Today, on my way to work and on my way home, I listened to The Financial Confessions podcast’s “Burnout, Boundaries, and the Lie of Consumerist Self-Help.” A little sprinkle of advice that we often hear from our parents: you don’t need to spend money to fit in with others and you shouldn’t feel pressured to conform to social standards. Their messaging, wrapped in different language choices from how my parents have spoken of my potential and place in social groups, provided a nice little reminder I could probably use on repeat once a week. Year after year, I’ve sought to hit the next rung on my career ladder and worried too much about how my life compares to that of my peers. The earlier steps were “easier.” Or they felt easier. It is easy to forget who I was at 16 applying for my first job. I carried around a lot of nervousness. Putting my name and some basic information about “qualifications” on that paper application did not make me feel like I was a shoe-in for the cashier job I ended up working for roughly two years. Really young employee me would probably laugh now that here I stand, on the cusp of turning 39, still a nervous person when it comes to interviews of any kind. (I’m talking jobs and friendships alike.)

I loved listening to this episode today because it represents another message telling me it is ok to avoid living life like everyone else. Maybe it’s not the same construct as Eve Rodsky’s Find Your Unicorn Space but the message is pretty close in sentiment. We live in a world that constantly eats away at one of our finite resources: time. This same world is also always encouraging us to spend money, one of our other finite resources, in a quest to show off who we truly are (or want to be). Listening to this podcast today was a wonderful compliment to the one I listened to yesterday on my way home: The Lazy Genius episode #294 How to Celebrate Your Own Birthday. I didn’t plan a week of catching up on podcast listening, but the two podcasts hit me at a moment when I needed a break from my favorite rock and pop songs to fill my commute time.

Given that this year will be my last year in my 30’s, I want to be an example to others that just being you is enough.

For me, it’s time to be done thinking of a career as rungs on a ladder and that ladder you hopped on at 22 or 35 representing everything valuable you contribute to society. I’ve seen for far too many of us, it is a stepping stone at best and for others, it’s an anchor weighing them unfortunately down in a less than ideal spot in life. Yes, we can go up and down a ladder as much as we like in many cases, but some ladders don’t fit where we need to go. Maybe we should start thinking of a career as a hobby farm. We can plant a few things here and there and see what works for the space available, our individual attention span, and personal tastes. We get to enjoy seasonal fruits. We can share the excess value of my contributions where they might be best appreciated. A part of me wishes I had thought of my working years a bit more this way ages ago, but it takes the right influences to nudge my confidence level from “timid newbie” to “What the hell…let’s do it!” At a minimum, I have 23 possible years to accrue more earnings to meet my retirement goals; I could stay on part-time in my 60’s if I find value in the work or find I need extra money; and lastly, it’s always possible, my career journey ends abruptly and I am reliant on disability benefits to nudge my budget away from the red.

Based on where I am today–both in my career and budget–I wanted to mention how much happier I am now that we’ve pared back on mindless spending. This step away from the immediate gratification culture I am often confronted with has really changed my life more than a number of other choices available to me. One of my biggest spending mistakes was my previous obsession with self-help books in my 20’s. Some of it might have been that the genre was doing quite well with publishers at the time and some of it might have been not accepting the fact my post-deployment life didn’t fit the way I wanted it to at the time. I didn’t feel like I was grown up after Iraq. I didn’t feel like I fit well in the Marine Corps’ rigid structure. I didn’t feel like I was part of my friend group from back home and college either. Being lost looks different for everyone and it’s kind of disappointing to realize society is cultivating this idea that conformity is the end goal–but only until being unique becomes marketable again. Around the time that I accepted I didn’t need someone else’s acceptance, life shifted. I realized the Marine Corps was a chapter of my life, one that I could reread over and over again and take new meaning from. If I had stayed in, I don’t know that I would have learned to appreciate money they way I do now.

