In yesterday’s post, I talked about my son’s recent hospitalization and how thankful I was that I was able to spend every moment with him without worrying about work issues.
Today, I’ve been obsessing about our medical bill that will be arriving shortly. I really don’t have a clue what we are going to owe and I am anxious to find out so we can plan accordingly.
Ever since I started working from home my income has always been used to pay for the “extras”. My husband’s income pays our mortgage and related bills. My income covers groceries, dining out and other family activities.
Ironically, we just got our tax return at the beginning of the month. We were thrilled. “Traci, you can take a bit of a break now and focus more on the house and kiddos”, my husband assured me. Even though I love my business and wasn’t planning to slow down, it was nice to know that there was a bit of a safety net in place.
Within a week, everything changed. Rather than thinking about spring cleaning and decorating projects I am wondering if I need to put in additional hours “Ebaying”, proofreading or writing. I am not dreaming about planting a spring garden or painting my daughter’s room anymore. Suddenly, I am back at work…with a vengeance.
While I would never give up the flexibility my home-business for anything, I am often envious of the people who have some consistency in their paychecks and schedules. Had my son gotten sick when I was employed as a social worker, I would have simply set aside a few hundred dollars per month of my paycheck to ensure the medical bill was covered. As a home-based professional, I don’t have the luxury of “setting aside” anything. While my income covers extras like trips to Chuck-E-Cheese and SeaWorld, I am also aware that we depend upon my income to cover those unforeseen events like emergency room visits and car repairs.
If you are self-employed are you prepared for an emergency? Do you have a back-up plan?
I am thankful that my husband had the forethought to prepare for emergencies. As a matter of fact, before we decided that it was time for me to leave my full-time career, he insisted that we had three months of income in our savings account. I tend to be a little more laid-back about our finances and frankly, it annoyed me that he was being so cautious. Now, I finally “get it” and couldn’t be more thankful for his diligence.
Related Reading:
Preparing to Be Out of Work
How Many Hours are You Truly Working?