Revving up the engine

Posts here have been sparse since I quit my last job in July 2007. Please chalk it up to channeling my best efforts into my jobsearch, and not an utter abandonment of the blog once I stopped having income to "plan" for. Because, in fact, as anyone who's ever been unemployed can attest to, I've had to step up my financial planning game especially while I was unemployed. But I'll save that discussion for another post. Instead - because what financial blog worth its salt doesn't address jobs & careers!?! - here's goes my first toe back:

I knew my job wasn't what I wanted to do. Why did I stay? A litany of reasons: To save for the future, to get my investments started, to fund my retirement early, to take advantage of the generous pay, etc. I was a good worker, and the company loved me; I could have made a career out of it, just for the money. Then what , you may ask, tipped me into quitting with no safety net with no next job lined up, no classes registered for - nothing, in short, that could be confused with even a semblance of a plan?

It's simple really: Twenty-five years old is too young to settle.

I said previously that I wanted to go into publishing, but I had really no idea what that entailed. So, I went from a generous paycheck, benefits, and a 401(k) match all the way back to Square 1: an internship. In fact, I'm still there now. And I'm loving it.

The company barely pays enough to get me into the office, but the work, the company culture, the people, the working environment - it's the entire package. In taking a bold step, I have found such joy in my work that I finally understand what it means to "love" your job. And trust me on this one, that's priceless. And while calling it a happy ending would be grossly premature, I did want to share my story so that young career-changers and job field-hoppers chancing upon this fledgling financial blog could be encouraged by a true story. Even if you need to take a job at a chain retail bookstore to fund the holidays and buy lunch to get to your work-for-free job, it's temporary and completely worth it to do work you enjoy doing.