The podcasts I listened to this week made me feel proud again of my individuality. I don’t have to fit anyone else’s aesthetic. I don’t need to treat my aging body or my true age as something to be ashamed of and there’s no shame in celebrating my journey a bit differently. My body is not a trend to aspire to nor should my way of perceiving the world. We would be lost if we all looked, sounded, and talked the same. My interests don’t need to be trendy and I hope yours aren’t either.

As something who often hates being asked “Tell me about yourself.” I know that who I am is someone I found.

I was once lost because I kept trying to meet goals others projected onto me. Those goals hurt my love of education, how I felt about my body, personal relationships, and career interests. Once I started to care a little less what everyone thought, I started to understand the body, mind, and spirit that make up who I am. This short stature means I often need help; it can take the form of ladders, but most often, it means politely asking a taller person to put something within my reach. My mind is not dented because the hardship of serving in Iraq resulted in PTSD. I am more empathetic than I was before and small details catch my eye a bit better. (Granted, typos happen. I’m working on being a better editor every day!) My love of reading improves my mental state and while I’ve traded in fiction for the allure of reference writing material and memoirs for the most part, I find all reading to be valuable. My spirit is clumsy. That brain-mouth interaction fails me often and my spirit who forgets to pay attention often results in me falling up and down the stairs. My clumsiness is part of my charm–and bruises are evidence I lost a fight here and there with a chair, the dog who ran into me, or the counter that never moves out of my way.

The next couple of steps in my future might not be easy in my quest to embrace my individuality even further, but I’ve faced obstacles before and felt like I didn’t fit in. I don’t care to compete with others (been there, done that) and it’s getting old hearing stories to press on, regardless of the costs. I am happy to hit a year where I am ignoring the hustle culture messaging. Sure, there’s always more money to be made, but I constantly see people with a lot more and they aren’t happy. They just keep changing the goal post they call ‘happiness.’ Maybe it’s $70k a year. Maybe it’s the 3,500 square foot house. Maybe it’s x number of vacations a year. Their dreams are not my dreams, and I refuse to envy them anymore. It may take some time to stop reading an article here and there on some odd case, but I will eventually do better. The life experiences that generally make me happy and feel like I’m living the life best suited for me are pretty simple. Here’s what my full life looks like today:

Family

1. We almost always eat dinner together.
2. We take turns doing the dishes.
3. We don’t raise our voices when we’re angry.

Work

1. Avoiding handling money.
2. Keeping my commute to a minimum.
3. Ample PTO/sick/vacation time.

Writing/Reading Goals

1. Give me a vocabulary challenge.
2. Help me see how to better portray my own lived experiences.
3. Mix things up with easy reads and long-term reading projects.

Friends

1. Gather for fun experiences (with and without alcohol).
2. Improve my recall of important dates and checking in.
3. Avoid gossiping.

2022 is almost over.

I am a bit more than grateful to see this year end. A few unexpected health challenges in the form of an ovarian cyst that burst in the spring and dealing with carpal tunnel this late summer/early fall plus losing our 2-year-old dog, Radar, presented some major disappointments. 2022 has not felt like a year full of hope and joy, so I’ve been working on turning around my attitude in the face of adversity. Writing helps me refocus my energy and I love reflecting on my journey of personal growth.

Here are some things about 2022 that remind me this year wasn’t all bad:

1. We made two extra partial payments on our mortgage.
2. We set aside enough money for a mini vacation. (More to follow in January.)
3. We’ve regularly set aside money towards a 2023 fall vacation to see friends living out-of-state.
4. I found no cost writing inspirational materials courtesy of a local public library:
   • Naked, Drunk, and Writing: Shed Your Inhibitions and Craft a Compelling Memoir or Personal Essay by Adair Lara
   • The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English by Lynne Murphy
   • Steering the Craft: The Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin
5. Many of the new recipes I’ve tested are quickly becoming family family dishes.
6. My friendships at work at thriving as are my friendships outside of work, making Arizona feel more like a place where I belong.
7. My family and I are trying to be better about staying in touch. (We do just fine on social media, but we’re more of an in-person bunch and everyone avoids picking up the phone.)
8. I found new vegan cheese options I like:
   • Follow Your Heart vegan parmesan
   • Simple Truth plant-based parmesan
   • Nuts for Cheese fermented cashew product

