Working Women Wednesdays with JC Wilder
When Mandy asked me to write a Working Woman blog, I have no idea why I said yes! What do you want to hear? About how I suck down two huge mugs of coffee in the morning in order to pry my eyes open? About taking phone messages while driving? How I seem to forget everything I have to do the moment I get into a car?
Yeah, its ugly and my boss is such a shrew…because I work for myself.
Almost everyone I meet tells me how lucky I am to work for myself. I do agree with them to a certain extent, I mean, what’s not to like about working in your pajamas? But there is a definite level of pressure that comes with being your own boss that you don’t have when someone else is paying the bills. So you still want to work for yourself? Please keep a few things in mind.
Health insurance – I could write books about trying to obtain and then keeping health insurance. Since I’m not married, I have to carry my own private health insurance. Now the beauty of working for a company is that from the moment you step in the door, you’re eligible. That’s not so with private insurance. If you are a glutton for punishment like I am, go to www.insurance.com and take one of their handy dandy quizzes. That’s okay, I’ll wait.
Did you get turned down? Don’t feel bad, it’s happened to the best of us. If you have even an inkling of a possible health issue, no one will insure you. The sad thing is that four years ago, my health was really good and I had no ‘preexisting conditions’ like I have now. Of course the funniest part is they can turn you down and not tell you why. Yeah, that makes me smile too. When I went on my search for insurance four years ago, I was uninsured and it never occurred to me that there would be an issue. I mean, I’m paying for the service, right?
Please stop laughing, it injures my delicate feelings.
The bottom line for insurance companies is that they will only insure those who don’t need it. If you need insurance and you do finally find it, they will charge you through the nose. How much? Well, my insurance started out around $275.00 per month and I now pay 411.00 – and that is with lowering my coverage every year! So I pay more….for less.
I’m not proud, I’ll marry someone for proper benefits because I’m easy, not cheap!
Just how social are you? I stopped working a day job in 2002. I’d been in the corporate world for 12 years and it was enough to make a saint curse. I was tired of the team building exercises and getting out of bed…getting dressed…it was far too stressful. I mean, how much does one have to take?
Seriously – I was happy to get out of the corporate foxhole for the first year…then I realized I was far more social than I’d imagined. The beauty of working for yourself is that you keep your own schedule and you don’t have to see anyone unless you want to. But that isn’t always a good thing. Let’s face it, conversing with your dog is only stimulating for the first year or so then it gets old. I finally broke down and bought myself a gym membership and if nothing else, it does guarantee I leave the house three days a week.
Finding time to work! Have you ever taken a vacation and by the end of the vacation you have so much to do that you don’t know how you’ll fit work back into your schedule? I live with that one every week. It’s really easy to get sucked into doing things with friends or watching Oprah reruns all day…but that doesn’t keep the bills paid. I had to learn that when my friends called I had to beat them into submission to make them understand that yes, I was at home…but I was working. Now I can adjust my schedule, but I can’t just slough off work whenever I feel like it. That’s why it’s called work and not play.
No sick or vacation time! Yeah, this one isn’t fun. When you work for yourself, if you’re not working then you’re not being paid. So what happens when you have an illness in the family? You end up dipping into your savings and that money only goes so far then its back to work with you.
Retirement – You can have a 401K, but your employer (cheap shrew) won’t be matching that money so you need to plan ahead. My plan is to work until I die and that’s only if I’m lucky!
Sound like doom and gloom? Maybe a little bit, but if you are forewarned then you can lay out a game plan like washing cars in exchange for insurance. J
JC Wilder–Award Winning Author of Paranormal and Erotic Romance.
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Its insane how much we have to pay every month for coverage and what’s really sad is that is the group rate. They just keep bending us over.
I agree, insurance…. :bang: