Tired

People at work used to laugh when I would come in on my "Monday" (whatever day that might be) and say "Thank God, now it's time to relax." I wasn't joking.

When I first took on my last job, I was glad to have a job, but I was not too excited about the pay. It was actually paying me less than I had been making on unemployment, which itself was based on a fraction of what I had been making in my Mold/Bond Operator job at the DVD manufacturer, which was in turn a fraction of what I had been making in my DVD Asset Management job at the same company. I worked out that if I took the job at the rate that was being offered, even if I were to cut down my expenses to nearly bare-bones levels, I would still have a negative cash flow and would use up all my liquid reserves in four years.

I was right.

In the fifth year, I had to tap a reserve I really didn't want to tap to pay some big annual bills. Ditto in the sixth year, last year.

Then things changed.

In September of last year I began working in a campaign that was paying real money. Not just an hourly rate - there was overtime being made available, and very generous bonuses. For the first time since I started in April of 2012, I was bringing in a surplus. I could pay all my bills and have something extra left over. The money didn't start rolling in all at once, but once the bonuses started to flow, everything felt good. In May, during a one-on-one meeting with my supervisor, I told him how happy I was to finally be making real money again. I had been able to buy my mom a real Mother's Day gift for the first time in years, and I was thinking of going out and splurging on myself by buying some new pants and shoes.

Shortly after that we were informed that our workplace would be shutting down at the end of September.

I reviewed my pay records as of last Friday, the last regular pay we will be receiving, which covered the period up to Sunday, September 30. In the first nine months of 2018, I earned more money than I had in all of 2017 or any of the years since I had started in 2012. And this isn't counting the bonuses I will be receiving in my final payout next week. For the first time since 2015, I won't have to tap any reserves to pay my big end-of-year annual bills.

If I could have continued with that campaign, if I could have accepted the work-from-home option as so many of my co-workers did, I would have. But for me, working from home is not a practical option. So I now am searching for something that doesn't require me to work from home.

We'll see how it goes.