My journey with carpal tunnel syndrome is not over, but I am finding the condition easier to manage. On days where it hurts a bit to type, I throw on my arm brace for a good hour or more. It’s not like I am backpedaling and needing to wear it everyday and I take that progress as a good sign. My weightlifting journey will take a bit more work to get back up to my former strength level and I’ve accepted that situation is something I cannot change.

As I mentioned earlier, writing is that tool in my tool box that helps me reflect on where I am today, my future path, and the spaces I’ve occupied in the past. I seriously considered getting a dictation technology to help me move forward with my writing due to dealing with carpal tunnel, but right now, it’s looking like I may not need that option just yet. For work, I get by using an ergonomic keyboard. At home, I try to be mindful about using my phone to draft small notes for my writing projects. When typing on my phone for more than ten minutes or spending more time typing on my laptop, I usually wear my arm brace. The end goal being yours truly is going to keep up writing, both because my work life requires it and my personal life is fulfilled by this activity.

Now I have pretty sloppy handwriting, but I had to scribble this little sentiment as I listened to Find Your Unicorn Space by Eve Rodsky on Audible. (No ad talk here. It was a purchase made from our own wallets.) I love that this piece of knowledge that was shared doesn’t quantify success as a writer. It’s not about the size of the audience. It is not about the amount of money one earns by selling their writing. It is not about being a professional or amateur writer or a student in the classroom. One can be a writer without worrying about how the world perceives it. The notion of enjoying the journey and less the accomplishment (i.e. the published book or articles) is something I’ve needed to work on appreciating more. The times I’ve wanted to focus heavily on completing the memoir in X timeframe, my writing suffers. When I take my time to think of what I want to say, reinforced by ideas springing up from reads like those mentioned above, my writing better expresses who I am.

I want to roll into 2023 feeling more like me. Right now, I occasionally make time to write once a month here on the blog. I won’t call it a resolution, but I think it would be nice to get back to writing more. I don’t promise two or more posts a month, but I plan to write here and there what speaks to me. Since this passion project is an unpaid endeavor, maybe that will mean a good post is 300 words and another month what I wish to share, equally good in a different way, will be 800 words or more. I realize I’ve been too harsh on my writing practice. The freedom I have by writing what I want versus others who are paid to write to hawk a product or service is a freedom I haven’t explored as much as I should. This active pursuit of public writing started back in August 2014, so I guess the best thing to say is I’ll see you again in 2023. I love writing for the sheer love of personal expression and that’s my why to keep up this habit.

$700. That was the plan. In July, we spent $758.23. I wanted to trim the budget although the goal was a bit unrealistic; grocery stores we frequent still do not have the type of sales prices consistently available pre-pandemic. An additional challenge this month was unexpectedly developing carpal tunnel and needing some easier meal solutions. More on those options in a minute.

Writing is still quite painful. This medical issue cropped up last week and I have an arm brace to wear for a bit longer, limiting both my ability and desire to write by hand or by typing. Due to my situation, today’s post will be more about sharing visuals from this month than writing about my shopping and cooking experiences. Writing all this takes a lot of energy…

Some of the most expensive regular food purchases this month:

1. 7-piece sushi $14.49
2. 1lb. shredded chicken $10.06
3. 6 brioche rolls that spoiled the next day $5.99
4. 1 pint Horizon whipping cream $5.49
5. 14.5 oz. Quaker Oatmeal Squares $5.49
6. 3.58lbs. yellow peaches (8 total) $8.91
7. 1.5lbs. fresh mushrooms $6.49
8. 12-piece chicken tenders $21.48

The most affordable items:

