The Initial Cash Infusion

by Chris McGinty of AccordingToWhim.com

I’ve known since the beginning of 2019 that I only had about a year-and-a-half left before all of my back child support was paid. Being so close to the end of 2019, I figured it was about time that I call to find out where I was. My estimate at this point is May or sooner in 2020 depending on how much is getting pulled out of each of my paychecks. Either way, I’ve been discussing with people about how my life is going to change when that happens. A lot of it is sort of abstract and will require me to write blog posts later about different thoughts. The easiest one to explain to people is that I can now take the $700 a month that I was paying in child support and pay $500 a month into a Roth IRA. Even if I gained only 6% interest on the Roth IRA by the time 2032 rolls around, I’ll have $116,000. Saving for retirement is a clear life change.

What’s not so clear is when I talk about the fact that I’ll have more time, or at least more control over my time. I’ve been asked that if I’m basically putting my child support money into a retirement account then how does that change the amount of hours that I have to work? This is where it gets a little more abstract. The clearer part is that the extra $200 is roughly 20 fewer hours a month that I have to work to reach the same results. The less clear part has to do with the fact that if I get a little bit behind on my retirement contributions, I don’t fear that the state of Texas will threaten to throw me in jail. This means that if I have enough money set aside and need to take a couple of months off from work do something important, I don’t have to worry the whole time that I’m going to get a letter explaining that I need to pay a certain amount by a certain time or face the consequences.

When I initially tried out Uber Eats as a full-time thing, which didn’t work out since Uber doesn’t pay correctly for people using personal vehicles; I was receiving text messages asking why I wasn’t paying child support consistently, in spite of the fact that I barely owed anything even then. The problem was that I never had money left over after fixing my cars.

The two simple changes of being able to fund a retirement account and having slightly more control over my time are actually quite huge changes. The rest has to do with how I plan to use my time and money going forward.

The end of the year tends to be a little crazy. Nathan would unlikely be available Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas weeks, and so it seemed like a good time to go ahead start doing Uber Eats part-time again. The important part being that I’m adding money on top of my real income, not relying on whatever Uber passes off as income. I would still actually be better off with a better paying part time job. I’m utilizing the flexibility though.

Much the way that a startup company might need a cash infusion, I’m treating the upcoming change in my lifestyle with much the same idea. I figure that having cash ready for emergencies will allow me to also have flexibility with my schedule when I need it. As a possible example, Nathan and I have been working on a game; and while it may be a while before we’re ready to commit it to a release, it would be nice to be able to take time off when we reach that point. For the last few months that I actually owe child support and still need to put in a full 40 plus hours a week to get by, I figure that I’ll put in as many hours possible in addition to my normal job to have money above my fixed expenses. This way the moment that I’ve paid off last cent of child support, I’m ready to do whatever it is that needs to be done.

There’s more to my plans over the next few years than just what I’ve talked about here. As I implement those things, I will write about them, so readers can know what worked for me, what didn’t work for me, and what I learned along the way. My basic operating principle is similar to something Seth Godin often says which is to never risk so much that you end up out of the game. I plan to take risks, but never so big that I have to go back to work full-time unless I choose to do so.

Chris McGinty is a blogger who is almost over the finish line.