Early last week, late in the afternoon just before I, with my farmer’s hours schedule, was ready to sign off from my day job for Anonymous Giant Corporation, I received an email from my boss. It had all the hallmarks of something sent in haste, in response to someone else’s urgent email, also sent in haste, in response to something hastily sent out from someone who might possibly work in HR.
“Nick, I need you to take five days off before the end of September.”
Easy, I thought. I’ve already taken three days off this year and already have a day off planned for next Tuesday, so I’ll just add a staycation day and get some garden chores done. Clearly there’s some Big New Policy in place that’s meant to keep contractors from over working or something like that.
An update followed the next day:
“Time off only counts time since August 1st. So I need you to take five days of vacation between now and the end of September. And a total of seventeen days by the end of the year.”
Focus on the short term: there were five weeks between when this declaration of forced vacation arrived in my inbox, and the end of September. All of a sudden this had become, as we say around the office, “impactful.” I’m your typical high-tech contractor, paid by the hour for hours worked with no benefits and no paid leave.
If I don’t work five days out of five weeks, I’m taking a 20% cut in hours worked. That’s a 20% cut in wages earned. So this makes September pretty lean, from the revenue side.
Our fridge died in April and we only replaced it six weeks ago. And our car had its entire brake system replaced because of the prior owner’s incompetent maintenance. And it’s summer, so we’ve splashed out for a few big garden projects that always seem to cost more than expected. And we’d just had our carpets cleaned (whereupon our son had a week of explosive diarrhea, because that’s parenting for you). And it’s back-to-school season, with all the necessities of pencils and protractors and new jeans and shoes for the rapidly growing littles. And, and, and….
So this is not the best time to be furloughed, albeit briefly.
As I write this, it’s date night, the first one we’ve had in two months. Am I going to have to cancel my plans to take Erica out for a bottle of wine?
There’s this thing we aspire towards. We call it the Income Quilt – a phrase inspired by farmer, author and inn owner Lisa Kivirist. The idea is that you don’t rely on one source of income, and you don’t expect that one source of income has you covered until the day when they hand you a gold watch at your retirement party.
Instead, you try to patch together multiple sources of income, any one of which, by itself, might not be sufficient, but which taken together create a cozy blanket of redundant financial security. This is income diversity and – just like food diversity – it is more resilient than an income monocrop.
My personal income quilt has one pretty huge swatch of fabric in it – that big corporate day job. But in the strange way that fortune provides, I’d just started penning an article about growing hops for a garden magazine (yeah, I’ll admit it, I’m riding my wife’s coat-tails). I’d wrapped up a side gig teaching standardized test skills to a room full of eager would-be graduate students. I kicked off a couple of emails setting up some tutoring work along the same line. I decided to go in and update the listings on my eBay store (where I sell vintage airplane flight manuals, because I’m just that geeky).
Each of these side gigs isn’t that huge. But all of them, taken together, mean that September is going to turn out just fine.
Now, I don’t want to undersell the fortune of my position: I can afford to maintain several side-hustles as a form of security and financial redundancy. Sure, there’s some cost in terms of giving up a bit of free time, but I recognize that many people are working several full-time jobs just to make basic ends meet. So even having the ability to think of jobs two and three as “insurance” is a form of luxury. But this depth of income sources – this cash-flow pantry – is something I have deliberately cultivated over the past several years.
I decided that the Income Quilt model made the most sense after I jumped-ship from a very toxic workplace without any immediate prospect of full-time employment. I decided I never wanted to feel bound to slave away for a company that was doing unethical (and arguably illegal) things for fear of losing a few thousand dollars a month.
This is employment resilience, and I’ve found – perhaps ironically – that the more of it I have, the more I prosper at my main gig. A developed Income Quilt gives me a certain confidence to wait for the right position and to ask for what I am worth without that feeling of being backed up to a wall and out of options. This confidence, I think, also actually makes me more desirable to potential employers. This success lets us build savings and, in a happy upward spiral, strengthens the Income Quilt.
Sometimes managing this Income Quilt is a pain in the ass. I just got done working a 6-week long stretch of double shifts, 5 am to 11 pm, basically to keep a very good relationship alive and employer happy. Sometimes it’s a pain to deal with a 120 year old customer from eBay who probably shouldn’t be using a computer in the first place. Most nights I’d rather read old slide rule manuals (because – again – that’s just how geeky I am) than figure out how to putty together the disjointed threads of an article that was due to the editor earlier that day.