1. Nature’s Own bread, 22oz. loaf $2.99 currently, but it has been $4.20 each
2. Bumblee Chunk Light tuna, 5 oz. $0.89, normally $1.59 each
3. Simple Truth Organic tofu, 14 oz. $1.79
4. Strawberries, 16oz. $2.50
5. Cilantro, still 2 for $1.00
6. Heritage Farm Bone-in, skin on chicken thighs $1.99/lb.
7. Water gallon, self fill-up $0.25/gallon versus buying sparkling or pre-bottled waters (prices vary)
8. Beyond Beef, 16 oz. $5.99, normally $9.99 each

An important part of today’s conversation is admitting that I don’t grocery shop at discount grocery stores, dollar stores, or Walmart. By doing so, I could save more money on my food bill. Part of me recognizes it is better not to shop these places to allow less privileged shoppers more access to food within their reduced food budgets. Another part of me struggles because I need to find specific foods to help me deal with lactose intolerance. The hard core foodie side of me enjoys the exploration process available through specialty grocery stores like HMart, Patel Brothers, AJ’s Fine Foods, Trader Joe’s, Natural Grocers, Sprouts, and Whole Foods. Driving out of my way to buy specialty items is a privilege and I always find something new and interesting, and those are normally worth the extra money. When it comes to Walmart and dollar stores though, these businesses bother me. Dollar stores take up space that could be used by grocery stores capable of providing better nutritional offerings to their respective communities and Walmart in more recent times has dried up its population of workers with disabilities. I think we’ve only picked up water once at Walmart during the pandemic, but we more generally avoid it and I do not blame people who have a greater need to rely on these establishments.

Some of our meals this month:

Braised chicken with lemon from Modern Proper (ours was made dairy free).

Mushroom sauce from Delicious that was paired with a dairy free polenta.

Huel was not on our radar this month per se, but having easy breakfasts and lunches to prep are worth the $200 approximately spent for meals to be enjoyed this one and the next. Our efforts to build convenience in our food budget, including Huel and other stuff, put us over the goal created at the beginning of this month, but our fridge, freezer, and pantry are stocked with more than what we needed for August.

The current state of our food supplies can reduce grocery spending next month although these decisions busted this month’s budget and that issue is something I could work to remember. Food represents a variable expense, not a fixed expense like housing. I never start the month knowing which groceries will be cheaper, but those that are and can be stored in the pantry or freezer are worth deviating from the original goal when the budget allows.

In the next month or so, I look forward to talking about the student loan forgiveness decision passed this month since student loans are often a significant monthly expense like groceries, notwithstanding the current loan pause situation resulting from pandemic policies. My family stands to benefit from this recent decision and I’d love to share later how that change looks when coupled with my use of VA education benefits. Until then, stay well and thanks for reading.

For awhile now, I’ve watched the housing market escalate like crazy. My weekend hobby to look at model homes is probably where I first started to notice this tend aside from occasionally listening to podcasts that discussed our nation’s growing crisis with affordable housing and a sharp increase in homelessness in places like Los Angeles. One neighborhood, in particular, in our local area jumped in model home prices from $330,000 for a sub-2,000 sq. ft. floor plan in January 2020 to $483,900 in September of last year. By last month, the same exact floor plan, was marketed for $535,900. As a second time homeowner, I did look into whether now would be the time to sell our current home. The opportunity to look at downsizing a little, but not as small as our first sub 1,300 sq. ft. homes, was tempting.

The appraisal came in at a good amount: $524,000. It was less than what sites like Redfin and Zillow provided as estimates, and I am sure it would have been a bit higher than what sites like Open Door would provide as their goal to shortly re market the house to someone else for a profit. The rise in current home prices was an opportunity to look more clearly not only at our needs, but our wants. Could we afford a smaller space with at least the same size yard or larger that was ideally no older than our current residence? One of the best places we decided to start our search was checking out smaller new builds that offered condos. I know condos don’t seem all that popular in Arizona, but I would not mind one if it came with more than just a patio. It irks me that home builders pack multi family homes in such a way as to afford next to nothing for private outdoor gatherings. Despite this issue, we went ahead and look at local offerings.

