There is nothing that will make you appreciate the financial independence journey you have been on like your entire industry disappearing. I have mentioned previously that the nature of the theatre industry is feast or famine. You can go from months of grinding out 6-7 day work weeks to having months of little to no work. This has always been one of my reasons for having consistent savings, even before I discovered the financial independence movement. All that being said, I could never have imagined that the entire industry would disappear with no foreseeable date for its return.
While I have definitely had months of no work and no job prospects, I always considered myself fairly safe from extended periods of unwanted unemployment. If for some reason I could not find a touring gig, I knew that I could move to NYC and work there as I had done in the past. If I did not want to pursue that route, I knew I could look at returning to work on cruise ships, amusement parks, or regional theatres. Listing my resume to say, I considered myself fairly diversified with a decent amount of places to look for employment. Then, along came March, and my entire industry disappeared.
To be honest I was actually excited about what I believed was going to be a couple weeks to a month off from work. Touring can be grueling, and the tour that I was on had been hitting some difficult venues and rough parts of the schedule, so I was looking forward to a bit of rest. I also knew that I could afford a couple weeks off as I had been saving over 40% of my income. Now that we have reached 7 months in and still no clue of when my industry will return, I admit at times fear creeps in, but I still have peace because of my financial independence journey and I want to share how it has helped me below.
Safety Nets:
Before I address the parts of financial independence that have kept me at peace, in the interest of full disclosure and necessary information, I have thankfully been able to collect unemployment during this period which has been helpful. With that being said, I feel some people avoid saving and building emergency funds because they know these safety nets exist. As someone dealing with these safety nets, and knowing numerous others dealing with them, this is not a wise plan.
First, this is not a good plan from a financial standpoint. My unemployment is less than 1/3 of what I am used to making weekly. If I had a lifestyle that required the majority of my normal paycheck each week, I would end up in massive debt before I knew it, or would have to suffer an extremely drastic lifestyle change on a dime.
Second, these systems can be difficult to deal with. I was very lucky that when I was first setting up my claim I was able to get in touch with someone over the phone after only a few call attempts and almost two hours on hold. I had friends whose tours didn’t close until a couple weeks after mine who had to make hundreds of calls before talking to a human, some even having to call their governor’s office to get help. Another friend had to wait three months from when she was laid off to receive any money, and another still has not been able to get in touch with anyone in the system. At one point even friends who had been receiving money had the money disappear from their accounts because of an error in the unemployment system. All that to say, I do not recommend this being your only line of defense. So, below is what I do recommend and what has helped me:
An Emergency Fund:
As I said in my article Emergency Emergency written in the before times, but it still rings true today, this is one of the greatest financial tools freeing me from stress. As I mentioned above at times I do get fearful, but normally all I have to do is open my Personal Capital account and view my emergency fund to be able to breath again. Having this emergency fund also allowed me to be able to purchase a car during my period of unemployment (I plan in my next two articles to talk about said car purchase, which will hopefully come out in the next two weeks, hold me to it guys!)
Knowing my expenses and keeping them low:
Having the spreadsheet that shows me where my money goes, as well as the steps I had already taken to cut expenses, has helped immensely in this time. While I haven’t pulled the trigger on reducing any of my recurring expenses, from looking at the spreadsheet I know my cellphone is one of my largest expenses and I will look into switching to an MNVO to potentially save hundreds a year. The one cut I have made so far in this time is significantly scaling back the amount of money going to my investment accounts.
My Investments:
My stock investments provide peace in a couple different ways. The first is that if I have to dig into my emergency fund and want to replace cash, I can stop automatically reinvesting my dividends and instead place the dividend money into my savings account. The second is that if I were to need a larger sum of cash, I know I can sell some of the long term holdings in my taxable investment accounts. This allows me to gain cash without hurting my credit and would have a negligible effect on my net worth.
During this time I have also had some alternative investments I made while I was working, in the form of private loans, pay back which has been invaluable. Due to everything mentioned above I have also been able to take advantage of another investment opportunity during this time that is estimated to return 30%. If I hadn’t had all these systems in place I would have had to miss out on what looks to be a very promising opportunity and return.
Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable:
The top three expenses in most people’s lives are food, shelter, and transportation. I am incredibly blessed that in this time I have been able to live with my mom and stepdad. This has allowed me to have my shelter expense covered and has greatly reduced my food expense. That being said, it’s definitely taken some adjustment to be 34 and living at home, but it is worth it for my financial wellbeing.
Side Hustles:
The two major goals on the journey to financial independence are to find ways to earn more and ways to spend less. In the before times I had found a few side hustles that were a bit difficult to do from the road, but in this time of unemployment I have been able to explore them. While they have not generated massive sums, something is better than nothing.
The above is just a broad overview of why I believe pursing financial independence is so important. In a million years I would have never imagined the possibility of my entire industry disappearing, but due to principles I had put in place for freedom, I am able to have peace. Please feel free to ask any questions!
- Image by Draguth Leon from Pixabay
