I Quit My Job(s)

I’ve been with my husband since 1991. When you simply say 1991 it doesn’t sound all that long ago to people my age, but if you think about it 1991 is only a couple of years from the 80′s whose styles are now labeled as retro. And quite frankly I think the 90′s have become retro themselves as evidenced by the vast amount of 90′s grunge flannel out this winter season at Target. So yeah, the 90′s were a long time ago, and we got together at the beginning of the 90′s.

The lasting thing that works regarding my husband and I is the agreement he and I set up many moons ago. It goes as follows.

He works a job that pays money.
I do everything else.

So basically he can never ever have a moment in which he gets overcome by some unhappiness in his career, comes home, and says, “I’m done with this shit. I’ve quit my job.”
And I can.

Now this may seem unfair to outsiders looking in upon us, but then we go back to the fact that I do everything else. It’s a give and take game we play together. And for us it works.

However, a long while ago I started writing things for other people to see on the Internet.

What happens when you have written things for people to see on the Internet for such a long time is that you develop some expertise in things such as backends of blogs, SEO, online marketing, etc. Then you see people who started after you who you know for a fact are well…aggressive panderers who couldn’t entertain a crowd with an original good story or thought if they tried but they have suddenly convinced people enough that they can so that they make tons of money writing simple minded pieces about things like, oh I don’t know, how to use the shift key on your keyboard (why don’t you people already know how to use the shift key on your keyboard?).

These people cause you to pause (and write seriously long run-on sentences), and that along with the whole pressure you feel to make something of your life even though you know that the doing everything else role you play in your marriage is something important creates this one thought in your head that just won’t go away.

I could do that.

And that’s what I decided to do a few years ago…do that. I made some money writing about things that you people by a certain age should probably already know how to do. And I liked it for a while. I even had one boss that I absolutely loved, a rarity these days or so I’ve heard.

But then a few months ago I started having some health issues. I’m still being monitored now, but it looks like it might be nothing super serious. Don’t freak out. But while I’ve been being tested and prodded horrible thoughts started popping into my mind about legacies, my children, what mark I was leaving behind. One question wouldn’t go away.

Is this what I wanted to really be doing with my life?

And the answer was a solid no.

I wanted to be doing all of the things that fall into the everything else category that my husband and I set up retro style back in the 90′s. I like doing everything else. I love the everything else and all that it entails. The only part of the everything else that I didn’t like was the lack of financial freedom it gave me. However, here’s the thing.

My husband and I have been together since 1991. And we’re what you call frugal. And when you’ve been frugal since 1991 you have some financial freedom to do the things in the everything else category while your husband fulfills his role of working a job that pays money.  Another thing happens when you have been together since 1991. You pretty much know whether or not you’re lifers. Sure you may try to fool yourself into thinking you’re lifers when in fact one of you clearly is not a lifer, but deep, deep down you know whether or not you and your spouse together are lifers. And David and I? We’re lifers. And we made a commitment to each other back in the early 90′s.

He works a job that pays money.
I do everything else.

Sure it may not work for everyone, but it works for us. So I quit my job(s). I quit most of them pretty easily and very quickly many months ago. This last one was super hard to quit because as I’ve mentioned before my boss was as good as bosses get. It took me a lot longer to get the nerve up to quit that job. But I did it. Yesterday. And I feel good about it.

Well I feel good about it mostly.

I still can’t figure out why you people by now don’t know how to use the shift key by yourselves.

Kelly Kinkaid

Kelly Kinkaid (1007 Posts)

Kelly Kinkaid, professional blogger and freelance writer, enjoys writing about such topics as stretching a dollar, personal finance, diet and fitness, and living a life well lived. She spends all of her spare time in her many roles including but not limited to soccer, basketball, swimmer, band, and piano mom, runner and wife. You may contact her via e-mail kellyology(at)gmail(dot)com.