Not all were condos, but the time spent traipsing through new builds gave us an opportunity to look at housing in a critical way we have not always done in the past. (Me, especially, since I fall in love with a lot of home upgrades.) We were/are settled into a home that works for our family and budget; we could window shop for windows and other housing amenities without feeling any pressure that housing options would dry up on us like they had in years prior when we competed with other buyers toting cash offers for resale homes when our housing budget was tighter and the supply of homes with a first time budget was even lower.

One of my favorite options was the Sapphire Plan condo from Lennar Homes at their Echelon at Treviso community. The 4 bed/3 bath condo built in Chandler, Arizona is in a cute community, but the $478,990 cost for a condo that lacks a yard immediately put it out of consideration. We have two dogs and they require outdoor space for our convenience and piece of mind that requires little to no supervision and both dogs could easily jump over the low walls separating each unit’s patio from each other. In spite of the lack of yard space, I think the builder did a great job in providing driveways; I do not recall if all units had a full size driveway but it is rather typical here for builders to short change condo owners on a driveway and instead utilize community parking for their needs. It makes having guests over a bit of a challenge as we found when we lived in a small home that was built along those same lines of forgoing driveways to pack in more houses.

Something like this could have worked, but it is important to do a cost benefit analysis.

Our situation would look like this:

$524,000 home sale

-$31,440 (to provide a 6% real estate commision)

-remaining home loan

Home Profit

-$4,000 (moving costs, full pack and moving services, roughly)

“True” Home Profit

Using a new build home provides a sort of “best estimate” of reduced moving costs by looking into a home with all the things we generally want. This condo community includes the fridge, gas oven, dishwasher, and microwave. Standard as well are quartz and granite countertops. A new build comes with PEX plumbing and a tankless water heater, options we would not have with some older resale home options. Still, we have dogs, and carpet with animals can get pretty gross. To be as comfortable as we are based on our current home, we would lose some of the remaining home profits to upgrade the floors in a new build so as to avoid carpets all together.

And this was our “best case scenario” based on some reduction in square footage and a reduction in outdoor space in order to find an “affordable” new build. We would still have to acquire a new mortgage, but something like the $478k new build condo is more appealing than what we’re seeing for similarly sized new build homes. Right now, Lennar’s Belrose community in Gilbert has a sub 2,000 sq. ft home listed for $529,990 and one of the cheapest models in their Chandler community, Asher Pointe, is $581,990. Neither option would allow us to capitalize on the fact our home’s value has increased based on increased housing demand over the pandemic. (There are other home builders currently producing similar homes, but I wanted to still with the Lennar brand for comparison purposes.)

If we wanted to revert back to looking at resale homes, a sub $500,000 home presents some interesting offerings. There is a home located at 242 S. Dobson Rd. in Chandler, built in 1975. It is a 3 bedroom, one bath residence with a carport that was listed back in late February for $430,000 and the Zillow price is now $424,000. The 7,361 sq. foot lot is really its selling point. The home could be torn down to the studs by a buyer with the right budget and a real amazing home crafted in its place.

A quick peek at Zillow for a Gilbert, AZ search for a sub $500,000 residence only produces 23 agent listings and 9 other listings as of today. Eight of the latter properties are in the foreclosure process. One condo is in The Gardens neighborhood, shown below.

Here is the unit we once considered for our first home that is located in The Gardens:

Looking at a similarly priced home to the current The Gardens condo for sale at $410,000, Gilbert also has this home on the market. This one is a bit older than the condo, but the 1998 home instead has a lot size over 6,000 feet for just $15,000 more than the condo. These are the kinds of comparisons confronting us as we went back and forth on whether or not to sell our current home because the sizable profit we could have made was tempting.

