It has been 2 months and 6 days since my last post. Although you should never make excuses, mine has been summed up in one word: work.
I shared with you how Fred and I were both working full-time and how that was a new season for us. I’ve decided to share some of the pros and cons of being a (true) double income no kids (affectionately known as “DINK”) family.
Pros:
- MONEY. Fred and I were blown away at how both of us bringing in a full-time income allowed us to have lots of money, (most of which) went towards knocking down our debt load. We paid off a line of credit and made significant progress on my student loan (see picture).
Here is the progress we have made on my student loan since last February. The orange strip under the blue line until the top has been paid since August – around $6,000.
- Never being bored. I know that this is a bit of a new concept to people, the idea of being bored, but I will admit that sometimes it happened to me (not very often, mind you). With a full-time workload, being bored was never an issue. There was always something to feel guilty about that I was not doing.
- Feeling important. This sounds silly, but it’s nice to feel like your life is “meaningful” and that your days “have a purpose.” I was working two part-time jobs, both of which I was passionate about, and that made me feel like my life was important.
Cons:
- Not much free time. When you work full-time, your days are…full. For me, having always had some days off, it meant that my weekends were used for resting and errands, and then before I knew it, Monday rolled around again. Life was…full. And not always fun.
- Tiredness/sickness. I never thought of myself as a sickly person, but last fall I was constantly sick. My immune system was having trouble adjusting to working 40+ hours, and it seemed that working like a normal person was too much for me. I said no to a lot of things I wanted to do, and canceled a lot of plans on account of my weak immune system.
- Having more money than time. This is an interesting concept that I have been aware of for the past few years. Sometimes, you have more time than money. Other times, you have more money than time. I have never been in that position before, and so, I did some things that seemed very foreign to me, like buying gift cards as presents instead of making something, or buying things at the store that I would normally make from scratch. It could be that I just wasn’t used to this, but I didn’t love this. I prefer to have time to do the things that save me money.
I’m intentionally reflecting on this season because once again, our season has changed. Fred and I both had 5-month teaching contracts that ended this month, and we are both substitute teaching. I am still working part-time at a non-profit, but my days are suddenly much freer. For example, today I did not get called in to teach but already had a plan for getting in my work hours, so I had the whole day to myself. After a really busy season, this made me feel guilty. Fortunately, I pushed those feelings down and had a lovely restful day (which included a nap).
We know that this new season will hold a different kind of lifestyle for us. More flexibility, more days off, less traction with our debt, and more time together. Although it’s not exactly what we had in mind when we decided to “go gazelle” and get our debt paid off, we are taking this season with expectation that it will work out just as it should. And we’re going to try to enjoy our days off, too. 🙂
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