Why I Do All This Funny Money Stuff: Part One
Gather around, readers. The Frugal Shrink is going to tell you a story.
The day of my doctoral graduation in 2008. Full of misplaced optimism (HA!).
Once upon a time, a younger Frugal Shrink finished her postdoctoral residency and landed what she thought would be a "dream job". Alas, the dream job quickly became a nightmare. However, FS was fresh out of school and newly licensed with a massive load of student loan debt (~146K). This job paid fairly well for a new grad and qualified her for some loan repayment. What could she do? She was very, very miserable in this job and became depressed, gained weight, and experienced varying physical health problems as a result. Despite her misery, she didn't see any other options that paid as well and would help with the debt problem that she had so willingly walked into. So she stuck it out for 2.5 years, long enough to qualify for 50K in loan repayment and to pay down ~16K of the student loans on her own. She also saved ~10K in a retirement account and ~10K in a savings account.
The 10K in savings was her escape money. She knew of several part time jobs that she could work and it would be enough to pay basic bills, but it would mean a serious pay cut. The FS had learned many frugal skills while in grad school, and while she had gotten a little lazy about using them she knew she could easily revive them again. She decided to take the leap. With less than a month left on her student loan repayment contract, she submitted thirty days notice to her employer. It was one of the happiest days of her life. She was walking away from a titled position to lowly contract positions, but this would turn out to be one of the best decisions she had ever made...
Once upon a time, a younger Frugal Shrink finished her postdoctoral residency and landed what she thought would be a "dream job". Alas, the dream job quickly became a nightmare. However, FS was fresh out of school and newly licensed with a massive load of student loan debt (~146K). This job paid fairly well for a new grad and qualified her for some loan repayment. What could she do? She was very, very miserable in this job and became depressed, gained weight, and experienced varying physical health problems as a result. Despite her misery, she didn't see any other options that paid as well and would help with the debt problem that she had so willingly walked into. So she stuck it out for 2.5 years, long enough to qualify for 50K in loan repayment and to pay down ~16K of the student loans on her own. She also saved ~10K in a retirement account and ~10K in a savings account.
The 10K in savings was her escape money. She knew of several part time jobs that she could work and it would be enough to pay basic bills, but it would mean a serious pay cut. The FS had learned many frugal skills while in grad school, and while she had gotten a little lazy about using them she knew she could easily revive them again. She decided to take the leap. With less than a month left on her student loan repayment contract, she submitted thirty days notice to her employer. It was one of the happiest days of her life. She was walking away from a titled position to lowly contract positions, but this would turn out to be one of the best decisions she had ever made...
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