in)
  • Find hous­ing in new town
  • Set­up CSA shares in new town
  • Do dish­es
  • Do laun­dry
  • Sweep and vac­u­um apartment
  • Return all keys
  • Clean out stained glass studio
  • Find some­one to take care of cat
  • Go home for Thanksgiving
  • Go to hos­pi­tal for birth of new nephew
  • Knit hat/bootie/hand cov­er set for nephew
  • Eat Thanks­giv­ing
  • Go to Friendsgiving
  • Sched­ule and host going away par­ty for old town
  • Sched­ule lunch for coworkers
  • Coör­di­nate with new coworkers
  • Sched­ule and host wel­come back par­ty for new town
  • Sched­ule and attend Mas­ter­mind meeting
  • Do pod­cast #1 (Can’t wait to share it!!)
  • Sched­ule pod­cast #2
  • Con­tin­ue to write blog posts/ com­ment on others
  • Final­ize Christ­mas presents for family
  • Attend last ses­sion of activ­i­ties in old town (dodge­ball, game night, shop­ping trip)

By them­selves, each and every one of those list items are super doable (and some of them very pleas­ant!). Cram all of them into a two-week time­frame and you get free enter­tain­ment of watch­ing Gwen run around like a crazy per­son. Not to men­tion you get a very tired Gwen. I will be very much look­ing for­ward to Christ­mas break where I don’t have to go into work (I will more than like­ly be expect­ed to answer any sup­port calls for the new job though) and can hang out with my family.

I found some short-term hous­ing in my new city 2 days after accept­ing the new job. I looked at a 2 bed­room apart­ment with a 6 month lease in a nice com­plex, but it was on the oppo­site side of town and cost over $1200 a month. I would’ve tak­en that one if I could­n’t find any­thing else.

Thank­ful­ly, I did find some­thing else. I will be stay­ing in my friend’s base­ment suite as long as I need to for $400/mo. Both of us will tell you we’re the one get­ting the bet­ter end of the deal. He gets some­one around the house for the hol­i­days and some mon­ey towards the bills, and I get a cheap place to stay with no strings attached. No deposits, appli­ca­tion fees, cat deposit, cat fee/mo, garage fee.… Noth­ing. It’s your basic McMan­sion — 3 car garage, 3000+ sq ft, 4 bed­rooms, 4 bath­rooms. I would nev­er in a mil­lion years have picked this place out, but it is much nicer than any­thing I’ve ever stayed in. That includes my apart­ment now!

I plan to stay in his base­ment until after I get set­tled in at the new job, after Christ­mas, and after Camp Mus­tache SE. Then, I will start look­ing for a mul­ti-fam­i­ly rental prop­er­ty of my own to buy! This will give me time to set­tle in, suss out the cur­rent mar­ket, and be sure of my deci­sion since this will be a long-term invest­ment. The best news is Mega­Corp will pay all the clos­ing fees as long as I use their peo­ple and buy before 9 months is up. Since I plan to buy after only 3 months, I will be golden!

The mov­ing ben­e­fits at this lev­el are pret­ty freak­ing fan­tas­tic. I will share more when I get the details, but between my year-end bonus, my mov­ing allot­ment, mov­ing allowance, and reim­bursable expens­es will com­bine to equal rough­ly 4 months worth of salary in 6 weeks. I’m going to have a nice chunk of change to put towards the new rental property!

All I have to do is sur­vive the next cou­ple of months. Wish me luck!

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Comments

  1. Holy moly Gwen that is one full plate. But it’s great that all the finan­cial stuff is falling into place. Though how is it you plan to buy a home in just 3 months are you famil­iar with the area?

    Also great picture.

    Oh and when did you start your mas­ter­mind group. I want­ed to get involved with one too. Any tips/pointers?
    The Roamer recent­ly post­ed…Sur­viv­ing 1 year of col­or­ful cap­sule wardrobes, and cut­ting my wardrobe by 47%My Profile

    Reply

    • My new town is actu­al­ly my old town. I lived there for both my intern­ship and first rota­tion, so I’m very famil­iar with the area!

