After an exhausting six month job search during the worst economic crisis since the great depression, I had yet to get an offer from any of the crappy office jobs I was applying to. Even the temp agencies in Boston, which assured me there was work, found me nothing.
I was scraping by on rent, eating away at my already small savings, and racking up a huge credit card balance. I even had to cash out my 401k from my job in LA. After aboutsix months of this, my attitude had shifted from humbled, to humiliated, to basically indifferent about the whole job hunt process. It wasn't until then that my brother approached me about going into business with him.
He was running a successful IT company (think GeekSquad but local - and better priced :D) and had more clients than he had time. I have a computer background, so it was a perfect fit.
I've actually been able to work only part time, but keep my overhead so low that I'm making more profit and saving up more money than ever before. My credit card is paid, and I've started (modestly) rebuilding my emergency fund.
I also have a few goals for making some digital passive income. Not only can technology help us trim the fat from our expenses (like the Roku box), it can actually MAKE us all consistent passive income.
Right now I'm making about $50 a month online. To get a full breakdown on where that's coming from, and how I plan on expanding it, check out my new series of posts, called Digital Passive Income.
Showing posts with label a new beginning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a new beginning. Show all posts
Friday, May 29, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Success or happiness? Both?
I have a history of maturing at a rapid rate (grey hairs to prove it), and I more or less had a midlife crisis at the age of 23.
My hours at work were increasing and unbearable (12 hour days), rounds of layoffs were expected, and the air in the office became venemous. All the perks of working for a video game company, my "dream job," were undercut by my petty and insecure boss, a huge revenue slump, and constant misdirection from my superiors. The concept of my job was great, but the reality was killing me. I was eating unhealthily, smoking occasionally, and spending so much of my salaruy recovering from work that I barely had anything left to save.
Around that time, a good friend of mine passed away. It was time to go home. Enough people have had their California dreams dashed that it becomes more of an annoyance than anything to join their ranks; yes, I wasn't from LA and yes, I was homesick.
My girlfriend, a Boston native like me, was also on the same page. The California chapter of our lives had concluded.
Almost two years had passed and I once again found myself without a job, driving from one side of the country to the other. I left my job to make the move, a move almost anyone would recommend against. But I was willing to work at Starbucks at that point to make ends meat. And with a network of family and friends back in Boston, I had hope that it wouldn't come to that.
On my next post, I'll write about my job hunt during a recession.
My hours at work were increasing and unbearable (12 hour days), rounds of layoffs were expected, and the air in the office became venemous. All the perks of working for a video game company, my "dream job," were undercut by my petty and insecure boss, a huge revenue slump, and constant misdirection from my superiors. The concept of my job was great, but the reality was killing me. I was eating unhealthily, smoking occasionally, and spending so much of my salaruy recovering from work that I barely had anything left to save.
Around that time, a good friend of mine passed away. It was time to go home. Enough people have had their California dreams dashed that it becomes more of an annoyance than anything to join their ranks; yes, I wasn't from LA and yes, I was homesick.
My girlfriend, a Boston native like me, was also on the same page. The California chapter of our lives had concluded.
Almost two years had passed and I once again found myself without a job, driving from one side of the country to the other. I left my job to make the move, a move almost anyone would recommend against. But I was willing to work at Starbucks at that point to make ends meat. And with a network of family and friends back in Boston, I had hope that it wouldn't come to that.
On my next post, I'll write about my job hunt during a recession.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
The shot heard 'round the world
This is a blog for the Digital Underclass. We are the new generation of Americans who refuse "business as usual," who vote with our wallets, can't buy expensive cars, don't climb corporate ladders, and refuse to take on unecessary debt.
Life doesn't have to be the way it was for people ten or twenty years ago. We can live locally and still communicate globally. I want this blog to be a voice for a generation that emerges from the collapse of the old "big car, big house and bigger debt" American way of thinking.
About Me:
With the ink still drying on my English Lit degree, a couple hundred dollars in my bank account, and a car with 185k miles on it (named Rusty), I road-tripped across the country to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career in video games. Just what exact job was I looking for? I had no clue. I only knew that if I was going to end up in some corporate setting, I wanted to at least work for a company that did something interesting.
Cut to one year later: I'd crawled the ranks from a video game tester temp to a full-time, salaried marketing position with a leading video game publisher. I was making great money, traveling the country on business, and even meeting the occasional celebrity.
Then I quit. The job, lifestyle, and even city I thought I'd wanted turned out not to be the case, and it was time for some drastic changes.
Tomorrow I'll post about what lead me to make such a harsh choice. Stick around!
Life doesn't have to be the way it was for people ten or twenty years ago. We can live locally and still communicate globally. I want this blog to be a voice for a generation that emerges from the collapse of the old "big car, big house and bigger debt" American way of thinking.
About Me:
With the ink still drying on my English Lit degree, a couple hundred dollars in my bank account, and a car with 185k miles on it (named Rusty), I road-tripped across the country to Los Angeles in pursuit of a career in video games. Just what exact job was I looking for? I had no clue. I only knew that if I was going to end up in some corporate setting, I wanted to at least work for a company that did something interesting.
Cut to one year later: I'd crawled the ranks from a video game tester temp to a full-time, salaried marketing position with a leading video game publisher. I was making great money, traveling the country on business, and even meeting the occasional celebrity.
Then I quit. The job, lifestyle, and even city I thought I'd wanted turned out not to be the case, and it was time for some drastic changes.
Tomorrow I'll post about what lead me to make such a harsh choice. Stick around!
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