What I Have Learned During My First 5 Months of Self Employment

This month, May 2026, is my fifth month of being self-employed. For the past five years, I have worked a full-time job in addition to being self-employed. So technically, my work load is still about the same, but the payoff Is priceless! When making the decision to work from home full-time, I had to consider a few things.

Sobriety, I’m getting close to three years of sobriety, but with no set start time to my day Would I be able to maintain A sober lifestyle when no one was watching I had a lot of support at my day job to keep me accountable, It turns out that while that little voice occasionally reminds me how much I enjoyed alcohol, I hated almost everything about alcohol and it’s impact on my body, my mind and my life. I love who I am sober. I feel happy. I feel healthy and I feel whole.

The big one that everyone wanted to discuss was the financial piece of giving up a full-time job with benefits and vacation time to become self-employed and have a wildly fluctuating income. First of all the full-time job with the company that I had been employed by for 13 years didn’t pay that well in fact my first month on only fans back in 2021, I made slightly less than a month at my full-time job. Online incomes do fluctuate and I’m not making any recommendations for anyone, I can only go on my experience however, by the time I left my full-time job, I was earning at least double the annual salary of that job online.

Health insurance, I was able to purchase comparable dental and vision insurance privately. In all honesty, I don’t have health insurance currently because the cost of the marketplace was quite high for the coverage you receive. Our local hospitals and walk-in clinics currently offer a 50 to 65% Discount and payment plans to those who self-pay. Before leaving my full-time job and insurance, I had my physical, my cologuard test, pelvic exam and a mammogram. Again, I make no recommendations for anyone else. Anything can happen at any time such as cancer or a car accident, you name it, but this is the decision I have made for now, for me personally.

Coworkers, this was the biggest surprise of them all I had about 65 coworkers at the company I worked for. I worked in HR so I interacted with a lot of people on a regular basis. I also worked the retail end of the business, customer service, etc. I was surrounded by people all day long. Would I be able to go from that to being the only one home all day with no one but a little parakeet to keep me company? At first it just felt like a week off I went places I listened to music, I made great food. I had fun and I worked on my online job, but I found that that didn’t take as much time as I thought it was going to. I began wondering if I’d acted too quickly if I should’ve just kept both jobs? After five months, I can confidently say that I have more than enough work to do online to fill my days, but I also have the flexibility to spend more time with my daughters, with my father and to talk to my sister on the phone.

The final thing I considered was, what would people say? How could I explain what I do do I have to explain what I do? Everyone at my old job knew that I worked online but what about people? I’m not going forward? As it turns out, no one really cares there’s a lot going on in the world and I am very rarely asked what I do for work. A lot of the people I interact with are online And understand how many people make their living as a brand ambassador, selling products online, Influencers, and content creators. It’s a unique time in history, very few people work a Monday through Friday 9 to 5 job anymore.

The unexpected benefit that I never considered in my decision-making process was that by working from home and setting my own schedule would give me a life that I’ve always wanted. A life with far less anxiety and stress than I could’ve ever imagined. I was prepared to have some financial issues. I was prepared to be frustrated by how things were going business wise, but I’m happy to report that at least five months in business is going really well and I am experiencing so much less drama and anxiety than I have ever had at any point in my life, that I can remember. So I’ve been thinking a lot about why that is, this feels like a big step,a scary move, a financial risk and yet I feel like I’m where I belong and I have more peace.

I’ve come to two conclusions: One I left a job that wasn’t really paying that much to begin with and it wouldn’t be that difficult to replace it if this current business falls apart. And two, I was experiencing more stress than I realized about things that had nothing to do with my real life or my future. I was immersed daily in petty drama that seemed so important at the time and when I got away from it, I realized none of it mattered and it’s all still happening right now, every day I’m just not around it anymore and that brings me so much joy!

Thank you for listening 💋

Patsy