Saturday, September 26, 2015

The Year of the successful failure (in-review)

Warmest regards to you all,

I will not beat around the bush...I suck at blogging. It has been almost 2 years and some change since my last blog post. My last post was the day before my 30th birthday. As of today we are nearly 10 months past my 31st and 90-some-odd days before Christmas. Moreover I have not been able to monetize this venture or keep up with my reading goals. Within the confines of the "blogosphere" I have failed. The reasons I have failed though...come from my successes. Don't make that face. I know what your thinking. Allow me to explain in the following month-by-month breakdown.

DECEMBER 2013

I got a new job.

You'll note from my previous blog posts about work that I had a hate-hate relationship at my job. I hated my job but I hated the idea of quitting if I didn't have another job lined up even more. I'm a single parent with a car payment, a crap-ton or debt and virtually no savings so I didn't have the luxury of saying "F**k this". For several months I basically lived on Indeed.com, throwing my resume at the wall to see what it stuck to. I saw a listing for a major online brokerage house. Per the description it was almost identical to the work that I was currently doing. The main difference is that this company was essentially going to pay me to learn to become a stockbroker. Instead of helping with cable bills I was helping with brokerage accounts. It seemed like the same cattle call type that got me into Comcast and it worried me. Hiring like this is mainly designed to weed people out and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to pass my brokerage license tests (I'm very math-averse). If I didn't pass in two attempts I would have been out of a job. My worry soon gave way to desperation as the possibility of getting paid more (and moreover not being at Comcast) was to great to ignore. I applied, I interviewed, I got the job! I wrote my resignation letter the same way James Bond did in Casino Royale: "I hereby tender my resignation from Comcast Corporation effective December 12th 2013." At that moment I made the decision that failure was not an option. I locked myself away and studied my ass off.

January 2014

I officially became a stockbroker.

I passed my tests!!! This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life. Even so, what I learned to pass the test is only a mere fraction of it's real world application. I'm literally learning on the job.

February - May 2014

I tried to buy a house.

In later posts I will go into detail about my house hunting process, or lack thereof. Long story short,  have too much student loan debt to qualify for a decent mortgage.

June 2014

I took a debt-less vacation to Disneyworld.

There's going to be a post about this too at some point. You don't need credit cards as long as you plan ahead correctly.

August 2014

I moved out of my parents' house.

I will go into specifics about my apartment hunting process, or lack there of, in later posts.

September 2014

I was in a serious car accident.

This is something that I am still currently dealing with. Definitely will be some posts to come. Just so you know, it wasn't my fault and (obviously) I'm alive to tell about it. 

October 2014

I got a promotion.

I was promoted to a different department at my company, with a better schedule and higher pay grade. I'm still having a little trouble getting back off the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, post accident.


Haven't had too many significant events since then up until now, save the loss of my maternal grandmother this past April. In all honestly I've kind of been off my game. Not firing on all cylinders. Some of this I do blame n the accident. I was out of work for a while and had some meager emergency savings, but I've been slow to replenish it back. If another catastrophic event were to occur in the near future it's a safe bet I'd be pretty much assed out. That scares me to no end.

I'm also discovering that I'm acquiring a taste for some of the finer things in life. I'm getting a travel itch. I'm craving good food and new experiences, maybe a couple of nicer things in the wardrobe. By no means am I wanting to bankrupt my family in these pursuits but it's something I feel I want to explore a little more now that I'm getting older.

So I'm back now. And I'm hoping this will get me back on track. While most of my subject matter remains the same, I have to be a little more careful about the things I discuss. Due to the nature of my employment I have to be more conscious of anything that could be considered or misconstrued as advice. I am neither licensed nor qualified to give any financial advice. I'm not going to be giving any endorsements on any products. I can talk about what I use and what I've tried but all my opinions are my own and should not be viewed as a recommendation of any kind.

With all that being said...let me pickup my paintbrush and get to work!


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