Play me a song...

I've been thinking a lot lately about how to supplement the income after I quit and the possibilities I laid out in my last post. I received an email from a good friend with her thoughts. I ran the ideas past my mom as well. The advice I received was pretty much the same from both of them, 1 - consider start up costs, and 2 - do something you love. I started reading Women Leaving the Workplace by Larry Burkett again. He offers the same advice, you need to do something you are passionate about for it to work over the long haul.

So the options...

1. Systems consultant - This is probably the most time consuming and currently a conflict of interest with my current job to do this for anyone else. I would be hard pressed to do this type of work in the evenings and weekends. Therefore, for right now, this one is on hold.

2. Video Editing - My husband and I have done video editing in the past. We have a lot of equipment to do weddings and other special events. However, technology has changed a lot since we bought our equipment. Since our cameras are not equipped to video in HD (high definition), we would be behind the 8-ball in booking events. It would be a significant investment to purchase new HD cameras and editing software. Additionally, because we were working full time, this was a skill that we did not have time to grow and enhance. Therefore, our work was pretty mediocre. I would love to pursue this further and maybe once I quit I'll have a little more time to invest in learning more.

3. Piano lessons - this appears to me to be the most viable option at this point. I have been playing piano for 26 years and currently play for our church worship team. The start-up cost would be minimal as I would teach the lessons out of my home and I already own a piano. Secondly, I have a room right off of our foyer for the kids toys that could be converted into a piano studio and used to teach out of. This is also something I could start soon. I am prayerfully considering moving in this direction. Hence the title of this post... :-)

4. Lastly the jewelery. My mom thought I was crazy for even considering it. There is a start up cost associated although it would be doable with our tax return. The main struggle here is that I don't even currently wear jewelery. I think if I wanted to sell something, I should sell something I have an interest in.

So, that is the story. We'll see where the path leads.

On a praise report note, I received my annual salary review at my current job and got a raise that should net us another $140 a month. That money will go right into savings to help as a buffer for the transition period. Thank you Lord!

I feel as though we are heading into the home stretch leading up to July. There seems to be a fixed amount of money that we can bring in before that date arrives and many things to take care of. I'm praying that our tax return which should be sizable this year will cover many of the needed items.

Our pastor's wife advised us to try and live on my husbands income from now until then to help with the transition. There are so many costs that we won't have after I quit that it hard for me to separate them. For example, we currently pay ~ $150/month for our cell phone bill. After I quit, my husband will still carry a cell phone, but I won't. We're expecting the bill to be down around the $40 mark. It's hard to separate that out and pay the bill accordingly. However, we've decided that we're going to open another account and do our best. I'm hoping that some additional dollars will be able to be put into savings by doing this as well.