Life's scoreboard

[valis2]

So, in the interest of trying to remember where I am, where I've come from, and where I'm going, I am going to compile my scoreboard.

Present Day Status:


• One small day job at a company associated with healthcare. It's a sort of traditional job, 9 to 5 kind of thing, except they allow flex time. I basically do three jobs there. Primary is compiling data at the end of the year and "cleaning it up", i.e., removing bad data, which involves three months of work running data and looking at thousands of numbers. Secondary is internet legal research, compiling statutes from the fifty states about health care, which change constantly. Tertiary is odd spreadsheets and word processing every so often. I set my own schedule and turn it in every month. I can work as little or as much as I like.



• A job working occasionally for my friends at shows or at their store in WI. The AZ trip is a prime example. We go, we set up, and I sit and watch the booth.



• One business, owned by myself. A crafts kind of thing. I sell at art fairs and the occasional craft show. I sell to galleries in Northern MI as well.



• Another part of same business, but really a whole business onto itself, as sales representative for a WI company. An independent contractor, really. Two months a year I run around MI and other close states trying to sell their merchandise. This year I'll spend a month driving to CA and back, trying to sell. I also do shows for them, meaning, I take their inventory to trade and retail shows by myself and set it up and sell it.



• Another part of same business, and another whole business onto itself, is my own closeout merchandise business, which is centered on eBay right now. The closeout merchandise is product from the WI company that we've had forever and that I've purchased. After much difficulty I have managed to get into two shows later this year by myself, where I will be delighted to sell said merchandise. My own merchandise. Not my crafts, the closeout merchandise. I have very high hopes for this. No one else in this industry is selling closeout merchandise at shows yet, so I am very excited.



• An apartment, a computer, and an internet habit that runs to HP fics featuring Severus Snape.



• A long running WIP (143,000+ words at present moment) set in the HPverse, which makes me very happy. I know it's silly to say that, but it's true. It's writing, and I've written it myself, and I'm ecstatic about it. It has its flaws, definitely (I should never have attempted the Harry POV), but it still seems to be working.



• Two HP fics in the active daydream state. Especially one, which really is beginning to take over my brain.



• The beginnings of a original fantasy trilogy, currently in the daydream state.

What I am lacking (The Big List of Adulthood):


• Health insurance.



• A house.



• Retirement money.



• Resources to pay off credit card debt incurred in starting above business.



• Time to write.



• New car, preferably with cargo space.

Much to my delight, I find myself finally able (I think) to mark off one of the Big List items. The day job, which has been more and more difficult to keep in sync with the rest of my life, has offered me health insurance, despite the fact that I am contigent at best and that there are whole months where I do not work a single day. Plus, it is not the $300+ a month that I've been quoted by other companies for years. It is $100 a month, and, should I quit, I am guaranteed that rate, though probably not for more than a year, I should think. I am ecstatic. Seriously. I kept thinking that I should just quit the day job, but I've held on stubbornly, and now, out of the blue, it offers me something I have really desperately needed for ten years, and I am absolutely delighted. I am Moving Forward In Life, and it is a wonderful feeling, as long as it turns out to be a true, real offer and not something awful. It's that company AFLEC, and I really hope that it is what I need.

My scorecard has improved! Here I've been in limbo for a few years, after finally moving past the Barely Making Enough To Live On phase, and I'm just jumping for joy within.

Comments

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been quoted very high prices, which has made it pretty much nearly impossible for me to get coverage. Plus, they do that whole pre-existing condition crap for the first year, and many other things. So I was going out of my mind worrying about it. Especially with this big trip around the corner! I was so afraid that something would happen and I'd be in big trouble.

I really want to start putting away money, too. I keep thinking about buying some simple stocks in the next couple years. Even $100 or $200 could make a difference.

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

We just switched insurance programs last month. We will now pay $650 a month for a family of four with no current health issues. We were paying $950 a month - which is $100 more than our house payment, nice, huh? - and that plan goes up every year by whatever percent. Our old plan was going to go up to $1250 a month. How freakin' outrageous is that? For four people, ages 45, 38, 9 & 7. With no recurring health problems. The bastards.