<p>“Given this subject’s importance, it should be recognized as deserving one of the higher pay scales.”</p>
<p>The attitude is exactly the same in law schools. First-year writing is the most important subject, but teaching it is the lowest-prestige, lowest-paid, least-respected position.</p>
<p>This thread is making me a bit depressed. I would love to have the luxury of part-time, retirement, unemployment etc. I’m happy for those of you who can afford it and “relax.” But for me, both H and I work full time and struggle financially.</p>
<p>I am now a happy member of this club! And I feel like my blood pressure has already dropped 20 points.</p>
<p>While I was at my meeting today, I heard about three more nurses who are quitting, too, so my experience of utter frustration and disappointment has been validated.</p>
<p>Congrats, Teriwtt! Take a big breath & then decide what you WANT to do for your next steps. Change gives us the opportunity to find something even better, if we figure out what will work for us as we re-invent ourselves. Demand for nurses is HUGE – some enjoy temping, which gives a lot of flexibility.</p>
<p>HiMom, yes please ask your bookkeeper how she started. How she got her first client? and time to build a client base. It sounds like a really comfortable manner to make money, enjoy time flexibility, and the option to only work on a p/t basis. Thank you so much, HiMom.</p>
<p>OK, I’ll chat her up & see what she has to say, if she’s willing to share the info. The other bookkeeper who works for non-profits has about 3 clients that she does the books for as an independent contractor but is physically at the office of one of them much of the time. We tried to see if she wanted to work for us but she backed out at the last minute.</p>
<p>Non-profits are often in dire need of bookkeeping assistance. I don’t think it’d be all that difficult to build a client base. I used to do quite a bit of non-profit work, but I backed away as my business grew.</p>
<p>Get involved in the circles where your community’s non-profit leaders are. Join Kiwanis, Rotary, etc. Volunteer as treasurer of some organization and do a good job. You’ll get a lot of visibility. Make it known you’d like to acquire non-profit bookkeeping jobs. I think one could create a market niche fairly quickly.</p>
<p>Meet and make yourself known to CPA firms. They would be an excellent referral service. I would have loved to have referred this type of person to my non-profits, so that there books were in much better shape by audit time. CPAs can’t do the books and also do the audit. I see a lot of need for this type of service with non-profits.</p>
<p>Yes, we do have a CPA on our Board & I know that many non-profits would also love having someone with an accounting background on their boards. If you like doing tax returns & can do 990s for non-profits, that’s another good source of income, tho the time to prepare them likely varies quite widely. As was posted, a different accountant needs to do the 990 than the one that does the books. We’re shopping for someone to do our 990 right now.</p>
<p>I think the above post is great!</p>
<p>“I would be so so grateful for umemployment benefits if I needed them, it is a bit unsettling to hear/see people who who are “soaking up” that opportunity not to work as long as they can.”</p>
<p>– abasket, I know you didn’t mean me specifically by this comment, but I do feel it needs addressing. Unemployment benefits are insurance we pay for while employed. In my case, it was 10-11 hour days with an additional 1.5 hour commute – for the past decade. My longest vacation during that decade was ten days. (Company discouraged taking time off.) My unemployment is a fraction of my former salary, and I can promise you, it was well earned! (Yes, I’m paying for COBRA as well now.) </p>
<p>I agree that I’m lucky to be able to take my time to re-evaluate of what I want to do, and how I want to live. I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying this time because I know it can’t last forever. But I hardly feel I’m “soaking” anything up – and I doubt that many people who are on unemployment feel that either. (Well, perhaps with the exception of your RI friends.)</p>
<p>There will always be abuses to any system, but unemployment is an invaluable safety net for many who find themselves without a job and having great difficulty finding a new one. If we lose funding going forward, I may soon join the ranks of the “unemployed,” as we are funded by grants and there is a strong likelihood that funding will be cut or eliminated going forward.</p>
<p>Not to get personal,but what one puts IN to unemployment is a pittance to what is taken out, and even more so when benefits are extended…Many states are currently BORROWING to fund unemployment benefits,somewhere the debt needs to be repaid</p>
<p>
In my state, in order to collect that week’s unemployment benefit, you have to certify that you are available to work and are actively looking for work. I don’t think this is unusual.</p>
<p>It is not a reward earned over time for putting up with a crappy, high stress job. It is not to let you putter around the house and watch movies while you contemplate what you want to do next.</p>
<p>If you are unwilling to work, and/or are not looking for work, you are not unemployed, you are out of the work force. Collecting unemployment in this circumstance is fraud IMO. Sorry, that’s the way I see it.</p>
<p>Katliamom, your point is well taken. And yes, I have seen RL people be perfectly content to take the reduced pay and “enjoy” it with no intent on looking for a replacement job. And really, sort of bragging about it! </p>
<p>I DO understand the point about working all your life, not even thinking about retirement and then realizing, upon force of the loss of a job, that there’s more to life than work.</p>
<p>In HI, you have to document that you made at least 3 contacts trying to get work every week and be able to produce them as requested to collect, as well as registering & posting your resume on-line, I think (have not examined the issue closely).</p>
<p>notrichenough – in my state also, the law specifies that in order to collect unemployment benefits, you need to be actively looking for work. As I am. However, being on the south side of 50, and in a tough field, my prospects aren’t exactly stellar. And as far as I know, there is no law that says I can’t enjoy myself in the meantime. </p>
<p>However, since this thread does appear to be disturbing to some CCers, maybe I should ask the moderators to close it. </p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>Why close it??? The fact you are seemingly happy to collect unemployment and feel you “deserve it”, that offends many people,does this cause you any grief?..Unfortunately, you appear to be the sterotype many honest unemployed people fear…Many people who are currently unemployed would do anything to find a job,and they continue to search…Enjoy your time off ;)</p>
<p>katliamom - keep posting! I’m enjoying this immensely! Don’t let anyone here rain on your parade — as long as you are meeting the requirements for looking for new employment, you aren’t doing anything wrong! I never saw a requirement that people collecting unemployment HAD to be miserable, worried, anxious and unhappy! Enjoy.
:)</p>
<p>No, you shouldn’t be miserable…but you shouldn’t be so smug about it…</p>
<p>qdogpa - now you’re offending me, calling me smug, a “stereotype many honest unemployed people fear,” and implying I’m dishonest as well. </p>
<p>Moderator, please feel free to shut down this thread as it’s become personal and rather ugly.</p>
<p>Please continue the thread, we can certainly exercise the right not to click on it. But, my job is like yours: “10-11 hour days with an additional 1.5 hour commute – for the past decade. My longest vacation during that decade was ten days” and I’m thrilled to have it. I guess I’m one of the lucky ones who feels I have an interesting job that keeps me intellectually engaged.</p>