What is not tempting is looking at the involved risks that outweigh the benefits. It is hard to gauge how well maintained homes are by just looking at what’s produced by a home inspection. There are things you can find out down the road and items do just reach the end of their lifespans. Roofs need repairing, pools require resurfacing, A/C units fail, and water heaters will eventually need replacement. The ages of properties most in line with our desired budget are coming up on their replacement/repair windows for various large ticket items like a roof or the A/C. If we ever looked at a condo or other multi family housing situations more seriously, I also have the Surfside condo collapse last year that killed 98 persons informing my decision making process. I think I would need a lot more information about the building’s maintenance history before purchasing anything in a high rise building.

As we settle into the place we now intend to call home for awhile, I am interested in what improvements make sense from an aesthetic and financial standpoint. Interior home improvements do not garner a lot of the same return on investment as outdoor improvements. We can protect our earned equity by being mindful in our choices and doing the work ourselves when it makes sense. Things like electric improvements, such as the canned lighting we want to put into the living room one day, will be the job for an electrician. These photos are a little peek at what we’ve currently done to bring extra functionality into our combined living room/dining area without breaking the bank.

For months now, I wanted to share my efforts to leave behind higher education in search of a better paying position. Seeing my career stagnate over the years, I grew frustrated watching others step into their dream careers. My joy for their success has always been genuine as there is space in this world for all of us to succeed, but I started to struggle with seeing my dreams fall apart. Investing the effort to obtain two undergraduate degrees and two graduate degrees felt like a waste while I watched the pandemic start to unfold for us here in the United States in early 2020. All the unsettled feelings I had when I transitioned from the Marine Corps in 2007 and was kicked by the Great Recession in 2008 crept in over and over again.

Leaving a reasonably well paying job in 2007 was risky. I don’t want anyone to get the idea that leaving the workforce to enter college pays off right away. For some, it does. For me, it didn’t. I endured multiple periods of unemployment for my decision to step away from the Marine Corps at the time that I did. The first one in 2007 was four months long, the next (post-college 2012) lasted from graduation in May until February 2013 and from late July 2013 until Arizona State University hired me in late October that year. The amount of stress I carry regarding job hunting is deeply rooted in my past experiences. Each ding to my finances was a reminder I could try my damndest to succeed, but I was not the master of my journey. I am just a small fish learning to swim in new waters.

I was not prepared for how deep the water would be when I jumped into planning my career choices. Wanting something and preparing for its eventual arrival was not enough. I only knew the route to get there, but I did not understand how complicated our society is and how it trickles down into job environments. My goal to serve in the federal government was short-sighted because I did not look at the overall vision of my life and I originally underestimated how complicated the hiring process can be, especially at the federal level. Reflecting back, I should have been more confident that the hardship we endured at the earliest part of our marriage, delivered through two back-to-back deployments, was a lesson we could survive a second, albeit smaller, separation if my career choice necessitated a nationwide job search.

Instead, I was incredibly skittish to make that leap and so I took a very narrow view of where I would job hunt. Restricting my job hunt also limited my chances of federal employment, and Arizona, being attractive to a lot of other veterans, upped my competition. With everything taking too long to come to fruition, I first on boarded with a county level government and when that was not a proper fit, I navigated into higher education to find myself again. Ahead of the pandemic, I knew I no longer wanted to stay within the confines of higher education. To see again that I was giving myself a limited environment in which to see professional growth matched with limited financial growth, I made a pretty big career decision.

I relinquished a lot of control and opted to let recruiters find my resume on USAJobs.gov. This decision meant giving up my idea of sticking with serving veterans as my longterm career choice. I was open to almost any agency. The few I was not onboard with are based on my values conflicting with how those organizational units are run today and the ones I was most on board with had to have a criminal justice and/or social justice component to the day-to-day responsibilities of the position I would accept. I was unwilling to accept a position that would grossly underpay me. I accepted that my hard work to obtain two Master’s degrees meant I would no longer explore something that would serve only as a lateral move. I made one lateral move from Arizona State University to Grand Canyon University, one that I ultimately disliked, and I would not put myself through that experience a second time.