The thing is, though, resiliency isn’t just about what we think of as capital-D disasters. The vast majority of disasters are personal things – invisible to the wider world but impactful to one family or a few people. A layoff or an extended illness, or a 20% hit to the automatic deposit for a couple of months, or an unexpected expense (or three). Usually, it’s some combination because that’s the way life throws her curveballs.
So the week-over-week effort to keep that depth of the Income Quilt alive, just like the week-over-week effort to keep a pantry stocked and garden thriving, pays off.
Because date night is still on.
1
As a new subscriber, I really appreciated this post. Thank you.
My husband has developed early onset dementia and was forced to retire early.
Big income loss!
I only work part time outside the home in order to care for him here.
I am in the process of developing income sources I can handle from home.
I’m encouraged by your post and “can do” attitude.
Nicely said HBH. I like your attitude and I LOVE the idea of the Income Quilt. So I will be sharing this with MY Homebrew Husband as we strive for a more self-reliant, self-sufficient lifestyle. Good job dude!
Love this idea and nicely explained. Freedom is one of our highest values, so we’ve structured our life so we can get by on only one of our salaries: low mortgage, one car, no debt besides mortgage, lots of re-used things in our house, cooking at home all weeknights, etc.
That has come in handy since both of us have been fired and have quit jobs in the last 7 years. Having a savings cushion helps as well since I know we have enough to function for about a year without working even if we both lose jobs for some reason. We live a fairly simple life so that helps!
Oh, I feel your pain. Everything has been breaking at our house and our vehicles need maintenance and I can’t believe how much we spent on back to school supplies for our only child…My husband and I are trying to have other streams of income but we don’t have a fancy name for it like you do 🙂
Nice post. Good luck.
As my job seems to be increasingly precarious, diversifying my income stream is something that I’ve been giving some thought to recently, along with figuring out how to cut costs even more drastically. It feels like a huge challenge to take the first step and to figure out how to translate my skills into other avenues of work, so I appreciate the reminder of how important this can be and the different ways that it can be done.
I appreciate you acknowledging the difference between an income quilt and barely making it and an income quilt allowing for comforts.
We’ve definitely found that now that we’re living in a precarious financial situation, having as much diversity as we’re able to manage (which isn’t much) is critical. We’re not worried about new jeans for school or wine for date night. We’re worried about whether we’ll have to forego some of our $350 a month food budget in order to pay the mortgage. I’m forwarding this to my husband so we can do some more brainstorming about ways to increase our security even in our situation.
Do you guys follow Mr. Money Mustache? I can’t remember if it was you that led me to him or vice versa. HBH and MMM would have a lot to talk about.
Erica is a big fan of MMM! I think she discovered his stuff after the birth of the Money Quilt concept, but a lot of Mustacian ideas go into our financial planning.
This was an awesome post. The income quilt is a fantastic way to describe what most of us should be doing.
Welcome to the Kootenays economy. I have used the quilt metaphor for years! Unless we are nurses or teachers or a few other stable occopations like that we pay a price for living here in paradise. Even those jobs are dwindling as the lack of a base industry is forcing out many young families. In my case there times when the main income came from the Home Support job, with Reflexology and the odd horoscope interpretation as sidelines.
Love it! THIS is the direction we should all be moving in. I can remember, as a kid, meeting people who were described as being a “Jack of all trades”, and that it wasn’t a good thing. The goal was to get *a* job, and do that job well and then retire and travel, but more and more, it seems like a better option is to be multi-talented and use those talents as different income streams.
I’ve been self-employed for more than 17 years now, and I do a lot of different kinds of jobs. Sometimes, not having a regular, steady income can be a little scary, but most of the time, we have exactly what we need, when we need it.
Kudos to you both for taking the plunge and leading the way.
Making 8% of my peak income and I wouldn’t go back for anything!
This is another reason for all the work the two of you do to have a full larder (and ‘still room’), worth the effort. Security is a frame of mind, not a belief in a job, boss, etc. Good Luck. However, in your case, it is kinda a case of making your own luck.
totally puts my wanting a new car into perspective. better to just keep our savings and be happy our 11 year-old cars are still running perfectly because financial security is so insecure these days.
We’re driving an eleven year old Honda Accord and an eight year old Toyota 4Runner (bought used after our old one was totaled). Totally get it about wanting to keep the savings growing instead of going into a new car…every time we get a hankerin’ to replace one of them, it takes an hour or two of math to realize it just doesn’t make sense. In fact, we’re considering getting rid of the Accord and going down to a single vehicle (GOT to have a farm truck, though!).
Ha! Ha! Farm truck ;). Yep. That’s why we still have our 2002 Suzuki XL-7 ;).