      As for the Mas­ter­mind group, I broached the idea to a few fel­low blog­gers at Fin­Con. We are actu­al­ly just get­ting it start­ed so this meet­ing will be our first one! My advice would be to find peo­ple who are sim­i­lar to you and join forces with them (demo­graph­ics, goals, etc).

      Reply

    • Unfor­tu­nate­ly, no. Mine’s not done yet. That’s his hos­pi­tal issued hat. Mine would fit way better 😛

      Reply

  3. Sweet list! Sounds like every­thing’s planned out. 

    I did­n’t know you were a knit­ter! Me too, and baby clothes are my spe­cial­ty because I hate work­ing on large projects 🙂

    And I’m psy­ched to hear about your upcom­ing podcasts!

    Reply

    • I learned how to knit in, get this, an Hon­or’s Knit­ting class in col­lege. It was awe­some, but sucked to have to fran­ti­cal­ly fin­ish a scarf on a dead­line for a grade.

      Reply

  4. Wow, that’s a long to-do list! I’m look­ing for­ward to your pod­casts so your work becomes my gain! 🙂

    I think the friend’s base­ment idea is awe­some… seems like a good deal for both of you. What kind of mul­ti-fam­i­ly are you look­ing for — duplex, triplex, or some­thing big­ger? We’ve got a sin­gle fam­i­ly rental and a duplex and think the mul­ti-fam­i­ly is def­i­nite­ly the way to go. We’re going to try to buy anoth­er duplex in the next six months if possible.

    – Jim
    Jim @ Route To Retire recent­ly post­ed…Why Your Com­pa­ny Match is So ImportantMy Profile

    Reply

    • I’m record­ing episodes for oth­er peo­ple’s pod­casts, not start­ing my own. I should have spec­i­fied more. How­ev­er, I will be delight­ed to share them when they’re out!

      I’m look­ing for at least a triplex and prefer­ably a quad. They’re all over my new town! Good luck on get­ting anoth­er duplex!

      Reply

  5. Wow, you’re so busy but so amaz­ing for stay­ing on top of it. It’s also obvi­ous­ly all pay­ing out! You’re get­ting a new place to live, for a low­er price and with a high­er wage, reach­ing your goals will be a cake­walk! (I hope you like cake!)

    Sounds like a great plan for buy­ing a prop­er­ty as well. Sounds like you’re snow­balling pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences into a bright future! Go Gwen!!

    Reply

    • Thanks Vanes­sa! Things are cer­tain­ly turn­ing up ros­es for me at the moment. Is it weird I’m kind of braced for some­thing ter­ri­bly bad to happen?

      Reply

  6. Per­fect song for the lev­el of activ­i­ty in your life. It’s all good! The pieces are com­ing togeth­er seam­less­ly, espe­cial­ly the base­ment suite.

    Also inter­est­ed in hear­ing about your pod­cast both from the lis­ten­er point of view and as a pos­si­ble cre­ator. Have you fig­ured out the tech­ni­cal end and about how much time is involved?
    Mrs. Groovy recent­ly post­ed…Are You FI-Curious?My Profile

    Reply

    • Maybe I should have spec­i­fied I will be appear­ing on 2 oth­er pod­casts, not start­ing my own. I don’t have near­ly the free time to com­mit to some­thing like that right now 🙁

      Reply

  8. I was sort of over­whelmed by your respon­si­bil­i­ty and goal list, but I was remind­ed I’ve been there before, and my plate is sim­i­lar­ly full now in my own style. Pay now, and play lat­er is our mot­to. The more you do today, the less you’ll have to do tomor­row. Also, you’ll always have to feel pain in life. You can either do it on your terms, or you can be suprised by it and do it on life’s terms. At least on your terms, you know what’s com­ing and can be pre­pared for it, and you’ll be using that pain to reach your goals. The jour­ney to our goals and dream life is a chal­leng­ing one, but that’s what makes it spe­cial. Have fun and god bless.
    Bill @ Wealth Well Done recent­ly post­ed…Falling in Love: How to Become a 2‑Person Adventure.My Profile

    Reply

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