To better highlight my career challenges, I felt it was best to show it from a financial standpoint. I wanted to share one of my highest earning months in the Marine Corps against the rate I received for my ending hourly salaries at ASU and GCU. Can you see now why it felt for a while my graduate degrees (and hell, the undergrad ones, too) felt like a waste of time?!

The emotional frustration I experienced while waiting for my salary to match my educational efforts was significantly lifted last year when I was offered my current position. My new position has aspects meeting both my desire to have a criminal justice/social justice serving purpose and I received a 5-figure pay increase. I am surrounded by a pretty great team that has provided me a wealth of formal and informal tools to understand the nature of what I am getting into and we get along well even when we are talking shop. The commute is reasonable so I don’t lose an excess amount of family time and I’ll still have some WFH time in my new position. After all these years, I feel like I am back on track with my career objective.

Feeling this way, I thought it would be good to talk about employment as a large umbrella of benefits. There is a lot of negative talk about people shifting jobs during the pandemic and I don’t think it’s a bad thing. For individuals to leave jobs they’ve outgrown, where they are underpaid or under appreciated is a good thing. It forces HR to revisit job announcements to ensure things accurately reflect today’s job responsibilities. Employers are also in a position where they finally have to own up to the fact they are underpaying people and demanding more from their workforce. Just today, I saw that the restaurant we visited, Five Guys, is hiring for $18.50 an hour. Over our Christmas holiday in San Francisco, an In-and-Out restaurant’s sign read they were hiring for $20 an hour. I think Taco Bell is even hiring at $15 an hour. As we see living wages coming into existence, there is an opportunity to reduce economic disparity. I don’t know how much impact we’ll have at higher education institutions based on the fact they also offer a tuition waiver/reimbursement depending on their policies. When I last looked, ASU was offering $40,000 for the position I left. Back when I was hired in 2013, my annual rate was just over $32,500. By comparison, I was hired at $38,000 (the high starting rate) with GCU and their posting late last year was still $38,000.

With my employment struggles, I think another thing job seekers need to consider is what their employer is willing to match for retirement contributions and when the employee is fully vested. Currently, ASU and employees under the Arizona State Retirement System equally contribute 12.41% to an employee’s retirement. I left under the 5-year window needed to be fully vested with ASU’s contributions so all those were taken away from me when I left the employer. GCU’s contributions were significantly less. From my 2020 data, I received $0.40 employer contributions based on 3% of eligible employee contributions. This is why I have more funds from my ASU contributions for a shorter period of work than what I walked away with from my GCU position. Rolling into my new job, the federal agency automatically contributes 1%, I contribute 5%, and the agency matches another 4%. I have more to explore about how I want to add additional funds to my retirement contributions, but I’ve already made the decision to pull my other funds to rollover to my new retirement account. I feel more comfortable having everything all located together.

The last thing I think it’s worth discussing today is what a future employer’s leave and sick time is available along with their holiday schedule (or if the organization offers another benefit of interest like support for artificial reproductive technology, adoption, or pet health insurance). One of the biggest disappointments for me moving from ASU to GCU is that GCU does not honor Veterans Day with a day off for employees. I always took a PTO day so I could be with my family and while the school took that day away to celebrate other moments in line with their Christian values, it has never set well with me they took this liberty. Along with the leave and sick time available, it is valuable for employees and prospective employees to know the maximum amount they can carry over into the next fiscal year. The last thing you want to experience is losing time you’ve earned. I’ve been there. It’s a bit part of why I used up as much leave time as I could before switching jobs. Not all employers are required to pay out unused leave based on their individual State laws, so do your research. Your job is not the most important part of your identity and your labor isn’t free. Get what you deserve so you can take care of who you are today and the person you’ll be in retirement.

Wishing you all the best.

~Cheryl