Day one of the rest of my life. 

Oh shit!   It’s all I can think of that accurately and succinctly sums up my recent life choices.  That’s not to say, I’m rethinking the decision to turn my life upside down. I’m not.  I’m just actually a little bit surprised that I did it.

    We need to back up a few months to really understand the leap of faith I am about to undertake.  Then again, that’s a totally separate story.  So let’s just say I’ve decided at the age of damn-near 45, to walk away from my dream job.  

    Yep, I’m leaving the glamorous, high-paid life of a local TV news anchor.  The part I’ll miss the most, the paycheck.

    The funny thing is, when I first toyed with the idea of saying, in a much nicer tone, “Take this job and Shove it!” I fully planned on replacing that paycheck with another, perhaps even BETTER one.  But a funny thing happened on the way to my first “informal” interview.   The recession hit, and I thought heck, if everyone else is unemployed, I can be too. 

  And, that’s when it hit ME.   I was living the same messed up way most of you are. Within my means, and every now and again, outside them thanks to Visa.  The last few months I’ve read nightly stories on job losses,  businesses closings and industries crashing….all the while the experts keep telling us “SPEND MONEY.”  I said, that’s what got us into this FIX in the first place.  We SPEND TOO MUCH MONEY.

     Okay, I’m gonna make this really personal.  I spend WAY too much money. Some of that was good, some was really just stupid, and now I am going to fix it. 

    I am about to be unemployed BUT debt-free.     No more mortgages, loans or credit cards.  What my family brings in, we will live on.  What will my new life be like? My first thought is, “Oh Shit.”