It is funny…we’ve really struggled over some decisions about cars. The idea of going single-car has been around for years…we drive something like less than 40% of what the Average American does, and the extra effort to coordinate things so that we could get by with one car wouldn’t be THAT great. Getting rid of licensing, insurance, maintenance, etc. for an unnecessary set of wheels would be nice “negabucks.”
But the question has always been Accord vs. 4Runner…one gets significantly better mileage but is limited in what it can haul. The other one can do anything we’ve ever needed (and with a Class IV hitch, it can tow the rest). After a long holiday weekend of yard work, I think the decision has finally been made!
This was wonderful. I’m switching jobs at the end of this week and am going to continue to come in every other Saturday for a few hours at my old job to do some specialty stuff no one else wants to deal with. It’s basically just gas money but it keeps me more closely associated with this employer in case anything happens at my new job. And it was Erica’s mentioning of Mr.Money Mustache that got me over to his site for more financial and life advice, and I’m thrilled she did. These are my two favorite bogs ever!
This is a great article – I’m in the same boat with three revenue streams on the go – photography, teaching cookery at college and interim recipe development for food manufacturers here in the UK. Needless to say income goes up and down like a yo yo but I love the flexibility and freedom! Having said that, there’s little security in one full time job these days anyway. This is a great blog, well done!
Thanks, Robin! Have you ever noticed how, as the saying goes, “when it rains it pours?” That’s the biggest drawback I’ve found to the multiple income streams – sometimes you get “hit” with work in all of them, all at once, and don’t really want to say “no” for fear of damaging a relationship or losing your position in the instructor rotation or what not. While it is nice to be flush, it does make for long days sometimes, and not necessarily when you want them!
yo, erica! “just finished working a 6 week stretch of double shifts” calculates as 30 days extra work…and then being asked to cut back 17? that is still 13 days extra pay, assuming, since your geeky hubby listed every job he had, that is the same employer..but regardless, no pay cut back then, if we are being honest. so i suggest you don’t brake weaton’s law yourself, and keep erica’s blog erica’s, as we know
Unfortunately your math is based on false assumptions. The “double shifts” were not all for the same employer, nor were they every day during those six weeks, all of the same length, or at the same pay. That’s the point of the income quilt.
Thank you for your concern. As is typical for guest posts, my husband wrote this at my request. As with all guest posts, before it was published, I edited it. Nick’s voice is very welcome here on my blog, and his efforts are as essential as mine when it comes to the smooth functioning of our homestead and this website.
I love the idea of the income quilt! Equating it with food security really clicks with me. Right now, I’m the only one bringing in steady income. My husband quit a hateful job but has not found another one. We are grateful for our savings, frugal lifestyle (including bikes, no car), but things are getting real tight. Your post has inspired us to stop looking for that one job that will solve things and look for 3 or 4 that can fluctuate. I was thinking of selling sourdough pie crusts and sourdough pizza dough online. Now might be the time to start that web site.
thanks for your inspiration!
I’m so glad (and a little intimidated) to be an inspiration!
My personality (too much engineer/scientist) isn’t prone to getting woo-woo about things, but I’ve found that almost every experience of my life has, in some way, played a positive role in improving me and my life. Like the toxic job for the manipulative boss mentioned above…I walked away from that with a certain amount of drama, a substantial hangover, and some vague ideas about how to spin up an income to tide me over until something came along. Not only did I succeed in spinning up those income streams (some of which are still part of the quilt) but in the end something DID come along and I was in a sufficiently confident position to negotiate a little bit. It was a watershed experience.
I hope your recent travails prove to have the same upside for you and yours!
Great post. I like this part: “I decided that the Income Quilt model made the most sense after I jumped-ship from a very toxic workplace without any immediate prospect of full-time employment. I decided I never wanted to feel bound to slave away for a company that was doing unethical (and arguably illegal) things for fear of losing a few thousand dollars a month.”
I find myself in this position today. Out of work for three weeks as of today. Was enjoying the break from the abusive, unethical and illegal practices of my former employer. But now I’m itching to get back to work. Had an awesome interview two weeks before I left my old job, but still waiting (and applying elsewhere).
Good luck – I hope it pans out with the place you interviewed at!
But it sure is true that life’s too short (and we spend too much of our lives at work) to suffer at a place that is wrecking you emotionally. The place I reference, we didn’t really realize how much impact it was having on me, and how much of that was impacting the family, until I was gone. Another part of the big lesson-learned: crap jobs end up being crappy for EVERYONE.
Good luck!