I’m planning on making my Big Scary Goal by working really hard, at two jobs. One full time, one part time.

I just accepted a job working in a call center. I’ve worked for good companies in call centers before and frankly, it’s still kind of a cruddy job. It’s a call center and with my hearing issues (technically, my hearing is perfect, but the ears and the brain don’t talk well with each other) working on the phones kind of sucks. I always feel kind of bad for people who are working a call center job after 10 years. I see it as a stepping stone to something better, not a place to get trapped. However, it’s with a good company, the pay is very good, and it’s second shift, so that I can work over lunches at Job #2.

I want job #2 to turn into my career. I want to be a financial advisor. I used to be a counselor, and I mostly handled post traumatic stress disorder caused by rape and incest. Frankly, it’s hard to keep that up. I’m not great at maintaining the distance you need to be able to keep doing that job.

I want to help people in a meaningful way, and being a financial advisor would let me do that without the emotional wear and tear that I was going through being a counselor. It would make me feel really good to help people get a good, solid financial foundation. While I’m not interested in the stuff that makes huge money (I’m not going to chase millionaires or try to get high net worth clients, that doesn’t excite me and it’s what everyone else is doing) being a financial advisor pays decently, which is always nice. I like being paid well for doing good things.

However, getting into the industry is one giant pain in the ass. The interview process is over a month per company, and if you’re going to be working with a group that’s handling peoples finances, you really need to know that the branch is full of good people, and that the company is solid. I did nothing but interviews, solid, all January, and I am just now getting into a position. The training will be in July.

What does that mean? That means the financial cushion I’d build for myself to survive the first three months of no income (which is standard in the financial industry) is all gone. I’m going to have to work this job part time, as much as I can. Getting the time off to do the training is going to be difficult, but I will do what I have to do to get started.

The call center job will pay my bills, and then some. We lived below our means when Hubs and I were both working, and so right now we’re dipping into savings every month to cover my bills. Our bills and his bills (his and mine determined by what we brought into the marriage) are covered. I am hoping to be able to throw $200 a week, or more, into debt elimination payments. Since I won’t NEED the financial advising income, I am hoping that I’ll be able to put any income that comes from that into a House Money fund, or something similar.

On the other hand, both of these kinds of income are what I think of as hammering nails. In The Millionaire Next Door, they mention two kinds of income, active and passive. These are both active pursuits, so I am hoping to be able to do some small things, perhaps write an e-book or simply some articles for Associated Content or eHow, to help create some passive income. The call center job is regular pay, and the financial advising is scarily irregular and unreliable income.

I am also going to see if I can knit or crochet things to sell on Etsy while I’m working on the phones, to try to bring in extra money for debt snowflakess

I know, logically, I don’t have time to do all of this, but I am really hoping that somehow I can learn to manage my time better (something I’m kind of crap at now) so that I can give my all to what I want my career to be, while still doing the job that pays well but does not excite me, and has no long term future, and build up a nice little residual income to help with the bumps and slings of irregular fortune.

The passive income will probably go on the back burner as soon as I start working for the call center, which starts the 20th, so I have a few days still to set some of that up.

I am probably biting off more than I can chew, but your reach should exceed your grasp, else what’s a Heaven for? Worst case scenario, I will pay off my debt and save up as much as possible, and go to a later training class for the financial job and sort of muddle through for a longer period of time. I’d rather not do that, but at least it will be progress.

I decided on a major goal. I think about it every night before I go to sleep.

I want to be completely financially free and independent. To me, this has some specific and clear criterium. Criteria? (*shakes puny fist at the English language*)

The first is to be completely debt free. My parents, however, managed to stay mostly consumer debt free their whole lives and have just gone through a second bankruptcy, so obviously there is more to being financially solid than simply not using credit cards. There are many personal finance bloggers that post their debts and information online, and I’m still debating if I should do that, especially since I’m using my real name.

After all of my debts are paid off, I want to be able to purchase a house. If possible, I want to buy a house cash and avoid having a mortgage all together, but if that’s not possible, I want to have as much down as possible, and a very small monthly payment, so that I can attack with the ferociousness of a small chihuahua going after a squeaky toy- a squeaky toy that tastes of bacon.

I’d like to have this mostly finished before hubs and I start having kids, as we both walked into our marriage with fairly substantial debt. I have student loans, he had medical debt and collections from his ex wife and his Evil Ex. We’ve managed to pay off all his medical debt, which was around 6k, last year, and clean up a lot of his credit… just in time for me to leave my job, my second job went belly up, so I got to spend a couple months eating into our savings.

I think financial security, for me, means that no one will be able to make me homeless or stop me from putting food on the table. I really love the people at Path to Freedom because they take a normal sized suburban lot and manage to grow most of their own food. I don’t think I’ll ever be as hardcore (or as organized) as they are, but the thought of my own house that no one can toss me out of, followed by my own garden so no matter what I’ve got food, is deeply appealing to me. There were a couple times growing up when we were evicted or my Dad had to go without food so there would be enough for us kids, and I never, ever, ever want to be in that sort of situation again.

I understand that is mostly emotional, and not completely rational. I don’t care. I want a house, and a huge garden, and I want that mostly in place before I start having kids so that I don’t end up having to pull wacky stunts to make ends meet when I’ve got little ones to take care of.

After that’s taken care of, it will just be a matter of throwing lots of money into wise places so that we will be able to retire early. Since I’m 25 now, if we are successful that will leave us mortgage free and ready to start having kids by the time I’m 30. Hopefully we’ll be able to do it a little faster than that, I’d rather be younger when carrying kids around and chasing after toddlers, but being financially secure before having kids is my top priority. Amusingly, between Hubs and our poly significant other, there are two kids running around who I feel I have responsibility for. Oddly enough, that does not bother me as much as I thought it would.

So, financial freedom means, to me, owning a house, having a garden, being free of debt, and being in a fiscal situation where I feel comfortable bringing more kids into the world.