That’s it! For the first time in my professional life I am not employed by someone or relying on an employer for a paycheck. I don’t know that it has fully hit home yet as my last week of work was a whirlwind that ended with an awesome gathering with my now former co-workers. I wasn’t expecting anything except the usual goodbyes and good luck that comes with being in management. What I got was a full blown celebration that lasted the whole day and continued after hours and late into the night at an offsite location. It was a very humbling experience that I am still in shock over.

My new venture is off the ground and I’m officially open for business. I’m still working on my final certification and should have that wrapped up in the next day or two. The next step is to make sure all of my lose ends are tied so I can spend some time getting out and networking with other businesses. I’ve never been in the position of having to network and hustle for business. The old adage of “fake it until you make it” keeps coming to mind as I will have to portray confidence in doing something that I really don’t have any experience doing. I think my years in the business world will help me with this process, but I can’t help but feel a little nervous about the thought of walking into businesses and trying to connect with folks.

On the financial side I’ve been thinking a lot about how this change will impact our Financial Independence journey. I was fortunate enough to have a good amount of accrued vacation that was cashed out so I am essentially being paid for the next month. After that my goal will be to make the equivalent of my take home pay each week. At first I was hoping to cover my whole salary, but I think that would be a tall task this early in the process. Also, with the benefit of small business tax write offs we will probably be able to keep more of what we earn which lowers the bar to breaking even. Once we start getting some steady business and income then I will look into starting a SEP IRA or 401k to increase our savings and lower our taxable income further. This is the part I’m really excited to learn more about and put into place. I think it will be a huge boost to our savings and it will also keep the government’s greedy hands off more of our hard earned cash.

With my new found freedom I am hoping to also have more time with family and for activities like writing this blog. One of the perks of making your own schedule is that we will be able to get out in our RV earlier on travel days which will save us time and money since we won’t have to idle in hours of traffic getting to our destination. I will also be able to post blogs when I want to instead of always waiting for the weekend as I have had to do the last few months.

These are exciting times and we look forward to sharing them here. If you have any feedback or suggestions please leave them in the comments below. I would especially like to hear from those of you that are self employed and what you are doing to maximize savings and minimize your taxable income.

Thank you as always for taking time to read our blog. Next up is our September financial update, stay tuned.

Joe