change

The other day I got a gig offer. $20/hr to hand out flyers at a stadium. The job was stupidly easy and it would be $120 in my pocket. I’ve mentioned in my Side Hustle post, that I’ve worked as a Brand Ambassador. As an extrovert, I find it really easy to talk to people, especially because there is no selling involved.

However, when I got this gig offer, I had just come off the heels of WDS, which consumed my whole weekend (in a good way). I barely saw my partner at all over the weekend, and last week our schedules were exactly opposite. He is a musician, and I am a non-profiter, so sometimes we are two ships passing in the night. The night of the gig we planned to have a ‘make dinner and watch a movie’ date. I was really looking forward to relaxing and spending some quality time with him.

I deliberated long and hard. What would make me feel better? I wish I could say the answer was easy. Having $120 would feel good now, but spending the evening with my partner would feel good now and later. Also, the shift would go until midnight and I had to work at 8am the next day.  I decided to say ‘no’ to the gig. I felt like I did the right thing immediately afterward, however I felt a knot in my stomach for the rest of the day.

I said no. I said no to money. It is not in my DNA to say no to money, especially when I am in aggressive-debt-payoff mode. But I was starting to feel like I was missing those precious moments with my partner. Those moments that validate why we are together, and why we are best friends. Lately I leave when he is sleeping and he comes home, when I’ve already gone to bed. Our conversations have been short, need-to-know nuggets of information. In the end, I feel like I made the right decision. It’s a hard balance to pursue your side-hustles, when you have a relationship/family/pet/(insert whatever). Part of me wants to devour money and make it my own, so I can feel like I am in control. The other part of me, realizes there are only so many moments in life, and you can’t take money with you when you go.

How do you find balance in your side hustles vs. relationships/family, etc?

P.S. I’ve decided that I don’t want to give up my blog, but I want to write about a lot of things. Money, relationships, travel, art, culture and more. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know it’s more personal than finance anyways. I am still thinking of how I want to move forward with this change. For now, I’ll keep blogging here, but in the future I might be making a change. Thanks for reading!